The 66th President

The 66th President — The Speech The Vision
Miami Mayor Manuel Diaz took the gavel as our 66th President in a jam packed plenary luncheon and set a new course for us as he issued a clarion call for Washington to wake up and follow the real leaders of our nation, America’s mayors. The theme of his inaugural to The White House and to Congress is that national problems demand national investments.

Following the outstanding leadership given by Former President Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer advocating the ’08 Mayors Ten-Point Plan, President Diaz will focus on 5 central themes, the environment, crime, infrastructure, poverty and arts.

The first is the environment as we go forth with the mayoral grass roots effort supporting climate protection investments such as our $4 billion Energy Block Grant Program now pending before Congress.

Last year we held three national summits on Energy in Chicago, Atlanta and Seattle. As Mayor Diaz takes the gavel he will have 870 plus mayors as signees to our Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Our new Vice President, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, the founder of this powerful bipartisan political movement, will be standing alongside President Diaz as we create with a new President of The United States a new U.S. Department of Energy that will serve to provide a working hand to the mayoral leaders of this nation. They will not stop until Washington wakes up and provides a national investment towards energy conservation and independence from foreign oil. We must seize the Energy Department as never before. President Diaz and Vice President Nickels backed up by our mayoral leaders and the business sector will join together in common cause to demand a federal department that makes practical sense as we meet the challenge before all of us.

The second is crime as it relates to youth violence, banning automatic weapons such as AK47s and working with the outstanding police chiefs of this nation to secure federal funds for more police officers and resources for the latest technology to reduce crime on our streets and our neighborhoods.

Third is the arts, which in our world includes promoting international travel by securing federal funds for the investment of promoting American cities as destinations for Americans and equally, if not more important, destinations for international tourists and businesses. This destination promotion also includes our total and enthusiastic support to Chicago Mayor Rich Daley, as he is now our USA Mayor who will lead our nation to secure the 2016 Olympics for America.

Fourth is poverty. President Diaz feels very strongly that housing must be included as a priority for the national investment to provide all persons decent housing. The workforce issues are a part of the antipoverty priority — meaningful, productive and decent wages for all who want a job must be provided. New jobs will come from the green industries, as America will change their consumption and buying habits. This means thousands of green jobs and new careers. President Diaz demands investments to modernize our schools and provide alternative measures to prevent increased dropout rates in our schools. The superb leadership last year of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as our Poverty Task Force Chair has produced the policy and strategies that will be the keystone and basis as we go forward to further our efforts to eradicate poverty.

Mayor Diaz is quite adamant about making our citizens competitive to compete with citizens of the world. He tells us we are not competing with one American city against another. He points to Tokyo, Sydney, London, Berlin, Beijing, Ireland and other cities and countries on our globe.

The fifth is infrastructure and here Mayor Diaz cites the American Society of Civil Engineers who have rated America’s infrastructure with the grade of D plus. Mayor Diaz is much aware that under his watch we will engage in a fierce battle over the mammoth federal legislation SAFETEA-LU that will pour billions of dollars from Washington across our nation. Today, Mayor Diaz recognizes that this legislation must not be another highway bill. The critical issue with traffic, the movement of goods and services throughout our economic structure plus the challenging question of getting to and from work or anywhere demands wise and smart investments. The current surge of gas prices will force the American people to demand a transportation system that is climate and energy centered. Mayor Diaz, with USCM Transportation Chair Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, will not stand for pouring additional monies in a highway bill that does nothing to produce the product line America will demand, namely smarter highways, increased capacity and modernization of rails in America.

In addition to smarter transportation investments, Mayor Diaz will push for sound investments into water and waste management. Water is the life of our nation and our cities and mayors will continue to lead the way. Present and future demands will require a new way of investing in our water infrastructure.Mayor Diaz’s inaugural words were directed straight at Washington where billions of our taxpayers’ money is sent in truckloads from our cities. He is demanding that our money must be sent home which was uttered in a simple but stern statement — “National problems demand national investments.” His vision and aim is wide like a shotgun blast; it touches every aspect of American life and his plan of action will be as focused as a microscopic rifle — to put the money where it should be put — to support the metropolitan economic engines of the nation so that America will be even stronger. Together the metro economic engines will continue to drive the national economy to maintain our economic leadership among nations of the world.

