Courtesy / Town of Yarmouth
In Yarmouth, Scott LaFlamme was promoted from assistant town manager and director of economic development to town manager.
Updated: April 8, 2024
Southern Maine sees a new wave of town managers
With a wave of retirements by longtime town managers, at least four towns and a city in southern Maine have welcomed new faces in recent weeks and months.
The most recent is Scott LaFlamme, who last week was named town manager in Yarmouth, stepping into the shoes of longtime leader Nat Tupper, who retired in February after 32 years at the helm. LaFlamme, who joined Yarmouth in 2017, had been the town's economic development director as well as assistant town manager.
Previously, he'd served as town manager in Turner and as director of economic and community development in the city of Bath.
"[LaFlamme] is highly respected and liked by municipal and school department management and staff," said David Craig, chair of the Yarmouth Town Council. "The search committee received applications from well over a dozen highly qualified and experienced applicants from Maine and beyond.
"I am certain that we made the best choice and looking forward to a great future for Yarmouth under Scott's leadership."
LaFlamme is the second town manager to be hired in the past two weeks.
Courtesy / Town of Cumberland
Matt Sturgis will start as Cumberland town manager on June 3.
On March 26, Cumberland said it had hired Matt Sturgis as town manager. Sturgis had been town manager in Cape Elizabeth since 2017. He will start June 3, which will allow a month overlap with current town manager Bill Shane, who is retiring.
Other leaders
Other municipalities also have town or city managers who were recent leaders elsewhere.
- Gray hired Michael Foley, who started in February after having served as mayor of Westbrook. He replaced Nate Rudy, who resigned in September 2023;
File PhotoMichael Foley - Freeport hired Sophia Wilson, who started in December 2023 after serving as town manager of Orono. The former Freeport town manager, Peter Joseph, left in March 2023 to take the same post in York;
- Saco hired John Bohenko, a longtime city administrator in Portsmouth, N.H., as city manager in October 2023. He took over from Bryan Kaenrath, who left to be city manager in Waterville.
Other openings
With Sturgis' planned departure from Cape Elizabeth, that town manager post will soon be open.
In February, Greg Jordan left his position as executive director of Greater Portland METRO to become one of the assistant city managers in Portland. The transit agency is undergoing a national search for his replacement.
"I haven’t seen this much turnover in my time in the Greater Portland area — eight years," said Kristina Egan, executive director of Greater Portland Council of Governments.
The changes are not limited to southern Maine.
On the midcoast, Brunswick is looking for a town manager to step in for John Eldridge, who retired Jan. 31. Julia Heinz, the finance director, is serving as interim town manager.
Job postings for town manager are also active in Madawaska and Carrabassett Valley, according to the Maine Municipal Association job board.
Job demands
An analyst for the Maine Municipal Association said the recent turnover is more cyclical, in part related to retirements.
But she noted that the changing nature of the town manager position calls for someone who can multitask and deal with a range of personalities and points of view. While the jobs frequently come with a six-figure income, the hours are long and the "to-do" lists are complex.
"As the tasks and responsibilities assigned to municipal governments continue to grow both in number and complexity, the job of manager is also growing more difficult," Kate Dufour, director of advocacy and communications at the Maine Municipal Association, told Mainebiz. "In communities that rely on the manager to play a variety of different roles — e.g., tax collector, public information officer, animal control officer, general assistance administrator, public works supervisor, etc. — the work becomes even more challenging especially for those just beginning their careers. The increasingly polarized political environment is unfortunately working its way to the local level, which adds a new challenge for managers to navigate."
As the job has gotten more challenging and the labor market more constrained, many municipalities have waived the requirement that the manager be a resident.
"It's a different environment now, where you are in 24-hour communication and where people are rooted in certain communities," Dufour said.
Plus, she cited the high cost of housing in many of the towns mentioned.
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