(pensive music) - East Providence has come a long way since suffering a cash flow crisis 15 years ago.

The city boasts new restaurants, a boomlet of residential development, and even a sculpture of a giant troll overlooking Narragansett Bay.

But fiscal challenges haven't completely faded.

The person leading the response is East Providence Mayor Roberto DaSilva.

So, how does Rhode Island's fifth largest city build a stronger financial future?

Has it recovered from the Washington Bridge saga?

And why does DaSilva remain a staunch supporter of Governor Dan McKee?

I'm Ian Donnis, and that's just some of what we talked about in this in-depth conversation.

(pensive music) The Mayor of East Providence, Roberto DaSilva, thank you for joining us on "One on One."

- Thank you, Ian.

Appreciate the invite.

- You're in the middle of your second term as mayor.

You were previously as a state rep.

This can't be an easy time to be in elective office.

There's divisive politics, people popping off on social media.

Why have you stuck with public service?

- It's about getting things done for your residents and for your community, moving the city in the right direction.

I'm more towards the end of my second term.

I'm in year four of my second term, and we've, in that short period of time, dealt with some incredible challenges.

And I feel that my team and our collective community got through it pretty well.

- Speaking of challenges, you currently serve as President of the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns, which advocates for the state's municipalities.

You and I both remember about 15 years ago when East Providence, Coventry, Woonsocket had some serious financial crises.

It seems like we're well beyond that, but is East Providence really on a stable financial footing right now, or is it still playing catch-up?

- No, East Providence is doing incredible.

Do we have some challenges?

Yes, we have still a police and fire pension that is not fully-funded.

But we are in a unique position.

We're a city that has the opportunity to expand the tax base.

We have a lot of former industrial sites along the waterfront that will be getting developed, and that helps to relieve the burden of the tax on the current existing property taxpayers.

- Mayor DaSilva, your current budget raises the city's tax levy by the maximum 4% allowable by state law.

What do you say to residents who think you need to hold a stronger line against tax increases?

- Well, I thank the residents for taking the position that they wanted to invest in our school department.

We passed two bonds.

The voters passed two bonds that amounts to $339 million of borrowing to build a new high school and to build the Martin Middle School and a new pre-K, which is something that was much needed for our community.

The people voted on it.

We borrowed the money, now we have to pay the debt service.

What drove that increase was mostly debt service, pension contributions to the police and fire.

We make sure that we contribute what's required by the annual required contribution, and additionally, contractual obligations.

So we, as a city, face the same challenges that everybody does, everybody else does in our community.

But what we try to do is expand the tax base so that it doesn't affect those taxpayers as much as possible.

By the way, that 4% tax levy does not represent a 4% tax increase.

It's the levy, 4% over the last year's levy.

So, it had to get done.

Unfortunately, I know people are not always happy, but I've spoken to a lot of residents who say that the impact was not as significant as they thought it would be because we had also gone through a revaluation.

So a lot of properties that had been undervalued were brought to their proper value.

A lot of properties that had been overvalued were brought down to their proper value.

So, the actual impact to most taxpayers was not as significant as we thought it might be.

- The city, at the same time, projected almost $50 million in new revenue before tax rates would be reset this spring.

Has that projection come to fruition?

- We're on track, we're doing well.

As a matter of fact, I was speaking to my Finance Director, and it looks like we might have ended last year.

We don't know that yet because we need to get an audit, but we may have added it last year with a surplus, which is good.

And you want to try to level budget, but when you budget and you end up having a surplus because you realize more revenue than you expected, that's a positive for the community.

- And what is the source of that new revenue?

Is that some of the redevelopment that you're talking about?

- New properties coming online.

For instance, we have a lot of investment in the real estate in our community.

Christine Apartments, for one, they built hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in our community off Wampanoag Trail.

And those properties, they were staged in through a tax stabilization, a five-year tax stabilization.

Each year, more and more of that starts to become a realization on the tax base.

It's a good thing for the city to see us growing our tax base, and we continue working towards that goal.

- It is a good thing to see that all Rhode Island communities would like to see that kind of thing.

At the same time, one rating agency last year downgraded East Providence's bond rating from AA to AA-, citing cost factors, including higher debt service, higher healthcare costs for employees.

So, even with the growth that you're having, it's having a tangible impact.

What can the city do to get a better handle on that?

- So, that's the thing.

So, the people of East Providence twice voted to borrow to build a high school and a middle school.

That added significantly to our debt service.

We had 339, just for those two projects, that we had to go out to bond.

Now, are we getting some of that?

Some of the payments are coming from the state in the form of housing aid, and eventually we're gonna be at a point where we retire some old debt service and we won't be in that situation.

I anticipate that our bond rating will go up.

- Let's switch gears and talk a little bit about housing.

