Executive Director's Column

Washington, DC
July 1, 2011

Thank you Baltimore! Thank you Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and all of your team, for all of us to say, “oh yes we did see” the new Baltimore, a city rich in history, with a future ever so bright.

Domestic infrastructure investments producing jobs for our cities seemed to be the big issue at our 79^th Annual Meeting.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel came to us with his proposal for a new infrastructure bank and he is already working with Members of Congress to produce legislation creating the infrastructure bank. Mayor Emanuel’s speech was well received and mayors will support the Emanuel initiative within our Conference of Mayors. We welcomed him with open arms and we are pleased that he will be working with us as we go forward.

Governor (Mayor) Martin O'Malley welcomed the mayors to Maryland and continues to talk about the job he misses. He is doing a great job as Governor and he reported on Saturday morning successes before going to the Eastern Shore for an event. In the evening he returned, leading his band, O'Malley's March, with Irish rock and traditional music, and receiving a cheering response from all at Fort McHenry.

Immediate Past-President Elizabeth Kautz again pushes the city-business partnerships we must have to produce new jobs. At our Winter Meeting she had the CEOs of large corporations before us. In Baltimore, she led a group of CEOs along with Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx and our partner George Cloutier of American Management Services, to give us the best practices of how to support small business within our cities. We thank Mayor Kautz for her leadership and look forward to her continued work in this area.

Mayors debated the resolution calling for an end to the Afghanistan War, where we are spending $2.1 Million a minute. The nation’s mayors were totally supportive of and thankful for the brave men and women who serve. The nation’s building of other countries has little support today within America. In all regions our infrastructure is in bad shape and unemployment continues to be way too high across America. Mayors are saying that the monies being spent in Afghanistan should be brought home and dedicated to infrastructure development and jobs for rebuilding our own nation.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, in his inaugural address, called on Washington to understand how important our metro economies are to keeping our national economy strong. He was eloquent in going through a comparison of how the LA metro economy is stronger than some nations and many USA states. His speech was well received by all mayors as he becomes our 69^th President of The United States Conference of Mayors.

Congratulations to our other two new top officers, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, Vice President and Mesa Mayor Scott Smith, Second Vice President.

President Villaraigosa has called for a Conference of Mayors Leadership Meeting in Los Angeles, July 21 - 23. Look for a letter from President Villaraigosa with registration materials and information for our Leadership Meeting. We will continue to refine the policy initiatives adopted in Baltimore and come forth with a bipartisan political agenda for the coming year.

Again, thank you Mayor Elizabeth Kautz for your continued service to our organization.

Thank you again Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake for a most exciting, meaningful, productive and fun Annual Conference of Mayors.

We congratulate our new President Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Since coming to our first Leadership Meeting he has been active with us. You have honored him with the highest honor a mayor can hold in America, The President of The United States Conference of Mayors. He will be a bold leader. In these tough economic times, we need it. As strong as he is, he will need your support. The spirit of our Baltimore Meeting tells me we are more united than ever. And together, with President Villaraigosa’s leadership, we can lift our organization to a new plateau.

Thanks to all of your continued support. In these tough economic times we do not take your dues, time, and travel expenses to come to our meetings for granted. This is your organization.

If I can be of any service to you, please let me know.

I look forward to seeing you in Los Angeles next month.

Executive Director's Column

April 8, 2011
Washington, DC

Conference President Elizabeth Kautz was back in Washington this week representing all of you as we conduct the regular business of the Conference under a cloud of uncertainty over key federal funded initiatives.

President Kautz and I joined with our partner, The Americans for the Arts, for Arts Advocacy Day. Funds for the National Endowment for the Arts are threatened in the current budget political climate. Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, our Congressional champion for the arts always cites the importance of what mayors are doing with the arts all over our country. She talks about people’s lives, their souls, and music.

She says no matter where you are if you hear the refrain of Amazing Grace, it stirs you, it calms you, it gives you peace. With all the screaming about budget cuts, it’s nice to hear Louise Slaughter’s voice. Everything about her gives us strength as the days and years go by in the fight to keep the National Endowment for the Arts alive. The economic, crime, and school statistics all prove that every dollar spent on the arts for young people gets the biggest bang for the buck and helps avoid the costs incurred and human damage that comes from violent gangs, drugs, and prison.

We are also most fortunate to have Rocco Landesman as our National Endowment Chief. His vision in reaching out and bringing the arts agenda into the established federal agencies like HUD and Transportation is a game changer. He is brilliant.

