- David Tikoian has moved up quickly in the leadership of the Rhode Island Senate.

He first won election to the Chamber in 2022 and was appointed last January as Majority Whip, the third highest position.

Tikoian served 25 years with the Rhode Island State Police, and he was later police chief in North Providence.

The 57-year-old is a conservative Democrat from Smithfield, where Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris by eight points.

He's part of the leadership that gained power after former Senate President Dominick Ruggerio died earlier this year.

So what does Tikoian have to say about the possible fallout from clashing Senate factions?

Why did he make the unusual leap from being a former State Police Major to running for the General Assembly?

And what can the Senate do to help address Rhode Island's biggest problems.

I'm Ian Donnis, and that's just some of what we talked about in this episode of "One on One".

(gentle music) Democratic Whip in the Rhode Island Senate, David Tikoian, welcome to "One on One".

- Thank you, Ian.

Thank you for having me.

It's great to see you.

- Let's start with the recent legislative oversight hearing on the Washington Bridge.

What do you make of how RIDOT Director Peter Alviti put all the responsibility for ensuring the integrity of the work on the private contractors or other similar firms?

- Yeah, so I did watch the hearings and you know, as I did hear in the hearing, somewhere around like 2016, there was a shift right where the, a lot of that work was done in-house at DOT and then they relied on many contractors and vendors to perform that work.

Now the question is, who's watching the contractors, right?

So there was a shift where it was in-house.

Then we relied on vendors and so forth to perform that work.

I do remember, geez, it had to be in the nineties sometime, where the state had invested quite a bit of money in equipment.

There was a truck that they purchased.

I think they called it the snorkel truck, was kind of opposite of like a bucket truck, but it went underneath to inspect and the performed- - And that system wasn't perfect either.

- It wasn't perfect, exactly.

And so the takeaway that I got from that is there must be some type of hybrid system.

You know, some of the work can be contracted out with vendors and inspectors, but somebody needs to be watching the contractors, right?

- Yeah, it sounds like you think that DOT should have some capacity to maybe spot check the work done by the private contractors who are paid a lot of money by the state.

- I don't wanna oversimplify it, but just think of plowing operations, right?

There's plow trucks on the road plowing.

They have inspectors watching the, a simple operation as plowing, there's inspectors to make sure that the vendor's being held accountable.

So if we're doing it on that small level, it would only make sense to do it on a larger level.

- What about Peter Alviti?

Do you think he deserves to keep his job?

- Well, listen, the director is hired by the governor.

He works for the governor.

That's, I don't think that was the purpose of, I don't think that was the purpose of the oversight hearing.

And I didn't think it was conducted in like a witch hunt type mentality.

I think it was a fact finding mission to see where the gaps are, see where we could do better as a state.

Listen, there's a significant amount of frustration.

You told me you live in Rumford, so you travel over that bridge.

I have to go over that bridge as well.

I mean, you know, Rhode Islanders certainly deserve more.

Thankfully, you know, from my perspective, nothing catastrophic in terms of loss.

You saw the Key Bridge where, in Baltimore, where there was a loss of life.

If there was a silver lining to any of this, thank God, you know, nobody lost their life.

Certainly it's hurts us economically.

It's an inconvenience.

It's somewhat embarrassing to say 'cause we could always do better.

But in terms of the director, that's for the Governor to make that decision, not the General Assembly.

- Let's shift gears and talk a little bit about you.

It's not unusual for municipal police officers to run for the General Assembly.

There's Representative Ray Hull, Senator Todd Patalano in your chamber, but it's very rare that we see former state troopers run for the legislature.

Why are you the rare former trooper who wanted to be in the General Assembly?

- There was another state trooper that was in the, was a senator, Miller, right, it was, might have been Harry Miller years ago.

I remember as a young trooper, I heard that name.

So I don't think I broke any type of glass ceiling by any stretch.

- It is less common though than- - Yes, it is.

- For municipal police.

- And I'll tell you what, it's probably by design, you know, the state police is a paramilitary organization.

We really never, tried to keep arms length away from politics, obviously 'cause you had to be independent.

You might investigate, you know, a politician at some point in time.

That's why for myself, I never was affiliated with a particular party.

I was always unaffiliated or independent.

But, you know, I faced my class, the 1992 class was the last state police class to face mandatory retirement.

