Executive Director's Column

In Trenton this week on the night of October 20, Mayor Douglas Palmer launched a historical initiative, “Trenton First.” Hundreds gathered to hear Mayor Palmer and President Clinton. Mayor Palmer’s non-profit will encourage grass roots efforts and citizen action to make Trenton a sustainable city. Mayor Palmer says that his experience with the Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Center, our USCM Climate Protection Agreement signed by over 1000 mayors, The C-40 Large Cities Summit, and the Clinton Global Initiative have all given him energy and vision to create this Trenton non-profit.

It was a special evening in Trenton to witness the trust, respect, and yes, love, that these two men have for each other. President Clinton told of how Mayor Palmer was “ahead of the curve” on a recent tour to Africa, and gave him his vision on green initiatives for Trenton. President Clinton said he would support Mayor Palmer “for the rest of my natural born days.” So that means that President Clinton for sure will, among other things, help Mayor Palmer continue to raise money for “Trenton First.” Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter also joined in to come to Trenton to congratulate his neighbor Mayor Palmer on the launch of “Trenton First.” Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage along with a strong delegation of New Jersey mayors attended the ticketed event. Thousands of dollars were raised for the launch and Mayor Palmer let the crowd know that he will work on this initiative and support it for the rest of his new life, after his term ends as Trenton’s mayor next year.

We all know that Mayor Palmer has done so much to push the green agenda forward. When Congresswoman Pelosi became Speaker Pelosi, Mayor Palmer and I took his “10 Point Plan” to the Speaker. The number one priority of the “10 Point Plan” was the creation of the Energy Block Grants program, which is now a reality.

As Mayor Palmer has been active nationally, he has now transformed his vision into action and he has given to his historic city of Trenton a gift, “Trenton First,” that will be a catalyst toward a green and sustainable city.

The other thing that must be mentioned is that Mayor Palmer is providing leadership in a city like Trenton. This is not Seattle, Boulder, or Minneapolis. It is a city with diverse neighborhoods, and joblessness is a factor. It has been a challenge from day one to sell the climate change issue and saving polar bears to challenged communities with unemployment. Mayor Palmer’s creation “Trenton First” is a best practice that we hope other mayors will consider.

President Clinton said that Palmer’s “Trenton First” is historic and challenged us at the Conference of Mayors to encourage and promote this best practice to other cities who have signed on to the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.

Unemployment Up

As we learned in our recent leadership meeting in Seattle, joblessness is raging in many of our cities. As directed, we have a survey in the field to provide a national report on unemployment in cities across the Nation. We need this information and we will use it strategically as many groups are discussing among themselves and with Obama officials the need for emergency relief from the current unemployment condition in hundreds of cities. The stimulus money is out there, but unemployment continues to rise in so many areas. This is a challenge for all of us. The mayors feel and see the pain when a person loses his or her job. When members of Congress start running for re-election next year, a few months from now, they will be forced to deal with it. When incumbent Senators face re-election they will have to deal with it. Some of the mayors races now are showing visceral reaction to joblessness. Voters aren’t happy. Incumbent Members of Congress are lucky they don’t have to face voters this year. But they will soon and they will be forced to provide real jobs as 14 states have over 10 percent unemployment rate now. And if a state has a 10 percent rate, our cities unemployment rates will be much higher.

In Washington this week, Administration Officials have begun to discuss how many jobs have been created or saved under the $787 billion stimulus program. The President has a goal of creating 3.5 million by the end of this year.

And every now and then, some economists say that the current recession, the worst since the Great Depression, “is over.” Many have begun to say it’s a jobless recovery. Some say that Wall Street is recovering. But we know that Main Street is suffering. Addressing hundreds of mayors in Chicago at last month’s Illinois Municipal League meeting, Mayor Daley said that Washington keeps saying the recession has ended and then he suggested that they are drinking or smoking something in Washington when they say the recession has ended.

It’s tough for mayors right now. These are hard times. Mayors are being forced to fire and lay off people they know. It’s much more personal especially in the medium-size cities. And yet big city mayors are going through it too.

Thanks for providing us the data and information on your unemployment and local economic conditions. Together, we will continue to present your needs to the Administration and the Congress.

Executive Director's Column

Washington DC

August 4, 2009

On July 28, one month after our annual meeting, mayors were back – this time, Washington DC, the Senate side of Capitol Hill, meeting with Committee on Environment and Public Works, Chair Barbara Boxer about the Senate Climate Bill providing funds for energy block grants to cities.