Two time Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey was with us on Capitol Hill. He was quite personal, he spoke about how actor Jack Lemmon affected his life and stressed that arts do make a difference. Alec Baldwin of 30 Rock fame, one of the most ardent arts supporters in show business always brings his wit and there is a serious political side to him that’s there. I asked him would he ever run for mayor of New York and he said he couldn’t afford to do so. Bob Lynch, President and CEO of the Americans for the Arts did a great job directing the lobbying day and ever so close to his side was one of the best lobbyists in show biz, Nina Ozlu Tunceli, and from our own team Tom McClimon is the point person for all we do with mayors and the arts; his leadership and counsel is vital. Together, The U.S. Conference of Mayors and Americans for the Arts will use our political energy to one day have a government that has what other civilized governments have, a Secretary and Federal Department for Arts and Culture. Meantime, let’s save Big Bird, protect the National Endowment and keep on fighting and using the strength we have to protect what we have and what we have won. We remain vigilant and we thank the mayors for their continued support of the arts.

As U.S.Mayor goes to press the federal government shutdown looms. It has nothing to do with the budget. It’s about abortion, National Public Radio, and greenhouse gasses. Let’s hope the grandstanding will end soon and we can truly make some adult and rational decisions for our cities and above all our people. Happy Spring! The cherry blossoms are blooming. God won’t let them shut them down. They keep on blooming and we do too. Thanks to all the mayors for your continued response and support for a fair budget and one that considers all sectors instead of zeroing in over all of the domestic priorities that are so important to you, your cities, and our people.

National Mayors Summit on City Design
Chicago, April 27 to 29

The first ever National Mayors Summit on City Design will take place in Chicago, April 27 to 29. We have the best designers coming to join with our mayors. It is a celebration of 25 years of The Mayors Institute on City Design and more important, it is a meeting to forge a new agenda for cities and design for this century. Also, we will honor “our mayor” Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago. In Chicago we salute him for what he has given to Chicago and to all of the mayors and cities of America. I look forward to seeing you in Chicago, April 27 to 29. Register now. Contact Carol Edwards at 202-293-7330 or cedwards@usmayors.org. See you in Chicago soon.

Executive Director's Column

March 24, 2011

Washington, DC


CDBG/Impacts on Metro Economies

Over the past two weeks, Conference President Kautz, officers of the Conference and staff have led a relentless effort within the halls of the United States Senate to save the Community Development Block Grant program, CDBG, now threatened with the 62.5 percent cut passed by the new House of Representatives.

We have joined with The National Association of Counties and The National League of Cities in this effort. Both organizations held their Spring legislative conferences back to back. During this period we have joined with NLC and NACo on Capitol Hill. Our efforts culminated in a joint press conference event in the Hart Senate Office Building on March 16. At this event the three organizations released our first-ever survey, Community Development Block Grants: Impacts on Metro Economies, on the leveraging aspect of CDBG funds which have done so much towards increased economic development and jobs in our cities and counties of the metro areas of our nation.

Mayors and county officials are together in stating that now is the worst time ever for Washington to cut CDBG funding below current funding levels. As some cities are turning the corner toward economic recovery in 2011, they are telling us that a draconian cut in CDBG funds at this time would damage the ongoing local recovery and put these economies back flat on their backs as they were when this economic crisis hit us.

At the press conference on March 16, NLC President James Mitchell stressed the need to keep CDBG funds because they are a catalyst for growth that links private sector dollars to federal government dollars.

NACo President Tarrant County Texas Judge Glen Whitley stressed that local government in his Texas County has put up $15 million and coupled $18 million of federal funds for a total of $33 million for infrastructure investment.

Conference President Kautz stressed that cuts in CDBG would simply result in “shift down” to local governments causing us to raise property taxes to replace CDBG funds.

It was a strong united front press conference with officials telling Washington for the first time that the CDBG funds are indeed an economic engine because mayors and local officials leverage the federal funds to increase successful private sector growth and jobs for thousands throughout America.

City and county officials were all on the one message of leveraging CDBG funds. Davenport, Iowa Mayor Bill Gluba took a slightly different note and came out of nowhere in a most passionate manner challenging the consciences of Congress. He spoke not only to CDBG, but took aim at those who had cut programs for the poor. His remarks had a religious tone.

“To quote the scriptures, ‘Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, that you do unto me.’ In this case, the least of us are our homeless families with small children, low-income elderly and displaced veterans who nightly seek out a place to sleep in our homeless shelters in many of our major cities that are funded with CDBG money and are often staffed by volunteers. These draconian cuts proposed by Congress in HR1 [to cut CDBG funding] are clearly cruel and vicious assault on the least of our brethren; these cuts are truly immoral and make a mockery of the Judeo Christian values that are talked about on the floor of Congress of the Unites States; and these cuts are also job killers since a great deal of the CDBG funding goes to job creation and economic development and transportation so that low-income people can get to work. It is outrageous for Washington to have bestowed more than a trillion dollars in TARP bailout funds for big banks and Wall Street and now cut CDBG funding.

