David M. Wilkinson – Town Moderator

David was elected Town Moderator in 2024 where he has facilitated respectful, thoughtful dialogue at each meeting he has chaired. His background, character, education, and experience have made him an excellent Town Moderator.

The town meeting is a form of direct democratic rule, used since the 17th century, in which the members of the community come together to legislate the budget for the local government. Charlestown keeps this bit of New England history alive in the position of Town Moderator. The Town Moderator acts as presiding officer at all regular and special Budget Public Hearings.

David was elected to the Charlestown Town Council in 2018 where he demonstrated the calm temperament and integrity needed to be an excellent Town Moderator. He is fair, clear, organized, informed, and inclusive. During his time on the Town Council, David was dedicated to a well-managed, responsive, civil, and open government and considered all points of view while representing the best interests of all residents of our town. The Budget Public Hearings need a Moderator like David who will facilitate an orderly meeting and who has the ability to chair complex meetings, the skills to assure the debate is open, and a broad knowledge of the major underlying issues.

David was a founding member of a national supply chain management corporation, Cardinal Logistics Management, in 1998. David served as the company’s Senior Vice President with responsibility for field operations in the Eastern half of the United States. He sold that company in 2024, and is now in the process of starting a new logistics firm. His more than 31 years of business experience in logistics and transportation, project management, financial planning and analysis, budget development, and operations management and his exposure to other communities in the United States and abroad will again make him a valuable and effective moderator.

David and his wife Erika discovered South County when they were married in Newport years ago, and they had always wanted to return to Rhode Island. When David’s job allowed him the opportunity to settle anywhere along the East Coast, he and his family chose Charlestown. They love its quiet natural beauty, and Charlestown, with its excellent schools, small-town character, and low taxes, was exactly the place to raise their young daughter. David realized that there were threats to the community, however. For example, the Federal Railroad Administration had recently planned to bisect Charlestown with new rail, some residents were being impacted by neighboring quarry operations, and Invenergy  proposed removing water from Charlestown’s watershed and trucking it over the town’s rural roads to cool a power plant in the northern part of the state. As a result, David stepped forward, serving on the Town Council from 2018 to 2020, to “help keep Charlestown ‘Charlestown’ while also moving our town forward with good change.” David has continued that service as Town Moderator since 2024.