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.