Congress took care of them; why don’t they take care of the working people of this country? And these are the same Wall Street bankers and hedge fund managers who are responsible for causing the worst economic meltdown in this country since the great depression. What an insult to the American people. Bonuses for Wall Street, jobs for Wall Street barons and soup bones for us. How hypocritical and tragic of our Congressmen to do this to our American people. This [the proposed budget cuts] demonstrates just how out of touch they really are. May God have mercy on their darkened souls unless they come through for the American people who need it the most!”

Mayor Gluba’s remarks drew cheers from the NLC delegates assembled. They stood and cheered. He gave us the benediction and we left thankful to all those who are working the Senate to save CDBG. The fight continues. It’s not over yet. With your help we can make a difference to keep CDBG in place providing economic growth and jobs in the metro cities and counties of America. Keep talking to your Senators. Don’t let up. We will prevail.

Executive Director's Column

March 3, 2011
Washington, DC

On February 24, at our Winter Leadership Meeting in Washington, Conference President Kautz stood with the leadership of The Conference of Mayors in what I consider to be the strongest press conference of The United States Conference of Mayors in recent history.

Mayors faced 13 cameras and 30 reporters. Some reporters tried to bait the mayors and get them off track of what they were there for - to fight those in Congress who want to gut our most successful federal initiative ever - the Community Development Block Grant program.

When asked if there were Republicans present after four Mayors had spoken, Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett, glared at the cameras and said, “I am Mick Cornett, Chair of the Republican Mayors, what is your question?”

Reporters were reminded that three out of the four previous mayors speaking were Republican. With that he buried the question of partisanship in the ground.

Every time the reporters tried to get President Elizabeth Kautz off message she threw a hard ball right down their throat. She was tough, focused and a joy to watch.

Philadelphia Mayor Mike Nutter called H.R.1, the 62.5 percent cut of discretionary programs “un-American” and he said that those in Congress are attacking our own people. For a moment it sounded like he was talking about what’s going on in Libya.

The barnstormer was the Mayor of Davenport, Iowa, Bill Gluba. Mayor Gluba said that we are The United States Conference of Mayors, the fathers and mothers of our cities. He shouted loud and clear that this cut will not stand.

Across the board mayors from every region were about as good as it gets. They come to Washington once again to vividly demonstrate that the mayors of this nation, more united than ever, are the last bastion of hope for bipartisan political activity left in America.

They came with energy; they gave each other energy and this organization with mayors throughout our nation are more energized than ever.

We started with a Senate head count in our meeting and we have continued to contact mayors via phone, emails, and all forms of communication.

President Kautz brought consensus in conference calls before the mayors came to Washington that our strategy is to devote our force and power to the Senate. There are 100 Senators and there are thousands of mayors, city council members, county execs, and county commissioners.

We have been to town twice already this year, January and February. This week Mayor Kautz is back in town with mayors up on the Senate side walking the halls and confronting Senators. Next week Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa leads another team of mayors to the Senate. On March 16, we will stand on the Capitol grounds in a united event with the National League of Cities and the National Association of Counties. Thousands of elected officials will be there to express our outrage over the irrational cuts that have been made in the House devoid of hearings and bereft of any opportunity of citizen discussion. As Mayor Nutter said to the press assembled here last week, this process is “un-American.”

As U.S.Mayor goes to press, the President and Congress have agreed on a two-week continuing resolution that will keep the government going and provide time for negotiation. The fear is that the deals will not be cut in the light of day and our only choice is to take our concern and political force into the face of the Senate. We must not stop until every Senator on both sides of the aisle, Republican and Democrat, has been told in a most direct way, as Davenport Mayor said to the press last week, “this cut must not stand.”

We must remind them as Mayor Nutter said, “the damage of H.R.1 would be an attack on our people.” We also must remind the Senate that their duty is to correct this injustice.

With individual profiles of courage they must act to stop the devastation to our people and our cities that will be inflicted if there is silence, indifference, and inaction at this critical time in this nation where we are living through the worst troubled economic times since the ‘30s. Without a doubt, it is the worst time to gut the twelve percent discretionary portion of the federal budget. They are afraid to touch Medicare, Medicaid, defense, and social security. And so in the name of reducing the deficit they come after us slashing away, cutting the lifeline to our cities and our people. Every study shows that gutting discretionary programs will have little effect in reducing the deficit.

We are asking Senators to stand with us. Keep the pressure strong. We must not give in or give up. We have no choice. And with your help we will prevail with our friends in the Senate to prevent further economic distress to our people and our country.

