North Smithfield raises pay for finance director post

NORTH SMITFIELD – The town council on Monday supported Town Administrator Gary Ezovski’s bid to hire a new town finance director while voting unanimously to a grant an $8,000 pay increase for the still vacant post.

The panel agreed to increase the finance director’s salary to no more than $88,000 to assist Ezovski in attracting a top candidate to the post.

The position became available when former Finance Director Jason Parmelee was hired by the Town of Cumberland earlier this year.

Ezovski told the counselors on Monday that he is currently in the process of reviewing a list of six candidates for the post but also indi- cated that an increase in pay might be needed to attract the top candidates of the group.

“I don’t think our current salary is going to work,” Ezovski told the council while outlining the interest he has received for the job thus far. “I need some flexibility on the current salary,” he added.

The addition of $8,000 would be transferred from accounts within the current budget, Ezovski said while answering a question from Councilman Paul Zwolenski on how the increase would be made up.

Councilman Daniel C. Halloran voiced support for the salary increase while noting that it was a result of what the town was facing in hiring in the “real world” of today. Gone, he noted, are the days when prospective town officials would be hired and “spend their whole lives,” working for the town. “We have to look at the salaries of all of our appointed people,” Halloran said while suggesting a review of the town’s salary structure for appointed employees. “I’m not asking for us to be at the top, I just want us to be competitive,” he said.

All five of the council’s members, Halloran, Zwolenski, Thomas McGee, Claire O’Hara and Council President John Beauregard voted in favor of the salary increase.

In other action Monday, Zwolenski asked for the panel to table a discussion of the Old Smithfield Road traffic pattern to a meeting in April. Zwolenski said residents of the street informed him they are still looking at options for controlling traffic in the neighborhood and need more time to complete that process.

Ezovski said he has been looking at the neighborhood’s concerns with the help of Police Chief Steve Reynolds and Raymond J. Pendergast Jr., public works director, and likes an option for installing speed bumps that the trio saw in visits to other communities recently.

Ezovski said there had been some consideration given to making the street one-way but that was ruled out given the problems it would cause in area overall.