Concord City Councilors will try to walk back the appointment of a woman to the city’s zoning board that they made last month.

Mary Rose Deak was unanimously approved by councilors last month to serve as an alternate the board, which considers exemptions to the city’s land use rules for building proposals large and small. Councilors moved to reconsider her appointment and after members of the public reached out to them with concerns about Deak fitness to serve, including because she has shared conspiracy theories online and at public meetings about secret nanotechnology.

Deak was nominated by City Manager Tom Aspell, who said he interviewed her, per the usual process, and that the conversation raised no red flags.

Councilors get to review nominations a month before the public does, giving them a chance to raise any concerns that might embarrass a nominee privately and in advance. That didn’t happen here. While some members of the City Council say that this situation, along with the situation it has put Deak in, is an example of why they should reform the way Concord chooses the members of its government committees.

While Aspell said he’s considered altering the city’s appointment process, he doesn’t currently support any changes. Like Mayor Byron Champlin, he said he considers one faulty appointment to be an aberration and couldn’t see a way to make the process more thorough without raising complicated questions around transparency and fairness.

“It was my mistake,” he said. “I made the nomination.”

On the Council’s Monday agenda is a move to reconsider their vote to approve Deak. Under Council rules, they can reconsider past votes, but it may not be that simple.

State law allows local land use board members to be removed “upon written findings of inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” Deak’s term began when the council approved her nomination and it expires at the start of 2028, according to a report attached to her nomination.

In an email to the Monitor responding to coverage about her appointment, Deak expressed distress over the city’s reaction and about media coverage of it.

“Thank you for your interest in the story that I can't believe has happened to me,” she wrote.

She continued: “I was interested in applying the zoning board as a way to be helpful in some way and to keep the child molesters away from the schools along with their property rights, through the zoning method.”

Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com. You can subscribe to her Concord newsletter The City Beat at concordmonitor.com.