Filling a void that opened with the departure of Fung Chan in October of last year, as well as her short-term replacement, Michael Nolette, who left less than a month after taking the job, Dave Burlingame officially took over as Warren’s Finance Director on Dec. 21, 2023.

It could be seen from the outside looking in as a less than desirable position to take on, considering Warren’s ongoing financial conundrum that is the subject of this week’s other front-page story.

But in an interview last week, Burlingame displayed a calm readiness to address the matter at hand, which largely involves trying to catch up on financial duties that had been going unaddressed since the departure of Chan and former Town Manager Kate Michaud late last year.

“There’s been significant turnover here at both the Town Manager and the Director of Finance levels,” he said. “The last really functioning finance director left in October, and there’s been a lot of things undone since then, and we’re trying to catch up right now.”

From an experiential standpoint, at least on paper, Burlingame has more than enough ink on his resume to back up his matter-of-fact assessment of the difficult situation.

After graduating from Cranston West High School and receiving his BA in Economics from the University of Rhode Island, Burlingame joined the United States Army at 21 years old. He began as a junior officer with the 82nd Airborne before going to Europe with the 1st Armored Division. He went on to get his MBA from San Francisco State University while stationed there, working for the Army Reserve and National Guard, and then went on to get an MS in Accounting from Georgetown University.

His career would take him to the Pentagon, where he spent several years working in financial management roles, including within the office of the Secretary of the Army.

“I worked with some really terrific folks. The atmosphere at that time was good,” he said of his time at the Pentagon. “It was before all the wars in the Middle East, so it was pretty calm. It was nice, interesting work, good people, good facilities.”

After retiring from the military as a Lieutenant Colonel, Burlingame worked as a financial administrator and business manager for litigation for a few Virginia-based law firms for the next 26 years, with his last role in that capacity ending in 2018.

Burlingame then briefly flirted with retirement, but “that didn’t work out,” he said.

“I needed something to do, and I wanted to move back to Rhode Island,” he said. “So I took a job with the State as the associate director of financial management with the Department of Administration.”

He spent three years in that role, which he had mixed feelings about.
“I liked the people I worked with, but I had three immediate bosses in three years,” he said. “It always seemed like a lot of turnover going on.”

After a brief stint as the business manager for Rocky Hill Country Day School in East Greenwich, which ended with his position being terminated amidst financial woes faced by the school, Burlingame, a Bristol resident, saw the opening in Warren as a great opportunity.

“I live a mile and a half from Town Hall, in Bristol. I come to Warren all the time. Some of my favorite restaurants are here. In fact, my best friend of 50 years, from freshman year at URI until he passed away a few years ago, was from Warren. I’m very familiar with the place,” he said. “I went from a 32-mile commute to a mile and a half commute. That alone was worth taking the job.”

As for facing the significant challenge ahead of him in shoring up Warren’s financial future, Burlingame was brief but assured.

“I’ve walked into difficult situations before,” he said.