Northfield’s longtime town manager Jeff Schulz plans to step down next year — the latest departure announcement signaling upheaval among town officials.
Selectboard Chair Charlie Morse confirmed Tuesday that the board received Schulz’s letter last week announcing his intent to retire around March.
Schulz has been with the town for more than a decade and has “a lot of institutional knowledge,” said Morse, who was town manager himself from 2000 to 2005.
Schulz and the volunteer selectboard members did not immediately respond to questions surrounding his planned departure but said the matter would be discussed at the board’s regular meeting Tuesday night.
Schulz’s decision comes two weeks after the town’s police chief, Pierre Gomez, announced his decision to leave effective Nov. 1. But Gomez has since moved his resignation up, effective Tuesday, due to “an ongoing medical issue” that has progressively gotten worse over the past two years, he said. He was hired in September 2023.
One of three police chiefs of color in Vermont — he identifies as a Black Latino — Gomez has reported facing racial harassment since he moved to Northfield. He said he moved back to Philadelphia last week.
This leaves the small Washington County town of about 5,900 with two new vacancies to fill in the near future.
The board has discussed filling Schulz’s position with an interim manager with help from the Vermont League Of Cities & Towns but has yet to figure out a path forward to fill the police chief position, both being “key positions in town,” Morse said.
“The town of Northfield has voted to have a manager form of government so that is one of our priorities: to find a competent and qualified individual for manager, hopefully with experience,” he said.
The five-member board held two special meetings last week, on Oct. 20 and Oct. 24, discussing “personnel issues.” Town attorney John Klesch attended the Oct. 20 meeting. The minutes indicate the board went into executive session both times but took no action.
Northfield is also looking to hire a highway equipment operator and laborer and a finance manager. The town’s accounting manager retired at the end of the last fiscal year and has been filling in as finance manager part-time, according to Morse.
“We’re looking at all our options,” he said, adding that they are considering remote work options for the finance job.
Residents in recent months have asked the selectboard about the town not fulfilling public records requests and town employees allegedly violating Northfield’s code of ethics.
The selectboard’s Tuesday agenda includes discussions of the town manager’s retirement/resignation and the code of ethics and enforcement ordinance.
Earlier this year, the town hired a consultant for about $17,000 to “evaluate ethics violations,” Morse said last month. The original complaint and the results of the investigation have been withheld due to legal requirements that protect personnel information as confidential.
Morse declined to comment Tuesday on ethics conflicts and investigations involving town employees. He said he has questions of his own and will rely on the town’s legal counsel to respond appropriately. He also said he plans to release a statement soon to let the public know “we are functional and we’re going to employ all the resources to fill in the holes that have been created.”
