Executive Director's Column

Mayor Daley's decision not to run again hit us hard last week. Since 1989 when he came as mayor to our Annual Meeting in Charleston, he has given us all so much with his presence at our meetings and through his work and leadership on so many issues in the present great city he has produced _ Chicago.
He was surprised when I told him that year in Charleston he would be hosting our Annual Meeting the following June of 1990. Over the next few months I worked closely with him and his staff and the meeting was most successful and the beginning of his presence and participation that leaves us changed is so much for the better and stronger.
One of the first things he started questioning us about within the Conference of Mayors was the lack of presence of the business community and we followed suit by creating our Mayor's Business Council.
Another void was education as a priority. He challenged us all to focus on our public schools. He cautioned us not to have a shotgun approach on education but instead our task force was devoted to public schools K'12. He was our "Moses," our leader, and he put his political career on the line when he accepted the responsibility of the public schools passed down from the Illinois legislature like a hot political potato they didn't want. He relished the opportunity and soon our nation's mayors listened to him and followed him and while so many mayors don't run their public schools, we have all come to realize and to learn from him that without good public schools, citizens with children will flee and many companies with employees with children will not move to the city. Since his decision to make public schools an issue within our Conference, we have devoted so much time learning, sharing best practices and the public schools issue is still a challenge today and will be long into our future.
Brownfield development was brought forth by him at our Annual Meeting in 1995 in Portland. We did our famous brownfield survey showing America that there is an average of 30 brownfield lots in every Congressional district. We had problems with the federal government helping us approve the sites for development. Mayor Daley worked with the state of Illinois EPA to lead the way. Other states followed and the federal EPA has recognized our position and our need to develop the vacant lots into economic opportunities for our cities.
Mayor Daley, with his past experience as State Attorney, was also most helpful in our efforts to reduce crime in our cities. Together he worked with the Clinton Administration, and we pushed hard to implement the COPS program with 100,000 new offices without the red tape of other federal programs.
The issues go on and on over the past 21 years with his participation within our organization. And we are forever grateful for the time, his being with us to fight, laugh, and enjoy the life we live of running American cities. All the mayors will tell you this too about him. He is always respectful to the small and medium'size cities. He told me and he said it publicly that he himself learned from the small and medium'sized cities. He enjoyed it so much when our Conference President Paul Helmke took us to Fort Wayne for our leadership meeting. He relished the idea of being in a small city in the Midwest. He was never so big that he walked away or left when the smaller cities were sharing their best practices. No doubt he is a mayor's mayor.
I knew his father too. This year he will reach the day when he will have served in office longer than his father. Both of them believed in our organization. As a child, Mayor Daley came to our meetings with his father in the Summer. The culture was established years ago that mayors brought their children to our meetings.
Both Daley mayors were great mayors and the Chicago that the father built has been transformed into the world'class city of Chicago we know. Our Mayors Institute of City Design founder, Charleston Mayor Joe Riley, tells us that it's not the speeches we make or the council votes we cast. Instead, Mayor Riley says that the design of the city, what you build and how you build, and what you leave 100 years from now is what will be remembered.
Nowhere in any other city on the globe have we seen Riley's words come in to reality as much as in Chicago in 2010. Mayor Richard M. Daley is the world'class mayor of today. He has transformed the Richard J. Daley Chicago of concrete, steel, and highways into a totally different city.
No doubt, Millennium Park is the most spectacular use of public space in America. It stands for all. People of all ages, and families and children of all races come there for 25 acres of public space to witness behold and enjoy. They confront "The Bean" and see themselves reflected in its polished stainless steel skin. Visitors come too for musical productions preformed in the bandshell designed by Frank Gehry.
Throughout the city visitors and Chicagoans see flowers, especially up and down Michigan Avenue. Mayor Daley simply says that flowers make people happy.
Through our Climate Protection Center we have shared Mayor Daley's greening of Chicago. Over 600,000 trees have been planted over the time that Mayor Daley has served. His leadership on green roofs was an example to cities worldwide. Currently there are seven million square feet of green roofs in the city.
When it comes to art, and especially public art, Mayor Daley has passionately led the way. The cows on the streets started in Chicago and others have followed. I walked with him once in Grant Park through a Botero exhibit and he bragged about how he competed against Berlin, Tokyo, and New York to get the exhibit. He's very proud of his leadership in the arts area. Sometimes people don't recognize this about him. When you see it you know he was involved in it, Chicago is his passion and he is indeed a hands'on mayor involved right down to the details.
Gallery 37, founded and created by Maggie Daley, has been copied all over the world. Maggie's vision came in a natural way when she said that the only thing of culture her children had was a rock concert. She felt that her children deserved more and she felt that all children in Chicago deserved more. The initiative brings children of all ages and all incomes to one place to experience and practice art. We have had many meetings with other mayors and it has been a gift to all of us since Maggie worked so hard to mentor, teach, and share her success with young people and the arts. Other cities are most appreciative of Maggie's hard work and dedication with one goal in mind _ to provide a positive arts experience for every child in the city.
Mayor Daley has been the mayor who has welcomed new techniques, and common sense approaches to humanize the city. Today people point to Chicago's leadership and Mayor Daley makes it his business to share best practices. It was his idea to devote hours at our Annual Meetings to share best practices. Mayors come to our meetings and hear of new ways of dealing with old problems, they then take the best practices home and all cities benefit. This culture in our organization, of sharing best practices is alive today and will continue thanks to Mayor Daley's leadership on this issue.
His philosophy about our bipartisanship is very strong. We all know how he detests and has spoken out about the Democratic and Republican Mayors Caucuses. New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, a Past President of the Conference said, "There is not a partisan way to fill a pothole." While Mayor Daley can be strong in supporting Presidential candidates, he has stood strongly against the division that will take place if the partisan caucuses are not in their appropriate role as organizations. And today we are probably the last bastion of bipartisanship left in America.
While I hate to see him leave being mayor, I am personally happy for him because along side his passion for politics and his city of Chicago is his passion for his family. Our thoughts are with him and Maggie as she lives with cancer.
The buzz is all around about who will take his place. No one will ever take his place. There will be a mayor who comes after him just as sure as the sun goes up and the sun goes down. But no one will take his place. This organization is blessed to have had him and the nation's mayors learned from this leader who led by doing things, by getting things done. Yes, today we have a Chicago that never was until he took over and showed the world his courage, his heart, and his passion. No, no one will ever take his place.
No doubt in the coming months we will honor and thank him. I, for one, will pause around Christmas and recognize that he served longer than the first Mayor Daley I worked with when I came here over 40 years ago. I will also think of the future too, when another Mayor Daley will be elected and whoever he or she is, I will be here ready to serve knowing that this family understands city people, how to use power, and how to move city people to act as good as any political family in the history of our nation.