Executive Director's Column

February 10, 2011
Washington, DC

As U.S.Mayor goes to press, the House Republicans are slashing away, one group trying to out-cut the other. House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers intended to release a bill with substantial cuts to fund the government through a continuing resolution after March 4. Tea Party pressures on freshman members caused the new members to balk and this action forced the committee to go back and find more cuts. Their goal is to cut $100 billion from the President’s budget. Presently, the list of cuts is not specific enough for us to determine the depth of the exact cut for the CDBG program or any other priorities.

President’s Budget - Monday, February 14

As reported to all mayors we were notified of the Administration’s request of a 7.5 percent cut of the HUD Community Development Block Grant by the Obama Administration last weekend on a White House call and in an op ed piece published in last Sunday’s New York Times authored by OMB Director Jacob Lew.

This notice comes one week before the President releases his budget on Monday, February 14. Mayors are disappointed by the President’s cut and now know that CDBG is on the chopping block. This federal investment we have had since 1974, over 36 years ago, is being threatened and the chance of annihilation of the program is the highest since its inception.

The fate of this federal investment, which continues to bring economic vitality to our cities, is now in the hands of the mayors, city council members, and the county officials of our nation.

As your CEO and Executive Director, I want to assure our members and non-members alike, we will use every force we can muster to stop further budget cuts from the CDBG program. The National League of Cities and The National Association of Counties are standing with us as they did when we worked to establish CDBG.

As we go forward, we will need an all out effort to reach our local and national allies from the business community, religious, civic, and non-profit organizations.

We thank all of you for the tremendous response we are receiving since we notified you of the Administration’s cut last weekend. Everyone has to do what they have to do. And we will do what we know how to do. We will fight to save CDBG with the leadership of President Elizabeth Kautz of Burnsville, Vice President Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, and Second Vice President Michael Nutter of Philadelphia, and the mayors of this nation, we will prevail.

Again thank you for following up on our requests for action and please pay close attention to our future calls for action as the new Congress is experiencing political turbulence not seen or experienced in modern history. We must be and we will remain agile and mobile, and with your help, your strength, your action, we will win for our cities, our counties, and above all, our people to protect CDBG the successful federal investment that Washington must continue. With the cutbacks in our own cities, the cutbacks coming from the states and the jobless recovery, now is the absolute worst time ever to cut this needed flow of economic development funds back to our cities. We must not let it happen.

Executive Director's Column

January 28, 2011
Washington, DC


Thanks to all the mayors who came to our Winter Meeting. Your leadership and participation continues to give the nation’s cities strength as we work with the Obama Administration and the new Congress.

As mayors left town, Washington awaited President Obama’s second State of the Union. Following the Tucson rampage and the national media frenzy over recent political rhetoric and lack of civility, many Republican and Democratic Senators and Congress members decided to sit together on the House floor. This development and somewhat basic act, that of Republican and Democratic members sitting down next to each other, got just about as much coverage as the President’s speech itself. You would’ve thought they had balanced the budget or passed the 1964 Civil Rights Bill.

Perhaps the President summed it up by recognizing the change in the seating of the night as he raised the question as to whether they would work together tomorrow. I had a flash back to 1961, The Shirelles song - Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? and the lyric line, “Is this a lasting treasure or just a moment’s pleasure? Can I believe the magic of your sighs? Will you still love me tomorrow?”

That’s the question before the American people today. Will the Congress work with the President? Will the President work with the Congress?

Immediately following the President’s address, there was not one Republican response; there were two. Right away, that didn’t seem to me like the American way. Two against one. But some might say it took two of them to respond to one of him. So the American public knows that one night of sitting together means nothing if when the night is over, or even before the night is over, the usual back and forth hardened rhetoric continues.

For over a year now during the many debates that have raged over other issues, it has been the mayors who have been pushing jobs, jobs, jobs, for our nation and our people. Conference President Kautz has not waivered. And at this Winter Meeting we had, due to her leadership and demand, the mayors and CEOs sitting together, working together, seeking answers to how business and mayors can work together to produce jobs to reduce the unacceptable high rates of unemployment across the nation.

We see the Washington players, the Congress and the President and the divisiveness. We have lived with it.

And then the nation comes to town. The nation, being the nation’s mayors, because the mayors are the nation, the nation of cities both large and small where the nation’s people live, work, and play, 24/7, 365 days a year. What a contrast to live in a divisive partisan political atmosphere of Washington, DC and then to experience a few days when the nation’s mayors come to town, working, debating with one thing in mind --- getting things done. Mayors get things done every day in their cities. They face unemployment, violence, illegal guns, immigration issues, traffic, recalls, challenged schools, homelessness, mental illness, poverty, pollution, and personal threats. Yet through it all they work on these issues because their electorate demands it and the mayors know it is expected of them.

America is and has been going through the worst economic times since the Great Depression. Some say we are coming out of it now. The people who don’t have a job didn’t get the news. Or as we say today, they didn’t get that email.

