WOODSTOCK — While a state police investigation into an alleged misappropriation of funds has concluded, the Selectboard voted Tuesday to initiate a legal fee audit.
After contacting 10 firms since the beginning of September, town selectboard members decided to hire Glenn Ricciardelli of Boston-based Matson, Driscoll and Damico. The estimated cost of the contract is up to $1,200, plus a fee to compile the report.
From July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025 — the 2025 fiscal year — the Woodstock town government spent $180,000 and the village government spent $27,500 on legal fees.
Woodstock has been involved in multiple court proceedings following an attempt by town officials to demote former Police Chief Joseph Swanson, the Valley News previously reported. In response, Swanson filed a multi-million-dollar discrimination lawsuit and appealed in court for his job back.
Two Superior Court judges denied the demotion attempt, first for no establishment of legal cause in December 2025, and second for a conflict of interest last month. Once reinstated as police chief by Judge Kerry McDonald-Cady in a Sept. 21 decision, Swanson retired.
This personnel issue cost over $100,000, according to a July breakdown of fiscal year 2025 legal fees by Municipal Manager Eric Duffy.
Swanson’s husband, personal-injury attorney Nicholas Seldon, filed a public records act lawsuit after requests for documents primarily related to Swanson’s case and Woodstock’s legal spending were denied.
The Village of Woodstock is a separate entity within the Town of Woodstock. The two share a bank account but have separate budgets, Duffy said. The police department is associated with the Village but has a service contract with the Town.
The police chief is considered a Village employee, and as such, some residents felt that the cost of Swanson’s demotion proceedings should have come only from the Village budget.
Amid concern from residents over transparency in legal fee appropriations, Duffy published a breakdown of legal fees and determined that about $65,000 associated with the Village had been allocated to the Town budget.
Seldon noted in a Tuesday public comment that the legal fees related to the Village Board’s two failed attempts to demote Swanson are distinct from the discrimination lawsuit, in which the town and village are both defendants.
“The town had no involvement,” Seldon said of the demotion.
Duffy said his understanding was that the Town budget would cover those legal fees, due to the entities historically overlapping. He instructed the finance department to complete a journal entry reallocating fees from the Village budget to the Town budget.
The Selectboard did not formally vote to move those funds across the budgets in a public meeting.
“The allocation of fees, adjustments to the budgets, and the allocation of invoices were either spoken about publicly, shown on public documents at public meetings, or done with the knowledge of numerous people,” Duffy wrote in his report.
Vermont State Police began investigating the situation in August following citizen claims that open meeting laws were violated when deciding to appropriate funds without consulting voters, and that that use of those funds was criminal, according to a report filed by Detective Trooper Cody Allison.
Upon reviewing the report, State’s Attorney Ian Sullivan decided not to move forward with any charges, writing that “absent personal enrichment or an attempt at personal enrichment, Vermont’s larceny, fraud, and embezzlement statutes are inapplicable,” according to a Sept. 2 declination letter to Allison.
Still, the Selectboard opted to have a formal audit conducted.
At the Aug. 18 meeting, Selectboard chair Norm Frates Jr. expressed interest in hiring someone who can determine more precisely how much money the town paid in legal fees “incurred by the village.” The options may include approving it as payment, or sending the Village Trustees a bill for what the town paid, he said.
Frates said at the Tuesday meeting that they’re looking for a number from the forensic accountant. The Selectboard may make a recommendation for how to adjust it, and call for different financial procedures moving forward.
