CANTON — The Canton City Council is expected to discuss a method for evaluating City Manager Scott Wood during its work session on Thursday.

The evaluation comes after the council placed Wood on a six-month probation in April.

Mayor Gene Hobgood said he plans to ask the council how it wants to proceed with the evaluation.

“I don’t want to by a stretch of the imagination to tell them how to go about evaluating the city manager,” Hobgood said.

Hobgood said he wants to see if the council would rather do a standard evaluation form or if each of the six members would rather do their separate evaluations.

Wood has served as Canton’s city manager since 2009 and is paid a $150,000 salary annually.

In April, the council voted 5-1, with Councilman John Beresford opposing, to place Wood on probation after former Canton Police officer Daniel Henley resigned after a video surfaced of him pulling over Wood after a City Council meeting in March.

At the time, Beresford said that he voted against the measure because he was concerned about how Wood ran the city.

The city manager has been the target of criticism, most of which stems from former Assistant Police Chief Todd Vande Zande accusing Wood of terminating his employment because the officer refused to perform a background check on a citizen who accused a city employee of sexual harassment.

Vande Zande, who was named interim chief in January, was fired by Police Chief Bob Merchant in August and has threatened to sue the city.

Along with accusing Wood of requesting a background check with no cause, Vande Zande also raised questions about the process of the police chief search after overhearing a conversation between Wood and Cherokee County Sheriff Roger Garrison in which Vande Zande was a topic of discussion.

Wood had said it wasn’t unusual for city managers to reach out to other law enforcement officials to inquire about candidates for police chief positions.