McGarry leaving for Hopkinton manager post

SMITHFIELD - After 13 years of leading the Police Department, Chief William McGarry has been named Town Manager in Hopkinton effective Monday, Nov. 9.

Town Manager Dennis Finlay said that Deputy Chief Richard St. Sauveur Jr. will be acting chief during a search for McGarry's successor.

St. Sauveur, 43, has spent his entire 21-year career with the local force. Contacted Tuesday, he said he will apply to succeed McGarry, noting that "I've spent most of my adult life as a member of the department - this Police Department is who I am."

The Hopkinton Town Council appointed McGarry Monday night on a 4-0 vote with one member absent. In a closed session that followed, McGarry and the council negotiated a three-year contract calling for a beginning salary of $79,500 that will increase to $81,000 in six months.

The chief was earning $91,600 here, but in recent months had made no secret of his desire to move on, expressing interest in several other openings around the state.

McGarry, 60, became chief in 1996, after 24 years with the State Police, succeeding the retired John Devine.

In addition to his background and education in law enforcement, McGarry, who lives in North Kingstown, has a master's degree in public administration from the University of Rhode Island.

The appointment of a new chief is Finlay's to make under the municipal charter, and the chief reports to him, not the Town Council.

The charter requires the police chief to have a minimum of five years' experience in supervisory and administrative law enforcement, or experience that is "substantially equivalent."

In addition to that, Finlay said, the search committee he intends to appoint can set additional qualifications if it wishes. He said he could not estimate how long it will take to get a search committee up and running. As for the search itself, he said that in the past he has seen committees take anywhere "from 45 days to four months" to make a recommendation.

The new chief will administer a department consisting of 41 sworn officers and 19 full- and part-time civilians, operating under a 2010 budget of $4.4 million.

Finlay said he harbors no particular opinion on hiring from within versus going outside the department for a chief.

"My philosophy is that you have to do what is right for the town of Smithfield, whatever that might be," he said.

But the McGarry vacancy prompted one immediate call for a hire from within.

State Rep. Thomas Winfield, a Democrat who represents Smithfield, on Tuesday called The Valley Breeze & Observer, issuing a statement in which he said that the town in the past has often gone outside to hire department heads, and "I have a problem with that."

He said the local department has qualified officers "who work there day to day and give us everything we ask for. We have a Police Department with no problems."

Winfield did not mention specific names, but when asked about St. Sauveur's interest in the job, said the deputy chief is qualified "hands down, without a doubt."

He said that going outside the department would also create a morale problem, pushing aside those whom "we've groomed to be leaders."

McGarry himself was brought in from the outside by then-Town Manager Jeffrey Minor, on the unanimous recommendation of a seven-member search committee that received 100 applications.

The appointment surprised some, who expected the job to go to the deputy chief, and acting chief at the time, Prescott Williams III.

McGarry had seemed uneasy in his job after the political turmoil of 2007, when he and other department heads criticized the then-Democratic administration for allegedly trying to fire former Town Manager Stanley Usovicz, who later resigned.

That same year the police union took a lopsided vote of no confidence in the chief, saying it doubted his continued ability to lead, but supplying no details.

Deputy Chief St. Sauveur, who is not a union member, strongly backed the chief at the time, terming him a consummate professional who had brought significant improvement to the department.

St. Sauveur, who lives in Smithfield, said this week that among McGarry's accomplishments were a wide array of technological advances, mandated training programs, and long-term accreditation by the independent Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies.

Sylvia Thompson, vice president of the Hopkinton council and a member of the search committee, said she voted for McGarry from a field of 24 applicants because he "has the experience, skills and integrity to properly manage our town and its employees." She said McGarry was the search committee's unanimous choice.

Finlay said the terms of St. Sauveur's compensation as acting chief during the search period are yet to be worked out.

The deputy chief has served as acting chief before, in times when McGarry substituted as town manager in Finlay's absence. In fact, St. Sauveur had been filling in for McGarry over the past six weeks while Finlay was out on sick leave and the chief spelled him.

The deputy chief was appointed to that rank from captain in 2004.

He has been with the department since 1988, when he graduated from Westfield (Mass.) State College. He earned a master's degree in administrative justice from Salve Regina University in 1993.

Finlay said he would like a selection committee comprising two Town Council members, the human resources director, at least two outside experts in law enforcement, and one or two town residents.

McGarry was on vacation earlier this week and could not be reached by press time.

In Hopkinton he succeeds William DiLibero, who resigned to become town manager in neighboring Charlestown.