Woodstock Town Supervisor Bill McKenna filed paperwork to reinstate maintenance worker Michael Innello, the Level 3 sex offender whose hiring sparked weeks of pushback by town board members and calls by residents for the supervisor’s resignation.

McKenna, asserting that Innello had been wrongfully terminated, sent reinstatement paperwork to Ulster County’s personnel department last week. After staffers sought clarification, they received all the needed documents except Innello’s original application. The paperwork will probably be completed today, meaning that Innello will be back on the town’s payroll by the close of business on Wednesday, according to Amberly Campbell, Ulster’s assistant deputy county executive.

The move by McKenna comes one week after two Woodstock board members, Bennet Ratcliff and Anula Courtis, filed their own set of paperwork to terminate Innello’s employment, a decision that followed the board’s 3-0 vote on July 22 to take that step. They say McKenna’s failure to disclose Innello’s criminal record before he was hired was potentially dangerous, given that his job could bring him into contact with children. McKenna refused to sign the termination paperwork after the vote, prolonging the dispute.

In Ulster County, towns make hiring and firing decisions while county personnel staff process the paperwork, Campbell said.

This is a developing story.