For Immediate Release: Contact: Suzanne Cienki 886-8690
June 26, 2018
East Greenwich Town Council Appoints Gayle A. Corrigan as Town Manager
East Greenwich, Rhode Island --- After an extensive search, the East Greenwich Town Council has voted to appoint Gayle A. Corrigan as Town Manager. The 4-1 vote, which came during the June 25th Town Council meeting, provides an “at will” engagement for Corrigan who has been the Town Manager for the last year. Corrigan will be paid $160,000 per year to serve as the town’s chief executive officer.
“Over the course of the last year, Gayle Corrigan has worked tirelessly to identify areas in our budget that needed to be addressed for the Town to operate in a professional manner and deliver the high-level of service that our residents expect. Her experience and expertise has helped the Council to address the serious fiscal and operational challenges that threatened the long-term stability of our community,” said East Greenwich Town Council President Suzanne Cienki. “As a result, we believe East Greenwich is on the road to long-term financial stability, and that our community will remain a wonderful place to live, work and raise a family.”
Among the highlights of Corrigan’s tenure include:
• Development of a zero-tax increase budget
• Recovery of a $50,000 loan payment to a private non-profit organization that the Council was never made aware had been made
• Reduction of municipal side staffing by 8.5 FTEs through attrition
• Implementation of the municipal-school consolidated financing as part of the Town’s corrective action plan required by the RI Auditor General
• Discovery of bank accounts that had previously been unreported, including some with signatories from the old Fire District that was incorporated into the Town five years ago
• Identification and correction of two general obligation bond annual payments that were missed in 2016 and 2017
• Identified health-insurance savings by issuing a bid for the first time in decades for insurance brokerage services
• Utilized insurance defense counsel at no extra expense to the Town for various litigation matters, when in the past at times, the Town had not even reported claims to its insurer
• Created a community resources department to address the needs of seniors, as well as recreational opportunities with the parks department, and outreach to disabled persons
• During the budget process, asked the Planning Department to provide input on the Town’s capital budget needs, as the Charter requires, something that hadn’t been done in at least six years, if ever
• Identified that the Fire Department would have $1.2 million in overtime expenses in the coming year.
“Gayle Corrigan has a long track record of successfully assisting municipalities and government agencies, be it in Central Falls or Central Coventry, to address financial issues and to help them right the ship. We want municipal government operations to be taxpayer-friendly and we want to continue to offer the great level of service, and excellent schools that East Greenwich has always provided. We believe Gayle Corrigan is the right person to help us achieve our immediate and long-terms goals for the betterment of East Greenwich,” said Cienki.