Tom Rue has been fired as the Monticello historian.
Village Manager John Barbarite relieved him of the honorary, unpaid post on July 20.
Barbarite said Rue has been posting nasty comments about the village on his wife's website, carmenrue.com. His wife, Carmen, is a village trustee who has been highly critical of Barbarite and Deputy Village Manager John LiGreci.
"No employee should ever think that they are entitled to belittle the government that they are working for," Barbarite said Wednesday.
Rue, though, says he's provided only "technical assistance" to his wife's page and her opinions are her own. He believes he was fired because he stood up during public comment last week and was mildly critical of the management over its handling of developer Tommy Ting's Broadway project. He said that while the board has been supporting the project, Barbarite has tried to throw up roadblocks. After those comments, Barbarite told him he was out as historian.
Rue said that unlike previous Monticello historians, he's actually accomplished things. For example, he recently finished a book about Monticello and has provided updates of historical interest on his blog, tomrue.net.
He said Barbarite had no problem with the job he was doing; the manager just doesn't like his wife.
"I'm her husband," he said.