Executive Director's Column

President Elizabeth Kautz and Her Family
As U.S.Mayor goes to press, our prayers and thoughts are with our President, Burnsville Mayor Elizabeth Kautz, and her family as David, her husband of 43 years, struggles for his life. We received word last week that his health took a turn for the worse in his battle to survive aggressive cancer that was in remission until now. I appreciate your calls and reaching out to give her support at this very sad time for her.
While she goes through this tragic experience, it has not prevented her discussing the work of the Conference and the work goes forward.
This week, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter came to Washington to represent The Conference of Mayors as our Second Vice President to advocate passage of The Local Jobs for America Act. The jobs bill that has been a priority of Conference President Elizabeth Kautz’s 2010 Metro Agenda would provide direct grants to cities with populations of more than 50,000. Smaller cities would apply through the states, very similar to the HUD CDBG block grant program.
The National League of Cities, The National Association of Counties, and the Conference of Mayors are strongly united on this legislation. Together, we released a survey of 214 cities and 56 counties, which states that they will cut full time positions over 2010 and 2011. We appreciate the collaborative efforts of NLC, NACo, and USCM staff working together. It was good to have Don Borut, NLC Executive Director and Larry Naake, NACo Executive Director, there with me as the three of us stood together for local governments throughout our nation that are facing the economic challenges in this jobless economic recovery.
The legislation would provide $75 billion over two years to save jobs through retention or hiring.
The question is, will Congress wake up and recognize the lack of jobs and the ripple of frustration the unemployment causes throughout the neighborhoods and streets of our cities and counties.
Mayor Nutter repeated his story of how Philadelphians approach him with the question and plea for a decent job. Mayor Nutter says people who are without a job do not care about the deficit. He says they just want to work.
As Congress returns from the hot summer of 2010, they will have heard and seen the anger of their constituents and it is our hope that the mood will motivate Congress to act as they face the ballot box in November.
Over this recess, as your members of Congress visit their home states and districts, it is most important that you urge them to support The Local Jobs for America Act. We need your help to move Congress to act before the November elections.
100th Anniversary of The National Urban LeagueConference Second Vice President Mayor Nutter of Philadelphia represented Mayor Kautz and the Conference as he joined with National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial to cut the ribbon opening a most dynamic exhibition showing the 100 years of progress of this organization.
At the opening plenary session, Mayor Nutter talked about the partnership between The U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National Urban League.
Following Mayor Nutter was a Past President of the Urban League, Vernon Jordan. Vernon gave one of the best speeches I have ever heard on the state of Black America in 2010. He used as his text Charles Dickens, the best of times, and the worst of times. He cited statistics on the progress of Black America. And then he cited the figures on the present state of Black America. One statistic is that we now have more black men in prison than we have in college. It was a remarkable speech – teaching us of our history and his challenging us to the future was as good as I have heard in many years – quite a contrast to the present political atmosphere when so many don’t want to talk about racial issues while we are living with these issues every day.
Certainly the race issue has dominated the news over the past week or so. This was caused when Mrs. Shirley Sherrod of the Department of Agriculture got an email while she was driving asking her to pull over and resign or fire herself. All of this was based on a doctored video that was shown on national television depicting her presentation to a NAACP meeting. The White House, The NAACP, and The Department of Agriculture all reacted to a blogger’s doctored video. President Reagan used to say we must trust and verify. In today’s lack of true journalism in America, the word trust is not in play. You must verify, verify, verify.
With Mrs. Sherrod, all have apologized and the flap may be over. They have offered her a job and apologized. The latest is that she is suing the blogger. Good for her.
This incident, which involves a blogger creating his own facts through a doctored video, is nothing new to mayors. Long before this national incident, we have pointed out that this kind of maliciousness goes on every day in some city in America. The blogger-based recall campaign, such as the one in Akron that attempted to take out a 36 year public service veteran, Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic proved to be a losing campaign. The Akron recall campaign, full of allegations against Mayor Plusquellic from a bloggers site proved to be a losing campaign. Plusquellic prevailed winning by a resounding 74 percent vote. But Mayor Plusquellic had to live with a blogger who created his own graphic on the internet where they packed it full of inconsistent facts about Mayor Plusquellic’s travel expenses, political statements, and other allegations.
There have been other blogger-based recall efforts, more defamation, more lies, and with the internet you don’t know what’s real and what’s unreal.
We have all got to take the time to question the garbage we get about people with the bloggers over the internet. Someone said the case of Mrs. Sherrod and the Agriculture Department was a teachable moment for all of us.
It won’t be a teachable moment until we all realize you can’t believe anything the bloggers put out there until it is verified. Let’s hope this national incident helps put us on a new path of recognizing the difference between truths and lies. We have to question almost everything we see on the internet now. There’s not much true journalism left in America. We have to verify and we have to challenge those who continue to besmirch innocent people.
USCM Fall Leadership Meeting September 22 to 24President Kautz will preside over our Fall Leadership Meeting here in Washington at the St. Regis Hotel September 22 to 24. We urge Leadership Mayors and others to join us. There are issues before Congress and our continuing work with The Obama Administration on a number of issues.
Register now. Contact Carol Edwards at 202-861-6747 or cedwards@usmayors.org.
Have a good summer and let’s hope the heat, which is scorching the nation will soon be gone. One year it was real hot. I called Mayor Joe Riley down in Charleston and asked him how hot it was down there. He said, “Tom, it’s too hot to even read down here!” Stay cool and I hope to see many of you in September here in Washington.

