It’s only been 11 years since Kevin Pereira departed the halls of East Providence High School as a graduate in 2015. However, depending on what skills you value in the people who sit on the city council, he’s spent the decade since growing to be uniquely suited for the job.

Pereira double-majored in accounting and finance at Springfield College, graduating in 2019. He then went to work building a career in accounting, and is currently an audit supervisor at Citrin Cooperman in Providence. Specifically, he has spent the last seven years auditing governmental and nonprofit entities.

“I have a thorough, deep understanding of not only finances and internal controls, financial controls, but really have that niche bit of governmental experience as well,” he said in a recent interview. “And keeping the accountability factor and transparency there for city council, I think, is something incredibly important.”

Pereira also received his CPA license at the end of May.

“I think that would make me uniquely qualified for the position,” Pereira said. “There’s not another city councilor with the financial background that can really serve in that deeper understanding of the budget, and what the changes to the budget actually mean.”

While Pereira said he hadn’t performed a deep dive of the city’s finances yet, he said he would be doing so in the coming weeks to become more acquainted with the city’s financial health.

“We have a lot of debt service that we have to fulfill. We’re paying off bonds for the high school and middle school,” he said. “I do think that there might be places that we can find some more efficiencies and hopefully really focus on the affordability of the city and the actual cost of living in the city.”

Besides being a watchdog for the city budget, Pereira said his focus would be on finding ways to lower the cost of living in the city, which he said has been forcing some Townies to consider moving, and preventing new families from settling in East Providence.

“People are genuinely looking at options outside of the city, and that's not what we want to see. Townies leaving,” he said. “We want to keep our residents here as long as possible, hopefully generationally, but also kind of find a way to bring in those new residents as well and continue to grow the tax base in that way.”

To help with that, Pereira said that he was in favor of continuing the current trend of economic development in the city, but doing so in a way that didn’t “change the landscape overall” of the city.

“I don't think development is ever going to stop in the city,” he said. “I think that's going to be an inevitable factor, but I think we need to do it in a respectful and in a conscious manner.”

Representing Ward 2

Pereira grew up on Waterman Avenue in Ward 2, where he still resides. He attended Meadow Crest for the preschool program, Orlo Avenue Elementary School, Martin Middle School, and East Providence High School. He played on the football and volleyball teams, ran track, and was a National Honors Society member. In college, he helped with a pre-orientation camp for incoming freshman and led a leadership training conference in addition to playing rugby and becoming the president of the a cappella club.

Pereira said that his motivation for running for council was rooted in his belief that the residents of Ward 2 deserved better representation.

“I think Ward 2 really deserves someone that's present, accessible, accountable, somebody that's really going to represent the ward's needs and wants and speak on those constituents’ behalf,” he said. “Currently folks, at least along the campaign trail here, have mentioned that they have felt a little bit under-represented or that their concerns haven't been heard or they might fall on deaf ears.”

Pereira said that he once thought of his age as a deterrent to running for local office, but now he sees it as exactly what might be needed.

“I kind of came to the answer of, ‘Why not me?’,” he said. “Just because I'm young doesn't mean that I don't have the wherewithal, I don’t have the knowledge and the expertise to benefit my community in a positive and impactful way.”

Pereira faces one challenger, incumbent Anna Sousa, for the seat.