WEATHERSFIELD — In the wake of the arrest last month of Windsor County Sheriff Ryan Palmer on sexual misconduct charges, the Selectboard unanimously voted to cancel the town’s contract with the Sheriff’s Department in executive session last week.
Now Weathersfield is exploring policing alternatives including the “creation of a regional (police force), the reestablishment of the Weathersfield Police Department and other viable safety options,” Weathersfield Town Manager Brandon Gulnick said.
“This was not a reactive decision,” Gulnick told an audience of around 70 people who attended a Monday evening meeting both in person and virtually at Weathersfield Memorial Hall. “This was a proactive decision.”
Last month, Palmer pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of sexual misconduct, which stemmed from a Vermont State Police investigation into the department’s finances last fall.
Since his arrest, Palmer has been “unreachable,” said Gulnick.
“(Palmer) has not stepped down from his position and the current chain of command lacks clear, consistent decision-making authority, raising legitimate concerns about stability, oversight and leadership,” Gulnick said.
The Selectboard has scheduled a public meeting on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Weathersfield Memorial Hall to discuss the creation of the Mount Ascutney Regional Police Department, a regional model that would provide coverage for approximately 5,000 residents in the towns of Weathersfield, Reading, Vt., and Cavendish, Vt.
Reading Selectboard Chairman Robert Allen said the town is under contract with the sheriff’s department for 10 hours per week.
“I do not know (the hourly rate the town is paying the sheriff’s department) off the top of my head,” Allen said.
Reading has not made a decision on whether they will be canceling their contract with the sheriff’s department, Allen said.
Cavendish Town Manager Richard Chambers was not immediately available on Tuesday.
The establishment of the regional police force would be funded from within each town’s existing budget and with no tax increase, Gulnick said, who presented alternative policing options to residents at Monday’s meeting.
Currently, the Weathersfield police budget is about $400,000.
In June 2025, Weathersfield signed a five-year patrol contract with the Windsor County Sheriff’s Department, with terms of 100 hours of patrols per week at $75 an hour and the possibility of 20 additional hours for emergency services.
The months of coverage that followed the signing of the service contract often exceeded 100 hours per week, Gulnick said.
“Residents noticed the presence and it was appreciated,” he said. “However, as we reviewed the arrangement, it became clear that the volume of service being delivered significantly exceeded the amount of money we had allocated to this effort.”
Gulnick said the department informed the town that “substantially increased funding would be necessary to maintain the level of service being provided,” shortly before Palmer was arrested last month.
“The requested figure approached nearly half a million dollars,” he said. “A tax increase of that magnitude in a single fiscal year was simply not feasible for this community.”
He added that the proposed funding increase was not supported by detailed financial accounting to justify the request.
Gulnick told the Valley News on Tuesday that he did not have Palmer’s request in writing, but that Palmer presented the figure during a budget conversation in December.
Efforts to reach Palmer and his attorney, Daniel Sedon, were unsuccessful this week.
Other broader concerns also emerged regarding the department’s financial management.
“To our understanding, the department does not have a designated accountant,” Gulnick said. “It has not adopted a formal annual budget since at least 2024 and has experienced financial management deficiencies including cash flow challenges, lack of regular bank reconciliations and insufficient fund segregation among various other financial issues.”
Windsor County Sheriff’s Department Capt. Claude Weyant, who Palmer appointed to handle the day-to-day operations following his arrest, confirmed that the sheriff’s department does not have an accountant “but (the department) is working on (hiring one).”
Following Palmer’s arrest, the sheriff’s department informed the town that the level of policing they could offer was likely to diminish, Gulnick said.
“We have seen an impact from these changes at the sheriff’s department since January,” he said. “We have observed a measurable decline in patrol presence and response coverage compared to prior months.”
In a follow up phone interview on Tuesday, Gulnick said that he was too busy preparing for Town Meeting on Saturday to immediately pull up the police log data.
“If the sheriff’s department is unable to provide service through the 120 days, we are prepared to implement temporary service agreements (with Vermont State Police and neighboring towns) to ensure uninterrupted public safety,” he said at Monday’s meeting.
Complicating matters, there are two Windsor County deputies set to leave their jobs in March. Weyant said their departures have nothing to do with Palmer’s pending criminal case.
“They were planning on leaving (at least three months) before the Palmer situation,” he said.
One deputy had been at the department since 2018, he said, and the other for around three years.
“With those two deputies that are leaving, I’m going to have to make some decisions,” he said, adding that a contract with the courthouse in Barre is likely to be down “one of three deputies we send up there.”
When asked about plans to hire replacements, he said “well, that’s the problem without the sheriff.” Weyant said he hasn’t heard from Palmer but once in the last month.
As stipulated in the contract between Weathersfield and the sheriff’s department, a 120-day notice period exists upon termination for the sheriff’s department to both continue providing service to the town and also for the return to the town of cruisers and equipment valued at approximately $120,000.
Weyant said the department is on track to meet a March 15 deadline for returning the loaned cruisers and equipment — ranging from ammunition to laptops — back to Weathersfield.