I was 48 years old.

I felt as though I had, you know, my life to that point was all public service, and I just felt as though, you know, I had some something in the tank to give back to my community.

So I ran for the Town Council in Smithfield, and I fully intended to, you know, I served one two-year term and I fully intended to run for another term on the council.

That being said, there was some rumblings, I would say, you know, around town that the senator at the time, Archambault was considering not running.

And I reached out to the former Senate President, beloved Dominick Ruggerio.

I said, you know, if there's an opportunity that arises, I would be interested.

Please, you know, reach out to me.

And maybe because I was on the governor's detail for so many years during the state police, I was interested in the General Assembly.

Actually, at the time, my office was close to the House of Representatives.

So I thought maybe someday, you know, I would be a representative.

But that the opportunity for Senate arose and I ran for it and I had a lot of support in my community for it.

- You mentioned having been on the governor's detail when Don Carcieri was governor, that was part of a long 25-year state police career in which he rose to the rank of major.

How did you land that assignment of being on the governor's detail and driving around at times?

- It's a story and it's a great story, I think.

You know, in the State Police Academy, they would tell you, listen, you always have to be polished.

Your brass is gotta be polished, 'cause you never know, you might have to pick up the governor someday.

And I was thinking like, pick up the governor.

So I was stationed at the Lincoln Barracks at the time, and there was a SWAT call on Block Island in New Shoreham.

Jim Manni, who ultimately became the state police colonel was on the tactical team and assigned to then Governor Almond.

And he called me, he said, "Could you meet me at Mariani's Funeral Home "on Hawkins Street?"

This is a real Rhode Island story.

And so I said, "Sure, Jim."

He goes, "Listen, there's a SWAT call.

"I'm gonna take your cruiser.

"We're going to the Block Island ferry.

"They're mobilizing the SWAT team."

He said, "You need to take the governor home from Hampton."

Take the governor home?

I don't even know where really, where the governor.

He goes, "It's fine.

"He lives on Hill Avenue in Lincoln."

So I did, I took the governor home, - And that was Governor Almond.

- That was Governor Almond at the time.

Took him home and I met Jim the next day.

He said, "Listen, would you mind filling in "on the detail for me?"

"You know, I'm gonna be gone on vacation."

I said, "Oh, Jim I will."

And I did, what he didn't tell me is the governor was going to Washington the next day.

So he took a kid from Smithfield who had just got on the state police and sent me to Washington.

But it was quite an experience.

And years later, I got assigned to the detail permanently and received, you know, professionalized training through state police agencies and ultimately became part of the New England Governor's Association Security Team and became the Vice President.

But it's not something I certainly thought at the young age of 23 in the academy that, you know, state police and would provide protection for the governor.

- You grew up in Smithfield and you still live there.

In 2024, Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris by eight points in Smithfield, and the town also supported Trump in his runs for president in 2020 and 2016.

What do you think Democrats need to do differently to win over conservative leaning towns like Smithfield?

- It's interesting, I'm not, it was either that election or the year before.

I think the only two Democrats that won in my hometown of Smithfield was myself and Attorney General Neronha.

The governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, treasurer, democrats did not win.

What I think is, I think they need to come more to the center, more to the center, moderate, middle, common sense.

And I don't know if market is the right word, but I've tried to market myself and vote the way that my constituents want me to vote.

I check all my emails, all my phone calls, whatever they are, and represent and to me, it's the middle.

People don't want extreme one side or the other.

And listen, I, there's no such thing as a bad idea, right?

There's good Republican ideas, there's good Democratic ideas, there's good Independent ideas.

I just go on face value of the idea.

And I think that's what people want.

They want common sense, middle of the road people.

And that's what I try to do.

- Have you ever voted for President Trump?

- I voted for him in, I wanna say 20, is it 2016?

What was the first time?

- That was the first one.

- First time.

Yeah, I thought at the time but given what's happened recently, yeah, I think otherwise.

- Have, you speak to your constituents in your senate district, President Trump's been having a bit of a bumpy time with controversy about tariffs, economic performance, other issues.

Do you sense any softening for support for him among conservative leaning residents in your district?

- You know, I think people wanted change at one one point in time, and there was, you know, this euphoric movement behind him.

But as you said, I sense that.

I don't know if you do, I watch the news.

I sense a little people are backing off somewhat.

