Woodstock town supervisor Bill McKenna has proclaimed his innocence of all charges brought against him by town-board member Bennet Ratcliff and filed countercharges against Ratcliff and councilmember Maria-Elena Conte for harassment.
“With regard to the recent accusations made by councilperson Ratcliff, just as with his other complaints against me to the New York State attorney general and the district attorney of Ulster County, there is absolutely no truth to his claims,” McKenna said. “I am confident the investigation will bear this out.”
Ratcliff has filed complaints with the human rights commission, ethics board and town board alleging inappropriate workplace conduct in the supervisor’s office by McKenna and a town employee.
Recently, a majority of the town board voted to appoint councilmember Reggie Earls to select an attorney to investigate the allegations. The attorney will look into Ratcliff’s complaint and McKenna’s complaint of harassment, McKenna said.
This is the latest in a series of complaints Ratcliff has made since beginning his town board term in 2022. His complaints to state attorney general Letitia James’ Public Integrity Unit and to Ulster County district attorney David Clegg have not resulted in investigations to date.
At the August 15 town-board meeting, McKenna’s wife, Hilary Sanders-McKenna, and others lashed out at Ratcliff with allegations of him driving a wedge in the community with what they called unfounded accusations.
Ratcliff, who is challenging McKenna for town supervisor in the November election, has fought back in a campaign newsletter.
Saying the supervisor was responsible for overseeing a respectful work environment and for maintaining a confidential complaint process. Ratcliff charged, supervisor McKenna “sat back and allowed harassment, public attacks, threats, and intimidation to continue.” While Ratcliff has stated the details of the accusations will remain confidential, he offered a few details in the newsletter.
Ratcliff said he and Conte arrived early for an August 8 executive session he thought started at 6 p.m. but didn’t start until 6:15. He and Conte saw “what appeared to be inappropriate workplace conduct in the supervisor’s office by Bill McKenna and a town employee.”
Ratcliff wrote it wasn’t the first time he had seen similar behavior by the supervisor.
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