Longtime Orange Town Manager Greg Woods has announced his resignation.
On Friday, Woods sent the mayor and council members his resignation following a review of the comments from his recent evaluation. The evaluation was conducted in closed session during the Aug. 18 town council meeting. Previously, Woods had requested the evaluation be done in open session.
According to the performance evaluation, which is conducted separately by each council member and tabulated by the mayor, Woods received an overall score of three on a scale of one to five, one being unacceptable and five being outstanding. The evaluation has nine general categories–relationship with town council; management; planning; accomplishments; leadership; interpersonal relations; communications; decision-making, problem solving and judgement; and personal and professional. Under each category are several statements which are scored one to five and then averaged to get the overall score for that category. All of the categories are then averaged together to get one overall score. All of the council members’ scores are then averaged together to get a final score. There’s also a section for comments regarding strengths, weaknesses, failures and accomplishments. It’s that section that Woods takes issue with the most.
While many of the comments are positive, including Woods’ financial and budgetary acumen, some are not such as “needs to improve in allowing council to have discussions without needlessly involving himself in conversations that primarily pertain to council,” and “needs to allow council to discuss council matters without interjecting his assumptions and opinions especially when they are not asked for.”
In his letter of resignation, Woods said “it is apparent that trying to continue to work with the two council members would not be productive.” He doesn’t name the two council members, but it’s clear from past cantankerous interactions that members Jeremiah Pent and Jason Cashell are the alleged culprits. Both have long been questioned regarding their residency, with many pointing out that Pent’s home, Arcadia at Edgewood, is located in Madison County while Cashell’s home, Mayhurst, is located in Orange County, outside of town limits. The two were elected to council in 2022 and are up for reelection next fall.
Woods said the two council members with the negative comments don’t have any organizational management or administrative skills, but have instead “created problems through interference specifically in relation to Town Code Sections 2.83, b and d.” Those sections deal with the duties of the town manager, particularly the ability to manage town employees. In his letter, Woods states that the two council members have tried to influence personnel decisions, thereby creating interference.
Woods alleges the two council members have no idea of the manager’s duties, much less their own. He said they’ve never attended the new council member training offered by VML and have avoided both Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Conflict of Interest Act (COIA) training. He said one has attended only one of his assigned committee meetings and the other attends only meetings for new committees “he wishes to be involved in for that benefit.” The two are said to only bring forth ideas regarding issues already reviewed in the past and rarely attend town events other than those sponsored by the Orange Downtown Alliance.
In reference to a comment regarding Woods having “failed to executive and implement a mission and vision statement on economic development,” Woods said the plan has been presented to council twice with no comments. The three-page plan lays out three goals with strategic objectives for each with seven measures of success.
Woods said while he disagrees with the evaluation comments, he believes every council member is entitled to their opinion. However, he said, given the average score from the five evaluations, “it is apparent that fairly consistently three of the scores were good while two were consistently bad.”
Also of issue are two comments regarding Woods’ age. One comment states, “he is beyond retirement age, obviously tired and holding the town back at a crucial time in its development. I would like to see him retire on his own volition and be released from his responsibilities with honors.” Another states “His stated goal in the face of his retirement age is being loyal to his staff, which shows a problematic bureaucratic mindset that is keeping the town from advancing economically at a crucial time in its history.”
Employers with 20 or more employees, of which the Town of Orange is one, cannot make decisions based on an applicant’s or employee’s age if they are 40 or older. This is expressed in both the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and the Virginia Human Rights Act (VHRA).
In his resignation letter, Woods said the comments regarding his age showed the inability of the two council members to understand organizational management. When reached by phone on Monday, Woods said he couldn’t say if he would be pursuing legal action based on the violations of those two laws. He joked that he was retired when he came to the town as finance director in June 2009. He was hired as town manager in November 2010 after briefly becoming the interim two months earlier.
Over those 16 years, Woods has accomplished a variety of objectives, including righting the town financially. He said when he first came to Orange, it was heavily in debt, something it isn’t now. The town has also replaced the 118-year-old standpipe and renegotiated the contract with Rapidan Service Authority, along with completing several street and property clean-up projects.
“There’s a lot of things I’m happy to have done,” Woods said. “I’ve been here long enough I’ve gotten to do things that don’t happen often.”
Woods said he’s going to miss his staff the most.
“The staff is very good,” he said. “They don’t need me. They’re terribly undervalued, but they know their job.”
Woods said some of the staff members have been with the town for 30 years. He noted that he’s not a “micromanager” and can give direction, trusting the employees to follow through.
“I’ll miss the people,” Woods said. “The people are very good. They really take the interest of residents to heart.”
When looking back on his tenure in Orange, Woods said he’s “had a good run.” He said for 10 years, the council and town worked great together. In his resignation letter, he thanked past council members for their work in always taking the position of the citizens’ best interests. He said it’s also been an honor to serve the town residents and by extension county residents as well.
“I believe that I have left the town in better shape than when I came,” he said.
Longtime council member Donna Waugh-Robinson expressed her appreciation for Woods.
“I’ve valued working with Greg,” she said. “Fiscally, the town is in the best place it has been in years. I think personally he’s been a great manager.”
In a council statement issued Tuesday, Woods’s budgetary accomplishments as well as the standpipe replacement, road projects, major cleanups of various town properties and water quality awards were mentioned. “Mr. Woods leaves the town strongly positioned moving forward and we are extremely grateful for his many years of faithful service.”
The council will convene in an emergency meeting Wednesday, Aug. 27 at 5 p.m. to discuss the appointment of an interim town manager and the search for Woods’ permanent successor. In his resignation letter, Woods has offered to remain in his position until Sept. 26.