Again, I think people don't want extreme.

They want middle of the road, common sense, moderate type concepts.

- Let's talk a little bit about the Rhode Island Senate.

You were close to the former president, Dominick Ruggerio, who died in April of this year.

There was a split among senators as President Ruggerio's health declined and when he passed, a leadership team that you're affiliated with, Val Lawson won as President, Frank Ciccone as Majority Leader, some senators wanted a different leadership slate.

Are there any lingering sore feelings from that division in the Senate?

- Not from my perspective.

I mean, I try and get along with everybody.

And by the way, I was deeply honored that Senate President Ruggerio selected me to be the Majority Whip and equally as in gratitude to Senate President Lawson for keeping me as the whip.

Listen, there's leadership challenges that go along, but no, we stay in constant communication with all our senators, get their, I garner their ideas, get their legislative priorities.

I think as recently as the first week in December, we're scheduling meetings again with each of the senators to get their priorities down.

It's a body and we need to operate as a body.

We, the Senate president and the leader and myself got elected as the leadership team.

Those elections are behind us now.

So let's move forward to, we have a lot of problems on the horizon to address in Rhode Island, right?

And high energy costs, healthcare, education, the hospitals, the hospital situation.

So there's a lot of work to be done, and there's a lot of talented individuals in the Senate across the spectrum, and we'll draw on those talents.

- You attended a recent fundraiser for a Senate candidate in Narragansett, Mark Mesrobian.

- Yes.

- He happens to be your cousin.

- Yes.

- And he's challenging an incumbent senator, Alana DiMario of Narraganset.

You said that you went to support your cousin, but according to a report by Patrick Anderson in the "Providence Journal", you were one of eight senators who went to that event.

Doesn't that really suggest that there is a lingering division in the Senate and that there's a cohort of senators who are standing with a challenger to an incumbent senator, Senator DiMario - Ian, where are you going for Thanksgiving?

Where are you celebrating Thanksgiving?

- In my home.

- I'm gonna celebrate at my aunt's house.

So of course I'm gonna support my cousin.

I wanna get invited back to Thanksgiving, right?

She cooks heck of a turkey.

Listen, I- - I get what you're saying, but what message did that send, that eight senators went to a fundraiser for a challenger to an incumbent senator.

- So I could understand how that might appear, right?

I can understand like, perception's reality.

The fact of the matter is, my cousin was thinking about running for elected office, and particularly the Senate for probably at least nine months.

I mean, he talked to me about it.

I was just as surprised as anyone else when he went to the Board of Elections and filed his paperwork.

I didn't realize he was gonna do that at that time.

I said, well, I, he said he was gonna consult with his wife and family and so forth.

I said, "Well, I guess you made up your mind."

And he told me he was gonna announce.

He said, "Would you introduce me?"

I said, "Absolutely."

Now, yeah, that's the connection between my cousin and I. The senators that were there also have a relationship.

He is the manager of Bonnet Shores Beach Club.

Several of those senators are members of the beach club so they came to support.

Listen, Senator DiMario has been nothing but kind to me.

This isn't anything personal.

When I first came in as the Senate, I was on one, served on one of the committees that she chaired.

She's a nice person.

But listen, my cousin wants to get involved in politics and I'm gonna support him.

- How do you think his chances are?

- Listen, I'd love for you to meet him sometime.

He's a very intelligent, articulate, and driven person.

How do I think his chances are?

People love him in Narragansett.

I mean, there's no place I don't go that they don't know him.

And, you know, I wish him well.

Nothing, this is nothing personal against Senator DiMario.

She's a nice person and I like her.

And she's very intelligent as well.

It's a democratic process and we'll see.

That's for the voters to decide.

- Mark Mesrobian is one of the candidates backed by a new group called the League of Rhode Island Businesses.

- Yes.

- The organizers of the group say they're about common sense solutions.

Some critics of the group think it's a pro-gun group organized under a business kind of heading.

What kind of difference do you think the League of Rhode Island Businesses will make in the coming election year?

- You know, I know several of the people in that organization because like I said, Rhode Island is small, and I know Dave Levesque because I used to frequent his coffee shop.

I know Shane Piche because he's a constituent of mine in North Providence and Bob Perretti was in, served in North Providence when I was the police chief.

So I certainly know.