USCM Vice President, Burnsville Mayor Elizabeth Kautz, Past President Mayor Douglas Palmer of Trenton, Energy Chair Mayor Miguel Pulido of Santa Anna, Mayor James Baker of Wilmington, Mayor Chris Bollwage of Elizabeth, Mayor David Cicilline of Providence, Mayor Tim McDonough of Hope, Mayor Brian Stratton of Schenectady, and Mayor Brain Wahler of Piscataway.

In meetings with Senator Boxer, she gave the mayors every reason to know that her bill will contain language in it providing a share of funds that will go directly to cities and counties with a distribution system as contained in The U.S. Conference of Mayors Energy Block Grant Program.

Mayors present in the meeting with Senator Boxer gave our organization’s pledge of support to bring mayors back to town in September. Further, mayors pledged to reach out to key Senators during the August recess. September 28 is the date Majority Leader Reid has charged all committees to be done with their final say on the historic climate legislation.

No question, the Senate floor vote will be close. We must give our total attention to the Senate Climate Bill. Senate action is a must if we are going to have our language in the bill because the House-passed climate bill does not provide direct funding to cities. The House would give billions to the states to spend on climate protection as they see fit. Today we have over 950 cities poised and ready to create green jobs and retrofit our cities to help our nation attain its climate protection goals.

Every mayor is aware of the amount of money he or she is getting under the Energy Block Grant Program as contained in the recovery act, ARRA. But ARRA is a one shot deal. We must have sustainable funding for our new energy block grants. That’s why language providing such is so important. We need your help as we go forward. The political atmosphere of Washington presents the feeling that if we do not get this climate bill now, we may never get it. Next year’s congressional elections may bring changes. We must use this moment to do everything in our power to continue our energy block grants. This bill would provide sustainable funding for forty years. We must not lose this opportunity. Stay close to us as we go forward. And plan to be with us as we call mayors, at the request of Senator Boxer, to come to Washington in September to continue our efforts as we head for a floor vote in the Senate this Fall.

The National Urban League

President and CEO Morial and President Nickels

National Urban League President and C.E.O. Marc Morial provided strong leadership at the 99th Annual National Urban League in Chicago this past week. Conference President Greg Nickels gave a powerful speech to thousands assembled. President Nickels echoed his inaugural remarks last month in Providence as he continues to call for a new deal for cities in America. With great credibility having founded our USCM Climate Protection movement, Nickels urges the Senate to pass the Climate Bill and he urges that provisions for our energy block grants be contained in the Senate Bill.

Following his major address, I had the opportunity to participate in a green jobs panel sponsored by Wal-Mart during the sessions in Chicago.

The meeting ended with a black-tie gala honoring among others, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.

Marc Morial, President and C.E.O. of The National Urban League continues to push his organization in partnership with ours. The history of The National Urban League and The United States Conference of Mayors is strong and deep. Today, it is important we have a former mayor and President of The Conference of Mayors running the organization. Marc Morial doesn’t forget where his father came from. Both his father Ernest “Dutch” and Marc Morial were outstanding Presidents during some perilous times of The U.S. Conference of Mayors. Today, Marc Morial continues to manifest bold leadership. And together The National Urban League and The U.S. Conference of Mayors will be a strong coalition for a new metro/urban policy for our future. The stars are lined up. Leadership, bold leadership, will be needed if we are to enact and transform the current status quo funding mechanisms that ignore the strength of our metro economies. We will continue to strengthen this partnership and to work in a collaborative political effort as we work to streamline the federal/city funding mechanisms into a more efficient way of keeping our metro-economies strong.

Thank your Marc. Thank you Rhonda Spears Bell. A great meeting – and we look forward to the 100th Centennial Celebration of The National Urban League next July right here in Washington, DC.

Happy Birthday Mayor Goodman

On Friday July 31st Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, “The Happiest Mayor in the Universe” celebrated his 70th Birthday. Las Vegas turned out to pay tribute to the Mayor at the Golden Nugget in downtown Las Vegas in Las Vegas style. Mayors from all over had sent letters, emails, and cards. It was a birthday event that raised money for charities that will long be remembered. We salute Mayor Goodman and First Lady Carolyn. We thank him for his leadership and his personal contribution to our United States Conference of Mayors. From the nation’s mayors and our Conference staff team we say – Happy Birthday to Oscar Goodman, The Happiest Mayor in the Universe!

