PROVIDENCE — A selection committee yesterday recommended five finalists — including the Senate president’s chief of staff and a General Assembly lawyer — for a pair of $128,650-a-year magistrate jobs on the Rhode Island Traffic Tribunal.

Earlier this year, the General Assembly gave Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank J. Williams the power to make the magistrate appointments, which are subject to Senate confirmation. So Williams may now appoint people to the positions that Judge Marjorie R. Yashar and Magistrate Aurendina G. Veiga vacated in 2005 amid ethics complaints.

The selection committee interviewed nine candidates and recommended these five finalists to Williams:

•Joseph A. Abbate, 56, of Providence, who is director of law revision for the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Legislative Services. He is also a part-time Providence Municipal Court judge and was a Providence Housing Court judge from 2002 to 2005.

•R. David Cruise, 51, of Cumberland, who is chief of staff to Senate President Joseph A. Montalbano. He was legal counsel and director of governmental affairs for the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corp. from 2000 to 2003. And he was chief of staff to former Gov. Bruce Sundlun from 1991 to 1993.

•Alan R. Goulart, 48, of North Kingstown, who is chief of the criminal division at the attorney general’s office. He was deputy chief of the criminal division from 1999 to 2004, and he was a U.S. Navy judge advocate general from 1987 to 1990.

•Kelly A. McElroy, 35, of Warwick, who is a special assistant attorney general in the criminal division. She is an adjunct law professor at the Southern New England School of Law.

•Bruce W. McIntyre, 56, of Jamestown, who is deputy legal counsel in the state Health Department. He has advised the Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline since 1991 and is a former Jamestown Town Council member.

The four candidates who did not make the cut were:

•Richard G. Galli, 62, of East Greenwich, who has a law practice in East Greenwich and was a partner in the litigation group of Adler Pollock & Sheehan from 1976 to 1991.

•Sharon O’Keefe, 61, of Barrington, who has a law practice in Barrington and was the state’s assistant child advocate from 1992 to 2005.

•Gail M. Valuk, 43, of Richmond, who is deputy state court administrator and oversaw the administrative aspects of building the new $21.8-million Traffic Tribunal courthouse in Cranston.

•William J. Vescera, 46, of Woonsocket, who has a solo law practice in Johnston, concentrating on residential and commercial real-estate transactions.

The candidates did not appear before the Judicial Nominating Commission, which screens candidates for all state judgeships. Rather, Williams set up a three-member selection committee headed by Traffic Tribunal Judge Edward C. Parker. The other committee members are Robert P. Murray, senior vice president at AAA Southern New England, and Alfred A. Russo Jr., a lawyer and former Democratic state representative from Johnston who served on the transition team of House Speaker William J. Murphy, D-West Warwick, and House Majority Leader Gordon D. Fox, D-Providence.

efitzpat@projo.com