Executive Director's Column

The summer of 2010 continues here in Washington with the BP oil gusher dominating the news. But there is the announcement today that the nation’s deficit is at one trillion dollars. President Obama’s Deficit Commission Chairs, Former Senator Alan Simpson and former Clinton aide Erskine Bowles, carried the concern about the deficit to the Governors’ Annual Meeting this past week in Boston.
Deficit talk is something we have heard before and when we have heard it in the past, it sometimes means that there will be proposals to cut domestic spending. We must be ready to defend out current priority programs such as CDBG if the budget cutters start a move to cut our programs.
This atmosphere will require mayors to focus and develop a political strategy to protect CDBG and other key domestic programs from deficit hawks that are already starting to circle above us.
At our Leadership Meeting in September here in Washington, President Kautz will discuss this challenge and together our leadership team will adopt and implement a strategy to protect our federal funding that is needed more than ever during this economic downturn.
National HIV/AIDS StrategyThis week, the Administration announced its own National HIV/AIDS Strategy. It was 30 years ago when the AIDS epidemic hit America and it was the mayors who stood up to educate and do their best to change human behavior by discussing the need for safe sex practices. No one wanted to discuss the issue back then. There was great fear. It was a defining moment of The U.S. Conference of Mayors as we led the way to provide awareness and understanding. Everyone then thought that the AIDS issue only affected our cities but the fact was that when rural and suburban residents got AIDS they came to our cities to be treated. The movie star Rock Hudson’s death was key to President Reagan being aware of this epidemic. Reagan’s Surgeon General C. Everett Coop worked with our mayors and urged them to be vocal and to support sex education for children at the age of nine.
In 1988 at our Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, we had the AIDS quilt displayed and a person dying of AIDS came and addressed the mayors.
In the 2003, I, along with our USCM President Hempstead Mayor James Garner, led a delegation of mayors to South Africa, Namibia, Swaziland, and Uganda to share best practices with African mayors. It was a four-nation tour with four teams of American mayors hitting each of the nations.
This week’s announcement from the Administration encourages statewide HIV/AIDS plans. From the announcement and what I watched on C'span, I do hope mayors and their health officers will be involved. We can help the Administration with this effort. We have a history and it is a fact this issue is, and continues to be, a priority for cities. We applaud the announcement this week and want to know about how we can help the Administration develop their state plans to ensure that cities, both large and small, are included in the development of this new national plan.
USCM Leadership Meeting, September 22-24, Washington, D.C.President Kautz, Vice President Villaraigosa, and 2nd Vice President Nutter all need our leadership mayors to be with us here in DC, September 22-24.
Mid-term elections will be before us, budget cutters will be in front of us and a consensus on transportation and immigration policy and the fate of our energy block grants will require your renewed focus and new political energy to help our President as she leads us forward.
Please arrange your schedule to be with us September 22 to 24. You are needed here now more than ever. Together we can make a difference for our cities and the people all of you serve.

Executive Director's Column

Following a most successful Annual Meeting in Oklahoma City, Conference President Elizabeth Kautz led a special mission of our mayors to New Orleans where Mayor Mitch Landrieu did a masterful job in showing and educating our members and staff on the ramifications of the BP oil gusher.
This was not a meeting where we sat in a hotel meeting and watched another power point presentation. We woke up early, put our "mud boots" on and headed to the Coast Guard Center in Lafitte, Louisiana, where Lafitte Mayor Tim Kerner and Incident U.S. Coast Guard Commander Captain Roger Laferriere gave a most informative briefing. Then after a short, graphic, and succinct briefing, we boarded boats and spent over three hours, visiting with fishermen, witnessing the oil in the marshes and learning so much about the culture and symbiotic relationship of the oil industry and the fishing industry.
No doubt, the people of the Louisiana marshland are in a fight for their way of life. For decades, family members have been employed in both the fishing and oil industry. Today, we see shrimp boats full of long coils of white absorbing boom, which is made of a substance very much like disposable baby diapers and is used as a floating barrier to stop the floating oil through absorption. It is not totally effective due to waves and currents, but it is effective to reduce some of the damage to this precious ecosystem, the marshland of Louisiana.