The Plan. The Visit.
After the hoopla, the stress, the adrenalin outpour lowered, I left the 76th Annual Meeting and crossed the bridge to vacation and recover with the eleven grandkids. As I splashed in the pool on the beachfront of The Loews Hotel and soaked up the sun, I pondered as to what my new President was thinking. He will be my 40th President. Yes, I live with change. With all due respect to Senator Obama, I know what change is. So I was getting myself ready for the play — the plan. And I knew Mayor Manny Diaz was thinking too. Once, not too long ago, he said to me “Tom, I don’t talk quite as much as some but I am always thinking.” So I knew he had been thinking. We had talked about priorities but that was before he became my new boss, my 40th President — So I was ready.

The call came around 10:30 on Saturday night I missed it; slow to hit the receive button on the blackberry phone but the voice mail was Mayor Diaz “Hey look I’ve been thinking and I think you and Ed Somers after everybody is gone should come over to my house for some burgers and we can do a little business.”

So Ed and I went to his home. His wife, Robin, had cooked the burgers, ready at 1:30 but before we ate, we went to his front porch and he gave us his plan in a conversation that lasted for over five hours.

He was crystal clear about what he wants to do. He spoke without a pause or a smidgen of indecisiveness.

He will create and lead five national forums between now and October 4 in five national cities on five condensed action strategies of the Mayors ‘08 Ten Point Plan.

In Chicago, there will be a ‘08 Mayors Action Forum on the Arts. In Los Angeles, there will be a Forum on Poverty. In Miami, a Forum on the Environment, in New York a Forum on Infrastructure, and in Philadelphia a Forum on Crime.

As U.S.Mayor goes to press, President Diaz is calling Mayors Villaraigosa, Daley, Bloomberg and Nutter to establish the dates to be announced.

This will be a national tour. All mayors will be invited; allies will be invited from the academic community, from the business community and from experts in the given areas.

These will not be “summits” where pontification is the rule. These forums will be focused to produce five action plans to merge into an ’08 Mayors Action Agenda that will be delivered to our leadership mayors at our Fall Leadership Meeting, October 2–4, 2008. Mayors at our Fall Leadership Meeting will work in facilitated working sessions on Crime, Environment, Infrastructure, and Poverty to forge and condense the Ten Point Plan into the ’08 Mayors Action Agenda to deliver to the next President after he is elected November 4. Mayors will be forceful to offer clear and succinct recommendations to our new President-elect and mayors will succeed in persuading the new President to include our recommendations in his 100-day agenda to Congress after he takes the oath on January 20, 2009.

At our 2009 Winter Meeting in Washington, January 17–19, mayors will meet in groups with the new Cabinet where we will forge new partnerships to implement our mayoral action agenda.

In the meantime, President Diaz instructed me to change the method of operation for our media approach to the nation and the world. He wants an “in your face” attitude of our media effort. He believes that we should wake up every day and ask, “Where are the mayors in this story?” We will be relentless because our issues relate to the issues of the day and we have a new leader who wants a respectful “edge.” He wants us to wake up Washington and again demand that national problems in our cities demand national investments.

After over five hours of his delivery of command and charge to me and Ed, we did finally get to the burgers. They were good. We needed them! Thank you, Robin.

We walked from the porch and flopped in the car. It moved slowly down Fairview and I was so proud of him for his vision and plan of action. I am energized and honored that he has given me the trust to direct and implement his plan of action. I have had 39 of them and this is my 40th President. He said the night before; we were going to “talk a little business.” It wasn’t business as usual and it wasn’t usual business. His charge to me came forth with the precision of a five-star general. Manny Diaz is as focused as I have ever seen. He is the real deal. He is strongly convinced and determined that this is the moment of history for the mayors.

And he is the man we are blessed to have to sit down in front of President McCain or President Obama. He will not blink. He will deal. And he will win.He will win for our organization and for the great mayors of the cities of America, both large and small.

It’s most important for all of us to recognize that people, the voters, yes, and the voters! are with us.

Join Manny Diaz in a new way of doing business, to wake them up, put the pressure where the pressure needs to be put and to cut the deal for us. We are crossing the river. With your support, he can get us to the mountaintop.

Thanks for your continued support to this great organization, now 76 years old. The United States Conference of Mayors stands tall and strong today because of the great men and women in city halls throughout America who support our efforts and our services. As we enter our 76th year, there is a new beginning and a new kind of feeling like we really have just begun.

This really is the moment for the mayors in American history. Let us seize it. It is ours. And with Mayor Manuel A. Diaz as our President, nothing will get in our way. Join us! We need you. Together, we will back up his words — “National problems demand national investments.” And together, we will continue to make a difference in the daily lives of all our people where the overwhelming majority of them live, work and play, in the cities of America.