E. A. Smith retired to Sarasota in 1921, and spent the next forty years improving the community.
The Great Depression left the city of Sarasota with a poor credit rating and a debt of over $6 million. In 1932, Smith began the first of six terms as mayor. When he retired from politics in 1945, the credit rating and finances of the city were strong.
In 1935, under his leadership, the city bought thirty-seven acres of waterfront land owned by the Sarasota Bay Hotel Company for the $15,000 owed in taxes. Smith and other leaders paid the advance money for the construction of a Municipal Auditorium on this bayfront land, which became the Civic Center. The WPA (Works Project Administration, which was a federal program that funded public projects to provide jobs and help the country recover from unemployment resulting from the Great Depression) helped fund the municipal auditorium. An adult recreation center and courts for tennis, lawn bowling, and shuffleboard were added. John Tuttle Chidsey gave money for Sarasota's first public library building, constructed south of the auditorium.
In the late 1930s, Mayor Smith led the effort to acquire land for the Sarasota-Bradenton Airport. The city extended utilities and water mains, installed a water softening plant and fire hydrants, enlarged its police and fire departments, and developed the City Trailer Park under his leadership.
In 1931, Smith led a motorcade of almost 250 cars to the Annual Tin Can Tourist Convention in Arcadia, where several thousand tourists met. The purpose of the motorcade was to convince the TCT to move its conventions to Sarasota, which boasted circus winter quarters, spring training grounds for a major league baseball team, and beaches. The Tin Can Tourists held their convention in Sarasota from 1932 to 1938.
Smith worked in real estate and was president of the Sarasota Abstract Company. After retiring, he developed Harbor Acres.