Ronald N. Renaud, a former Republican town councilman in North Smithfield, has been hired to succeed Jerome F. Williams as a top deputy to Governor Carcieri’s director of administration, Bevery Najarian. He starts work at his new One Capitol Hill job today.

Williams’ appointment, late last year, as state transportation director left a hole in the ranks of $110,549-to-$122,560-a-year “executive directors” serving under Najarian.

In the announcement of Renaud’s hiring late last week, Najarian said: “Ron Renaud brings significant private and public experience to this position. … He can manage projects and people, he has developed and administered complex municipal budgets, and he knows how to solve problems.”

Renaud last worked for Sansiveri, Kimball & McNamee, a Providence public accounting and business consulting firm. He had been the director since 1997 of the company’s technical and consulting group, which advises businesses on how to use computer technology. Previously, he was the vice president for business development for the Fleet Financial Group, and before that, an account manager and marketing and sales manager for 10 years at Digital Equipment Corp.

In his new job, he will be responsible for six operating units within the Department of Administration, including accounting, internal auditing, facilities management, central business office, sheriffs, and the Capitol Police.

Renaud served for 17 years over two spans on the North Smithfield Town Council. His first was from 1981 — when he was elected to the council at the age of 21 — to 1995. He was council president when he decided not to run for reelection in 1995 and was chosen council president again when he returned, in 2001.

He also was the town’s public safety director in 1996 and 1997, managing its Police and Fire Departments, negotiating contracts with the unions, and handling staffing issues and residents’ concerns. He was appointed to the State Planning Council in 1988 and served until 1992. In 2006, he was appointed to the Industrial Facilities Commission.

He is a graduate of Mount St. Charles Academy, has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Bryant University and attended Bryant’s master’s degree management program.

The first time he left the Town Council, he cited the increased demands of his job at Fleet. He said: “It simply came down to no time.”

But he also kept the door open for a later run for other office, such as the General Assembly. “I’m keeping all my political options open,” he said at the time. “I enjoy the process…. I love the country and that’s my way of sort of giving back, paying back.”

News reports described him as a close confederate of then-Town Administrator Kenneth M. Bianchi, another former councilman and Republican stalwart.

He left the council a second time to make a failed run for town administrator in 2004, losing to former Democratic state Rep. Robert B. Lowe. Along the way, he abstained from voting on a budget item that raised the town administrator’s annual salary to $72,000 starting the following year.

Along the way, he raised concerns about a proposed tax break for the town’s older property owners that was gaining support on the council. Renaud said that might be fine for elderly taxpayers, but he wanted to know whether “those of us who have children, who are trying to get by” would have to pick up the slack from that tax break.

Because of budget constraints, Najarian last week said she did not expect to fill a second opening among her “executive directors” in the near future. That job was last held by Carcieri’s current chief of staff, Brian Stern, who held a second title while he was still at the Department of Administration: state purchasing agent. Najarian said she was no longer recruiting for that job, either.

--By Katherine Gregg, Elizabeth Gudrais, Steve Peoples and Scott MacKay
Journal staff writers