Middlebury First Selectman Edward St. John displayed “behavior that was classified as unprofessional and threatening in nature,” when he ordered a town hall assistant to “do what I tell you to do,” according to a pair of complaints submitted via email from the Middlebury Human Resources liaison to the town’s contracted human resources consulting company in April of 2025.

The emails, obtained by Inside Investigator only after submitting a complaint to the Freedom of Information Commission, show Middlebury Finance/HR Liaison Patricia Kurze submitted two complaints: one regarding St. John’s treatment of Finance Assistant Connie Brunswick, which she witnessed first-hand and submitted as part of her job, and a second personal complaint detailing St. John’s treatment of her during a public Board of Selectmen meeting that St. John required her to attend.

“I heard Ms. Brunswick politely make a justifiable inquiry to the First Selectman for a written statement she needed from him to document a payroll adjustment he had verbally requested her to make,” Kurze wrote in an April 3, 2025, email to the HR consulting company McInnes. “Ms. Brunswick was unable to finish her sentence as she was abruptly cut-off by the First Selectman who significantly raised the audible level of his voice even further, pointed his finger at Ms. Brunswick over her desk counter and in a demeaning tone said to Ms. Brunswick ‘you’ll do what I tell you to do’. Ms. Brunswick proceeded to immediately acquiesce the First Selectman’s demand.”

Shortly after the incident and Kurze’s email, she received a request from the First Selectman’s office to attend the April 7, 2025, Board of Selectmen meeting, a meeting that she does not normally attend, according to Kurze’s email complaint to McInnes dated April 8, 2025. During that public BOS meeting, Kurze writes that she was “verbally berated by the First Selectman,” and “falsely accused” of sending emails to her supervisor. 

According to meeting minutes and video, St. John criticized Kurze for having an “email correspondence” with Selectman Jennifer Mahr, claiming he should have been cc’d on the email because his name was mentioned, and adding that this “will be handled internally.” The town has vested control over employment matters related to the First Selectman, according to previous statements made by the town attorney.

Selectman Mahr questioned why she had to go through the First Selectman’s office to ask the HR liaison a question. Kurze indicated that often emails contain multiple names of individuals who are not cc’d, but that if St. John would like to issue a directive, she can start doing that.

“I don’t need to issue a directive, Patti,” St. John said, adding that he wanted to see the entire email chain. He continued to question her about other emails, including emails sent to her direct supervisor, even after the other selectmen tried to get the meeting back on track.

“The First Selectman also made a statement directed at me – which myself and others interpreted as threatening – regarding potential disciplinary action,” Kurze wrote.  

As indicated by Kurze in her emails to McInnes, although town employees are bound to follow certain rules of behavior outlined in the employee handbook, there is nothing dictating or outlining how elected officials are expected to treat the town’s staff. The town’s code of ethics only deals with conflicts of interest.

Reached for comment, Middlebury Town Attorney Robert Smith said that he is charged with representing both the town and its first selectman when a complaint is made against either, and claims there is “no merit to these complaints.”

“Therefore, any investigation, of claims that have been made, is my responsibility,” Smith said. “That being said, be advised that I looked into this matter months ago and determined that there is no merit to these complaints. Since that time, the complainant has hired an attorney who has made inquiries regarding these matters; and so, on my advice, the Town, the First Selectman, as well as myself and anyone else who may have been involved in the investigation of these matters, will have no further comment.”

The complaints regarding St. John’s treatment of employees are not the first incidents at town hall that have garnered attention over the last year. In February of 2025, town building official Mark Lubus, who had a history of verbal altercations, began verbally berating the town clerk and her assistant to the point that others called the police. The town clerk was later given a panic button for safety.

It is also not the first time the BOS meetings have been used to air personal and political grievances; earlier during that same April 7 meeting was a heated exchange between St. John, Selectman J. Paul Vance and Mahr over Mahr’s questioning the use of a signature stamp for Vance’s name to sign off on town expenditures. During a July BOS meeting, St. John publicly harangued local Middlebury Bee-Intelligencer reporter Marjorie Needham for publishing Selectman Mahr’s press release announcing her candidacy for first selectman. St. John accused Needham of being Mahr’s “campaign manager.” 

The following month, Zoning Enforcement Officer Curt Bosco showed up to the BOS meeting with one of Needham’s articles attached to a roll of toilet paper, after Needham wrote of his business interests with a solar developer who had previously been retained by the town as a consultant.

St. John, a Republican who has been first selectman of Middlebury for nearly thirty years, announced he was not seeking re-election to that role this upcoming November and instead is running for the Board of Finance. Conversely, the Republican chairman of the Board of Finance, Vincent Cipriano, will be running against unaffiliated Selectman Mahr for the position. 

Kurze wrote in her email that following the April 7 meeting, she was approached by members of the community “to tell me how sorry they were that I had to be subjected to that type of unfair treatment,” and notes that she was addressed “professionally, respectfully and appropriately” by the other selectmen.

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