By Emma Stanton, Staff Writer
On Monday morning, the Woodstock Selectboard and Woodstock Village Board of Trustees held a joint meeting to discuss the findings of the 2026 audit. This meeting was cut short unexpectedly when a member of the village board of trustees took a fall, leaving several agenda items and questions posed to the boards and auditor unaddressed.
Tyler Kimberley, a senior auditor and Certified Public Accountant (CPA) serving the Montpelier-based firm Mudgett, Jennett, & Krogh-Wisner, P.C., began the meeting by walking the boards through his financial assessment and answering two questions from the public before the joint meeting abruptly adjourned.
After the floor was opened to questions, one was posed by town resident Peter Shoemaker regarding the issue of the town paying for some of the village’s FY25 legal fees. Shoemaker said, “The funds were paid for the quasi-judicial hearing that was not covered by insurance. That hearing was an employment hearing asked by an employee who was trying to fight his firing, so I just think maybe we can clarify those funds were from [a] hearing that was called by the village [and] held by the village as an employment dispute.
“That is why those funds were transferred. It wasn’t anything to do with the [town] being a part of a civil suit. From my understanding, we still aren’t. These funds were to help the village pay for their employment hearing. We, as a town, just contract with the village for the police services, so would we be responsible for anyone else we contract with if they were to have a dispute…?”
“What’s happening is [that]our funds went to pay for an employment hearing that we as town members [had] no control over. The village called for the termination of the police chief. The municipal manager led that charge, brought it to them, and now we’re going through that round a second time. I’d also like to make sure that we don’t pay for those hearings as well.”
Chairperson of the trustees, Lisa Lawlor, responded to Shoemaker directly, saying, “The municipal manager did not make a decision on his own. The board chairs are the ones that made the decision. The municipal manager just didn’t move money without having some discussions, and I just want you to know that, because it seems that [the] municipal manager doesn’t move funds or do things without the directions of both boards.”
To which chairperson of the selectboard, Susan Ford, said, “I don’t think that’s been established.”
The meeting concluded abruptly after Lawlor fell, and emergency responders were called to Town Hall. In a follow-up with the Standard, Ford shared a statement that she said was to be read at the meeting had it not concluded prematurely.
The statement read, “We acknowledge that there were unanswered questions at our last meeting. The selectboard is consulting with our attorney as to the best way to find the answers to your questions and to proceed regarding the payment of attorney’s fees.”
Ford said the board will meet with its attorney, Jim Carroll, soon.
