Falmouth select board votes to oust town manager Julian Suso
FALMOUTH — Ousted town manager Julian Suso is demanding a hearing before the Select Board following his firing at a Thursday meeting.
At a special Select Board meeting on May 12, board members unanimously voted to remove Suso.
Suso is currently suspended with pay. The board will need to take another vote later to finalize the termination, said Chairman Doug Brown.
Suso has since decided to take legal action, claiming the termination process is unlawful and that he has been unfairly targeted. Suso’s attorney, John Clifford, said Suso will request a hearing before the select board.
The chain of events grew out of an April 25 select board meeting where Brown read Suso's performance evaluation.
The evaluationcommended Suso’s financial talents, but criticized his relations with the public, saying he has poor rapport with his constituents. Town employees as well as residents have complained about Suso’s communication style, the evaluation said. The public also has a lack of trust with Suso.
In the evaluation, the board said Suso struggled with personnel management, citing recent resignations by town employees. Finally, it said Suso resists supporting planning on important subjects like affordable housing and the environment.
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Suso immediately replied, stating he disagreed with the evaluation. In 2021 when his contract was renewed, the board gave him four goals, including moving wind turbines at the sewage treatment plant, online permitting for the building department, administrative hires for the Sandwich Road Fire Station, and developing a performance evaluation system for department heads. Three of those goals have been met, he said, leaving him baffled over the review's finding that he “needed improvement.”
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At the May 9 board meeting, Suso formally responded to the evaluation. Suso said that two issues undermined the validity of the performance evaluation.
The first is that negativity and hostility from the select board was the result of Suso’s actions to call for a hearing (Nov. 8 of last year) regarding a previous incident in which Brown sent him a threatening email. Suso said the email was accusatory and threatened to terminate him. He said board members became hostile after he decided to call for a hearing.He also said it was inappropriate for Brown to have a hand in drawing up Suso’s evaluation.
Furthermore, Suso implied select board member Megan English Braga used the performance evaluation to strike back at him because he had chosen another candidate for the town counsel position even though Braga had applied.
A few select board members responded to Suso after he was finished, and then went into executive session. When they returned, they voted unanimously to ask him to resign, which he declined.
Clifford said while Suso was requesting a hearing, he is unsure if it will be fair. He also said it was unlawful to vote to terminate Suso in a special select board meeting, since the town charter states terminations can only be voted on in regularly scheduled meetings.
He also said there is no evidence that the public doesn't trust Suso, contrary to the select board’s statements.
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“If there’s a broad public dissatisfaction, there would be evidence of that,” said Clifford.
He also said it's clear that select board members talked outside of scheduled meetings to conspire against Suso, violating the state's open meeting law.
In a phone interview, Chairman Brown said the select board at its May 17 meeting will try to negotiate a severance package with Suso.
“Contrary to what it might seem, we (the select board) are appreciative of Mr. Suso’s service, he’s served the town for 11 years. We were just operating on a different wavelength,” said Brown.
This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Famouth board votes to terminate town manager Julian Suso
