Questions About Brett Smiley’s Ethics Are Growing

Questions About Brett Smiley’s Ethics Are Growing

Brett Smiley is facing growing questions about his latest Providence mayoral campaign -- and professional ethics. The concerns center around Smiley simultaneously running for office once again (after running in 2014 for Mayor) and serving as Governor Gina Raimondo’s Director of Administration.

In October, Smiley promised not to solicit funds from state contractors while working in the Governor's office and for the state. He has direct or indirect control over billions of dollars in contracts.

Now, Smiley admits he did take thousands of dollars of campaign donations that violates his own pledge. Those solicitations were reported in his campaign finance report for the fourth quarter of 2020 made public in January.

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Smiley refuses to say how much he raised from state contractors but admitted he violated his pledge in an email to GoLocal.  

And others are crying foul

"I think it's important that the Ethics Commission take this seriously, even the appearance of impropriety," said Gonzalo Cuervo, another leading Democratic candidate for Mayor of Providence in 2022.

 

Smiley Under Fire

“The Director of the Department of Administration is one of the most demanding jobs in state government, particularly during an unprecedented pandemic when hundreds of millions of additional dollars are flowing through that agency,” said John Marion, President of Common Cause Rhode Island. “Running a campaign for mayor can only be a distraction from that important role. Trying to do both also presents a number of ethical challenges as we have seen this week.”

In the past year, in the state’s spending of $1.25 billion in federal CARES Act funding, hundreds of millions of dollars were spent by Smiley’s office without a public bidding process or legislative review.

In 2017, a GoLocal series unveiled a complex web of intertwined political consulting businesses that Smiley owned which received hundreds of thousands of dollars of payments from elected officials — the same officials that needed to seek funding or favors from Smiley and his bosses.

While owning these companies, Smiley served as Director of Administration to Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza, Chief of Staff to Raimondo, and Director of Administration. In these positions, he earned between $130,000 and $188,000 a year.

Smiley was the gatekeeper to top politicians seeking access to Elorza and Raimondo and had direct budget authority to billions of dollars of public contracts.

While Smiley has been running for mayor and earning $155,000 as Director of the Department of Administration, Cuervo -- a now-former top staffer to Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea -- said to GoLocal, "I stepped down as Deputy Secretary of State to avoid any conflict of interest. It was the right thing to do. My campaign is focused on upholding the highest standards of ethics and accountability."

Cuervo went on to condemn Smiley's behavior.

"There is no margin for error for elected officials, or candidates when it comes to transparency and ethics," said Cuervo. "Providence can’t afford a return to the era of know-a-guy politics."

Cuervo gave up a $142,700 salary before announcing his run for Mayor and begin active fundraising.

In March of 2019, GoLocal reported that Smiley began soliciting members of the Providence City Council looking for their backing for a 2022 mayoral run, while he served as chief operating officer to Raimondo.

Smiley had run for Providence Mayor in 2014, but pulled out just before the Democratic primary and endorsed Elorza -- although Smiley denied that the endorsement and corresponding job were linked.

Smiley met with at least three members of the City Council in 2019 to seek their support for his second mayoral run, according to multiple sources that had first-hand knowledge.

"I did meet with [Smiley]," said Councilman Michael Correia. "We had a good conversation -- and we're going to continue our talks."

 

Smiley Inc.

As GoLocal reported in 2017, Smiley while Raimondo’s Chief of Staff owned a web of political consulting businesses.

The 2017 series looking into Smiley’s companies found that the firms he received payments from many prominent Democrats, including payments from one of the House Democratic Leadership PACs and a $2,030 payment from then-federal inmate and former Rhode Island Speaker of the House Gordon Fox. 

While Smiley earned $182,000 as Raimondo's Chief of Staff, his companies earn hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Between 2013 and 2017, Rhode Island state and local candidates paid a web of Smiley-owned companies just under $300,000. Federal candidates both in Rhode Island and around the country paid Smiley’s firms hundreds of thousands in additional payments. 

“Smiley's continued ownership of the firm raises the questions that have yet to be answered. In the past we've told GoLocal that Common Cause believes Smiley should seek an advisory opinion from the Rhode Island Ethics Commission with respect to his continued ownership of the consulting firm,” said Common Cause's Marion said in 2017.

 

Smiley, Galvin, and Raimondo

If Smiley’s web of political consulting firms was not intertwined enough with Democratic elected officials and candidates, the then-Vice President of Smiley’s CFO Compliance company, Ed Galvin, also has a related consulting business that is being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by dozens of Democratic political campaigns — including the Raimondo campaign.

READ MORE ABOUT SMILEY'S BUSINESS INTERESTS HERE

In October of 2020, Smiley announced he was exiting his political consulting businesses in preparation of his mayoral 2022 run. But, for more than six years he was paid top city and state six-figure-salaries while his companies earned hundreds of thousands in fees.