Napoleon Gonsalves, who served as the Director of Administration for Mayor Bob DaSilva since January of 2020, left the position in the last two weeks.

No immediate successor to the position has been named as of Wednesday morning, Dec. 20. GoLocalProvidence was first to formally report Gonsalves' departure in a post to its website on Thursday, Dec. 14.

GoLocal wrote, "Patricia Resende, spokesperson for DaSilva, said Gonsalves resigned 'for personal reasons' and to 'spend more time with his family.'"

Reached for further comment Tuesday, Dec. 19, Resende said, "Director of Administration Gonsalves no longer works for the City of East Providence."

Asked to clarify if Gonsalves "retired" or "resigned," Resende declined to specify, saying, as she did to GoLocal, Gonsalves, "left his position to spend more time with his family."

Resende said there was no intention to issue a formal release announcing Gonsalves' departure. News of his move began making the rounds on Tuesday morning, Dec. 12.

Gonsalves' biography page on the city's website (https://eastprovidenceri.gov/executive-profiles/director-administration-napoleon-gonsalves; The requested page "/executive-profiles/director-administration-napoleon-gonsalves" could not be found) has already been scrubbed.

However, his professional LinkedIn page (https://www.linkedin.com/in/napoleon-gonsalves-697447a8), also as of the morning of December 20, still read him as being the "Director Of Administration, City of East Providence Jan 2020 - Present 4 years."

Gonsalves and DaSilva previously worked together as members of the Pawtucket Police Department, in which the former, again according to his LinkedIn page, was a "Detective Captain" from "Dec 1993 - Jan 2020 26 years 2 months," including his being a past member of the PPD's "Major Crimes Division."

DaSilva brought his former colleague to East Providence upon the departure of the executive's initial top aide, Anne Quinterno, who served under the title of the mayor's "chief of staff" during his first year in office, 2019.

That Gonsalves apparently left so suddenly seemed a bit surprising, considering he has been the public face of much of DaSilva's annual agenda throughout his tenure, including the mayor's quest this year to construct a recreation/community center. Gonsalves, in fact, was the lead advocate for the project up and until it received the vital financial support it needed to move forward from the City Council at that body's meeting just two weeks ago on December 5.

Resende, whose official title in DaSilva's administration is Director of Project Management and Communications, took over Gonsalves' role at the December 19 Council gathering, guiding the group through the "Mayor's Communications" portion of the forum.