(rock music) - We do it once a month with the mayor of Providence.

Mayor Brett Smiley comes in.

He'll take your calls.

- [Jim] From fielding calls once a month at WPRO.

- [Caller] Can anything be done about the trash?

- Hello young man, Brett Smiley, the mayor, who are you?

- Enrique Sanchez.

- Enrique.

So nice to meet you.

Do you know the governor?

- [Jim] To news conferences with state and other local leaders.

(group clapping) - Good morning everybody.

- [Jim] And reading to 4 and 5 year olds at a Headstart program in Providence.

- This is the construction stuff.

- [Jim] Brett Smiley's first 100 days have been hectic.

He's not paying attention to the calendar but he does take issue with the 32nd president of the United States.

- Well I get angry at Franklin Delano Roosevelt 'cause he's the one that started this whole 100 day nonsense.

There's nothing magical about 100 days.

The reality is, is we've set goals for the first year, and I hope to hit them and I think we're on track towards them.

But there's no magic to 100 days specifically.

- [Jim] The mayor seems to find the magic in the work.

Smiley who grew up outside of Chicago, first came to Rhode Island in 2006.

To run then Lieutenant Governor Charlie Fogarty's unsuccessful campaign to become Governor.

By 2014, Smiley caught the political bug himself.

He ran for Mayor, but dropped out to support Jorge Elorza.

Smiley became all Elorza's Chief of Staff before taking the same job with Governor Gina Raimondo.

Until now, he'd always been the guy behind the scenes.

You've never held elective office.

So what was different when you became mayor?

- Probably the most important difference is that at the end of the day, you set the direction, and you make the decision.

And that's what they get elected to do.

That's what the mayor that I worked for, the governor, and so, you know, the pressure, and burden, and stress of making the final call is different.

And the other thing that's a little different is it's a little bit lonelier.

- Could anything have prepared you for that?

- I don't think there's any training for that.

I think you just had to start doing it.

- If you look at education in Providence, public safety, the pension obligation, there's so many pressing issues here.

Does the enormity of that weigh on you at times?

- The one that weighs on me most is the schools.

The thing about the schools that is heavy is while that in many ways that change will also take some time every year it takes is another school year for some student, who maybe didn't receive the education that they deserve.

And that's different to me like morally, emotionally, than not having a solution for our pension shortfall this year.

- [Caller] Hi, good morning.

I own a business on the east end of Oxford Street.

- [Jim] Back at WPRO for his monthly ask the mayor segment.

He took complaints about everything from crime in Kennedy Plaza to speed bumps, and trash collection - Speed bumps in the last administration proliferated like like bunnies in the spring.

- Why are you doing that, and what do you hear when you talk to people on the radio?

- So part of the reason I'm doing this is 'cause I enjoy it, it's fun for me.

And I think, and particularly in local government, particularly of your mayor, I mean this is a very tangible problem solving job.

And you know, I don't know what ask your congressman, or ask your senator would be like, because the problems that they address at the federal level are pretty, you know, 30,000 foot problems.

For me, and you've heard some of these calls.

It's my neighbor never brings this trash barrel in.

There's a pothole on my street.

And we can solve those problems.

- [Jim] We recently met at a downtown restaurant with Smiley and his husband of 10 years, Rhode Island native Jim DeRentis.

- So are you the first husband?

Are you the first gentleman?

What are you?

- First gentleman is what they call me.

- Is that what it is?

- Yeah.

- Did you approve that?

- I did approve that.

He's usually a gentleman, yeah.

- You're living up to that?

(both laughing) - Depends.

(both laughing) - [Jim] Smiley and DeRentis got married in Massachusetts, before gay marriage was legal here in Rhode Island.

DeRentis was by Smiley's side again on inauguration day.

- It was, I know it was probably the, one of the greatest days of his life, but it was pretty close for me too.

- [Jim] DeRentis is a prominent real estate agent, and a political sounding board for his spouse.

- As your Mayor, I'll make Providence a city that works for everyone.

- [Jim] And for Smiley, working for everyone means back to basics.

It's a theme he hammered home in his campaign commercials.

Smiley and DeRentis are both passionate about Providence, and in lockstep about what taxpayers are looking for in a leader.

- That's what people expect from city government, right?

They're not expecting these grand vision statements and they're not expecting, you know, sort of the stuff that we hear on the national level.

They're expecting that their trash gets picked up, their kids can go to school, the streets get plowed, and that they can live in a safe, nice neighborhood.

That's what people want.

- [Jim] There is a lot on the mayor's plate, and the city's notoriously crumbling schools are near the top of the list.

We recently went with him to a laying of the beam ceremony for a new addition to one of the city's elementary schools.

- [Brett] The voters in Providence and the voters statewide have approved significant amount of school construction money.

And over the next eight years we're gonna see a lot of renovations and new construction in the city, which is thrilling.

- [Jim] He also feels strongly that the state should eventually return control of the school department to Providence.

(group claps and cheers) Smiley recognizes that he's gotten a mostly positive response in his first several months as mayor, but there will eventually be tough decisions that anger some people.

And at some point I'm sure the criticisms are gonna come.

Have you guys talked about that?

'Cause there's gonna be backsplash on you ultimately and how you're gonna handle that.

- Everybody always asks the question, how are you doing, how are you holding up?

And you know, I'm not as thick-skinned as he is.

I'm Italian, you know, I'll be the first one to admit it.

And you know, I have a tough time sometimes with certain things and I know not to respond, I know not to go on social media, I know not to send an email, and I know not to send a text.

(laughs) But man, my cats listen to a lot.

(laughs) - [Jim] What's the one thing people watching this should know about Brett that maybe they don't know?

- He is very thoughtful and deliberate about how he approaches this position.

He's got great people around him.

He's assembled a team that I think is second to none.

And you know, he's able to come across, cool, calm, and collected, so you know he's in charge.

But I can promise you he's thought a great deal about it.

He's thought about what the impact would be, he's thought about who it would impact, he thought about how it would impact.

I find it amazing because it really is a very strong quality in a mayor.

- Is the honeymoon gonna be over when you send out tax bills this year?

- The honeymoon will be over at some point, that's inevitable.

But we have lived as a city for the last several years off very generous federal money coming from Washington.

And that federal money is coming to an end.

As a result, we need to start to prepare for that money to expire.

And so taxpayers in Providence are likely gonna receive a tax increase this year.

(uplifting music) (uplifting music continues)