Wareham Director of Inspectional Services Myles Burke was terminated from his position by Interim Town Administrator John Foster on Thursday, and placed on paid administrative leave.

The termination letter, provided to Wareham Week by Burke, states the reason for the termination as "your failure to obtain the required minimum qualifications for your position."

The termination comes after Burke's recent arrest for allegedly assaulting a female victim on Tuesday, August 7. The termination letter does not mention nor refer to the arrest.

Burke has five business days to appeal the decision, according to the letter. A public hearing will be held if he appeals. If he does not appeal, he is effectively fired, according to the letter.

Burke said that he plans on appealing, but is discussing the best possible option with his attorney.

"I'm going to let my attorney guide me through this process," Burke said.

Burke has worked in Wareham since April of 2010. The letter states that Burke's inability to obtain building official certification within 18 months of his hiring was cause for his termination.

"You have not obtained the required license within your first eighteen (18) months of employment and without this license you cannot serve as the Town of Wareham's Director of Inspectional Services," the letter states.

Burke has repeatedly expressed his desire to take the test to become a certified building official.

But the state Building Official Certification Committee has maintained that Burke lacks the required five years of experience in the supervision of building construction or design, and thus does not meet the minimum qualifications necessary to take the certification exam.

Burke has twice appealed the Certification Committee's decision to the State Building Code Appeals Board. The first was in September of 2011, and the second was in late spring of this year. Both times the committee's decision was upheld. He learned of the latest decision last month.

"I worked hard for two and a half years only to be shown the door ... [because I'm] not allowed to take a test," Burke said.

Burke had originally planned to appeal the committee's decision once again, this time to the Superior Court. Burke said that he is discussing the option with his attorney.

Burke added: "I'm not in the business of suing anybody."

As to his recent arrest, Burke said, "I exercised poor judgment. This is an isolated incident. [The victim] and I are trying to move on with our lives."

Burke was hired in 2010 when Mark Andrews was Town Administrator. Both Burke and Andrews maintained that becoming certified was not a requirement of the position of Director of Inspectional Services, because the director only needed to supervise those who perform actual inspections.

Burke says that obtaining certification was always his goal, but the state has maintained that, as a building official, Burke must be certified.

Critics accused Andrews of cronyism, because he and Burke had worked together when both held jobs with the City of Lawrence, because Burke was able to negotiate for a salary $24,000 above the $51,000 salary posted for the Wareham job, and because Burke was not state-certified.

Andrews left Wareham earlier this year for an interim town administrator position in Wenham, Mass.

Steve Holmes, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said he could not comment on Burke's termination. "I can't. It's a personnel matter," he said.

Foster also said he could not comment on the personnel matter.