WINSLOW — Town Manager Steve Soucy announced during a Town Council meeting Monday that he will resign in November due to personal and family medical issues.

Soucy’s announcement came about three and a half months into his three-year contract, and days after a previous version of his resignation letter surfaced on social media.

That letter was not accepted by the Town Council, Soucy said, because it did not include an effective date for his resignation. Soucy is required by his employment contract to give a 90-day notice before he resigns.

This resignation letter, though, was accepted by the Town Council. Soucy will leave his post Nov. 3.

“For those wanting an explanation, I can tell you that this had nothing to do with the Town Council or any single councilor, nor does it have anything to do with any personnel working for the town of Winslow,” Soucy said. “This is strictly due to my own personal issues and family medical matters. I need to focus on my family, and I must put my loved ones first.”

With his announcement Monday — which drew sharp comments from residents and councilors — Soucy became the third Winslow town manager to resign in two years.

Erica LaCroix left Winslow to become Farmington’s town manager in December 2023, and Ella Bowman resigned last November after she said she was the target of hateful comments from councilors and residents.

Bowman, who said she was one of the only openly transgender town managers in the country, had only been hired about a year prior after about 10 years as Oakland’s top administrator. She had been the subject of a protection order request by Councilor Mike Joseph, who alleged Bowman threatened him after a council meeting in July 2024. A judge denied that protection order request last August.

TWO RESIGNATION LETTERS

The original resignation letter, Town Council Chairperson Frances Hudson said, was sent July 29 only to councilors and town department heads.

Regardless, the document made its way onto Winslow’s various Facebook pages by late last week, where many residents criticized the town’s hiring of Soucy in the first place.

“For somebody entrusted with our town business to leak that letter of resignation, to cause such hate and discontent when they had not the full facts, or even understood the letter just wasn’t valid — what are we doing?” Hudson said. “We’re telling you all tonight that he’s resigned. We’ve accepted it because it’s legit. No secrets.”

In an interview Friday, after the original resignation letter became public, Hudson declined to specify why Soucy’s resignation letter had not been accepted initially by the Town Council, on the advice of the town’s attorney.

Hudson also said Friday she could not discuss the contents of the Town Council’s Aug. 4 executive session — where the council discussed “personnel matters” — also on the advice of the town’s attorney.

The effective date of Soucy’s newer resignation letter, Nov. 3, is exactly 90 days from Aug. 5, the day after the executive session meeting.

Soucy was hired in April after applying for the town manager job last-minute through the Maine Municipal Association.

While his contract was negotiated in a public meeting, some residents expressed concerns about Soucy’s lack of municipal experience; Soucy had never held a municipal government job before becoming Winslow’s manager, but had worked at the Maine Emergency Management Agency.

Others were concerned about Soucy’s relationships to sitting councilors, given that Soucy unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Dale Macklin, a critic of Hudson, for his seat on the council just months prior.

After defeating Soucy and winning reelection, Macklin resigned from the council, saying he was disappointed in the “behavior of certain councilors.” Councilor Jeff West had resigned the day before, specifically calling out Hudson as a reason for his resignation.

‘TOXIC CRITICISM’

At the end of Monday’s meeting, Town Clerk Audra Fleury read an emailed public comment from Kyla Mihalovits, a critic of Hudson and her allies on the council, Doris Labranche and Mike Joseph. Mihalovits, who has not attended public meetings since Labranche filed a cease harassment order against her earlier this year, criticized Hudson and the councilors for hiring Soucy “under suspicious circumstances” and for attempting to keep his resignation a secret from residents.

“This is a blatant example of the lack of transparency that has continuously been exhibited by the current majority on the council,” Mihalovits’ statement said. “You ran for these offices on transparency. Your campaign promises have yet to be fulfilled.”

Joseph, Hudson and Labranche then took turns responding directly to Mihalovits’ statement — a move that, under a newly proposed public comment policy, may not be allowed.

The policy, which was tabled earlier in the meeting for further legal review, states that councilors are not required to respond to public comments, and that the “session should not become a back-and-forth discussion or debate.”

Joseph said he was “appalled” by Mihalovits’ statement, given Soucy’s reason for resigning.

Hudson said she was fed up with “toxic criticism” that she said was “99% untrue,” and that she would begin fighting back.

“And you know what — I’m going to start with this letter right here,” Hudson said, referring to Mihalovits’ public comment. “Transparency? You wouldn’t have a council any more transparent. You want to talk about a hiring process? Look at the last one, not this one. This one, we decided to go with MMA because we wanted to be transparent, we wanted to be fair. And what did we get? ‘It was done inappropriately, we didn’t listen to this, we didn’t do that,’ which is all incorrect.”

The councilors did not establish a timeline or process for hiring the next town manager, although Soucy said his 90-day notice should provide the Town Council enough time to secure his replacement.

The council’s next regular meeting is set for 6 p.m. Sept. 8 at the Winslow Public Library, 136 Halifax St.