Executive Director's Column

Energy Block Grants Deadline June 25, Get on it! - New Stimulus Money
June 25 is the deadline for applications for mayors and their cities to apply for the funds that have been approved for your city. While the Department of Energy is sending out notices and we have published the city allocations in U.S. Mayor, recent inquiries and reports cause me concern that mayors and cities might not be aware of this new $2.6 billion Energy Block Grant that we fought for, and won, to be included in the $787 billion stimulus bill passed by Congress.
I recognize you are getting a number of emails each week. Still, I call your immediate attention to the application deadline of June 25 for the Energy Block Grant funds that are provided to you as a result of our efforts.

For further information about the application process please contact Debra DeHaney-Howard at ddehaney@usmayors.org or 202.861.6702.

New Jersey – Environmental Leadership
At the annual New Jersey Conference of Mayors luncheon on April 30, I addressed the mayors following New Jersey Governor Corazine’s remarks. Governor Corazine is going through hell with budget issues and he does his best telling his mayors that they will survive the economic pains suffered by all. Governor Corazine reminded the 400 assembled that the largest solar powered building in the United States is in Atlantic City. As he spoke I came afterwards with observations about New Jersey sparked by the Governor’s comment.
New Jersey, to the average person, isn’t exactly perceived to be one of the greenest states in the Union. But so much comes from the state with environmental leadership and stewardship of our planet.

The “brownfield” movement we started with the Clinton Administration and reached its success when New Jersey Governor Christie Todd-Whitman joined with other Republicans to get support to sign the brownfields bill in 2001. The mayor who led us in the beginning and continues to lead was Elizabeth, New Jersey Mayor Christopher Bollwage.

When Trenton, New Jersey Mayor Doug Palmer became our President, he developed, with our help, the “Mayors 10 Point Plan.” Again a New Jersey leader, Mayor Palmer, led the way. Palmer made the Energy Block Grant the number one issue as he bonded and partnered with Speaker Pelosi and we prevailed with a lot of hard work from many, authoring the $2 billion Energy Block Grant Program.

It was New Jersey again who responded when Mayor Palmer worked with Senator Bob Menendez to be our champion for the new Energy Block Grants with in the Senate Energy Committee and to all members. New Jersey also gave us Mayor Frank Lautenberg who helped with the appropriations process.

Our relationship with the New Jersey Conference of Mayors continues, and every time I turn around I find new environmental leadership from New Jersey.

Most recently, our friend Lisa Jackson was named by President Obama to head the Environmental Protection Agency. She’s New Jersey too, having served as the state’s EPA Director.

Piscataway Mayor Brian Wahler, our Membership Chair, was elected President of the New Jersey Conference of Mayors. And our great friend Hope, New Jersey Mayor Tim McDonough heads the New Jersey League of Cities.

The passage of the Energy Block Grant would not have been possible with out the leadership of New Jersey. We thank them for their vision, their leadership and we will stay close and take care of these special relationships – so important for the fight that looms to continue the Energy Block Grant funding when the stimulus money runs out.

Disarmament – 2020 Abolition Nuclear Weapons
In New York at The United Nations this week, we were fortunate to have two outstanding mayors, Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic and Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie, along with Hiroshima Mayor Akiba to continue to join with other mayors from across the globe as mayors throughout the world pressure their Presidents, Prime Ministers and Heads of State to abolish all nuclear weapons by 2020. Mayors were there from many countries around the globe.
Survivors of the Hiroshima bombing of 1945 spoke. We are reminded that bombs are dropped on cities to kill millions. Dropping bombs in the rural areas is a waste of ammunition. People who lived through the atomic bombs we dropped on Hiroshima are reminders. They usually start off talking about what they were doing on the August 6, morning at 8:15 a.m. It is usually a city activity.

The simple message in New York at the Mayors for Peace meeting is that we need to abolish all nuclear weapons so that the USA or other countries won’t drop them on cities anywhere in the world.

Mayor Plusquellic is Vice Chair of Mayors for Peace. The organization will be with us in Providence along with Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba, Chair of Mayors for Peace. Other Mayors for Peace meetings are planned and we will continue to be present. We have strong policy supporting these activities adopted in Los Angeles at our 75th Meeting.

