Bliss going to Clarendon Group

Dan Barbarisi's got the details:

PROVIDENCE — Garry Bliss, the City of Providence’s top lobbyist and special projects guru, spent yesterday cleaning out his desk in preparation for his last day of work today. His walls were bare, save one poster, a framed rectangular fresco that Bliss picked up in Italy and hung over his chair. ...

For Bliss, leaving the city is a bittersweet moment. He’ll become one of the directors of the Providence public affairs firm The Clarendon Group, but the longtime federal, state and city employee leaves behind his day-to-day opportunity to prove that good government changes people’s lives.

“It is, without a doubt, the most intense and the most demanding job I have ever had. It is also the most exciting. It is where you can see the results of your work all around you,” Bliss said of his role as Providence’s chief of policy and legislative affairs.

Bliss will become one-third of a tripartite management team at Clarendon, which was founded in 2001 by Stacy Paterno and Christine Heenan. Heenan is leaving to become Harvard University’s vice president of government, community and public affairs, and Paterno, Bliss and Arianne Corrente Lynch will now lead Clarendon. Bliss will be the firm’s managing partner.

Bliss, 44, joined Mayor David N. Cicilline’s team in 2004, after five years with Rhode Island General Treasurer Paul Tavares. The 1985 Connecticut College graduate also worked at Moses Brown, his alma mater, at Textron and for Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy before joining Cicilline.