Portsmouth Picks Rainer, Navy Exec, to be New Town Administrator

A just-retired Navy executive stationed in Denmark will be the next Town Administrator for the town of Portsmouth.

The Town Council announced this week that Richard Rainer, the former chief operations officer for NATO Joint Force Command Brunssum in the Netherlands, will take the reins as the town’s new administrator on July 1.

At Tuesday’s Town Council meeting, Town Council President Keith Hamilton said that though Rainer has no municipal experience, his enthusiasm and desire for the job, along with a stellar resume, made him the most compelling candidate out of the 57 applications the town received.

Rainer lived in Portsmouth for a few years when he was director of international studies at the Naval War College in Newport and looked forward to moving back, Hamilton said.

In an e-mail message, Rainer said he and his wife Bente are very happy to be returning to the area and “how excited I am to have been given a huge vote of confidence by Portsmouth’s Town Council.

“I realize they had many other qualified candidates to consider and it’s an honor to have been the one selected,” he said.

Rainer has a very busy few weeks ahead as he and his family prepares for the move. Right now he’s taking care of some house maintenance for his father-in-law in Denmark. Meanwhile Bente is home in the Netherlands preparing for the move along with their two children, Emma, 15; and Jonathan, 12, who are finishing up the school year at the AFNORTH International School.

The couple also have a daughter Ashley, who lives in Jamestown, N.Y., with her husband and daughter.

“We hope to settle into a new home as soon as possible and I anticipate starting work July 1st,” Rainer said. “My family will join me in August after spending time with family and friends in Denmark. My communication with the Council members has only been through the interview and selection process, so I look forward to discussing with them their immediate priorities and will articulate an action plan soon thereafter.”

Rainer will be paid $120,000 per year.

Rainer said he believes the town is in a good position and commended former Town Administrator John C. Klimm, who announced last year that he wouldn’t seek a contract renewal here and went on to take a job in Aiken, Mass., in March.

Klimm, who came to Portsmouth from Barnstable, Mass., in 2012, led the town through a period of significant progress as it grappled with major issues that had previously seemed insurmountable.

Klimm stayed on through the town’s fiscal 2016 budget process to ensure the next administrator would have as smooth a transition as possible. And Rainer said that the town is certainly in “a good position.”

But, he said, “there is still work to be done.”

“In an overarching sense, I will work to continue the incredible and forward leaning progress of the former Town Administrator and the Department Heads while maintaining the Town’s AAA Bond Rating. I also look forward to continuing the initiatives laid out in the proposed FY 2016 budget and the previous Annual Report. I think it will be extremely important to balance revenue and growth opportunities with the needs and expectations of the citizenry while also preserving the character of the Town,” he said.

As an executive with the U.S. Naval Forces, “ I have been fortunate to have had what has been deemed exceptional, global, and award winning performance and can think of no greater foundation for a career in the private sector than one based upon hundreds of years of tradition and practice,” Rainer said on his Linkedin page. “As a leader with operational, strategic, and sales roles, I have been able to achieve results through solid management decision-making and performance. I have been called upon as a key strategic player for numerous forward thinking initiatives; many that were groundbreaking for the military.”