One reads; one watches TV; but when Mayor Mitch Landrieu takes you for a three-hour tour in the hot sun of the Louisiana marshland and he leads Lafitte Mayor Tim Kerner and the Coast Guard officials to discuss this challenge in "English" or street language — in less technical and more practical terms — we learned so much.
We learned that each day, Louisiana loses 100 yards every thirty minutes, that's as long as a football field of marshland through natural erosion. We also learned that the energy producing Gulf States get a very small amount, five per cent, of the oil revenues paid by the energy companies to the federal government. Other states receive 50 cents on the dollar for their natural resources, such as timber and coal. Senator Mary Landrieu has championed and Congress has passed fair share legislation, which will increase the amount to at least 37.5 percent. The legislation is passed and will be effective 2017. Conference President Kautz announced we will be supporting the fair share legislation to accelerate the effective date to 2010.
Houston Mayor Annise Parker reminds us on this mission that the moratorium on oil drilling needs to be re-examined and we should not "throw out the baby with the bath water." Mayor Landrieu and President Kautz have echoed their concern, both pointing to not just the economies of Texas and Louisiana, but indeed to the consequences that affects our national economy. These mayors support safety and smart drilling as they ask the federal government to consider the economic consequences during this national economic downturn.
Another issue is the misunderstanding in some areas of the nation that the Louisiana seafood is contaminated. Philadelphia Mayor Mike Nutter indicated that he had been in Philadelphia restaurants and people were asking where the seafood came from, insinuating that the seafood is contaminated. We learned that this is a myth and another horror story that has been carried forth by the media devoid of facts. President Kautz told local and national reporters of the seafood she had been eating since her arrival and all mayors ate seafood in the Bon Ton restaurant on Magazine Street with the press observing on our last stop of a long day fact-finding mission.
In Oklahoma City at our Annual Meeting, mayors of the Gulf Region, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, came together in private and public meetings to forge a resolution with six major demands. In addition, President Kautz announced our support of Senator Mary Landrieu's "fair share" legislation.
Armed with policy adopted in Oklahoma City at our 78th Annual Meeting and positions taken in New Orleans, The United States Conference of Mayors through our members and staff will go forth to use the power of our organization to meet the challenges the Gulf mayors and their people face. This is a national challenge. This is a defining moment of The United States Conference of Mayors. We thank all the mayors who came with us — from California, from Massachusetts, from Pennsylvania, from Texas, from Florida, from Mississippi, from Alabama and from Louisiana. And we thank Don Borut and his team and Mr. George Kevis, Director of the Mississippi League of Cities for their presence.
Together, we will continue with Congress, the Administration and BP to be an advocate for the mayors, their cities and people in support of our adopted policy and position.
President Kautz has assured all members that she will continue to follow through in a sustainable way to lead the nation's mayors in this effort. This, no doubt, will be a long haul and we are now in it for the long tough ride ahead.
Oklahoma City — Our 78thAll mayors attending our 78th Annual Meeting in Oklahoma City are most appreciated. President Kautz has indicated that in these tough economic times, it is much harder for mayors to travel to meetings outside their home cities, but she believes — and you do too — that our meetings are meaningful and productive and it is most important for us to come together in a united front to represent cities as the mayors have done for 78 years through this great organization.
Thank you, Mayor Mick Cornett and your team, for all you did to make our 78th one we-ll never forget. Oklahoma City is a remarkable city in that if you run for elective office there you must show and prove that your main interest is Oklahoma City, Oklahoma City and Oklahoma City. The mayors over the last 50 years have set that standard. This spirit was manifested in a special session during our Annual Meeting of three former mayors — Andy Coats, Ron Norick, Kirk Humphreys and our current mayor, Mick Cornett. The unity, the seamless dedication to their city is the reason Oklahoma City is where it is now and where it is going as a major metropolitan city of our nation and our globe.
Many mayors came to Oklahoma City, having never been. Hearing these mayors gave them a sense of renewed public service. It was a gift of which we can all be proud.
Again, thanks to all the mayors who came to Oklahoma City. As we go forward, President Kautz will need your support, and I know we can count on you in the days ahead. Thanks for your continued support and membership. If I can be of any service to you, please let me know.

