The son of Guatemalan immigrants who settled in the West End of Providence, Mayor Jorge O. Elorza is a pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps story: The first in his family to attend college. A Wall Street auditor. A Harvard Law School graduate. Back to Providence, as a law professor and housing court judge. Then into politics, elected mayor in 2014 after defeating former mayor Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci Jr., who for many had come to represent City Hall’s past foibles.
Despite his accomplishments, Elorza, 41, has maintained an easy, relaxed manner. He still likes to dress casually and ride his bike to work.
He’s also comfortable playing the role of reformer when dealing with conventional ways of running the city.
He’s challenged labor unions and is eager to find new ways to boost investment in the city by its higher education institutions.
Elorza, a Democrat, has also been a vocal supporter of the city’s immigrant community, proudly declaring Providence a sanctuary city amid Republican President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to curb funding for communities that don’t fully comply with federal immigration policy.
A self-described “pro-[business]-growth progressive,” he’s tried to streamline government services for residents and businesses.
And he’s tried to lead by example, he says, in boosting the accountability of city officials.
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You recently called a no-bid contract between City Councilman Luis A. Aponte and a local news website a “wasteful and dubious agreement” that “reeks of cronyism,” at a time when City Hall is “moving away from the days of corruption.” Are you trying to rid city government of that label? I believe we’ve done everything we can. First, we have to lead by example. I took a pledge during the last election and I’ve continued that pledge to not accept any contributions from city employees. That’s just a system ripe for abuse and intimidation. And it feeds into the old way of doing things.
I believe I’m the first mayor in the city’s history to empanel a city ethics committee. We have volunteers who sit on this committee. But I’ve funded a position, so there’s actually some teeth to it. They have administrative support, so they can pursue whatever it is they need to. On top of that, I’ve appointed a municipal integrity officer. This person’s responsibility is to work with all our boards and commissions to make sure they know my expectations of integrity and ethics. We want to make sure we’re proactive about letting people know the expectations before they get themselves into trouble. … There also are some subtler but just as insidious forms of corruption that seep their way into City Hall.
Like what? When I was growing up, if you wanted anything done in your neighborhood – if there was a mattress on the sidewalk that you wanted to be picked up, or there was a pothole in the street that you wanted filled – there was a sense that you had to know a guy in City Hall to get things done. I’m sure that system worked really well for the people who knew a guy. But my family didn’t know a guy. And most people didn’t know a guy in City Hall.
So, we’ve created the [PVD]311 system. You can download the app. You can call us. You can walk in. And it doesn’t matter who you are or where you live. It doesn’t matter if you’ve contributed to someone’s campaign. It doesn’t matter if you know someone in City Hall.
Every call that comes in gets its own document or tracking number and we track every single one. We reach out to the person and tell them that it’s been completed. And say, “How else can we help you?” Everyone gets the same treatment from City Hall.
When you were elected four years ago, you were a political outsider. Now, with campaign contributions that have far exceeded your challengers, you are the political establishment. How do voters know that you haven’t become beholden to certain contributors and special interests? You get to know whether a person holds himself with integrity. Rumors get around very quickly. So, we guard our reputation very closely and very jealously. When I go out to eat and sit down with folks for lunch or dinner sometimes, I won’t let anyone pay for [me]. We have a very strict $25 contribution limit for gifts and things like that. So, I set the tone personally, but I also demand the exact same thing from my entire staff.
Four years ago, the city’s police union endorsed your opponent, the late Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci Jr., instead of you in the mayoral election. Pretty ironic, huh? A convicted criminal being endorsed by the police.
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In your city address last winter you voiced support for the “Black Lives Matter” movement and mentioned how Providence police were being outfitted with body cameras. Some in law enforcement have criticized both things as being hostile toward police officers and making their jobs more difficult. Given that, how would you describe your relationship with Providence’s police force? I think I have a very strong relationship with our police force. In fact, I think we have the best police force in the entire country. And we have a track record to back that up. We were recently accredited by [the Commission on Accreditation on Law Enforcement Agencies], which is the gold standard in the industry. That’s for the second straight year. We’re the only police department in Rhode Island to receive that accreditation, and very few departments in the country have that.
Though I’m very happy about the progress we’ve made, I’m never satisfied, and I always believe we should do more. I want us to be on the cutting edge in everything we do. We were the first police department [in the state] to adopt body cameras for every man and woman in uniform. I’m very proud of that.