I said it at our Winter Meeting and I will state it here again. History will look back at what we went through and they will see what I have seen and what I see as we go through this time of depression and divisiveness. It is the nation’s mayors who have in their own way held this country together. They are there every day facing the media, facing the people and facing and helping the victims. They don’t fight with business; they work with business. When there is gun violence they talk about guns. They fight traffic and are blamed for it. They can’t run. They can’t hide.

This spirit of working together at the local level, which is devoid and bereft of any iota of partisanship, is part of their daily regimen and life. We saw it at this Winter Meeting of 2011. We marveled at it. It would’ve been good to have had the new Congress been given registration badges. It would have been good to have had them here mixing, mingling, learning not just how to sit together for one night but how it is for a group of elected leaders in America to work together to get things done for their government every day.

Some say today we are lucky to have this spirit of working in a bipartisan way within The United States Conference of Mayors. We are not lucky. Mayors work at it. We just accept our culture for what it is. And it’s always been that way. Today we, The United States Conference of Mayors are the last bastion of bipartisanship left in America. Washington leadership across the board could learn a lot of how it should be, to get things done by observing and hearing of how the mayors love their cities, like their cities, like their people and yes, love their people.

At this critical time when a new Congress and an adjusting President forms, once again we are reenergized or reaffirmed by the energy and spirit of the nation’s mayors assembled at our 2011 Winter Meeting. And with our mayoral leadership of President Elizabeth Kautz, Vice President Antonio Villaraigosa, and Second Vice President Michael Nutter we will bring the force of our bipartisan action to Congress and to the President to protect the interests of our people who live in cities large and small. It’s more than a one night sit. Morning comes, let’s love our country, let’s love our people and more than that, let’s quit fighting, and get things done.

The lyrics? So you don’t have to Google:
Tonight you're mine completely
You give your love so sweetly
Tonight the light of love is in your eyes
But will you love me tomorrow?

Is this a lasting treasure
Or just a moment's pleasure?
Can I believe the magic of your sighs?
Will you still love me tomorrow?

Tonight with words unspoken
You say that I'm the only one
But will my heart be broken
When the night meets the morning sun?

I'd like to know that your love
Is love I can be sure of
So tell me now, and I won't ask again
Will you still love me tomorrow?

So tell me now, and I won't ask again
Will you still love me tomorrow?


Let us hope that the Congress and the President will work together. And let us use our energy to set an example and push an agenda to force them toward a tomorrow that has civility, compassion, and love for our people. Thanks once more for coming to our 2011 Winter Meeting. Together, mayors will work to make a difference. It starts with a more civil nation. We started it here at our 2011 Winter Meeting as Tucson Mayor Bob Walkup brought us the first ever civility accord to sign. Let us continue as we go forward together for our cities and our nation.

Executive Director's Column

January 14, 2011

Washington, DC

Itís January 2011 and, once again, we welcome the nationís mayors to Washington for the 79th Winter Meeting.

New leaders have been elected in the House since the mid-term November elections. Committees are formed and soon the work begins.

President Obama and his economic team will soon send his 2011 budget proposals to Capitol Hill. The President proposes and Congress disposes.

At issue for us is the flagstone federal program since 1974, the HUD Community Development Block Grant program. Rumors and leaks from inside the Administration pointed to a proposed 25 percent cut in the CDBG program.

Calls involving mayors through the Christmas Holiday, on Christmas Eve and throughout the week leading up to New Years weekend continued expressing strong support for CDBG funding. Mayors continue to state that with the economic crunch we are experiencing, it is not the time to reduce the ongoing level of CDBG funds to cities throughout America.

We trust the voices of mayors and county officials supporting the CDBG program will be heard and that the Presidentís economic and political advisors will stand with President Obama who, at our 2008 Annual Meeting in Miami, said as a Presidential Candidate he supported "full funding of CDBG."

The New Congress

It is a bit early to tell where the new Congress is going to land as it deals with the CDBG program. Certainly, there is the air of the tea party to cut, cut, cut, cut and spend less.

It will be up to the mayors to protect this program. The Conference staff and our leadership will provide our mayors with the best economic and political arguments that CDBG should be fully funded. History shows that this block grant program has strong Republican support.

As a bipartisan group of elected officials, mayors must work on both sides of the aisles and up the middle of the aisle to protect this program. We can do it if we work together, and we will.

As we gather here in Washington this week, we will muster the support to return again in February and through the Spring to fight for this successful key priority, which is so needed during the economic downturn in so many cities.

We are appreciative of the way The National Association of Counties, The National League of Cities and The National Community Development Association have all come together as allies for this effort. The business community will be there giving support as they have been in the past. And together we will prevail.

