Last week, Crosscut publisher (and Seattle Weekly founder) David Brewster wrote a column about several high-profile departures at City Hall, blaming them on Mayor Mike McGinn’s chaotic administration. Brewster dwelled in particular on the case of former deputy mayor Phil Fujii, who returned to a position at Paul Allen’s development company, Vulcan. “We now basically do not have a deputy mayor,” Brewster wrote.

Those are harsh words if you’re Seattle’s remaining deputy mayor, Darryl Smith.

Look up Smith in the City Hall directory, and his title is quite clear: Deputy Mayor of Community. “I am in large measure out speaking to community groups and business organizations,” Smith says, adding that he works closely with the departments of neighborhoods, economic development, housing, and the arts.

Smith also heads the mayor’s “Engage Seattle” initiative, which alerts people to upcoming city events and lets the members of the public know how they can volunteer with McGinn’s other community-outreach programs, like the Youth and Families Initiative. As for the Crosscut slight, Smith says only, “It’s not really worth a response.”

Brewster says he’s well aware that Smith holds the Deputy Mayor title. But “I don’t think of him as a substantive deputy mayor. [Smith is] more of a community-relations, ribbon-cutting thing there,” says Brewster, adding that he considers a “real” deputy mayor to act more as a chief operating officer for the executive branch of city government.