Everyone knows we have a housing crisis in Rhode Island, but the problem is that a lot of people don't want the new housing in their neighborhood.

East Providence has a reputation as being more welcoming to new housing than many communities.

To what extent have you seen housing permits or housing starts to increase in the city?

- We're seeing a lot of that happen.

A lot of the- - Can you put a number on it?

- I don't have an exact number for you, but I can tell you that the East Point development, 300 and... 339 units will be developed there.

We have permits across the city that are being under consideration now on Broadway, a couple of different developments that are happening there.

People are looking at other available sites where they can transform old abandoned buildings like the Rose Furniture Building.

They're looking at transforming that into also some type of mixed-use housing.

So, we see a lot of interest in East Providence.

We see a lot of people coming in.

The reality is... I get people coming into my office all the time, older folks who can no longer afford to stay in their home.

They live in what's called naturally-occurring affordable housing.

A house that's been owned by the same landlord for the last 30-some odd years.

They're paying that low, low rent.

The property changes hands.

The new owner has to borrow at today's interest rates and purchase the property at today's market rate.

That turns that new owner into somebody that needs to raise the rents.

And a lot of the people that come to my office are lifelong residents, older residents who now have nowhere to live because they can't afford the new rents once the property changes hands.

- What do you do about that?

- Well, what we do is we work with nonprofits throughout the state to create more affordable housing.

We have an incredible relationship with One Neighborhood Builders.

They're building center city apartments on Taunton Avenue, 149 affordable de-restricted apartments, working with Foster Forward, another incredible East Providence organization.

Foster Forward is working with One Neighborhood Builders to create more units at that center city development that will be for children, young adults coming out of foster care, that they'll have an affordable place to live.

- The developer of the South Quay offshore wind port, wind-developed turbine port, missed a deadline in 2024 to qualify for $35 million in federal funding.

We know the Trump administration is very hostile toward wind power.

How is that affecting the completion of that project?

- That project has actually been advanced significantly.

Rhode Island Waterfront Enterprises is in the process now of raising the level of the port.

They've been working on it for the last several months, if not over a year, of bringing fill in, clean fill, with the goal of raising it out of the flood zone.

I have regular conversations with the people involved with this.

The goal is to build a port.

It's not gonna be dedicated to wind, it's not gonna be a wind hub as it was originally intended to be, but it will be a port that will serve our state and our community and create economic development.

They're also working on- - What sort of functions will the port accommodate?

- What they're trying to do is try to partner up with somebody who needs space to create industry, to create manufacturing, to create jobs that needs access to a deep port.

The other thing we're looking at is for the hospitality.

We wanna be able to have transportation from East Providence to Newport, to Pawtucket, to other places using the water as a way to kind of bring economic activity.

- East Providence gained about 25 acres that can be used for development, with changes to the Henderson Bridge a couple years ago.

Where do things stand with that?

What is happening and what is the vision?

- We haven't had any further discussions with the state on transferring the landover or what we're gonna do with the land because Phase 2 of the Henderson Project is slated to be starting soon.

They're in the design phase, which is from... It goes from where the bridge came at the roundabout to Broadway.

And that project is going to open up a lot more land and free up some of the land that's currently part of a highway that never went anywhere.

And at the end of the day, it's gonna be a nice connection between existing communities with sidewalks, trees.

It'll be more of a parkway field.

- What is the timeline for moving forward with that?

- We have a meeting coming up to go over the plans with DOT coming up within the next couple of weeks.

They have the funding in place, the funding's there, it's just a matter of them starting construction.

They haven't given me a start time, but it will happen.

The funding is in place.

That Henderson Phase 2 project will transform that whole area, make it less of a highway, more of a parkway/greenway.

- Mayor DaSilva, we've talked in the past about the Washington Bridge, Rhode Island's big saga.

Things are certainly better than they were a couple of years ago, but East Providence has been very impacted by that.

Is the city still experiencing a hangover from that?

- Occasionally, occasionally.

I think we were the ones that were most impacted by the bridge closure.

A lot of our small businesses, immediately in the weeks following, before they were able to open up the third lanes going over the bridge, they were suffering.

But we are a point now where we just drove over here at 10:30 in the morning on a weekday.

Traffic flows smooth.

What happens on that bridge, unfortunately, is when you have an accident or a breakdown on the bridge, then you get some severe backup.

And I will remind people, and I'm not defending what's going on with this bridge situation.

It happened, we're dealing with it.

The people of East Providence are resilient, the business owners are resilient.

But prior to this bridge closing, as a parent driving my child to East Providence High School on Pawtucket Avenue over the 195 Highway, every morning, there'd be a backup as far as I could see into Seekonk.

That traffic has always been a point of contention on that stretch of road.

