WOODSTOCK — A public meeting called to review the job performance of the municipality’s top official was cut short barely five minutes into the session when the husband of Woodstock’s former police chief continued speaking beyond his allotted time.
The meeting’s abrupt breakup was the latest instance of how the demotion of the police chief earlier this year continues to roil the town.
Woodstock Town Selectboard members and Woodstock Village trustees abruptly terminated a joint public meeting on July 8 after Nicholas Seldon, husband of former Woodstock Police Chief Joe Swanson, continued speaking beyond the two minutes that each resident had been allotted for public comment at the outset of the session.
In prepared remarks, Seldon turned the tables and castigated the job performance of Municipal Manager Eric Duffy, who recommended the demotion of Seldon’s husband from police chief earlier this year.
Saying he was there “to offer some very specific comments of what an awful job (Duffy) is doing and how much liability and exposure he is creating for the town and village of Woodstock,” Seldon called Duffy an “unchecked king.”
Seldon said he was about to detail allegations by three unidentified former female municipal employees who resigned because they could not tolerate working with Duffy. But before he could begin, Selectboard member Susan Ford cut him off, telling Seldon his two minutes were up.
Seldon, a Woodstock attorney, ignored Ford’s warning and continued speaking, at which point Ford stood up and made a motion for the Selectboard to adjourn, which was seconded by the trustees. The joint meeting was over, barely five minutes after it began.
The joint meeting wasn’t all negative toward the elected officials and Duffy: Seldon’s statement followed a brief comment from Woodstock Village resident resident Bob Quasman, who praised Duffy’s job performance.
“I think Eric has done a terrific job, contrary to the provincial and small-minded views expressed by some,” Quasman said. Duffy had “moved the village forward. He’s been willing to tackle important issues related to the town that had been put off for way too long,” Quasman added.
The meeting, which began last Tuesday at 5:30 p.m., was sparsely attended: only six people showed up, as seen on a video recording.
As of Friday morning, no date had been scheduled to reconvene the meeting to review an evaluation of Duffy’s job performance, according to the municipal manager’s office.
Town Selectboard and Trustees chairs did not respond to emails seeking comment.
On Friday, Seldon told the Valley News that he spoke beyond the allotted time for public comments because he “stands against arbitrary and capricious rules that are created not out of good faith and order, but intend to adversely affect the free flow of information.”
The two-minute limit was decided right before the meeting convened and had no precedent, according to Seldon, who argued it was intended specifically to curtail him from speaking.
“If this was a two-minute limit that was placed on all meetings, or occasionally on meetings, or before I even got there, maybe it would be one thing,” Seldon said. “But none of these boards have ever placed a two-minute limit in Woodstock’s history, to my knowledge.”
The July 8 meeting was not the first time the joint boards had been challenged publicly by Seldon.
During the public comment period during a meeting on June 26, Seldon read aloud a letter from an unnamed “long-time Town Hall employee,” who related how Duffy’s poor “management and leadership” led her to quit.
The July 8 joint meeting was the second time this year that Seldon’s behavior came into question.
In March, during a hearing before the Village Trustees called by Swanson to challenge his demotion, Seldon was ordered to leave the room after the hearing officer accused him of disrespecting the trustees who were sitting as “judges” to decide Swanson’s fate.
(Seldon has maintained he was texting on his phone at the time and had done nothing improper to warrant expulsion by the hearing officer).
The son of the late Woodstock Town Manager Phil Swanson, Joe Swanson himself is a former Woodstock Selectboard member and career Woodstock police officer. He was put in charge of the department by Duffy — six months into his job as Woodstock’s municipal manager — in 2023.
Although Swanson’s first performance review was laudatory, Duffy soured on his police chief after he began getting complaints from veteran department employees, who resented Swanson’s sometimes loose and casual management style.
In February, Duffy demoted Swanson to patrol officer, the bottom-rung in the department. He is now assigned to the graveyard shift three days a week and the afternoon shift on two other days.
Seldon, a personal injury attorney, has zealously defended and advocated on behalf of his husband, who he claims has been baselessly maligned by Duffy and others in the police department.
In April, after village trustees held up Duffy’s recommendation to demote Swanson, Swanson filed an appeal to reverse the decision in Windsor County Superior Court along with a separate $5 million lawsuit alleging that he was unlawfully ousted from his job and “maliciously maligned.”
Last month, a Vermont Superior Court judge issued a preliminary injunction that orders the Village — whose trustees oversee the police department on behalf of the town — to hold off appointing a new police chief until the court rules whether Swanson was improperly demoted. Chris O’Keeffe is serving as the department’s interim leader.
Since the lawsuit was filed both sides have filed a flurry of motions and briefs back and forth to argue the respective merits of their case and are now awaiting a judge’s decision.
Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.