Obesity – Healthy Cities
In Washington this week, I had the privilege of sitting with Robert Wood Johnson Foundation President and CEO, Risa Lavizzo-Mourey at a special dinner honoring mayors and local officials. Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey was the keynoter and she told all of us that the leadership against obesity among U.S. adults and children is today in our cities and counties in America. While we have the most obese adults and children in the world, it is a fact that our children are taking in fewer calories than just a few years ago. She makes a strong point about the grocery stores in our cities. In D.C. she goes neighborhood by neighborhood citing high numbers of grocery stores in the wealthy areas and still just one in the lowest income neighborhood. With no grocery stores, that means high calories and nutritionless food in other places of businesses other than grocery stores with fish, vegetables, and fruit. We are lucky to have such a leader as Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey who understands what our cities and our mayors are doing today. We thank her and what she and her foundation is doing to provide us the opportunity to lead the nation in our continuing struggle against the obesity epidemic in our nation.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Columbia Mayor Darwin Hindman received national awards for their efforts. Conference Vice President Elizabeth Kautz presented the award to Mayor Newsom.

Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett addressed the group too. He is internationally recognized for putting Oklahoma City on the path to overall weight loss and preventive health care.

Jack Kemp
Jack Kemp died this week. He was THE compassionate conservative. He liked mayors. He was most comfortable with all Americans. He firmly believed that every American should have an opportunity to be a part of the American dream. When he came to speak to us so many times you could feel that he was happy to be there. He wanted to be there. And he was like Hubert Humphrey, a happy warrior in politics. I recall one night flying back from Africa with him and Denver Mayor Wellington Webb. We laughed and traded stories. And we traded ideas. Some were lost in the evening and some became reality. He was a Republican who loved cities and our people. Today the Republican Party needs ideas and something to be happy about. His obituaries come as Governor Jeb Bush and others start a listening tour to build a new Republican party. Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough has come out with a book. Too bad Kemp is not here. He would add so much, they need more than Rush Limbaugh. Jack Kemp did his part; he gave new bold ideas for his party and he was the true compassionate conservative of this nation. We need more like him.

Jack Maltester – Our 27th President
Former San Leandro President Jack Maltester died last Friday. He was my first USCM President 1969-70. That was 40 years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday. He was an ardent Jack Kennedy Democrat and yet he knew how to work both sides of the aisle. Early on in the Nixon transition period he was leading the way to support the original CDBG program, the establishment of EPA, General Revenue Sharing and CETA programs. There were billions of dollars being infused directly into cities, which surpasses even the direct funding amounts we have today with the current stimulus.

The Vietnam War in 1971 had divided the nation to abject hostility that produced thousands of people in the streets of American cities on a regular basis. It was the small town mayor from San Leandro who brought a resolution to our 1971 Philadelphia meeting calling for President Nixon to withdraw troops in Vietnam. The resolution failed on a first vote in the USCM Resolutions Committee. He immediately chided the big city mayors and called them out in public. It was a defining moment of leadership I’ll never forget. He then, after his passionate speech, called for a revote and the resolution passed the Resolution Committee. The next day the body of mayors stood with him, including Mayor Richard J. Daley, and for the first time in history the nation’s mayors had voted against their President’s decision and a war. This was all pre-Watergate. President Nixon was strong. Maltester stood up and again the leadership of a smaller city mayor helped turn the nation around. Forty years later we still have scars from what the Vietnam War has done to our country. Healing began though, and Maltester’s leadership helped start it by what he did that June day in 1971 at the Bellevue Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia.

Mayor Maltester’s memorial services will be on May 16, in the City Hall of San Leandro. I will be there representing you as his city and all of us say goodbye to a great mayor and a true leader as President of the Conference of Mayors.

Providence - 77th Annual Meeting, June 12-16
Register now. Providence, Rhode Island is the place you need to be as we move the resources and personnel of the Obama administration to Mayor David Cicilline’s City of Providence.

Contact Carol Edwards now 202-861-747 or cedwards@usmayors.org.

Executive Director's Column

April is the month in poetry and literature that is about life, green trees, grass and buds flourishing, starting anew after long dark cold winters.

Green too, is the word we use for Earth Day/week and the “green” things we do to protect our environment and our globe, not just this one week, but every week.

April, in recent years, brings the color red. Red for the blood of our men, women, and –yes– innocent children that comes out of their bodies as they are shot by automatic AK47 and other weapons. Violence in America seems to raise its ugly head of death even higher in April.

