The Town of Woodstock Selectboard and the Village Board of Trustees gave their endorsement in the annual performance review of municipal manager Eric Duffy at a brief, special joint meeting of the two governing bodies on Wednesday evening, July 30.
The unanimous acclaim from the two Woodstock boards for Duffy’s work over the past 12 months carried with it a $10,000 bonus for the municipal manager, who has been criticized during the past 10 months by some members of the public over his handling of the demotion of former Woodstock Police Chief Joe Swanson. In late April, Swanson filed a $5 million civil lawsuit against Duffy, the five village trustees, and the selectboard over his demotion from head of the police department to patrol officer. Speakers during public comment at several joint meetings of the selectboard and trustees in recent weeks have expressed both vociferous criticism and support for Duffy as the annual performance review process has proceeded.
A little over 11 minutes into the 19-minute-long special joint meeting of the two Woodstock boards last Wednesday, the selectboard members and trustees went into a closed executive session to discuss Duffy’s performance review. The respective board members emerged from the executive session less than one minute later. Selectboard vice chair Susan Ford, who led that board’s participation in the joint session in the absence of board chair Ray Bourgeois, who was absent due to a family matter, then shared details of the annual review of Duffy’s job performance.
For more on this, please see our August 7 edition of the Vermont Standard.
