Starting with garbage, leaving as chief of staff

Dave Picozzi retiring after 32-year city career

Warwick Beacon ·

David Picozzi reached across the desk and grabbed a set of keys the size of an orange. The ring held at least 50 keys.

With the set Picozzi could get into every city building, as well as the rooms inside. Picozzi doesn’t need them anymore.

Monday was officially his last day with the city, and the last day of a 32-year career path that started on a garbage truck and took him to the director of public works and the mayor’s chief of staff, a dual position he held for more than two years.

Picozzi was rarely in his office on Sandy Lane, and that was the case last Thursday.

“Trying to find him is like nailing Jell-O to a tree,” said Christy Angell, business manager, who has worked for Picozzi for as long as he has been DPW director.

That is a Picozzi trademark. He’s always where the action is, whether checking up on a crew renovating the City Hall Annex, overseeing a team feverously working to repair a ruptured water main, promoting a request before the City Council for new equipment or driving his “beloved” grader to clear roads in the height of a blizzard.

Thankfully, Picozzi has a cell phone.

“He’ll be back in 15 minutes,” said Angell, advising to wait.

When Picozzi appeared, Richard Crenca, who Mayor Scott Avedisian named as his successor at DPW, was not far behind. The two were completing a tour of the city in preparation to the formal transition of power that happened early Monday morning at a department meeting at Thayer Arena.

Picozzi was working a construction job when he applied for a city laborer’s job although it would mean a substantial pay cut. Picozzi was making $10.25 an hour. The city paid $5.25, but he was looking for something dependable and with opportunity to grow. He didn’t get the job. The next time he saw a city job posted he applied again, and again he didn’t get it.

Picozzi asked around, discovering it helped to know someone. Picozzi took the hint and worked on the campaign of Ward 5 Councilman John DelGiudice. It was the charm.

“I will get you in, but it’s up to you to where you go,” he remembers DelGiudice telling him.

“I basically started on a garbage truck,” said Picozzi.

He was surprised by what he found. At the time, sanitation crews worked on an incentive system. Once they completed their routes they were allowed to leave, although they were paid for eight hours. On some days Picozzi and his crew – there were three men to a truck – were done by 10:30 a.m. Picozzi ended up doing just about every job the department had to offer from carrying a shovel to operating heavy equipment. Along with his knowledge of the department and the city came promotions and the trust of fellow municipal employees who elected him to head the union. He was also elected to the municipal pension board, a post he held for more than 20 years. The board oversees the fund that is ranked among the top in the state for being properly funded.

Never bashful about sharing his opinion, yet willing to listen to differing points of view, Picozzi has been openly critical of the firefighters’ pension plan as being unsustainable because of built in automatic cost of living adjustments (COLA). He remains rankled that, after agreeing to a tier II pension plan for newly hired police and firefighters that addressed such rich benefits, the Firefighters Union brought suit to restore the former plan. The dispute is headed for arbitration. Picozzi would have rather fought it out in court.

Of all the projects he has worked on, Picozzi picked Danger Bridge on Seaview Avenue in Oakland Beach as his favorite. The job required the removal of the old bridge and the installation of pre-cast culverts while dealing with the ebb and flow of the tides and took several months to complete while saving hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars.

Among his mentors he names the late DPW Director Ted Sheehan.

“He taught me how to keep cool when I got mad,” he said.

It’s a trait Mayor Avedisian surely recognized when he named him chief of staff. Picozzi called the job “the toughest” he has taken on.

“It’s very demanding. You’re dealing with the City Council, the budget and anything thrown at you,” he said.

Had he ever reached the point of just quitting that job and going back solely to the DPW?

“Scott [Avedisian] has done so much for me,” Picozzi said. “I’d do anything for Scott.”

As for the council, Picozzi feels some members have crossed the line from their legislative role to the administrative side of government. He recalls the days when council members would seek to be briefed on issues rather than using the platform of committee and council meetings to grill department directors and delay action under the guise of wanting more information.

“They always communicated directly,” Picozzi said of former council members, naming in particular former Ward 7 Councilman Al Gemma. He heard from Gemma daily, if not more frequently.

Picozzi has also seen major changes, with the automation of trash and recyclable collections being the largest. Introduction of the “one-armed bandits,” as they were first called, resulted in the reduction of routes from 11 to seven, the drop in crews from three to one per truck and the virtual elimination of workers’ compensation claims.

Picozzi takes pride in the agreement with National Grid to share the cost of road repaving as the utility company replaces aging natural gas lines. In effect, the agreement has doubled the reach of the city road repair budget.

At some point, Picozzi said, the city will need to address some major road repairs. He puts Jefferson Boulevard on that list, especially the section from Kilvert Street north to Route 95. Picozzi called the department’s heavy equipment in “great shape” and, looking ahead, thought city dump trucks are next up for replacement.

For an extended period, Picozzi held the title of “acting director.” Why?

Picozzi said as acting director he remained a classified employee and was not subject to removal should there have been a change in administration. When he became eligible for retirement, he assumed the director’s job.

Among his fond memories are those of the late Robert Shapiro, superintendent of schools, who was on the phone at 3:30 a.m. if it was snowing on a school day. Shapiro was out driving the city to determine whether to close schools and looking for Picozzi’s read on conditions. Picozzi remembers the storms, not just the blizzards either. The month he started work for the city, Hurricane Gloria hit. There were other hurricanes like Irene and Super Storm Sandy, where DPW crews used front-end loaders to evacuate residents from flooded sections of Conimicut. But it’s snow that really commands Picozzi’s attention.

“Snow plowing, that’s our specialty,” he said.

What will he do in retirement?

“Maybe I’ll take up skiing again,” he said.

Don’t bet on it. He’s more likely to be in the cab of “Snowflake #1,” as the grader has been dubbed.