RIPTA approves separation agreement for CEO who quit

PROVIDENCE — RIPTA’s board of directors on Tuesday approved a separation package for former CEO Scott Avedisian, who resigned last week after being charged in a hit-and-run.

Avedisian will receive a total of $67,823 in installments over the next few months. That amount is made up of 13 weeks of pay plus unused vacation time.

The agreement includes a clause prohibiting both parties — Avedisian and RIPTA — from making disparaging or derogatory comments about each other. And it includes a release of any legal claims Avedisian could bring against RIPTA.

“I think it’s fair, given what Scott Avedisian has done in a positive way for this agency he served during the last several years,” said Peter Alviti, the chair of RIPTA’s board who also serves as the director of the state transportation department. “From the standpoint of fairness and the standpoint of his contractual agreement with the state, I think it’s a fair package.”

Chief financial officer Christopher Durand is taking over as temporary CEO. RIPTA will search for a permanent leader of a transit agency that is facing a number of challenges — a budget deficit, a driver shortage, and a political controversy over potentially moving the bus hub out of

Kennedy Plaza, to name a few.

Advocates are now calling for RIPTA to hire someone with transit experience. One advocate, Daria Phoebe Brashear, said during public comment at Tuesday’s meeting that RIPTA should have applicants arrive to their job interviews by transit.

“RIPTA needs and deserves a leader with world class transit experience who can improve and expand our system to meet the transportation needs of many more Rhode Islanders,” Liza Burkin, lead organizer of the Providence Streets Coalition and its Save RIPTA campaign, said in a statement. “But it’s hard to imagine why a talented leader would want to take the helm with a projected $8 million deficit and looming driver shortage. In order to attract the best possible new CEO, I urge the General Assembly to fully fund RIPTA in this year’s state budget.”

The state is facing other transportation challenges generally, with the closure of the Washington Bridge westbound causing bottlenecks in metro Providence. Alviti has been at the center of both of them. He might have been even more central if legislation had passed last year, giving RIDOT full control over RIPTA. Instead, lawmakers passed legislation making RIDOT’s director chair of RIPTA’s board of directors. That board will now embark on replacing the agency’s CEO.

Avedisian, 59, was charged with leaving the scene of a crash at the McDonald’s on Post Road in Warwick in March. Police say

Avedisian drove his RIPTA-issued Ford Explorer SUV into the car in front of him in the drive-through, causing that car to hit another vehicle. Avedisian then left the scene, police allege. One witness on scene said the driver of the SUV “looked very intoxicated.” Avedisian was not charged with driving under the influence.

In his resignation letter to Governor Dan McKee, Avedisian outlined RIPTA’s recent accomplishments. “I regret that the good work of the employees is being detracted by my actions,” Avedisian wrote.

Avedisian had been CEO since 2018, following nearly two decades as mayor of Warwick.