It was on April 4th 1968 that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot in Memphis. Five days later on April 9th we walked behind the mule drawn casket all the way from Ebenezer Church to Morehouse College where Dr. Benjamin Mays said those beautiful words. I sat under a tree with Marlon Brando and Nina Simone.

It was the pretty month of April 1993 when the 80 people, 21 of them children, were massacred in Waco, Texas.

It was April 19th 1995, people were killed after a truck, parked outside the Murray Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City containing 5,000 pounds of fertilizer, ammonium nitrate, was ignited with a fuse. The driver locked the keys inside, lit the fuse and walked away and started to jog. At 9:02 am the entire north face of the building was reduced to dust and rubble. People were there ready to work; children had been dropped off at the day care center. 168 people were killed on the beautiful April day, including 19 beautiful and innocent children.

It was on April 20th 1999, a beautiful day in Colorado, that two students with high-powered firearms embarked on a massacre mission at Columbine High School and killed 12 students, one teacher and significantly wounded 23 others before committing suicide. Following this tragic event on that beautiful day, only the fourth deadliest school massacre in the USA, there was indeed, at least, national conversation. Denver Mayor Wellington Webb was our President; he asked Charlton Heston, the great actor turned gun fanatic, not to come to the National Rifle Association (NRA) meeting in Denver where Heston would raise his rifle over his head. We designed a portable “Wall of Death” like the Vietnam Wall depicting names of victims in 100 cities that were killed by gun violence in America during the year after Columbine. It got attention. It was displayed on the Washington Mall, the Denver City-County Building and at the Stapleton Convention Center in Los Angeles. It all started on an April day in Littleton, Colorado. The conversation lasted for a few months. They even developed and marketed a deadly video game which delves into the beautiful morning of April 20, 1999 and asks for players to relive that day through the eyes of Eric and Dylan the kids that used the deadly weapons, kept in the bedrooms of their homes, as they came to and fro attired in long black coats, and then used the weapons to kill those beautiful children on that beautiful April day in Rocky Mountain high blue sky Colorado in 1999.

It was on another day in April, on the 16th in 2007, at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia that the deadliest single gunman peacetime shooting occurred anywhere in our history. The killer had had some mental challenges before he hit the Hokie campus; he was treated for severe anxiety disorder in middle school, received therapy through high school. While in college he was accused of stalking two women students and was declared mentally ill by a Virginia Special Justice. But with his mental issues he purchased a 22 caliber automatic handgun and a 9mm semi automatic Glock 19 handgun. Hundreds of rounds were fired; hundreds of live rounds were found. Thirty-two people were killed that day; many others were wounded and the killer also killed himself. That was April just two years ago.

The violent springtime blood of 2009 started a little early this year. Even before the beautiful month of April, ten innocent people in a church worshiping God and a preacher were killed in Samson, Alabama on March 10. Four police officers were killed in Oakland, eight nursing home residents were shot to death in Carthage, North Carolina, five family members were killed in Santa Clara, California. On April 3, thirteen people teaching and learning to be American citizens were killed in Binghamton, New York. In Graham, Washington five children were killed on April 4, and on the same day of April 4, three police officers were killed in Pittsburgh. And in Miami over the last few weeks twelve members of three families were killed.

This past week in Frederick, a Maryland father shot his wife, his three children, ages five, four, and two. The father, using a small caliber gun, shot the older children, ages five and four, multiple times in their heads; the youngest, age two, received only one shot to the head. After the father shot and killed the children, the Sheriff said the father nearly decapitated the children, cutting their heads almost off with a kitchen knife and pruning saw. Then the father killed himself with a shotgun.

We have a few more days left in April. There will be more. These killings haven’t received the media attention that was given to previous Aprils. There’s a silence about it in 2009. Conference President Miami Mayor Manny Diaz has issued a strong statement urging congress and the White House to act. They could begin by banning the sale of AK47 automatic weapons. Police Chiefs and border patrolmen will tell you that the open sale of these weapons provokes more killing and violence.

The “elephant” in the room is the NRA, the National Rifle Association. You have to admire Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. This past weekend he hit the tv talk shows calling for a number of actions from Congress that would help save lives and prevent violence.

