Friday, September 16, 2022
Providence Mayor-elect Brett Smiley PHOTO: Campaign
Brett Smiley has been running for Mayor of Providence functionally for a decade.
After Tuesday night’s Democratic primary win, he is the mayor-elect, as he has no opposition in the general election.
GoLocal sat down with Smiley on Thursday morning for about an hour, and he had some interesting things to say.
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First Priority: Renegotiating Agreements With Non-Profits
The agreements between the City of Providence and the leading colleges and hospitals are scheduled to expire in early 2023.
How much Brown University actually pays the city is up to debate. Numbers provided to GoLocal from the city put Brown’s contribution at $3.2 million annually. Brown claims they pay about $6 million.
In contrast, Yale University pays its host community New Haven more than $20 million a year.
“I really think that one of the most transformative things that will happen is the renegotiation of the PILOT agreements [with Providence] that expire at the end of this year,” said Smiley, referring to “payments in lieu of taxes.”
“It’s really a significant driver of the financial challenges we face, and we’ve got to redefine that relationship,” Smiley continued. “I think will be one of the most important things that hopefully we can wrap up in a matter of months and not longer, but that’s you know pretty high on the list of first things.”
“l don’t know what the number is today, and I do still think that negotiation is the most constructive path forward and what we’ll attempt, as I said at the time, which I still feel the same way, I would like to see this accomplished through negotiation,” said Smiley. “I think it’s more constructive and I think it will be more productive — legislation and the legal battle that would probably follow it is the last resort,” said Smiley.
Ed Cooley PHOTO: PC
Mayor as Salesman
Smiley who admits he is more of a “technocrat” rather than a Buddy Cianci-style salesman, said he has a strategy to channel the passion people have about Providence and tap into some of the city’s celebrities.
“Everyday residents who are passionate about the place — and we have some celebrities too — [for instance] I want to see Ed Cooley out there helping sell our city,” said Smiley. “He’s got to be the most popular guy in Providence that I think he is underutilized.”
“We have these people who maybe have the power of personality coupled with the everyday resident who feel so passionate about this place — I want to engage that to help sell our city to people from the suburbs people from southern New England to people around the country to come to Providence and enjoy what we have here,” said Smiley. “My job is to help make sure that gets done and my job is that when they get here they have a great experience.”
Team
Smiley is not coughing up names, but Emily Crowell sat in on the interview. Crowell was the key person on the campaign and the two worked together in the Elorza administration, where Smiley served as the chief operating officer, and Crowell was the communications director. Crowell is rumored to be either chief-of-staff or communications in the Smiley administration.
He said he believes that he can attract top leaders to join his administration.
“Having a smart, capable, competent department directors and mayor’s office staff, I really think makes a difference there’s no substitute for leadership, but it really matters to have a high-quality team, and so a lot of the effort this year will be recruiting great people who want to serve the city of Providence that’s very important to me and then early next year,” said Smiley. He said he believes that he can attract top leaders to join his administration.
Superman Building has been vacant for more than 8 years PHOTO: file
Downtown
Smiley believes admitted that downtown Providence needs substantial improvement, but that some of the needed steps are in motion.
housing and residential are going to continue to be a part of that,” said Smiley. “As you know I have been an enthusiastic supporter of the redevelopment plan of the Superman building. I think that will be transformative. Obviously, the largest empty building on the horizon and will yield several hundred people living downtown.”
“There are other redevelopments happening right now. With more and more people working remotely, that’s also a job strategy. It really is these are people with good jobs working from home going to the office maybe one or two days a week, I think that as the commercial office market continues to transition, we’re going to see smaller footprints, but that doesn’t mean no jobs, it just means they’re working from home,” he added.
Safety
Smiley differentiated from his two Democratic rivals during the campaign in his discussion of public safety and policing. He was adamant that a sense of safety needed to be restored to the city.
Regarding downtown, Smiley said, “We do need to restore a sense of safety we need to patrol Kennedy plaza and in burnside park, which is not currently happening and give a visible show of people in a position of authority, not just police officers, including the people like the yellow jackets from the downtown improvement district so that people visiting providence look around and feel safe and comfortable it’s really important.”
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