Tucson Shooting - Arizona

Mayors from all over America and the globe have expressed their deepest sympathy and outrage over the senseless killings in Tucson. We applaud Tucson Mayor Walkup and Pima County Sheriff Dupnik for their leadership during this tragedy.

JFK 50th

Fifty years ago, he stood and made a speech that rings true today. He welcomed the challenges and he asked each of us to do something in our own way for our country. His daughter, Caroline, and I met early last year to keep his spirit and work alive. We are so proud and thankful to hundreds of mayors who have joined in the effort to go into our schools and ask our youth what they can do for our cities. Thank you Caroline Kennedy and thank you mayors for understanding and appreciating the force and living legacy of President John F. Kennedy our beloved 35th President.

2011 Congress - Action

Again, welcome to Washington for our 79th Winter Meeting and if I can be of any assistance to you while you are here and after you return home, please let me know. The coming weeks and months will present many challenges for key Conference of Mayors federal/city funded priorities. Working together, we will, as we have in the past, rise to the occasion and win. It is important that mayors and staff across America pay close attention to our calls to action as the Congress starts the appropriation and budgetary process. I look forward to working with you and Conference of Mayors President Elizabeth Kautz as we go forward.

Executive Director's Column

This year ends quite different on the political front than it was at the start of 2010. We have a new Congress and, while it will be more conservative, we really don-t know how our key issues will fare in this new environment. One thing we do know is that our key urban programs are threatened. If we are to keep funding for the HUD Community Development Block Grants and the Energy Block Grants, mayors must rise up and help us get the votes to counter drastic cuts or eliminations.
Conference President Burnsville Mayor Elizabeth B. Kautz met with senior staff last week here in our Washington headquarters. We had strategic discussions about how we can bring mayors together to develop a political strategy when they come to our Winter Meeting next month – January 19-21.
Our members at our Winter Meeting praised Mayor Kautz last year because she insisted we have more dialogue from mayors. She is scheduling next month a special "Mayors Only" session where we will gather to discuss not what we stand for because we know our priorities. We know they are threatened. We will be discussing what we do to protect our priorities. Mayors must be prepared to make every effort to inform their Congressional members of the importance of our block grants and even more important, the negative effect if our funds are cut or eliminated. In today's political environment, it is going to take more than sending a letter or an email. Mayors are going to have to get in their member's face and be forceful about the consequences when their funds are cut or eliminated.
Mayors are reminded that the CDBG funds just don-t sit in city hall. Thousands of vendors and businesses are involved with this money as it is used for the betterment of cities and city people. All who are involved in this initiative must be asked to register their need and concern to their members of Congress. We will go beyond city hall to activate as many as we can to make their voices be heard in Washington.
We have had three major partners in the CDBG effort over the decades since its inception in 1974: the National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties and, of course, the National Community Development Association. All three will be joined with us in this campaign. We will save CDBG again like we have done before when it has come under attack.
The governors get approximately one-third of this money. The governors dispense their funds to cities under 50,000 populations. We will call on individual governors to help us too.
Priorities/ActionEven before the "Tea Party" election last month, our priorities, as set by President Kautz and our leadership in September were: 1) Protecting the HUD Block Grants (CDBG); 2) Continuing the Energy Block Grants (EEBG); 3) Pushing for a more balanced federal transportation system; and 4) Reducing unfunded federal mandates.
When we met in September, all mayors knew there would be changes in the make-up of the voting scenario in the House and Senate. We knew our priorities then and we know what they are now. We must now move and act and we will. The "Mayors Only" Kautz session on January 19 during our Winter Meeting will give us the time to update our strategy as we join with our allies in the Winter and Spring to get the votes in the House and Senate to prevail. Together, we must rise to the occasion and remind all Senators and all Congressmen where they come from and even more important – where their votes come from.
Winter Meeting January 19 - 21, 2011We will need you here with us as the nation's mayors come to Washington for the first time as a group since the November election. President Kautz and our two Vice Presidents, Mayors Villaraigosa of Los Angeles and Nutter of Philadelphia, will need you here with us as we give one strong untied voice for our priorities to the media, the Administration, the House and the Senate. If you have not registered yet, please do so. Contact Carol Edwards at 202-293-7330 or cedwards@usmayors.org.
JFK - 50thOn January 20, 1961, 50 years ago, a young Senator from Massachusetts was being sworn in as President asking us to be engaged in public service, to volunteer, to give, to participate in governing and politics. Fifty years has gone by pretty fast. It was quite a while ago, but all polls still rank him as the number one most popular President of the modern presidencies. We have lost him, his son and his wife. His daughter, Caroline, has emerged to push his legacy of modern-day action into the next 50 years.
After meeting with Caroline Kennedy earlier this year, we have instituted our joint initiative JFK 50th: Mayors Ask What Youth Can Do. I am pleased to report that hundreds of mayors are joining to go into a school of their choice between January 5 and 15 to ask the youth to help do something for their city. We are getting a tremendous response from this request. Those mayors who need more information about what other mayors are doing with us and the youth of their city should contact Tom McClimon of my staff at 202-861-6729 or tmcclimon@usmayors.org.
We are pleased that Caroline will be joining with us on the 50th Anniversary of her father's inaugural address, January 20, 2011. In the evening, mayors are invited to a special concert at the Kennedy Center commemorating President Kennedy's Inauguration in 1961. President Kautz and I look forward to seeing you there.
Happy Holidays 2010On behalf of our President Burnsville Mayor Elizabeth B. Kautz, our leadership and all of the Conference staff, we wish you a Happy Holiday Season.

