In the summer of 2020 Sean Henry was an independent candidate for the Ward 9 City Council seat, facing off against independent Aaron Mackisey, Republican Armand Lusi, and Democrat Vincent Gebhart who went on to win the race. 

Following the election Mackisey was tapped by Mayor Frank Picozzi to be his executive aide, Lusi was named to the Warwick School Department Building Committee, and now Henry has found a place in Warwick government as well. 

Recently Henry was hired as the city’s new Principal Planner, replacing Lucas Murray who left during the summer. He will be making $75,638 per year. 

Planning Director Tom Kravitz said that they had eight applicants for the job, which was posted on Sept.9.

The first round of interviews was conducted by a committee consisting of Kravitz, Dan Geagan from the Planning Department, Mayor Frank Picozzi’s Chief of Staff Susan Nahabedian, and former Warwick Planner Trish Reynolds who now serves as the Planner in Newport.

Picozzi then handled the second interviews, Kravitz said.

Before coming to Warwick, Henry spent the past two years in the North Kingstown Planning Department. He was hired by North Kingstown in the fall of 2019 right before the pandemic hit. 

“It was a challenging time to come on board and deal with new issues we had never seen before, like online public meetings and coordinating work remotely,” said Henry. 

Over the course of eight years, Henry worked as an assistant planner for the town of Hopkinton, and worked in his hometown as deputy director of the West Warwick EMA. Aside from West Warwick High School Henry is a graduate of URI where he earned his degree in Political Science. In 2020 he earned a masters degree in Public Administration from Roger Williams University. 

Five years ago Henry moved to the Potowomut neighborhood of Warwick with his wife and daughter. Henry didn’t grow up far from Warwick; he lived on the other side of Route 2 in Crompton Village. 

“As a resident of Warwick, I’m looking forward to working on the issues that affect my own community. For me, that is an extra benefit to taking this position,” said Henry. “ I’m also looking forward to doing more project-based work. New challenges present opportunities for growth.”

In his role Henry will help with subdivision and development project review. He will also manage a number of other ongoing projects in the city, and will help out on some long-term things like updating the city’s regulations, planning how the city uses/reuses city-owned lands, and working to develop the city’s projects to be competitive for state and federal funding. 

“The biggest difference in working for the city as opposed to the towns is the volume of internal projects that are ongoing or in the queue,” said Henry. 

While he didn’t win the council race in 2020 Henry said that is looking forward to serving his community in a different way. 

“In my experience working for several towns, I’ve found that I had a better sense of what was going on there than I did in my own community where I lived,” said Henry. “The amount of time that one spends at work over the years, you become integrated into these communities. So with that in mind, I’m looking forward to the opportunity to consolidate my attention and efforts on serving the community where I live.”