Projo Politics Blog

John “J.R.” Pagliarini, dismissed in February by Governor Carcieri from his job as the governor’s deputy chief of staff, has landed at the state Office of Higher Education.

Jack Warner, the commissioner of higher education, confirmed that Pagliarini has a $115,000-a year job as associate commissioner of higher education. When he worked in Carcieri’s office, Pagliarini was paid $124,190.

After Pagliarini’s dismissal from Carcieri’s staff, Carcieri spokesman Jeff Neal said Pagliarini would be leaving state government.

Pagliarini has a public employment history dating to the 1980s administration of Gov. Edward D. DiPrete and is well-known and well-liked in Republican circles in Rhode Island. He was the communications director for Lincoln D. Chafee when Chafee was mayor of Warwick.

After Chafee became a U.S. senator, Pagliarini worked as state director of his Rhode Island office. Pagliarini has also been a private-sector State House lobbyist.

Warner said he did not create a new job for Pagliarini; he is filling a vacant position. (Warner is a finalist for a job as chancellor of Pennsylvania’s state universities.)

Pagliarini does not have extensive higher-education experience, but Warner said he personally recruited him. “Nobody ordered me to take him,” Warner said in an interview. “I recruited him on my own initiative.”

Pagliarini is studying ways to make administrative functions at the state colleges and the University of Rhode Island more efficient, and he is formulating an action plan in the event of a flu pandemic at the state colleges.

smackay@projo.com

cneedham@projo.com

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