Executive Director's Column

This week, the aftermath of the November 2 elections around the United States continues to rearrange the power players in the official leadership of our federal government.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, certainly a friend of mayors and cities throughout her political career, has won a challenge from North Carolina Congressman Heath Shuler. Congresswoman Pelosi will become the Minority Leader when she is sworn in as the new Congress convenes. As Minority Leader, she will continue to stand and fight for us as she has done before. She is the daughter of the mayor of Baltimore. Her brother was the mayor of Baltimore. I have said before that the office of mayor is in her DNA. And throughout her tenure as our Speaker from the first week when former mayor of Trenton, Doug Palmer as our President, met with her, she endorsed and supported our Conference of Mayors 10-Point Plan.
Throughout this last Congressional mid-term, there was a concerted plan, a funded effort, in many Congressional districts to demonize her and attack Democratic candidates for voting with her. Many of these votes were votes for federal resources for our own Conference of Mayors legislative priorities.
We cannot predict what the future holds for many of our Congressional priorities. We send money to Washington from our cities. The Constitution provides that Congress shall allocate all this federal money nationally. Our challenge for decades is to get the money back to our cities where today 85 percent of Americans live. Throughout Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi's career, she has been a champion for the cities and the mayors of America. In the morning, noon and all night, she is there for us. That is important because there is a lack of transparency today with so much of how Congress operates. Throughout history, we read how a Congressman or Senator voted on key turning point pieces of legislation – Civil Rights, Declaration of War, etc. Today, key votes are done in Committee, in the middle of the night where our priorities are imbedded in some omnibus legislation. And we don't know who is with us or who is cutting us because of the secret machinations of Congress. This system continues and if anyone questions why it is important to have Nancy Pelosi in the leadership, I ask you to look back at previous votes where year after year she has been unwavering in protecting our programs.
The day will come soon when the future of the Community Development Block Grant may well be once again on the chopping block. We will have to fight again and again and again for key urban programs. Nancy Pelosi will be there for us. Morning, noon, and night in the summer, winter, spring, and fall you can count on her to defend and to fight for us. That's why I'm glad she's still up there. She could have ridden off into a Western sunset and spent her time left on this earth with her grandchildren. She decided to fight not only for herself, her reputation, her career; she decided to stand and fight once again for us, for cities and for mayors. We appreciate her support and we look forward to working with her as we develop our strategy in the political atmosphere brought on by the mid-term elections as we now enter and face the beginning of the Presidential campaign of 2012.
These are challenging times because of the economic conditions in so many of our cities who are experiencing a jobless recovery from the worst recession since the Great Depression. Our President, Burnsville Mayor Elizabeth Kautz, is communicating to all of you to let you know that she is working with me, staff, and our leadership as we establish our contacts and have meetings with the new Congressional Leadership.
As we thank so many at this Thanksgiving time in our nation, we need to thank our mayors and their teams who live with the economic pain and suffering of foreclosures and loss of jobs of so many of our people. Through other great crises in the last century, in a different time, in an almost different world, in time of want, when people were in breadlines, looking for jobs, they looked at Franklin Delano Roosevelt and he told them that the only thing to fear was fear itself. Well, FDR is not around anymore. And people nowadays don't look to Washington the way they once did. They turn to their mayors. Today, we are thankful to you, and this nation will one day look back at this period and marvel at how when Washington was confused, and Washington was fighting, it was our cities, our mayors, and yes our people who just kept going forward. Mayors, large and small, are working together at the local level with their partners in the metro areas doing their best to wipe away the tears, comfort the jobless and to do their best to work with the private sector, state, local, and national partners to keep their cities and metro areas economically strong. As we all know, our metro economies will drive the national economy to recovery.
On behalf of President Kautz, our officers and staff, we wish you and your families, those you hold dear and close, and to your staff teams who give so much, a blessed Thanksgiving of 2010 as we continue to move forward for our cities and above all for our people.
Happy Thanksgiving 2010!

