Susan Romano, who was elected town moderator in 1999, has been appointed to the committee in charge of searching for the next police chief.
Romano is the third at-large member with Jamie Hainsworth and Peter Gaynor. Hainsworth, a former police chief in Glocester who served as Jamestown’s chief executive from 2020-23, is the administrator of the Rhode Island District Court system. Gaynor is a retired U.S. Marine officer who served as director of the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency from 2015-18. He then served as secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency during President Donald Trump’s administration. Also on the committee are the police chiefs of Middletown, Anthony Pesare, and West Greenwich, Richard Ramsay.
Town Administrator Ed Mello, who served as Jamestown’s chief of police from 2011 until his promotion in February, also will oversee the interviews. The seventh and final member is Tina Collins, who serves as the finance director in Jamestown. She has served three stints as interim town administrator.
Interviews are scheduled between July 26-28. The search committee, which was appointed administratively without consent from the town council, is not a public body. The interviews will not be subject to the state’s Open Meetings Act.
