After 37 years with the City, longtime Newport City Manager Joseph J. Nicholson, Jr. is set to step down from public service this fall.
Nicholson, whose current contract was set to run through June of 2024, informed the City Council of his intention in an email on May 4th with a plan to submit a formal letter of resignation in July.
“It has been a supreme honor and privilege having served the City of Newport as its City Solicitor as well as City Manager, and to have worked with all of you, as well as Councils past,” Nicholson wrote.
A native Newporter and an attorney by trade, Nicholson has spent his entire professional career in service to the City, taking on his first role as Assistant City Solicitor in 1986. He would go on to serve as City Solicitor from 1988 until 2014, and for the last nine years as City Manager, where he’s overseen the daily operations of City government and its roughly 300 employees.
Over the years, Nicholson would be called on twice to serve as interim City Manager; the first time from February of 2002 until November of that year, and again from July of 2014 until April of 2016.
Upon his departure, he’ll hold the distinction of being Newport’s longest serving City Manager and its longest tenured active employee.
His last day is tentatively set for Sept. 15th 2023.
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