Congrats To PFD Chief Cranson, he was always the only/best choice.
Many that join the PFD hope to work their way up the ranks to be Chief.
I was concerned when I learned the Town was spending $15K to search for a new Chief from "outside" of Portsmouth. Possibly a new Town Council will consider the value of continuing the tradition of promoting from within the Department, and save the Town Taxpayers the expense of conducting a search. This rationale should also apply to the Portsmouth Police Department. It's the continuity that counts, and morale within these two departments is at the higest level when we promote from within. Honorable mention to Capt. Mike Obrien for finishing second in a field of 63 applicants. Be advised, This Town has the Best Fire Department in our State!
Respectfully Submitted,
John Vit

I am so proud of our town's fire and police departments. When a Fire Chief guest from the state of Washington went on and on about how we HAD to be understaffed, how the fire department could NEVER get here to save my house, or there simply couldn't be enough police to patrol the roads as well as man the station, I literally the dinner table and called each department to get the facts....and guess what folks, we are well protected!!! This "guest" was quiet the rest of the dinner:-)
Thank you to our First Responders!!

Have to say though, when it comes to our Tax Assessor position, I am concerned since it was Central Falls which was "titled" the "Poorest City in RI" and had to file for Chapter 9 Bankruptcy just last year!

Congratulations to Chief Cranson! As to Mr. Vit's second point I agree. If you watched or read about any of the council candidate forums you know we spent the money on an outside firm (MRI), because Robicheau, Kesson, Pedro and Staven fear there's an "old boys network" which somehow has controlled town business since before Joe moved here in 1979, (by now I guess they all live at Atria). It is obvious to anyone with passing familiarity with PFD that we had at least 2 applicants who had the experience, talent, ability and respect of the men needed to be chief. All the council had to do was assemble a panel of chiefs or dep. chiefs from other areas to interview the qualified in house candidates (as they do for other promotions), rank them and let the administrator interview them with the benefit of that info. No cost to the town and if the Administrator, doesn't think he has a qualified candidate then do a broader search. I understand that's how they selected the new tax assessor/collector, a retired assessor from another community helped the Administrator evaluate each candidate. But we pay MRI $15K because the council majority is paranoid about some shadowy network of unnamed individuals who control things by unknown means? Maybe MRI is the council's own "good ol boys" network. How much have we paid them this year? $30K $50K? Was MRI required to disclose any prior dealings with councilors or officials? It's a crazy expense for a council that nickels and dimes everyone else

I agree with both Vit and Old Timer.....Last I knew, it was the administrator's job to do an awful lot of the things this Council has been paying others to do.....This election can't come soon enough......Robicheau, Kesson. Pedro and Staven have got to go! What a colossal waste of $15,000.00. Congrats to Mike on the appointment though!

Hopefully, at the meeting tonight, after Mike gets formally appointed, someone will have the guts to ask Klimm what they gained from this extended search.....and maybe in private tell him to get his act together and start doing what he was hired to do.....All the reason I cannot vote for the charter change giving the administrator the ability to do ALL hiring....it'll cost us a fortune!

Lets see, Mr. Klimm did much buissness with MRI prior to coming to Portsmouth.

MRI picks Mr. Klimm as its choice for Town Administrator for Portsmouth

Mr. Klim picks MRI on a number of occasions to do work for the town even when they were not the low bidder on at least one occasion that I know of. I ask if this is not the good ol boy network that Joe Robicheau , Kesson, Pedro and lets not forget Staven talk about....

I too can not wait for Nov. 6 th to get here, the flashing of the towns MasterCard for things that use to be handled by the towns administrator has to end. We need to watch how and who spends the towns money.

congrats chief mike I new you were the best cantidate for the job I know you will make us proud!

Congratulations Chief Cranson!

Congratulations to Chief Cranson and I to hope the town saves us $15,000 and doesn't hire another firm to search for any administrative positions in the town. We currently have an outstanding Chief of Police and if and when Chief Hebert retires, we will be well served by one of our own being promoted. I worked with most, if not all of the current department members and feel very confident is saying that we are well protected by quality men & women.