PROVIDENCE — The U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting starting Friday had been built around mayors having face-to-face access to federal officials, but with President Obama’s team abruptly pulling out last Friday because of likely union protests against Mayor David N. Cicilline, the focus of the conference has changed.

Thomas Cochran, executive director of the organization, says that the revised convention agenda will reflect a focus on the economy and how it is affecting urban budgets.

It will take a critical eye toward the implementation of Obama’s stimulus plan, and mayors will also be frank in their discussion about the administration’s “boycott” of the conference, according to Cochran.

“The agenda of this meeting is surviving,” said Cochran. “It’s about the economy and the budget cuts that cities are facing. It’s about foreclosures, unemployed people, and how all of this [federal] money is going to rural areas to fix their roads, but none of it is going to help urban areas and their problems.”

It’s a turnaround from how the meeting was billed, which was as a unique opportunity for communities to interact with the federal government as it rolls out the most ambitious spending program since the Great Depression.

Vice President Joseph Biden and dozens of other federal official confirmed nearly a month ago their appearance at the annual gathering of mayors, which is making its first appearance in Rhode Island in its 77 years.

But President Obama has made it his policy not to cross union picket lines, and, at least in this instance, that applies to everyone in his administration, from his Cabinet on down to the career civil service employees.

“This was a big mistake by the Obama administration,” said Cochran. “In 77 years, never has not one federal official attended the mayors’ annual meeting.”

Cochran says there will still be significant work done at the conference, set to bring some 200 mayors and their staff to the capital city.

Friday, the conference will release a report examining how the first part of Mr. Obama’s stimulus plan, which was focused on public infrastructure, has affected communities.

On Saturday, mayors will discuss a recent survey on how some cities, including Providence, have dealt with the reentry of criminal offenders to society.

On Sunday, mayors will receive a new report on how the foreclosure crisis is still ravaging communities, and how some communities are dealing with the proliferation of abandoned properties.

And on Monday, the mayors will publicly debate and vote on resolutions ranging from same-sex marriage, immigration and banning assault weapons to Obama’s proposed cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Firefighters and police officers have promised to come out in large numbers throughout the conference in protest to stalled contract talks with the city. Paul A. Doughty, the president of the city firefighters union, said Thursday that he has been keeping lines of communications open with Cicilline, but that the picket was still on.

Members of Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union,will also be protesting in front of the Providence Biltmore Hotel on Friday, but not because of the mayors’ conference. The union represents about 200 teachers and other employees of the city’s Head Start program who have been issued layoff notices.

Children’s Friend and Service, the organization set to take over the Head Start operation, has not recognized the union. The agency is hosting a party at the downtown hotel that night, according to Chas Walker, a union organizer.

Mayors, meanwhile, began arriving in Providence on Thursday afternoon.

Volunteers welcomed them at T. F. Green Airport in Warwick and at the Rhode Island Convention Center, where the conference will take place. A large white tent was erected over the downtown skating rink by Kennedy Plaza where mayors will have a New England-themed dinner on Friday night.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors’ pamphlets, newsletters, and Web site all still tout Biden and members of Obama’s Cabinet as featured speakers. They still advertise the resource center that the White House had promised to staff with federal officials through the four-day conference.

“We wanted to show that we really did have a meeting that we had worked so hard to put together,” said Cochran. “We wanted to show that when we put on an event and say that people are coming, we mean it.”

pmarcelo@projo.com