What difference do I, I think they're looking for a friendlier business climate in Rhode Island, right?

Rhode Island's kind of ranked at the bottom right in business climate.

And it all goes to like the budget, our state budget.

If I could turn to that just for a second, and I'm gonna return back to your question, but if we make a more attractive and friendlier business climate in Rhode Island, so it's just like at home, like you, we can't outspend our general revenue.

That puts the focus on the private sector for economic growth for business.

If we make Rhode Island more attractive, increase the business, more general revenue, and then we could fund the programs.

- What is stopping that from happening?

- That's a good question.

That is a good question.

Maybe it's because of the tax structure in Rhode Island.

Maybe there's a way we can get more business friendly.

But it seems as though there was always, and I, my time at the State House being on the state police, I would hear there was always a rabbit that was sort of pulled out the hat, whether it was a tobacco settlement or a lead paint settlement or some type of federal funds.

I don't know if there's any more rabbits to pull out of the hat at this point in time.

- And the fiscal, the fiscal outlook is even more uncertain because we're in a tougher climate.

There's also uncertainty about what the Trump administration will mean whether there will be less federal support for various programs like Medicare.

So does that concern you?

Do you think it raises the possibility that state taxes might need to go up.

- Those program changes of Medicare or Medicaid, they require technical changes on a state level that I didn't even consider with our computer systems that will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, believe it or not.

So you are absolutely right.

That's only gonna exacerbate the problem and I am concerned about that.

Now, generally, I'm not a tax, increasing tax kind of politician if you will.

I espouse to, you know, cutting taxes or even on a small level, I had a couple of bills about your car registration, if you any unused portion of your car registration, that fee would get turned back to you.

I'm not in favor of raising taxes.

And you know, one would say, "Well, how do we close the budget?"

Right, how do we close that gap?

- Your colleague, Val Lawson, won election in April as President of the Senate.

If and when there's a new opening for Senate President, is that something that would interest you?

- Listen, I come from a hierarchal background, right.

State police and you start as a trooper and work your way up.

I am, you know, extremely thankful for the position that President Lawson appointed me to.

If an opportunity of that were to arise, and I was honored by my colleagues to do something like that, yes.

But listen, we're a great team, the Senate President, the leader, and myself, I really like the connections that I make with my senators.

And that's probably what, you know, Senate President Ruggerio, saw in me that I like to think I'm pretty affable and can get along with just about anybody.

- One of the most high profile bills in the General Assembly this year was one that banned new sales of guns defined as assault weapons.

The one that became law was a senate version that supporters described as a compromise and critics called a watered down version.

You voted against your leadership on that bill.

How come?

- So actually I didn't even go to committee to vote on that.

The vote was eight to six, as you know, in the committee.

The Senate President would've asked me to go in there as a ex-officio member to vote for it.

I check all my emails, my phone calls.

It's what my district asked me to do.

They believed in the sec, the Constitution, the Second Amendment.

I don't own one of those weapons.

I have no reason to have one.

But I voted the way that my district and my constituents wanted me to vote and I exercised that vote on the floor.

- The Senate has passed a couple of packages meant to address the issue of healthcare in Rhode Island.

Healthcare is a complex issue, certainly.

Do you think there's more that the Senate can do to make a bigger impact on that issue?

- Look what happened with Pawtucket Memorial Hospital, right, it closed.

And what a burden that put on the rest of the healthcare system in Rhode Island.

We can't afford to have Fatima and Roger Williams close, and the Attorney General's got a plan to keep it over for the next two months.

And I'm confident that we'll get there to keep those, but to your question about healthcare generally, yes.

I know that I told you in Dec, the beginning of December, we're gonna work on our priorities and the Senate President Leader, certainly healthcare, again, will be one of the priorities.

The 340B program that we got passed in the Senate didn't quite make it over the line into the House, but that was to provide lower cost prescription drugs to folks.

I know Thundermist, we funded about $500,000 to train primary care physicians in Rhode Island.

So there's a lot more work to be done in that area.

It's a critical issue for the, we have a good sick care system in Rhode Island, but in terms of healthcare, you know, we need to get people healthier.

- The Senate has led the charge on exploring the possibility of creating a state medical school at URI.

Do you think that would make a significant difference in increasing the supply of primary care doctors in the state?

- So, no question that it would, and I'm excited about that.

