WOODSTOCK — After recently experiencing uncharacteristic turnover in the municipal manager’s office, Woodstock officials are hoping its newest hire will bring stability to the position.

By unanimous vote, the Woodstock town and village boards last night officially hired Eric Duffy, currently the town accountant in Stoneham, Mass., to manage municipal operations in the community of 3,500 residents.

A native of Massachusetts, Duffy has visited the Woodstock area often and was even married in Quechee in 2016.

 

“Woodstock has always been a special place in my family. We are up there once or twice a year, and we have always really enjoyed the community and the town,” said Duffy, 40. “It’s almost been a running joke that my ideal job would be town manager of Woodstock, so as this job came up it almost seemed too good to be true. And as I went through the process, met with the board and the citizens, they really showed the sense of pride they have in the community and the way they want to improve and provide services for the right kinds of businesses and the community as a whole. I really align with that, so I am very excited.”

 

When Duffy begins work on Feb. 1, he will be the fourth person to occupy the position on either a permanent or interim basis since the July 2019 death of Phil Swanson, who served in the role for 34 years.

Two interim managers bracketed the 25-month tenure of William Kerbin Jr., who resigned last May after being placed on paid administrative leave. Ultimately, the town Selectboard and village Board of Trustees approved a separation agreement with Kerbin that granted him 22 weeks of severance pay and stipulated that he resigned “for his own reasons, and not because of any misconduct or performance deficiencies.”

Town Selectboard Chairman Joe Swanson believes that Duffy is the right person to bring continuity to a position that hasn’t had much of it since 2019.

“I think he’ll be able to get settled in the position and bring stability to that office,” said Swanson. “He shows a dedication to municipal work, has a good background managing employees and a large budget, and in general is articulate and well spoken.”

By hiring Duffy, Woodstock gains an administrator well versed in municipal finances, something the Woodstock village and town boards identified early on in the search as a key skill they were looking for in their next manager.

“Our budgets are further complicated by the fact that there is a village budget and a town budget,” said village Trustees Chairwoman Seton McIlroy, alluding to Woodstock’s dual form — village and town — of municipal government. “The trustees manage the police budget but then obviously the town uses the police and they pay the village for the police. The town manages the highways and sewer departments, and certainly the village benefits from that and then pays that over. So, it is a very complicated system back and forth and really requires somebody that can understand enough — no one can understand all the intricacies — but really understand enough to be able to make those decisions and be able to explain that to the Trustees and the Selectboard.”

As Stoneham’s town accountant, Duffy currently manages a nearly $100 million budget covering more than 300 employees. By comparison, Woodstock’s $9.8 million budget supports a workforce of 50 employees.

When asked if he had any trepidation about working with two overseers — the village Trustees and the town Selectboard — and the budget complexity that two intermingled budgets brings, Duffy was undaunted.

“Every job has its challenges, but I look at it as a benefit,” remarked Duffy. “You have more people involved, you have more people involved in conversations, you have more ideas. The more people you have talking about an issue or a challenge the more unique ideas you have and the stronger the solution is. If you can harness that energy it shouldn’t be that big of a challenge.

Prior to his tenure at Stoneham, which began in September 2020, Duffy served in administrative positions with the towns of Salem and Lowell. He has a bachelor’s degree in finance from Bentley University, and a master’s degree in international politics from the University of Newcastle in England.

The contract signed by Woodstock and Duffy is for an indefinite period of time, and will pay Duffy $130,000 per year, adjusted annually by the cost of living adjustment increases that all non-union Woodstock employees receive.

The town manager search was conducted by a committee that included members of both the town and village boards and a resident from both the town and the village. The committee received 25 applications and narrowed that list down to nine candidates who were interviewed either in person or via video conference. From there, four candidates were brought to Woodstock for day-long, in  person interviews, before the boards ultimately selected Duffy.

​​​​​​CORRECTION: Seton McIlroy is chairwoman of the Woodstock Village Trustees. Her gender was misidentified in an earlier version of this story.

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