How’s that been working? What we initially did is we rolled it out as a pilot program. We had police officers volunteer for it. We listened to their feedback before we rolled it out to the entire department. This is what we heard from our Police Department: Not only do the officers know that they’re being recorded but the other side knows that they’re being recorded. It helps to calm every person down. People know, if not on their best behavior, they’re on better behavior if they know from the beginning that they’re being recorded.
I heard concerns from police officers, at first, that this would be almost used as evidence against them. But instead what we’re hearing is they like it because everyone has their own cellphone cameras nowadays. And these body cameras are the difference between the entire picture getting out versus just a small piece of the picture that will paint our police department and officers in a negative light. I think it’s been very well-received.
Speaking of public safety, you took on the city’s firefighters union by having them work longer hours to reduce staffing costs. That turned into a legal battle that resulted in the city having to pay out a settlement. Do you still feel there are excess costs in the fire department? We know there are just too many firefighters. Our minimum manning used to be 94. That means at any given point, there are 94 firefighters who are working. You compare that to the police department, where at any given point, there are about 27 police officers patrolling the entire city. Total mismatch. After years and years of the city giving away more than we can afford, we reached a settlement.
We set out to save money and that’s exactly what we did. We sought a reduction in manning from 94 to 88. And because of the way we changed up their rotations, we’re also able to save a lot in the way we manage the department.
We have more development happening now than we’ve had in at least a generation in the city.
Do you have a comprehensive economic-development plan or vision for the city? Much of the new construction downtown has been residential, but is it time to somehow encourage other types of commercial development? And what tools can the city make available to developers to make that happen? We call it our urban-innovation strategy. And it’s also coupled with our plan for the Woonasquatucket River. Our urban-innovation strategy builds off of the amazing assets we have here with our institutions. We have some world-class institutions, beginning with an Ivy League university [Brown University], the best design school in the world [Rhode Island School of Design] and perhaps the best culinary school in the world [Johnson & Wales University], all concentrated here downtown. How do we take advantage of them being here? So, I’ve been at the table with the principals of each of these large institutions and we’ve been talking about: How do we all hold hands and jump in together to make additional investment here in Providence? And make sure that connective tissue between each of these institutions is as strong as possible.
I’m really looking forward to continuing that talk. And as part of that, let’s take advantage of these important industries that Providence really stands out for. The first and obvious one is the food economy. And it’s not just retail economy and walking into a restaurant – it’s the entire food system. From production to distribution and also to consumption. We have an entire food plan and we’ve been executing on that for the past couple of years.
You’ve mentioned that you would like to “reset” the city’s relationship with its universities to invest in the city. Do you mean getting them to pay property taxes, or boosting payments in lieu of taxes? The relationship between the city and the universities has always been a transactional one. We go high, they go low, and we meet somewhere in the middle and that’s their pilot payment. If that’s the extent of our relationship, then we’re missing such an amazing opportunity to take advantage of the fact that they’re here in our city. What we know is that it’s not just important to have them in your city but to make sure we’re connected to each other and that they have deep ties to the local community. So, that’s what we’re building now.
And I believe that if we move from a transactional relationship to more of a transformational relationship where we’re building relationships and learn how to partner and work together, the investments that they will make in our city far outpace and outweigh whatever they’re paying to the city in pilot payments.
You also were considering ways to increase city taxes or other revenue from nonprofits in Providence. What became of that? My administration has supported and helped craft legislation that would allow the city to tax only that portion of their land which is being used in ways not essential to their mission – including vacant lots, undeveloped properties, parking facilities. We will continue to advocate for this legislation as a way to generate revenue that does not add burden to local residents and businesses.
Earlier this year, you acknowledged a decrease in office vacancy rates downtown. That’s a good sign, but is there anything city government can do to help build on that trend? The decrease in office vacancy rates in downtown Providence is encouraging and an indication of how we are changing the narrative around doing business in the capital city. Providence is growing its reputation as a city where people want to live, work and visit through many strategic investments that have enhanced what downtown offers. This includes improved infrastructure, a new pedestrian bridge, enhanced parks and fun programming [such as] the Burnside Music Series and Beer Garden and PVDFest.