But listen, the reality of it is, if we put the shovel in the ground today, you have to build the facility, then the students have to go in there and get educated.

That's four or five, six years away for them to put doctors, let's say in the community on the street.

You know, and I hear it and I know the Senate President Leader, every meeting that we have with folks in the healthcare industry, reimbursement rates, reimbursement rates, reimbursement rates.

The hospitals in Massachusetts, they come down here to recruit our doctors.

They say you've educated and trained 'em, man.

And then they come to Massachusetts and because they, you know, they need to pay off their student loans and that I'm not making, so yeah, certainly I'm in full support of that, the medical school at URI.

But even if we were to stop building that today, that's a number of years away.

- Yeah.

Your town of Smithfield has been in the news recently for a hazing case involving the football team at Smithfield High School, a number of players were suspended and then brought back very quickly.

Do you have an understanding of why that happened and who made that decision?

- Ian, this hits home for me.

As you know that, I'm Armenian, I'm the grandson of genocide survivors.

I'm also a proud of the Smithfield Public School system, and I'm proud of that.

And I'm a, I was a co-captain of the high school football team.

This has torn our town apart.

And I'd like to say that I bleed green and gold 'cause that's our town colors.

You know, first of all, let me begin.

I did put out a statement about that incident, And there's no room for any type of hazing or antisemitism anywhere, period.

I don't know exactly what happened.

You hear things from school officials.

You hear things from people in town.

You hear things in the media.

I don't know, I didn't investigate it.

As an investigator, I feel uncomfortable commenting on exactly what transpired 'cause I don't know.

But there's no room for any of that period.

That being said, I did call for the school district to conduct a comprehensive and transparent investigation and get to the bottom of exactly what happened.

Yes, you know, the appearances, some students were suspended and several days later they were back on the team.

That leaves questions, right.

So there's even more questions than answers now.

And I understand there's juveniles involved and we have to be sensitive to all of that.

But the statement that I put out, I just didn't do that off the cuff.

Wendy Joering from the Sandra Bornstein Center, I know her personally.

My, boy, we're talking about a lot of cousins on the show but my other cousin Pauline, is, she's the Director of the Holocaust and Genocide Commission in Rhode Island that teaches, that educates in the curriculum of Rhode Island about genocide and Holocaust.

- Are you confident that the investigation that you referred to will deliver a clear, some clear information about this and perhaps help the town to reconnect and move forward?

- I do.

It appears that the Attorney General is involved now.

So yes, there's a lot of eyes on this now and I'm confident that, you know, at the end of the day we'll get to the bottom of it.

But just backing up for one minute, I don't often make a statement, but I felt in that situation, I consulted with Wendy and I consult with my cousin, and I said, "If you think that me saying something will help, "I don't wanna fan any flames," and they said, "Absolutely."

So I just thought it was the right thing to do as somebody who comes from my background, went to that school, was on the football team, and I just wanted to bring a little calm to this situation 'cause it was, it was tearing our town apart.

- In closing your day job is as Deputy General Manager of the Providence Water Supply Board, not far from where we're taping this interview.

One of the issues for a lot of northeast communities is how the water source is good, but because the infrastructure is old, it often or sometimes contains lead.

How are things going with efforts to remove lead pipes from the 60% of the statewide customers served by the Providence Water Supply Board?

- Yeah, so that's a great question.

And you know, we're fortunate in Rhode Island, the water system in Rhode Island is pristine.

The Scituate Reservoir, it's over a hundred years old.

I mean the, our forefathers who thought of, you know, locating it there 'cause most of the system is fed by gravity.

Yesterday we got approval from the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank for a third tranche, if you will, of the $26.1 million to replace private side lead services.

And we're aggressively attacking that issue.

We have about a half a dozen contractors that address certain areas of the city for economies of scale.

And the program's going very well.

And we'll certainly meet the deadline.

I believe it's of 2030 or 2035 to remove it.

We're probably a little bit ahead of schedule, - Democratic Whip in the Rhode Island Senate, David Tikoian of Smithfield.

Thank you so much for sitting down.

- Thank you, Ian.

It was great to be with you, thank you.

- Thanks for watching "One on One" with me, Ian Donnis.

You can find all of our past interviews on the YouTube channel for Ocean State Media.

We'll see you next week on "One on One".

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