By JOSEPH B. NADEAU

WOONSOCKET — Mayor Susan D. Menard says it’s no secret she plans to retire at the end of her current term and her directors should keep that in mind when new opportunities call.

That’s one of the reasons she will soon be appointing a new finance director, Menard said last week.
The city’s current finance director, Robert Strom, has taken a similar post with the town of Johnston, and Menard said he goes with her blessing.
“They offered him the job in Johnston, he talked to me about it and I said ‘take it,’” Menard said.
Strom, who starts his new job on Feb. 18, will be getting a pay boost of about $5,000 over his city salary of $80,000 and will be working closer to his home in Cranston, she noted.
“We’ll run an ad and find someone new, but it’s a big loss to the city, a huge loss,” Menard said. “He was an excellent finance director and did a wonderful job,” she said.
Menard won re-election to a record seventh term as the city’s mayor in November and plans to complete her service in the office overseeing the construction of the city’s two new middle schools and also finishing a scheduled revaluation of all local property.
After that, Menard said her directors will have to make a case to keep their posts with the next mayor.
“I’ve told them all the same thing, there is no guarantee the next mayor will keep these directors. They won’t have any trouble finding another job because they are all good directors but you don’t know what the new mayor will do. They may want to bring in their own people,” she said.
In Strom’s case, Menard said his move to Johnston could get him more appreciation for the work he does than he has received here.
Menard said Strom was worthy of higher pay locally and did not need to face the frequent questioning he has encountered from the City Council while appearing there on her behalf.
“He will have more money and much less aggravation,” she said.
Strom said he was aware of the mayor’s plans to retire at the end of her term or sooner and that did prompt him to weigh other job options more seriously.
“I knew that if someone came along and afforded me an opportunity, I would definitely consider it,” Strom said. Strom did get such an opportunity for a post in Narragansett and in another community and settled on the Johnston job when it was offered to him by Mayor Joseph M. Polisena.
Polisena is looking to stay on for another term or longer and that could afford him more job security than would be possible locally with Menard departing, he said.
There were other factors as well: the additional pay and the opportunity to leave behind tendencies some members of the City Council have shown toward micro-management, he said
“It’s actually been interference as a far as I’m concerned,” Strom said. An example of that was when he had recommended the rehiring of the city’s past auditing firm, Parmelee and Poirier of Warwick, and instead hired Braver of Providence to do the work.
The change required more start up time in the annual accounting review process and as a result more work for his staff, Strom said.
“It put us into a period where we now have had to file for an extension with the state Auditor General’s office,” he said. The Auditor General has granted the extension and the audit will be completed, but Strom said the delay could have been avoided. The new auditing firm was also not the lowest bidder for the work and the city now faces an increase of $70,000 in audit fees over three years over what it paid under its last contract, he said.
There have also been discussions with the council over the city’s investment of its pension bond funding and the budgeting process, he said.
The council may have its questions, but Strom said he believes that his eight years working for the city have helped Menard keep city spending in balance and tax increases at a minimum.
“I think we have been doing a good job for the city and things are running well. We have always ended up with a surplus or a balanced budget,” he said.
The bonding for the new schools has been secured and Strom said his staff in the Finance Department is ready to put together another city budget just as they have in the past.
“My staff is very knowledgeable about the process and, with the mayor, will come up with a new budget,” he said.
In the end, Strom said he leaves without any regret about his work in Woonsocket. “I’ve really enjoyed working with my staff and the people in City Hall and the people in the community have always been forthcoming and helpful with everything I did,” he said.
When asked about Strom’s concerns over council interest in the finance department operations on Friday, City Councilman John F. Ward, himself a finance director for the Town of Lincoln, said that is just par for the course in such a position and Strom may find the same to be true in Johnston.
“I’ll be asking the same questions of anyone coming before us as the new finance director,” he said of his own interest in the administration’s management of the pension fund.
To some degree, Ward said Strom just happened to be the target of all the questions because he was the council’s only avenue to pose them to Menard.
“The mayor doesn’t attend council meetings and unfortunately for Mr. Strom he was the one before us to have that conversation,” he said. Ward also agreed that the potential for change in the mayor office is high and as result directors are likely to be seeking new posts elsewhere when they become available.
“I wish him well and I wish him success in Johnston,” Ward said.