You’ve opposed National Grid’s plan for a liquified natural gas plant at Providence’s seaport and you have withheld support of the proposed 600-foot Fane tower downtown. How can you expect to lift the city’s economy when you don’t get behind such big-ticket items? We have more development happening now than we’ve had in at least a generation in the city. I consider myself a pro [business]-growth progressive. I think my record really speaks to the way we’ve supported and been behind a lot of the growth and development we’ve seen in the city. The devil is in the detail. … When it comes to the liquified natural gas plant, the reason I’ve been against it is because, frankly, as a matter of broader policy, I think it takes the city and state in the wrong direction. We have an opportunity now to lean into new energy and sustainable development. Instead of developing a liquified natural gas plant at our port, what I’m supporting and very much behind is Deepwater Wind’s investment at the port. They’ve manufactured five turbines right in Providence’s port and created the first offshore wind [energy] turbines in the United States. This is a growing industry. They’ve committed to building another 50 turbines here in Providence.
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SEEKING RE-ELECTION: Providence Mayor Jorge O. Elorza, pictured, a Democrat, is running for re-election against two independent candidates, East Side resident Diane “Dee Dee” Witman and South Side resident Jeff Lemire.
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We’re also following our values and protecting the environment and doing our part around climate change. And when you look at the record with the number of jobs that are created as a result of these investments, I think our support for Deepwater Wind pays off many times over. More than support for liquified natural gas.
It seems like the proposed Hope Point Tower would be a gift horse for Providence: Why quibble over how tall it should be or what it looks like? Why turn down something that would bring more people downtown? Maybe we have different impressions of the vibrancy of downtown. I’ve never seen so much activity at all hours of the day. Particularly, the large number of people who are living downtown and the large number of restaurants and bars that exist now.
You hear extreme voices – that Providence needs to be on the map; that [Hope Point Tower] is a game-changer. On the other hand, you hear this is going to be the ruin of our city. If we’re already creating this vibrant city that people want to be part of, then the business will come here. The investment will come. And that’s what we’ve seen. When it comes to this project, I’ve been very open to additional heights. I’ve said from the beginning, what matters to me is how does it fit into the city. … I’m holding out judgement on this until I’m satisfied that it fits into the look and feel of what we want here in Providence.
Have the changes you supported in the city’s tax-stabilization agreements – to streamline the process and make it more accessible to small business – yielded any results? And what do you think of the City Council’s discussions about reining in the city’s approach to these agreements? I have never accepted the “way things were always done” as a response to age-old problems. That is why we have worked together with the council to support a transparent, predictable and standardized Tax Stabilization Agreement program that will take politics out of this economic-development incentive and allow for more entrepreneurs throughout our city to share in our success as we continue to grow. Through this program, we will create a more-equitable playing field for developers.
You’ve often spoken about your support for immigrants. The city has filed a lawsuit against the federal government so it can provide protections for immigrants without having to sacrifice federal funds. How do you feel about that issue? What the federal government has done is say, “Either you take these steps [in using police officers to help ferret out undocumented immigrants] or we will withhold these funds that have nothing to do with immigration.” Thus, it will prevent us from investing in our police department and hence it will make our communities less safe. So, they’ve created this false choice. But the [U.S.] Supreme Court has said very clearly and other courts that have ruled on this exact same issue have also reinforced that what the federal government proposes to do is illegal and it’s unconstitutional.
WPRI-TV CBS 12 recently reported on the dozens of out-of-state trips that you have taken as mayor: 59 and counting. That’s twice as many as the mayor of Boston during that period. What was the purpose of all these trips?
Last year, I think I traveled outside of the state 27 to 29 times. [One-third] of that was to Massachusetts. It’s hard to live in Rhode Island without frequently traveling to Massachusetts.
I went to Pittsburgh and St. Louis. What took me there was to learn how their cities used hospitals and universities to turn over the economy. Very similar cities. They relied on their universities and hospitals to reshape and redefine what their economy was about, so they can transition from their industrial economy to a new 21st-century economy. So, I sat down [later] with the heads of all our universities and hospitals and told them about my trips. As a result of that conversation, we’ve been at the table for the last 12 months [and have announced an Urban Innovation Partnership involving them]. It’s about all of us … making a commitment to the local economy in Providence.
Scott Blake is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Blake@PBN.com.
Nice words, but the proof will always be seen in concrete actions Elorza takes to improve the city. So far he has shown not very much and avoids making the tough decisions without checking the way the wind is blowing! His attitude toward the proposed Paw Sox stadium, his non support of housing initiatives like the Fane tower, his lack of broad ideas and any vision or boldness speaks volumes about Elorza. it hard not to get away from the notion that it’s Amateur Hour in the Providence City Hall.