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Winchester’s search for a permanent town manager has unraveled in the final days before a planned hiring decision, with two of three finalists withdrawing from consideration and the Select Board now weighing whether to reset the process entirely as the town confronts urgent fiscal and leadership challenges.
Joseph Domelowicz Jr., town manager in Hamilton, withdrew late Tuesday night, Select Board member Anthea Brady confirmed Thursday. Eric Duffy, municipal manager in Woodstock, Vermont, withdrew Wednesday, leaving Christopher Senior, former town manager in Cohasset, as the sole remaining candidate.
The Select Board interviewed Senior alone Wednesday night in a session that was broadcast live after initial plans to keep interviews unrecorded to prevent candidates from gaining an advantage by watching each other’s sessions.
The board will proceed Thursday with scheduled public events featuring Senior, including a community forum from 4:30 to 5 p.m. in the Waterfield Room at Town Hall and a capital project presentation session beginning at 6 p.m.
The rapid collapse of the finalist pool comes as Winchester faces projected operating deficits of $3 million to $5 million in coming years, more than $100 million in capital needs over the next five years and the unexpected early departure of Interim Town Manager Stephen Delaney by year’s end.
The 25-member State of the Town Committee is developing a comprehensive fiscal plan that will likely include an operating override on the March 2026 ballot.
Brady, who leads the search committee, said the board will deliberate Monday about whether to continue with Senior or restart the search. She declined to specify what factors would drive that decision, but acknowledged the difficulty of assessing a single candidate in isolation.
“As a member of the screening committee, I found it to be very helpful to be able to assess candidates compared to each other and how they respond,” Brady said Thursday. “I think it just makes it really difficult to have a fair assessment when your assessment is somebody or nobody, versus looking at a slate of candidates who may have different strengths and skills.”
The board had initially planned not to broadcast Wednesday’s interviews to ensure fairness among the three finalists. Brady explained the decision was made to prevent any candidate from gaining an advantage by watching others’ interviews before their own scheduled time. When only Senior remained as a candidate, the board reversed course and chose to broadcast the session live.
The search began in August following the unexpected July resignation of Beth Rudolph, who served as town manager for two decades.
A screening committee comprising Brady, Select Board member Mike Bettencourt, former Select Board chairs Lance Grenzeback and Jennifer Wilson and Town Comptroller Stacie Ward reviewed applications and conducted initial interviews in executive session with support from the Collins Center for Public Management at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
The committee interviewed six candidates and advanced three as finalists.
Domelowicz and Duffy provided reasons for their withdrawals to the Collins Center, Brady said, but she declined to share those reasons publicly.
“I don’t know if I’m at liberty to say,” she told the Winchester News Thursday.
Bettencourt said candidate withdrawals have become commonplace in municipal searches.
“Candidates withdrawing is expected as part of this process and has, unfortunately become the norm in the Commonwealth,” Bettencourt said Thursday.
The withdrawals came as residents raised questions about the vetting process and publicly available information regarding the finalists. Senior has faced scrutiny based on reporting in the Cohasset Anchor, which reported that Senior announced Oct. 29, 2025, that he would not seek renewal of his contract after the Cohasset Select Board voted 3-2 in February to express its “intent to renew” his agreement.
According to the Anchor, Senior made the announcement at a well-attended meeting before public comment, during which “a number of citizens expressed various concerns about unsatisfactory experiences they have had with the town manager and some board members.”
The newspaper reported that some speakers indicated they had planned to call for Senior’s resignation before his announcement.
Duffy’s candidacy drew attention to litigation in Vermont involving Woodstock Police Chief Joseph Brian Swanson. A civil complaint filed April 29, 2025, in Vermont Superior Court names Duffy and other defendants and alleges efforts by town officials to remove Swanson as police chief and demote him to patrol officer.
The Bridge, in a story republished by VTDigger, described the case as a $5 million lawsuit and reported that Duffy placed Swanson on paid leave in October 2024 following a traffic incident.
Duffy defended his actions in that reporting, stating he would “always do what I think is right and in the best interest of my staff, my community and the municipality.”
Select Board Chair Michelle Prior declined to comment Wednesday on specific questions about candidates’ backgrounds but said related process issues would be addressed.
“I will not comment beyond saying some of these items will be discussed this evening such as due diligence and outreach,” Prior said in an email.
The position’s starting salary range is anticipated to be $225,000 or more, depending on qualifications. The board had initially planned to make a final decision in late December, with the new manager’s start date dependent on the candidate’s availability.
With Delaney’s departure approaching, the board has begun discussing how to cover the interim period, including the possibility of dividing responsibilities among Ward, Town Clerk Mary Ellen Marshall and Assistant Town Manager Mark Twogood.
The board will meet Monday to deliberate on whether to continue with Senior or restart the search process.
Will Dowd is a Massachusetts journalist who covers municipal government and community life for Winchester News. He previously co-founded the Marblehead Current and now runs The Marblehead Independent, a reader-funded digital newsroom.