Executive Director's Column

As U.S.Mayor goes to press, once again we are in the midst of another great swing of political power going in a different direction than we had in 2008 when President Obama was elected. Another swing was in 2006 which brought us a new Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, who was and is a true friend of America's cities.
Historians are saying this is the biggest swing since World War II. Recognizing that, many of us remember 1994 when President Clinton's world was turned upside down as Congressman Newt Gingrich became Speaker.
This morning we rejoice for our mayors running for Governor and Lieutenant Governor. Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, who jokingly says he still would rather be mayor, won big. A friend of mayors and cities, he will be even stronger on the political landscape and soon be mentioned as a presidential contender for 2016. You heard it here.
In Denver, Mayor Hickenlooper goes down the street from Denver City Hall to the next Governor of Colorado.
In California, two mayors, Jerry Brown, former Mayor of Oakland, and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom move to be Governor and Lieutenant Governor of the "Republic of California."
In New York, Andrew Cuomo, Clinton's Secretary of HUD who is in his heart a mayor, and Rochester Mayor Robert Duffy will go to Albany with strong urban credentials to run the Empire State of New York.
In Connecticut, the Nutmeg State, a tough campaign with night balloting in Bridgeport brings Stamford Mayor, our dear friend, Dan Malloy, to win the closest race since Abe Ribicoff won the Governorship in 1954. In Tennessee, Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam was elected. So all in all, mayoral candidates fared well in the Gubernatorial races. Not too long ago, mayors were not statewide contenders. Today mayors are running statewide and winning.
And of course, we must congratulate our own Mayor of Providence, who hosted us in Providence for our 2009 Annual Meeting and who has always exhibited extraordinary loyalty and leadership to our organization. That's Mayor David Cicilline who won the race for Congress and is replacing the only member of the Kennedy family serving to be the First District Congressman from Rhode Island.
So changes are here. And we will feel the change. House Members and its leadership and Senate members and its leadership - even Presidents - come and go but the U.S. Conference of Mayors, representing our mayors and our cities here, as solid as a rock to meet the challenges before us.
We will never forget the loyalty and leadership given to us from Speaker Nancy Pelosi. No matter where life takes her, she is our friend, always.
My experience is that once the rhetoric has calmed, the new Speaker of the House will realize he is the Speaker of the House and I have every reason to believe that Congressman John Boehner will meet with us and work with us to strengthen and perfect our key programs.
Conference President Elizabeth Kautz, a Republican from Burnsville, Minnesota, will lead us to establish our working relationship with the new Speaker in the coming weeks.
Our mission, our goals, and our bipartisan political agenda are strong. It has been since Mayor Elizabeth Kautz took the gavel - jobs, jobs, jobs. She has said it over and over since President Obama had us over to meet with him last January.
In addition to jobs, it's about a fair and balanced transportation legislation to help the blue, red, and purple states with – traffic.
It's also about protecting our key urban program, the Community Development Block Grant, HUD program, and to retain funding for our new Energy Block Grants. Together, our officers and members from both parties will rally behind President Kautz.
This is not the time to shudder in fear of change. Change is our middle name. Mayors live with it, morning, noon and night. We must be agile and mobile and politically alert because we are the guardians and protectors of our cities and our people.
In the coming days, we will also reach out to President Obama to support him and help him as he now faces a divided and split legislative branch – a Republican House and a Democratic Senate.
At this time in America, when we are more divided, and in some instances devoid and bereft of civility – The United States Conference of Mayors is the last bastion of bipartisanship left in the nation. We must convince The White House and the new Speaker that they must work together. Mayors do it every day. I know I speak for our President, Burnsville Mayor Elizabeth Kautz, our Vice President, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and our Second Vice President, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, when I say - Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Majority Leader Reid – let's all come together. Let's all work together. So much is good and great about America in 2010. Together we must provide the economic growth and jobs for all as we begin 2011. So many people are still unemployed. It is a jobless recovery. Together, involving all at the table – federal, state, and local government, we must make a difference now. The nation's mayors will be strong in our efforts asking all to come together as we do in our cities each day to make our cities stronger. It's our nation. It's our USA. We all need to put the partisanship aside now and work to support the working people of the nation who want what we have always wanted, a decent job, a decent wage, and a decent place to live. It seems like it's not a lot. Today people are hurting. Mayors know this. They live with it. Somehow let us hope that maybe the shift of power, the political earthquake we feel today can bring Washington back down to Main Street America. We are Main Street. And once again the nation's mayors are asking Washington – The White House, the House, the Senate – to give it up for what needs to be done, for what needs to be delivered. As mayors, we have no choice. And as mayors, we will continue to reach out to our federal government asking them to all work together. Mayors reach consensus and move ahead in cities large and small throughout America. This is an opportunity for Washington. And the nation's mayors welcome this opportunity to work together on a common agenda that is so needed at this time in our history.