It is interesting how contaminated peanut butter gets so much media attention. Two people woke up in California and had stomach cramps and the salmonella scare kept contaminated peanut butter on the radar news screen for months. Paul Helmke, President and CEO of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, former Ft. Wayne Mayor, and former USCM President talks about the news coverage the peanut butter scare has received as compared to the death by guns this spring. Then after the peanut butter scare we read about contaminated pistachio nuts and the dangerous threat contaminated pistachios pose to the lives of Americans.

Mass murders continue this April. The death by guns and violence continues. You have to wonder what it will take to get, at least, some movement on this issue. Maybe it will be more deaths. Aprils are tough for America. Nothing has changed. We had hoped for a little more from Congress, The White House, The Justice Department and the media. Mayors and Police Chiefs speak out, funerals and tributes where flags are folded and given to widows and widowers of police officers and multiple caskets of innocent men, women and children are on display. We see them, we count them, wondering when it will stop. While there is the strange silence, the red blood of America flows due to devastation of death and violence in this April of 2009. There are some common sense gun safety things we can do. But right now even though violence came a little earlier this Spring, and the deaths come stronger than ever, in so many places, Washington is asleep. Washington is deaf to the gunshots. Washington is in denial of the deaths that will continue to come when today so many guns, illegal or legal, are in the hands of youths, the mentally ill, and criminals in America.

Happy Earth Day 2009!

Executive Director's Column

This week mayors met with Education Secretary Arne Duncan. He is a different kind of Education Secretary. He is refreshing in the way he is so fiercely honest about his feelings about mayors being in control of their public schools.

He is very much aware of the challenges some mayors face with a challenged school boards, drop'out rates, demands from unions and state bureaucracies.

He is offering to come out in our cities to help mayors involve their governors to help them with the billions of stimulus dollars that have been sent out to the states for education purposes. During the discussions with him, the mayors’ questions are raised, questions about the new “Race To The Top” initiative. Mayors are learning that there may be no funds from this stimulus program that goes directly to cities or school districts. Secretary Duncan reassures them that applications from states that do not include funding and inclusion of city schools will be rejected. He also offers some hope when the word waiver is mentioned.

In the private meeting, Secretary Duncan wants to know how he can help the mayors. He recalls that former Department of Education calls to his office in Chicago were usually not to assist, but to discuss audits etc. You leave the closed meeting believing that this guy is hell bent to reform the public schools of America. He believes in mayors and is convinced we can do USA school reform with mayors in control.

He comes from the Daley School. We remember like yesterday when Chicago Mayor Daley called me, and all the mayors, to want time at our national meetings to discuss school reform and to promote more mayoral involvement. Mayor Daley was our “biblical” Moses on this issue in that he led the way and nothing would stop him from working night and day to get to the promised land of school reform in the great city, Chicago.

At that time the Chicago public schools were in shambles, the state legislature turned the schools over to Mayor Daley – getting rid of what they thought to be a hot potato. They passed it on over from Springfield and served it up to Chicago. And that’s exactly what Mayor Daley wanted. It was through his sheer determination and laser vision that the Chicago schools were transformed into the example they are today.

After our private meeting this week where Secretary Duncan was quite honest about his position, he spoke openly on the subject in our U.S. Conference of Mayors National Education Forum. With national press attending, he was just as fierce. He reminded me so much of Mayor Daley himself as he spoke on the necessity for mayors to wade in and provide courage and leadership for school reform.

Secretary Duncan is refreshing in this town of Washington. So many are careful about what they say about this or that. It is rare that a Secretary will put his whole career on the line because he knows and believes that true school reform will not happen unless mayors get out there to lead the way in their cities. As Mayor Daley put his political life on the line for school reform, so is Secretary Duncan. And you want him to get it done nationally as Mayor Daley did in Chicago. Secretary Duncan is giving the mayors the commitment that he will be there for them as he encourages them to have political will, political courage, and political leadership on school reform to produce American high school graduates who will be equipped to compete with others across the globe.

This week with Secretary Duncan, we begin a new day, a new year for school reform. He came to us. He is saying to us, “You must do this. I want to help you.” Public schools now move higher on our priority list as we all have something to win because when its all said and done, its about the children, the students who will become the men and women who will make our country what it is to be.

Mayors need to understand that because of the Secretary’s position, the mayors now have a reason to call their school boards and to work together with them to get new money for school reform in their cities from the states. Duncan says he is not approving state plans without innovative city initiatives. We thank Secretary Duncan for his blatant honesty and his determination. We thank him for committing himself as mayors move forward to follow this man who has done it in Chicago – for Chicago’s kids, and now wants to do it in America – for America’s kids.

