Major, major douchebag. However was fairly well liked as the town is well to do, he was in place nearly 30 years and its easy to hide things when things look like they are fine. Now that he is out, taxpayers are going to be in for a shock as things have to become public (like the screwed up community center building became).
Had he not been a douchebag when my brother met him originally, he would have never suspected all the stuff that is going on. His douchebagger behavior made him suspicious. That's what you get when you blow off someone that looks younger then he is. (brother 30 something looks like he is 19).
Unfortunately the dots couldn't be connected, but we are pretty sure he has stolen about 2 million over 10 years with a "ghost" employee getting paid to do nothing. There seems to be a pay to play scheme going too, but when we suspected that there was no way we were going to find out about it. People clammed up and clammed up good.
My brother was also excluded from bidding on a project when the manager tried to bid out the work that ghost employee was supposed to be doing. Nobody ended up getting a contract, and the work is in limbo. If my brother business partners were the suing type (they aren't), he could sue the town and probably get a good sized settlement. Some of the council members seem to know that manager has opened the town up to a suit and are being a bit more open.
Not much interest from either the state attorney general office or the FBI. Maybe they are looking into it, but it doesn't sound like it.
Thankfully the crony was past over for someone from outside the area. He will have one h*ll of mess to clean up if he is an honest guy. That community center will cost millions to repair.
The biggest irony. "Professional" town managers were created to counteract corrupt elected crooks. This guy seemed to have control of the (elected) town council for a number of years. He also had a very nice golden parachute even if they did fire him before the end of contract (had they fired him before the end of the contract, he would have walked away with another million!)