Austin Mayor Tom Stiehm really couldn’t ask for a more interested crowd, filled with these first-graders from Sumner Elementary School.

Most, of course, weren’t sure what it was that a mayor did — but that was the whole point of his appearance there on Tuesday.

“I think they learned a lot,” said instructor Hilary Schotanus after he met with her kids. “They had a lot of questions.”

“We do anything, everything, to keep the city running — it’s fun,” Stiehm told the students. Schotanus’ class was the first of three classrooms of first-graders in which he would present.

The questions were as intriguing as they were plentiful:

“How do you get to be elected mayor?”

“You have to be elected,” he said.

“OHHHHHHHHHH,” said the students impressed, even if they were not sure what that meant.

“How old were you when you were a baby?”

“Pretty young,” he said, grinning.

“How old are you now?”

Stiehm asked, “How old do you think I am?”

“Two hundred,” answered the student.

“Hey, I think I am fine,” said Stiehm, 66, with a defensive chuckle. “It’s you guys who are too young.”

“How many cousins do you have?”

“Well, not a lot,” he said.

“I have a thousand!” exclaimed one girl.

“How do you do all this stuff?” another student queried, who then added helpfully, “I like turtles.”

“I like animals; I have two dogs,” Stiehm said.

“What is your name?”

“Tom.”

“Tom is a cat!”

“How do you help people?”

“You keep their taxes down; we don’t have enough housing here, so we work on that. That’s what we’re here for, to help people,” Stiehm said.

“Where do you work?” “Where do you live?” “Do you eat food?” “What are your favorite colors?” “Why do you wear glasses?”

After about 15 minutes, the questions began to wind down, giving Stiehm a break.

But there was one important question left. One boy asked:

“Are you the boss of President Trump?”

Stiehm laughed.

“No … I really don’t have anything to do with him,” he said.