Energy Block Grants

The Department of Energy announced the city allocations for our new Energy Block Grants and mayors are most pleased with these allocations. We must remember they would not have this money had it not been for the leadership and tenacity of the mayors and staff of The United States Conference of Mayors.

Yesterday, I did a live webcast with Mr. Gil Sperling of the Energy Department. Hundreds of questions came in from all over the nation and Mr. Sperling did an excellent job of answering the many questions that were asked.

We appreciate the new relationship we have with the Department of Energy and we pledge to continue to work with them in a trusting relationship to give us the flexibility we need to develop our Energy Block Grants to truly meet local needs.

USMAYORS.org – Your home in the sky!

Please watch our website, usmayors.org to get updates and the very latest on our new Energy Block grants as well as all of the very latest information on the many streams of funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). If you have any questions or if I can be of assistance to you, please let me know. Again, thanks for your personal contributions and leadership in making the needed energy block grants that must be continued when ARRA expires. We will spend the money wisely. We will have best practices with measurable and positive results. And we will be successful to continue those block grants to meet the goals of our Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement, now signed by 935 mayors.

Diaz Blasts Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal for Recent Statement on the Arts

Governor Bobby Jindal had the audacity to say in recent states that arts federal funds have nothing to do with stimulating the national economy. Conference President Diaz has responded. See article.

Click to read article.

WSJ: States, Cities in Tug-of-War Over Stimulus Funds

I am attaching for all mayors article from Wall Street Journal sent to my attention for all of you from Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, Vice President of The US Conference of Mayors.

Click to read the article.

Highway Department Highway Transportation Lists? ARE YOU ON THE LIST?

HELLO MAYORS! State Highway Department Highway Transportation Lists? ARE YOU ON THE LIST? Demand Now To Know If The State Highway Department Has Your Projects On Their List. LET ME KNOW.


On Friday 20, President Obama and Vice President Biden met with 80 mayors from 39 states in The White House. Before the President and The Veep showed up, we had about 2 hours of give and take with 5 Cabinet officers: Donovan of HUD, LaHood of Transportation, Duncan of Education, Chu of Energy and Holder of Justice.

It was a historic meeting. There was give and take.

Secretary LaHood took a number of question about the challenges mayors face with the transportation funds coming to our metro areas.

On Wednesday before the Mayors met with President Obama and his Cabinet, Secretary LaHood met with the 50 State Highway Directors in The White House. That meeting was not indeed, a good sign.

The imbalance of metro transportation versus regular highway funds does not go away. Today, so different than 20 years ago, it is the cities inside of huge metro economies that are driving the national economy.

It is our hope that "hope and change" will mean more than just hope--- as we embark with the new Administration. Hope never got us a dime. Change will. We have had hope about a modern transportation system for decades. Change started last September after The House passed a stimulus package that did not include transportation funding specifically targeted for metro areas. Mayors did not like what they saw and they bacame active on the next stimulus package, traveling to Washington and meeting with Obama transition teams supporting Senator Obama's vision throughout the Fall and even into December and January as the Obama Transition team put together the Obama package.

When the legislative package was unfolded, we were pleased that some Surface Transportation Program ( STP) funds that will hopefully come to our metro areas were included. Still, its all up to The State Highway Departments and there is universal apprehension over how these allocations are made inside the States once the money is sent to Statehouses.

Billions of highway dollas are now in the field being sent to State Highway Departments. In order for cities to get projects for their metro areas, they have to get on "The State List"

In the meeting with the Cabinet Ofiicers, New Orleans asked the mayors present to raised their hands if they had city projects listed on state lists. Only 4 mayors raised their hands.

Los Angeles Mayor Atonio Villaraigosa has been the strongest advocate for the metro transportation funds. He won't let up. Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin has been there with him. And in Des Moines, Frank Cownie has been on top of this issue. Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson has also been there too as he governs a city-county consolidated government where a modern transportation system in needed for economic

We are documenting the absence of city projects on state list. Conference President Mayor Diaz has asked me to, to ask you to tell me if you have projects on the state lists. We need that information now. I am sending out a memo to you now to get the information. Knowlwdge is power in Washington.

Tell me what's going on. I will tell the truth and maybe the truth will helps us free up more funds from the State Highway Departments direct to you for the benefit of our metro economies and our cities. We must be fierce on this issue.

