ST. ALBANS – The Board of Selectmen unanimously voted Monday night to reinstate former town manager Larry Post under the terms of his former contract, which expired in December, and to immediately begin negotiations for a new contract.

Post will be back at his desk today.

Although board members said they were acting in “the best interests of St. Albans,” a former selectman, Wolfgang Fasse, accused them of folding under the pressure of a lawsuit filed by Post.

“You have exposed yourselves to the charge that you made a decision at the point of a gun,” Fasse said.

Post initiated the lawsuit when he accused the former Board of Selectmen of violating due process when they refused to renew his contract last November.

Post promised Monday night that the suit will be immediately dropped. He said that the underlying remedy for the lawsuit was for him to get his job back, and “with this reinstatement, the reason for the suit goes away.”

In justifying their actions, each board member explained his position. Perley Martin said when he checked the town office file that should have contained Post’s evaluations and, if they were poor evaluations, plans for change, he found the folder empty.

That there was no job performance evaluation done on Post was proof that there was a lack of due process, Martin said.

Board chairman Curt Lombard said that “none of the possible reasons for termination were supported by the facts.” He said the former board never entered into contract negotiations with Post, as the contract required.

Fasse predicted that “as long as Mr. Post is in office, the division [within the community] will stay.” He suggested the board should have let Post’s lawsuit be decided by a judge before they acted.

Despite calls for harmony, that division remained intact Monday.