After a nearly 90-minute executive session on Thursday morning, two members of Woodstock’s town board still have questions about the hiring of Level 3 sex offender Michael Innello. Two councilmembers participated by phone.
“I continue to believe that the supervisor should file the appropriate paperwork to terminate the individual, and I believe that he has expressed in public that he will not do that,” councilmember Bennet Ratcliff said after a heated meeting.
After Ratcliff’s request for security during the closed session, police chief Clayton Keefe and another Woodstock police officer guarded the entrance to a room to the side of the main meeting room. Ratcliff had made the request because he said he didn’t want a ruckus as was caused by other town employees during a previous executive session.
Supervisor Bill McKenna had not provided all the information he had requested, Ratcliff said. “The 17 questions came up in the executive session,” Ratcliff said. “I have not received all the information that I have been asking for.”
Council member Anula Courtis said a lot of the responses were “maybe” and “I don’t recall” or “I don’t remember.” The documentation that was provided was “better than none” and “the bare minimum.”
Innello’s job application was supplied. The board learned Innello came to McKenna’s attention through a mutual friend, not further identified because of restrictions against disclosing closed-session conversations.
“Everybody was cool, so in that way it was an improvement,” Courtis said.
On July 22, citing McKenna’s failure to disclose Innello’s sex-offender status and concerns about public safety, Courtis introduced a resolution to terminate the maintenance worker’s employment. The resolution passed 3-0, with McKenna and council member Laura Ricci abstaining.
Meanwhile, the Florida Action Committee (https://floridaactioncommittee.org/fac-weekly-update-2025-07-29-heroes-and-politicians), a PAC working to abolish sex-offender registries as unconstitutional, has hailed McKenna as a hero. “From FAC’s perspective, this is exactly the kind of principled leadership our society needs more of,” it said. “McKenna had a candid discussion with the employee, assessed the situation and made a judgment based on facts, not fear. He chose to act with fairness and dignity toward someone trying to rebuild a life after incarceration.”
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