I give Providence Mayor David Cicilline credit for getting on the phone yesterday and fielding questions on last week’s fund- raiser to help his brother, John, who is headed for jail.

The mayor, who attended the party, clearly was uncomfortable discussing it. I don’t blame him. On the other hand, his brother, a lawyer, is facing 18 months in federal prison for shaking down a drug-dealing couple. And the mayor, a self-styled reformer who has sought a new image for the city after the corrupt reign of Buddy Cianci and who is eying a 2010 bid for governor, can’t afford to look like he has anything to hide.

Cicilline, who did not donate, said, “When my brother asked me to be there, and it was important to be there, I went by to tell him I love him, to tell my nieces I love them ….”

As for the idea that John would agree to accept contributions, the mayor said “this is not the time in my brother’s life” to second guess him. The organizers were longtime friends of his brother. “He allowed them to do it, and I’m grateful that they thought to help.”

I mentioned the Yiddish term shanda, which means a scandal, or embarrassment, before the neighbors. The mayor, of course, is familiar with the term. Obviously, John’s crime itself is a shanda. But so too, in my view, was the fundraiser. Wasn’t the crime itself enough to disgrace the family? Does John then have to have the community rescue him? Why didn’t the mayor just tell him, “Look, if you or your family need help, I’ll give you money; don’t make a public spectacle of it.”

“I am helping my brother, as are the rest of my family, in every way that we can,” the mayor said. “And John has to make a decision as an adult whether or not he wanted to proceed with this. It’s not my place to tell him not, or tell him to.”

Had he tried to dissuade John from going through with the party? The mayor didn’t want to get into it with me.

He rejected the notion that someone might give to John to curry favor with him in City Hall down the line. “It never occurred to me that anyone would do that, nor do I think anyone will do it, and, most importantly, it will have no impact if they do.”

I wish I could be as confident as he that folks wouldn’t try. The appearance of this thing smells. It raises the very specter that the mayor has tried to erase, the idea that around these parts you have to pay to play. The mayor should think more before he goes to an event like this, and John should spare David from having to make such a decision.

Meanwhile, their father, Jack Cicilline, also a lawyer, said he went to the party to be supportive but had a very different feeling about the event than did John, who, he said, “seemed pleased” with the crowd. By contrast, the father saw it as one step further along the trail that will bring John to prison — sentencing is next month — and he doesn’t think John deserves prison.

The father phoned me to put his friend, Edward “Buckles” Melise, on the line. Melise, a former Cianci administration aide who went to jail for corruption, was furious that Cianci has been saying on his WPRO show that Melise sold tickets to the Cicilline party. Melise said he didn’t even know the party was being held. He said he wants to go on the air “side by side” with Cianci to talk about a range of things.

Cianci insisted to me that Melise had indeed sold tickets.

I don’t want to be caught up in this. Buddy, why don’t you call Buckles and put him on your program and hash things out?

M. Charles Bakst is The Journal’s political columnist.