Haverhill, NH – After more than a year's search, the Haverhill Select Board has hired a Peacham, Vermont municipal administrator, Tom Galinat, to fill the job of Haverhill Town Administrator. The job had been filled by the Haverhill Select Board Chair, Rod O'Shana, on an interim basis.
The new Haverhill Town Administrator gained municipal government experience while serving the towns of Peacham and Johnson, Vermont. For those jobs, he was hired in September 2023 as the new Town Administrator for Johnson, Vermont. Before that, he had served as the Peacham Town Clerk and Assistant Town Clerk, all according to press reports from the Vermont News Citizen. Before that, he worked at Habitat for Humanity in southern New York.
The September 8, 2025, select board minutes indicate that select board member Ron Hurlburt reported there were four finalists for the position of Haverhill Town Administrator. Full background checks have been completed on each individual within the indicated minutes, with board interviews scheduled for early October 2025.
At the November 3, 2025, select board meeting, Galinat was introduced as the new Haverhill Town Administrator. Minutes of that meeting indicated he introduced himself and "described his background and expressed his excitement about filling the position." He will be paid an annual salary of $115,000 according to information provided by the Town of Haverhill.
The long, bumpy road to this latest appointment has been a rough one. The position of Haverhill Town Manager had been in place in Haverhill since being approved by annual town meeting voters in 1994, and was first filled by Glenn English, who traveled here from New Jersey to accept the position and then fill it for the next 25 years.
Upon his retirement, the town hired Jo Lacaillade, who served until she retired, and then hired Brigitte Codling from Cabot, Vermont, in 2019. She led an active town management program, expanding town government ranks and working closely with many town departments that would allow it.
This went on until she had a falling-out with some government-active residents who took their gripes to the annual 2024 March town meeting, persuading the town to vote down the town manager form of government by a 361 to 323 vote and replace it with the town administrator form of government.
Essentially this critical town meeting vote, which changed the profile of the job challenges from the town manager, to an administrative role that put the town jobs back under the control of the elected select board.


With that done, all the board needed was a viable candidate to fill the new town administrator position. The board looked no further than the corner office and, in short order, hired Codling, the former town manager, as the new town administrator in April 2024. The position ended for Ms. Codling two months later, when she handed in her resignation on June 14, 2024.
Besides O'Shana, the select board includes Joe Longacre, Theresa Paige, Ron Hurlburt, and Vickie Wyman.

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