Six candidates advance in inspector general search

About one in four applicants seeking to be Rhode Island’s first inspector general has the certification required for the job, the commission tasked with selecting finalists revealed Wednesday.

Only eight of the 33 applicants had certification from the Association of Inspectors General, but the panel narrowed the candidates down to six names during a 45-minute meeting at the State House. The six will be invited to be interviewed in public by the Inspector General Advisory Commission in the next few weeks.

The five-member panel has until Sept. 28 to forward three names to Gov. Dan McKee. The commission is made up of Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha, Secretary of State Gregg Amore, General Treasurer James Diossa, Ethics Commission Executive Director Jason Gramitt and Will Fletcher, president of the New York-based Association of Inspectors General.

Resumes of the six candidates were not immediately made available. They are:

• Stuart Robinson, director of investigations for the Palm Beach County, Florida Office of Inspector General
• David Harper, an inspector general for the United States Capitol Police  
• Mark Priebe, the acting inspector general for the U.S. Department of Education
• Jim Kirdar, an assistant inspector general for investigations for the United States Capitol Police
• Steven Kreuger, 1st assistant inspector general for the city of New Orleans
• Thomas Whetstone, an analyst for the office of inspector general in Louisville, Kentucky

Background checks on each of the candidates by the Rhode Island State Police will take six to eight weeks, which means they won’t be finished before the Sept. 28 deadline. Commissioners voted to allow the governor to hold off on making a nomination from the finalists until the background checks are complete.

“I’m not going to lose any sleep,” Neronha said.

Once McKee receives the list of three finalists, he has 90 days to pick his nominee and forward the name to the Senate for confirmation.

The new statewide office — tasked with rooting out fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement by government agencies — was created in this year’s budget, alongside the commission charged with conducting a nationwide search.

The inspector general may serve for five years and be eligible for reappointment for one term of the same duration. The annual salary range for the position is between $175,000 and $225,000.