What I can tell the people is based on the new design and based on some of the new features, you'll have something that's gonna be transformative.

The traffic going through that area, once it gets repaired, once it gets fixed, will be better than it's ever been, even prior to when the bridge shut down.

So, I'm excited about that.

I'm excited that we have a reputable bridge builder that's been contracted by the state, I'm excited that the whole bridge has been demolished, and I'm excited that the timeline is set for 2028, November of 2028, but there's approximately $10 million in incentives to get it done earlier.

So, this bridge builder is building a bridge that they built previously.

They're not reinventing the wheel.

It's an experienced bridge builder that's building the same type of bridge they built previously in another state.

And I hope that everything goes smooth.

- A legislative oversight hearing revealed last year how states outside contractors are the ones who ensure or who are supposed to ensure the integrity and quality of each other's work.

That hasn't worked out so well.

Were you surprised by that revelation?

- Look, I can tell you from my experience being a mayor, there's no way that the state could have all of the experts on staff needed to manage all of these projects that they have going on.

We have multiple projects going on in East Providence.

We rely on engineering firms to help guide those projects.

If there were places where these private firms didn't do what they were supposed to do, then they should be held accountable.

And my understanding is that they are being held accountable to the court system.

- But were you surprised that the responsibility for oversight is totally outsourced?

- I'm not surprised so much.

I mean, ultimately, the buck stops with the DOT.

The buck stops with me, right?

So, in East Providence, if something goes wrong, even though I'm relying on a private contractor, the buck stops with me.

I would say that sometimes, you rely on people who are the experts to do their job.

They're presenting to you reports that say they've done their job.

I'm not gonna go redo their work.

If I'm relying on them, I'm paying them, they're reputable.

If they found that there's been issues and problems, then those people will be held accountable.

- Speaking of the bridge, that's clearly been a dark cloud for Governor McKee as he tries to seek reelection this year.

Poll ratings have been very poor for him.

You've been a staunch supporter of Governor McKee.

Why do you believe he deserves reelection?

- I think Governor McKee is a person who had to deal with a situation that was brought to his attention.

Are you gonna blame the guy who spots a leak in the dam and puts his finger in the dike so that the dam doesn't flood the whole community?

He found this problem, it was brought to him, and he took immediate action.

I don't know what else he could have done differently than take immediate action, shut the place down, and start the process of getting it repaired.

One of the things that people will criticize him for is the first RFP, we got nobody that bid on it.

That was because he was trying to be super aggressive in trying to get this thing done as quickly as possible.

At the end of the day, I think the governor's done a great job.

That bridge was brought to his attention, he acted decisively, and now it's in process of getting built.

- You spoke at some of the recent No Kings demonstrations against President Trump, and as a Democrat, you've been critical of the President.

What do you think Democrats need to do with their brand being very damaged in working-class communities to be more competitive in elections outside fervently blue areas like the Northeast?

- I think what we need to do is remind the community Democrats, traditional Democrats, that many of the things that we take for granted today were championed by Democrats.

The five-day work week, healthcare, anything that you see as a benefit today, those were things that were championed by Democrats.

And I also think that we need to stay away from being so extreme one way or the other.

I mean, I think you see it in both parties where you go too extreme one side, look at where the people, the majority of your constituents are.

They're somewhere in the middle.

And I would venture to say that most people who voted for the President are very disappointed in what's going on with gas prices, inflation, a war that has not been sanctioned by Congress.

There's so much going on right now that I would venture to say that most people who voted for the President look on it now and like, "My goodness, what is going on in this country?

What is going on with inflation?

What's going on with how people are being treated?"

You know what troubles me the most?

And this is why I spoke out, and I tend to speak out against this President, is just the way people get treated, especially when it comes to ICE.

It really troubles me because those people are not... Now, if there's a hardened criminal, if there's someone you've identified that needs to be taken out of the country, yes, do what you have to do to get them out of the country.

But when you have a person who overstayed their visa or a person who's going through the legal court process to become legal here, and you're showing up at the courthouse to yank them away from their families and treat them without due process, that bothers me.

Having been a police officer for 25 years, I'm a big believer in giving people due process, treating people with dignity and respect.

And it bothers me as a child of immigrants, and my wife, who also immigrated from a Brown country, where people are mostly Brown.

- The Dominican Republic?

- Yeah, Dominican Republic.

It troubles me that they're using how you look and how you sound as a pretext to approach you, and stop you, and yank you out of your car, without having any definitive warrant or paper saying that, "This is the person we want."

We had that terrible incident that happened in Providence, an intern who's interning for a judge comes out of the courthouse and gets yanked up.

To me, it breaks my heart when I see that kind of stuff because it shouldn't be happening in this country.

- Sure, let's talk about a happier subject.

