By Mike Donoghue, Senior Correspondent
The Woodstock Village Trustees, after a special closed-door meeting this week, voted to reverse their earlier decision and have now agreed to release to the public their final report supporting the demotion of Police Chief Joe Swanson to patrol officer.
The Vermont Standard and possibly others had filed under Vermont’s Public Records Law for access to the report by the five trustees that supported a demotion request by Municipal Manager Eric Duffy, but had been withheld on the advice of legal counsel.
After spending about two hours behind closed doors for two executive sessions on Monday, the Village board voted 4-0 — with trustee Brenda Blakeman absent — to release their 47-page written decision.
The Vermont Standard posted the report on its webpage shortly after it was received. Go to thevermonstandard.com to read the full report.
Trustee chair Seton McIlroy, when asked at the public meeting about the board’s motion, declined to explain the move. Instead, McIlroy told the audience Duffy could be asked about the board’s action. The trustees then quickly adjourned without taking a vote.
Duffy did not return phone calls on Monday night and Tuesday for answers, including who had filed for the demotion report besides the Vermont Standard. Duffy had fought to have the Swanson hearing behind closed doors, but the chief insisted on an open process.
The Village Trustees had called the special meeting this week to discuss with two village-retained lawyers, John Klesch and Matt Bloomer, a legal analysis of the request to release the public record. The two lawyers represented Duffy at the Swanson hearing.
Burlington lawyer Brian Monaghan had represented the Village Trustees when the decision was made to withhold the report from the public. It was claimed as a “personnel matter,” however the trustees wrote in their final report that the document was a public record and said Swanson was free to pass it out. The board made no mention in the report that Duffy was free to release the public record.
The decision by the trustees to reverse course also came as the report became public this week at Vermont Superior Court in Woodstock. Swanson’s appeal to the court had to include what the trustees had said in their written decision.
Swanson’s attorney Linda Fraas had said last month that the written findings by the trustees contained “inflammatory, malicious, insulting attacks on Chief Swanson’s character consistent with the bad faith motives of Mr. Duffy and the Village in their extraordinary unlawful attempts to remove Chief Swanson from his contracted position.”
The other agenda item on Monday night was for an executive session to discuss a new $5 million lawsuit filed by Swanson against the village, the town, Duffy, the five trustees, and Burgess Investigations. McIlroy invited Woodstock Selectboard chair Ray Bourgeois and vice chair Susan Ford into the closed-door session.
Because there was no quorum for the selectboard members, they did not have to warn the public about their meeting under Vermont law.
There was no known action taken on that issue.
McIlroy started the meeting seeking public comments. Woodstock lawyer Nicholas “Nico” Seldon, the husband of Swanson, told the board that the “predicament” that Woodstock finds itself in is a direct consequence of the trustees’ and Duffy’s refusal to carry out their professional duties.
He said a 30-to-60 minute sit down face-to-face meeting could have avoided what is turning into a “multimillion dollar debacle” because the Village Trustees have ignored the rules “even when they were brought to your attention multiple times.”
Seldon said the Village Trustees had failed to comply with the requirements of the Vermont Open Meeting Law by their shortcomings in making clear the nature of the meeting and “instead mask it under a general topic intended to escape attention.”
“You have failed Joe. You have failed your constituents,” he said.
None of the Village Board opted to respond or question his comments.
The initial video of the meeting posted by the Village on Tuesday did not include one of the motions approved in the middle of the two-hours of executive sessions. A new video was posted after the error was brought to Duffy’s attention by the Vermont Standard.
The video also shows the Village Trustees never voted to adjourn the meeting after a motion was made.