PHOTOS: Warwick Inauguration 2025 Fetes Picozzi, Council, Committee

WARWICK, RI — Officials gathered at Crowne Plaza Hotel, 801 Greenwich Ave., Tuesday night for the Warwick inauguration of newly elected and re-elected leaders, celebrating Mayor Frank Picozzi’s first four-year term, four new City Councilors and a new School Committee member.

Officials gathered in the foyer, chatting amicably as they waited to enter the main hall, filled to capacity with local and state officials, including Rhode Island General Treasurer James A. Diossa, Gov. Dan McKee, Pawtucket Mayor Donald R. Grebien, North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi,  former Warwick City Councilor Steve McAllister and former Warwick City Councilors Donna Travis, Timothy Howe and James McElroy.

Warwick Inauguration sets genial, forward-focused tone

Current and newly elected members of  the Council lined up to follow Picozzi and Warwick First Lady Kim Picozzi into the hall for the Warwick inauguration, led by bagpipes, the Pawtuxet Rangers, Warwick Fire Department color guard, WFD Chief Peter K. McMichael and Warwick Police Chief Col. Brad Connor. The 2025 Warwick City Council members, Warwick City Council President Anthony Sinapi (Ward 8), City Councilman Jeremy Rix (Ward 2), majority leader, Council members Willam Foley (Ward 1), Vincent Gebhart (Ward 9) Bryan Nappa (Ward 3), Sal DeLuise (Ward 4) Edgar Ladouceur (Ward 5) William Muto (Ward 6) and John Kirby (Ward 7). Newly re-elected Warwick Schoool Committee Member Dave Testa and newly elected Warwick School Committee Member Sean Wiggins followed.

Mayor, City Council and School Committee members gathered on the stage with Master of Ceremonies William Facente, Rev. Robert L. Marciano, who led the invocation, and ret. Supreme Court Justice Francis X. Flaherty, also a former Warwick Mayor, who administered the oath of office to Picozzi, before Picozzi administered the oath of office to the new Council and School Committee members.

Reacting to a  comment about Picozzi’s distinction as Warwick’s first Italian American Mayor, Marciano quipped, “My prayer is that he is not the last,” sparking light laughter from the crowd, continuing the genial and positive tone of the evening.

Flaherty noted that the following morning,  Jan. 8, was not only his birthday, but also the day that, “I mark 40 years to the day that was sworn in as Mayor.” Flaherty remarked that Picozzi’s overwhelming support was a good portent for the future, and an endorsement of his past leadership as he prepared to begin the City’s first four-year mayoral term with the Warwick inauguration.

“Good people deserve good government,” Flaherty said.

Following his swearing in, Picozzi led the Council and School Committee members in their own oaths, followed by a brief speech by Sinapi.

“It’s no secret that we have some challenges going forward,” Sinapi said, including the rising costs of the city’s developing project to design and build two new high schools. But, Sinapi said, he’s heartened by the caliber and commitment of his colleagues in finding answers to those challenges.

“We are in a uniqe position. We happen to have a fantastic, genuine Mayor,” Sinapi said, “And we have a driven, dedicated School Committee, a beloved Superintendent, a mature Council,” he said, with whom to work through those challenges.

“I’m thoroughly looking forward to it. Thank you all,” Sinapi said.

Picozzi’s speech followed, during  which he lauded the efforts of people working in his administration, and the contributions of McAllister, Howe, McElroy and Travis, whom he asked to stand while praising their hard work for  the city and offering comfort to balance criticism they’d received  during their service.

For them, Picozzi recited Theodore Roosevelt’s 1910 speech, ‘It is not the Critic Who Counts’:

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actuallyin the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”