The Warren Town Council swore in Brian Sullivan as the new Town Manager during their meeting on Tuesday night. His first day is today.

The hiring relieves Warren Police Chief Roy Borges of his interim Town Manager duties, which he accepted following the departure of Kate Michaud back in November of 2023.

Sullivan, a native of Lincoln, RI, spent around 15 years as the Chief of Police in Lincoln, climbing the ranks from his initial job as a dispatcher in 1982. He spent time as a patrolman, detective, sergeant, lieutenant and was the department’s deputy chief before being promoted to chief in 2008. He attended Shippensburg State College (now Shippensburg University) in Pennsylvania.

For a little over six months, Sullivan answered a different call to duty — similar to what Chief Borges did when Michaud left — when he accepted an appointment as Lincoln’s interim Town Administrator following Joseph Almond’s departure to join Governor Dan McKee’s team in March of 2021.

Asked why he came out of retirement to apply for the Town Manager job, Sullivan said he had enjoyed retirement for a bit but was ready to get back to work.

“I played some golf I did stuff around the house and got that organized,” he said. “I knew that I wanted to be useful doing something so I decided I wanted to look for something that I felt would be a good fit for my experience.”

Sullivan said that both his experience as chief of police and the interim town administrator role taught him valuable lessons about how to efficiently manage personnel and balance priorities.

“It was a small agency [the police department]. In total there was 37 counting the chief of police. So you had to know a little bit of everything and know what’s going on in all aspects of the department,” he said. “As a manager, we were right next to Town Hall and I had a lot of interaction with the other department heads. Joe Almond made sure there were no silos in Town Hall. Everyone knew what was going on and you knew who the other person was. And I think that helped because if you needed something, you weren’t calling somebody cold. I believe that was extremely beneficial; having a good working relationship not only with the department heads, but also the staff. I think personality wise, having a friendly, cordial relationship with the staff goes a long way.”

Sullivan said that he felt Warren, which has around half the number of residents as Lincoln, shared certain similarities he found enticing.

“Warren is a very proud community,” he said. “People have pride in their community and they want to do what’s best for the community and they want to work hard for it. I find that’s the same as in Lincoln.”

Asked specifically why he would find the Warren job attractive as it finds itself in the midst of significant financial turmoil following an $8 million lawsuit settled late last year, Sullivan said that reality didn’t deter him from the opportunity.

“To be honest it was not a consideration. I did find out about it as I went along in the process and doing my research on it, but it was not like ‘Oh boy, this is a bad issue,’ or anything like that,” he said. “There are ups and downs in every community. I was in Lincoln when we went through Covid and those were uncertain times as well…You have to be aware of it and go into it with eyes wide open, but it wasn’t something that concerned me.”

On that note, Sullivan said his earliest and most top priority was finalizing a FY25 budget that goes before the Town Council for a first public hearing on Wednesday, March 20.

“Another priority is getting to know the people I’m working alongside, and know their background,” he added. “Because I’m going to need them to be successful.”

Sullivan said that he and his wife had already come to town a couple times for dinner, and were charmed especially by Warren’s historic waterfront. Still living in Lincoln, Sullivan said he was looking forward to becoming an ambassador for Warren across the Washington Bridge.

“It’s a beautiful waterfront. I say this to some of the people that live north of Providence, who might not think about going to Warren, that it has a beautiful waterfront just like Newport and it’s much closer and the restaurants there have great meals,” he said. “One of the things I'll be doing is making sure to chat up people that they really need to come to Warren. Especially with the bridge being out, we need to encourage people to spend their money in Warren.”