Still His Pick: Panel Sends McKee Three Names for Rhode Island’s First Inspector General — Then Asks Him to Wait Weeks

What happened

After interviewing five finalists Thursday at the State House, Rhode Island’s Inspector General Independent Advisory Commission selected David Harper, James Kirdar, and Stuart Robinson as the three candidates whose names go to Gov. Dan McKee for the state’s first inspector general. The five-member panel had through Sept. 28 to forward three names under the deadline set when the General Assembly created the office in the fiscal 2027 budget.

The shortlist is national, not State House-bred: Harper is inspector general for the U.S. Capitol Police; Kirdar is that office’s assistant inspector general for investigations (and a Roger Williams University criminal-science alumnus); Robinson directs investigations for Palm Beach County, Florida’s inspector general office after a 25-year FBI career that included public-corruption work in Boston and Bridgeport. A sixth finalist, U.S. Education Department acting IG Mark Priebe, withdrew Monday. The new office is authorized at 12 people; pay ranges $175,000–$225,000; the IG may serve five years with one possible reappointment of the same length.

The three names come with a built-in stall: commissioners say McKee should make no final selection until Rhode Island State Police background checks finish—a process Attorney General Peter Neronha, who sits on the panel, said could take six to eight weeks. McKee then has 90 days to nominate; the Senate must give advice and consent. Neronha also described the office’s statutory subpoena language as a “blank canvas,” unclear whether it reaches witness testimony or only records. The three finalists offered different approaches to subpoenas, investigation timelines, and how much of their findings they would publish.

Watchdog groups and lawmakers spent more than two decades pushing for an inspector general before House Speaker Christopher Blazejewski made the office a top priority in this year’s budget. The search panel is Neronha, General Treasurer James Diossa, Secretary of State Gregg Amore, Ethics Commission executive director Jason Gramitt, and Association of Inspectors General president Will Fletcher.

Update (Oct 31, 2026): Three Names Became Two; Still No Nominee

One finalist is gone, and McKee still hasn’t chosen. In his Oct. 31 Nesi’s Notes column, WPRI’s Ted Nesi reports that the Senate will convene “briefly” on Thursday, Nov. 5, to receive Gov. McKee’s judicial nominations, but won’t take up an inspector general pick yet. Citing Target 12’s Tim White, Nesi says McKee is still waiting on background checks, and Stuart Robinson has withdrawn after landing another job.

That job is the same one Rhode Island was trying to fill. On Oct. 6, the King County (Washington) Council named Robinson the county’s first inspector general, a five-year post with subpoena authority and power to pursue recovery of misspent funds. King County’s office was created after an audit and an ombuds investigation found “widespread oversight failures and potential fraud” in county contracts. That leaves McKee with two names: David Harper and James Kirdar, both from the U.S. Capitol Police inspector general’s office.

Virtue Forge take: A seasoned public-corruption investigator wanted to be a watchdog. Washington’s largest county hired him in early October, while Rhode Island’s process was still waiting on paperwork. The state took two decades to create this office, and it is losing candidates to places that move faster. The larger question is still unsettled: whoever gets the job should have real subpoena power and publish findings, and should not be a lame-duck placeholder.