Some of the cool things happening in East Providence, there's a Myrtle Music Club, the 133 Club, Crescent Beach Park is being reopened to swimming in Narragansett Bay, which is pretty remarkable.

There's that troll sculpture overlooking the bay.

What else can East Providence do to elevate its cool factor?

- Well, someone almost said to me, "East Providence is starting to perk up."

- And there are a bunch of new coffee shops, right?

- A bunch of new coffee shops.

- We have to get that line.

- I got it from you earlier.

But I will say this.

What's been remarkable about East Providence is that despite the bridge, there have been new businesses opening up, and there's also new businesses in the process of being invested in and being redefined and presented to the community.

So what I want East Providence to be, especially along the waterfront, when we get this concert venue, Live Nation is still looking to build a concert venue, that's still in process.

- When will that be complete?

- Well, they're in talks with a partner, so I guess they're bringing another partner in.

But they've started the work, we started the work of getting grants to do the road, doing the engineering.

They've been doing all that behind-the-scenes stuff that people don't usually see.

That's all happening with that team.

And the end game is to build a concert venue there that will attract people from all over the state and the region to East Providence to support our local businesses.

I see a lot of great things happening in our community and I see a lot of interest in... When I'm out and about in other parts of the state, people often mention how great East Providence is.

- Mayor DaSilva, I'm gonna throw you a bone.

I've lived in Providence, I've lived in Pawtucket, I've lived in East Providence since 2010.

The city does a great job with snow removal, although the blizzard was a challenge for everyone.

What is the secret to East Providence doing such a good job with that?

- Well, it's the men and women of DPW.

We rely on in-house staff to do all the work.

They know the streets.

Most of these people live in the community, and they take great pride in their work.

During this blizzard, this was something like I'd never seen before, 40 inches of snow.

A lot of our equipment could barely handle this type of snow.

But those guys and girls, they kept working through the blizzard.

Some of them worked 48 hours straight.

They were taking four-hour naps back at the DPW.

They didn't make it home for the first 48 hours, but they take great pride in it.

And we celebrated them in East Providence with a little luncheon, we had a lot of the local leaders come out, and praised them and thanked them for their work, and they all contributed towards the event.

It was wonderful.

- As a state rep back in 2011, you voted against the pension overhaul spearheaded by Gina Raimondo.

She said the overhaul was necessary to shore up the unfunded liability of the pension.

How do you feel about your vote 15 years on?

- I think I took the right vote.

I would probably take that vote again today.

What I've found, I still talk to people who... Actually, I spoke to someone today who has over 30 years of service and they can't retire.

And I think it's a tough situation.

And then those people who were on the cusp of being able to retire, all of a sudden, had the rug pulled out from under them.

It was a difficult vote to take, but it was a vote that I took, understanding that it was the right thing to do.

Do I think it needs to be re-looked at at some point?

And maybe some of those changes may be fine-tuned.

I think you might wanna do that.

- You are running for reelection right now.

You've sometimes been mentioned as a possible statewide candidate.

Is that something that appeals to you down the road?

- What appeals to me right now is continuing the work that we have done here in East Providence.

I wanna continue working on behalf of the people of East Providence.

I never close the door on anything.

I never, in my wildest dreams, imagined that I'd be the mayor of this great city.

It's an honor to serve the people of East Providence.

You never know what the future will bring.

- Portuguese are very enthusiastic soccer people.

The World Cup is coming up.

You founded the East Providence Youth Soccer Association and was its first president.

What kind of World Cup activities will be taking place in East Providence?

- EPYSA is one of the things I'm very proud of.

They're actually gonna be celebrating 10 years this year.

But we are working with our local community members to have a watch party.

Portugal versus Columbia.

We're hoping to have EPYSA, they're gonna be putting on a tournament that will be culminating that same day.

We want it to be a day full of fun activities at Pierce Memorial Stadium.

So, we're in the process of planning and putting that together now.

The licensing fee from FIFA is the most interesting obstacle right now because it's hard to communicate with them to get a definitive answer on what that's gonna be.

But we've been working with Liz Tanner, we've been working with the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council to really put on something fun and bring people together to enjoy the World Cup.

- Will you be rooting for Portugal, the US, or someone else?

- Depends who's playing that day.

(Mayor DaSilva laughing) So, no, of course you wanna see the US do well.

I hope that they advance as far as they can.

And it's always fun to watch Portugal, especially with the energy that surrounds it in our community.

When Portugal wins big, the community all celebrates and it's a lot of fun.

And we have a lot of Portuguese restaurants, a lot of Portuguese clubs that people will be reaping the benefits of this World Cup.

- The Mayor of East Providence, Roberto DaSilva, thank you so much for sitting down with us.

Thank you, Ian.

(pensive music) - 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.

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