ROCKPORT — Since Christmas, municipal government in Rockport, a town of 3,400, has been enmeshed in a personnel matter wrapped in intrigue. Part of that ordeal came to a close at the end last week, when an employment severance/release agreement was signed by town leaders and former town manager Robert Peabody, of Rockland. The agreement arrived at the town office this afternoon, Feb. 19, and Select Board Chairman William Chapman officially signed it.

Severance agreement excerpts

(Read the agreement in entirety by clicking on the link provided above)

Peabody will receive severance pay in the amount of his regular salary for 12 weeks.

He will received that pay in lump sum, less taxes, within seven days of Feb. 14.

Peabody will be paid a lump sum for uncompensated accrued sick leave and vacation leave.

The total is $52,836.

Peabody releases the town, Select Board, employees and attorneys, including their precedessors and successors, from any and all claims, complaints, grievenaces, charges, actions, suits, causes of action, damages, costs and liabilities.

Likewise, the town releases Peabody from same.

Peabody promises that he will not in any form communicate anything defamatory or disparaging about the board or employees of the town.

The board agrees likewise and shall encourage town department heads to refrain from so doing.

That paragraph shall be effective for two years.

The matter, however, remains cloaked in secrecy, and it appears that the public will never know why the town and Peabody parted ways.

Reached Feb. 19 by phone, Peabody said he had no comment to make.

The Select Board will meet Wednesday evening, Feb. 20, to appoint an interim town manager. Chapman said Tuesday afternoon that the board will vote on whether to hire Camden's former town manager, Roger Moody, as a parttime interim manager. If hired, his pay shall be $35 per hour. Moody is currently a Knox County Commissioner.

The agreement released Feb. 19 gives Peabody 12 weeks of salary. He will also be paid a lump sum for uncompensated accrued sick leave and vacation leave. That totals $52,836. Read the entire severance/release agreement at the top of this article.

Chapman met with town department heads at 11:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 15. Their meeting lasted approximately one hour. Upon exiting, Chapman said the agreement had been sent overnight from Augusta. He said that meeting with town employees had been stipulated in the agreement.

"Part of the agreement was to have me speak to department heads," he said.

The agreement resolves one of two personnel complaints that were filed over the past two months in Rockport. Both originate from the town office, although the names of the complainants have never been made public.

The first one was filed Dec. 28 with Chapman. The second complaint came several weeks later, and was filed with the town manager and the Rockport Select Board.

Since the complaints were filed, the board has held seven closed-door meetings to discuss them; to consult with Portland-based town attorney William Plouffe, of the Portland firm Drummond Woodsum; and to talk with attorney Melissa Hewey, also from Drummond Woodsum, who was the investigator the town hired. Hewey's investigation included interviewing any town employees who wanted to voluntarily talk with her during the first week of January. She has declined to say how many individuals she interviewed, or discuss any other details of her investigation. She delivered a verbal report of her investigation to the board on Jan. 22, and subsequently submitted a written report.

Town Clerk Linda Greenlaw is now acting town manager.

While Chapman has said the two complaints are separate, the timing is close, and attorney John Richardson, of Brunswick, represents both the targets of the second complaint, as well as the authors of the first complaint that led to the Rockport-Peabody agreement.

Chapman said last week that he anticipated having the investigation and findings concerning the second complaint wrapped up in a week or two. He said Hewey is conducting that investigation, as well.

Peabody was hired in February 2004 following a split 3-2 vote by selectmen. He started with a salary and benefits of $71,000 and leaves with a salary and benefits of approximately $92,000. His contract was renewed annually until 2011, when the board voted to give him a three-year contract.

Peabody had formerly been a part-time town administrator for Hope, and a part-time executive director for the Midcoast Solid Waste District in Rockport, which handles trash for Camden, Hope, Lincolnville and Rockport.

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 Lynda Clancy can be reached at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 706-6657.