Pawtucket appointees announced

01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, October 30, 2007

By John Castellucci

Journal Staff Writer

PAWTUCKET — Two vacant spots on city boards have been filled — one by a newcomer recruited by the president of his parish council, the other by a City Hall veteran returning after a couple of years’ absence from public life.

The City Hall veteran, former director of administration Francis P. Crawley, was mercilessly kidded by City Council members when his appointment to the Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency came up for consideration three weeks ago.

“Haven’t you had enough punishment yet? Now you’re back for more?” Henry S. Kinch Jr. said as Crawley, whose wife Joan heads the Department of Elderly Affairs, stepped to the podium.

Another council member, John J. Barry III, said, “I’ve heard that Mrs. Crawley wants you out of the house.”

Compared to Crawley, newcomer James F. Bradford, purchasing agent for a plumbing supply company, got the kid-gloves treatment.

“This is another example of talent coming out of District 3, coming out of St. Teresa’s Parish,” Kinch, who represents the area, said without a trace of modesty.

“Are you sure that you know what you’re getting yourself into?” council President Mary E. Bray asked.

Bradford, 50, was appointed to the Pawtucket Water Supply Board, the six-member body that sets policy for the city’s water system.

The Water Supply Board is overseeing construction of a new water treatment plant. The multimillion-dollar project is more than a year and a half behind schedule. The builder is a company that the council opposed.

Despite all that, Bradford appeared undaunted. In a letter to Mayor James E. Doyle, he said he had been recruited to fill the vacancy by Donald Barbeau, a Water Supply Board member who is president of the St. Teresa Parish Council.

Bradford, who is a member of the parish council himself, said he “very much appreciated the invitation and confidence from Mr. Donald Barbeau to become a member” of the board.

For his part, Crawley took the ribbing he got from council members in stride. After Kinch asked whether he had gotten enough punishment, Crawley replied, “It’s an Irish thing, Councilor Kinch. You just never seem to get enough.”

Crawley, 69, was a retired utility company executive when he joined the Doyle administration, having worked for Eastern Utilities, the parent company of Blackstone Valley Electric Co., for 35 years.

He was Doyle’s director of administration from 1998 until 2003, earning the reputation among City Hall employees as a stern taskmaster but praised by Doyle as an even-handed man with a keen wit.

Crawley was appointed to the redevelopment agency to fill the vacancy created by the death of its longtime chairman, Benjamin C. Chester. Bradford is filling the vacancy on the Water Supply Board created when Mary E. Tetzner, a Greenville resident, stepped down to comply with an amendment to the City Charter requiring that members of rate-setting boards and commissions live in the city.

Both men are city residents. Crawley lives on Narragansett Avenue. Bradford lives on Ferris Street. Although Tetzner and Chester were chairs, Bradford and Crawley were appointed as members, not chairmen of the boards.