Billions of dollars are at stake. And if we are going to reach President Obama's goal of 3 million jobs in the 23 months left before his sate of December 31, 2010----we must get this money to our metro areas. Millions of our unemployed citizens are in the metro areas. The potential jobs are there in our density populated areas with small, medium, and large busines operations. The men and women running out cities--The Public CEOs ---- can get President Obama to the promised land of 3 million jobs. Let's continue to be vigilant and keep the pressure on. We can make a difference make it happen--now.

Executive Director's Column

Mayors came to our 77th Winter Meeting to see and hear their new President, our 44th, Barack Obama be inaugurated.

As they left their cities to travel to our meeting, a mammoth economic recovery stimulus measure was being unveiled.

There was excitement over our new President who campaigned and vowed Hope and Change.
Underneath the gaiety, there was apprehension over our national economic situation, which hits so many cities, and the main streets of America, harder than others. The unemployment numbers continue to rise with layoffs in the thousands and bankruptcy being mentioned as a possibility for some of the giants of American business.

To some mayors, where joblessness has prevailed for so long, the bad news to other cities was not news to them. For years, the Conference of Mayors has called for a national metro-urban policy to make adjustments for hard hit areas.

In January of 2009, it wasnít just a few hard hit cities; it was hitting them all and all mayors were worried.

As the curtain was rising at the opening of our 77th Winter Meeting, the multi billion-dollar stimulus package was unveiled by the House Appropriations Committee. It brought good news to alleviate the concern they had as they entered our Winter Meeting.

Furthermore, our leadership mayors at our opening press conference, led by our President, Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, and others, signaled that a new era of partnership where a new President, a new White House, a new Congress would work with governors, county officials, and mayors to do what needs to be done now to get us out of this tragic economic quagmire.

Mayor Diaz brought the good feelings from private meetings we have been having with the Obama Transition Team. Indeed, early on there was concern as to whether or not the new President and his team would bring forth initiatives that would be balanced to include direct funding to all local governments. President-elect Obama had met with governors. The media had emphasized over and over the cash strapped states. And little was mentioned of our cities.
It is to the mayors' credit that they and Conference staff turned the economic recovery legislation with some tilt backs toward the cities and our great metro areas.

Mayor Diaz and other leaders came to Washington, went to Chicago, came back to Washington and went to other sites making the case for direct city funding.

As the mayors gathered for the opening Plenary Session, they heard the Obama team, the new White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, calling on the troops before him to do it right and not mess it up. His hand of partnership was there and his hand of warning too. His tone was perfect for this historic moment when the eyes of the nation will be counting on our White House, mayors and cities to create the good jobs that are needed.

Then came Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Obama. She is ìof Chicago.î She has worked with Mayors Washington, Sawyer, and Daley. She knows what it is like to have a federal government that is devoid of an Urban-Metro Urban Policy, a state government that ignores the need for balanced transportation programs. We are fortunate to have her as our team leader and coach for the local government presence in the White House with our new President.

We also heard from Cecelia Muñoz, who will be our Director for Inter-Governmental Relations. Muñoz comes with a strong understanding of politics and policy. You need them both in that job. She continues to show a broad understanding of who we are and where we all need to be as we go forward to implement the economic recovery legislation that will soon be signed by the President.

As U.S. Mayor goes to press, we are informed that David Agnew of Charleston, who has worked with Mayor Joe Riley as a staffer and partner on a number of issues, will be the mayors' liaison person in the White House.

We leave the Winter Meeting and we are still in the eye of the storm. The House passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, totaling $819 billion. The Senate will act next week. The President signs it. It's the law. The legislative process ends and our work begins.

Facing local government and mayors is the challenge of a century before us. Will we rise up above the partisan bickering and naysayers in Washington and all over the TV world, and prove once more that cities, when called upon, will deliver? Many of you know of our defining moments. It all started back in 1932 when a band of mayors joined with the fearless one, Franklin Roosevelt. This organization was born of that jobless, economically devastated era called "The Great Depression." Together the mayors of yesteryear worked with their new President to move toward recovery.

Today, this young President, Barack Obama, calls on us once more and we are ready.

Mayors welcome this challenge, this opportunity to be a part of the solution to this national economic crisis. As we go forward, I know that our President Mayor Manny Diaz needs your continued support. Together, our headquarters staff will work with you to get this legislation to the Oval Office for President Obama's signature. And then, we will work, and work, and work to get the job done.