PHILLIPSTON – Elizabeth Kazinskas brings a lot of experience in municipal government – and family tradition – to her new position as administrative assistant to the town’s Selectboard.

Since 2020, she has worked in the office of state Rep. Kimberly Ferguson (R-Holden), first as legislative aid, then as district director in 2021. She was elected to the Gardner City Council in 2017, and elected councilor at-large in 2021, 2023, and 2025, and was re-elected City Council president each year from 2021 through 2024.

In 2016, Kazinskas served as then-Mayor Mark Hawke’s executive aide from March through June and for four months in 2020, was acting mayor after Hawke stepped down, managing the city during the COVID pandemic.

Years ago her grandfather, Hugh Hunter, served three terms on the Gardner City Council. In 1993, her father John Kazinskas mounted a campaign for mayor of the city.

The administrative assistant is a 36-hour-per-week position. Kazinskas’ starting pay will be $40 per hour. The Selectboard offered her the job last Thursday and she accepted on Monday. She will officially start her new job on Aug. 24.

“We are very excited to have Elizabeth become part of the Phillipston family,” said Selectboard member Nicole Gough. “With her experience, we are very lucky that she was interested in the position.” 

Kazinskas said she began looking for a new job after being told by Ferguson that she would not be running for a ninth term this fall.

“I love everything I’ve done, but I really have loved working with the towns as the district director,” Kazinskas said. “We have five towns; Holden, Paxton, Rutland, Princeton and Westminster. I’ve spent a lot of time in the towns, learned a lot about town government, how town services work. I genuinely enjoy public service.

“I’ve seen what all of these towns go through and how that affects all of the services in the towns and all of their constituents. So, I decided I’d like to work in that realm.”

She said the job in Phillipston meshed well with her career goals.

“I really was looking for some kind of administrative position in a municipality where my skills can be used, but also where I can learn a thing or two,” she said. “I’m a fourth-generation Gardnerite and I know the area very well; I know what the different towns around us are going through, and that includes Phillipston.”

Kazinskas said a municipality is unlike any private business.

“It cannot close,” she said. “It has to remain open to ensure the quality of life of its people. The services have to be something people can count on. And the things that happen at the federal level and at the state level, they affect cities and towns tremendously and you have to understand how those things work. You really have to cultivate good relationships at all those levels and understand how things work.”

In April of this year, Adam Lamontagne, Phillipston’s former chief administrative officer, left after a year on the job. Jen Basso then took the job of administrative assistant to the Selectboard, assuming many of the CAO’s responsibilities, but she announced weeks ago that she was leaving to take another position.

In accepting the administrative assistant position, Kazinskas said she understood that the town’s Selectboard was looking for someone who would commit to the job long-term.

“They were very straightforward about that. When you’re going into a town you really have to understand what they have been through before you got there. I knew they wanted someone who wasn’t just looking at Phillipston as a stepping stone,” she said. “I can bring a lot to this position. I’m very excited about having been chosen for this job. You never know what’s going to happen, but I plan on sticking around. It’s expensive to lose people over and over again.”