Executive Director's Column

Welcome to Oklahoma City! And to our 78th Annual Meeting of the ONE and ONLY United States Conference of MAYORS!
First we salute the city of Oklahoma’s mayor, Host Mayor Mick Cornett. His vision and leadership, backed up by a dynamic team and strong citizen and business support puts this city of 551,789 people in the top rank of cities emerging further on the national scene.
This city’s efforts to raise taxes through special referendums and continue to move forward in the present economic downturn will be described in detail on Monday afternoon in a special workshop. Please note the program, Oklahoma City: A Win-Win. Mayor Cornett has brought in three former mayors, Andy Coats, Kirk Humphreys, and Ron Norick. And Mayor Cornett will be joining with the group and he is turning over the moderating role to a former mayor. Come and learn how this city has worked in a seamless pattern of leadership, which has contributed to the national recognition and, indeed, a top 2010 best practice for mayors and local officials.
We also thank our President, Burnsville Mayor Elizabeth Kautz. In Oklahoma City, she begins her term elected by you to serve as our 68th President. When Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels left office at the end of last year, 2009, then Vice President Kautz was immediately inaugurated in her hometown of Burnsville, Minnesota where I, on behalf of our Executive Committee, gave the gavel to her to serve out Mayor Nickels’ term. She also has been coming back to Washington on a regular basis leading our advocacy efforts on the funds for our energy block grants.
She has also done so much as she has lead an international mayors campaign on climate change and green jobs. She said in Stockholm at the 2009 EuroCities Meeting, our European counterpart, that mayors across the globe must “roar like lions” to move their national governments off dead center. Her theme continues to be that mayors and cities are leading their nations on climate protection and green jobs. She is right. We have seen in other nations national governments and provincial or state governments politically deadlocked on strong climate protection and green job legislation. But there is no deadlock, no stalemate, no inaction at the city level. USA mayors lead every day, and with President Kautz’s leadership, we will continue to push for a final climate bill this year that includes a role for mayors and cities through our energy block grants. The energy block grants, the role of mayors, the economic green job benefit on this issue is not on Washington’s radar screen now. The administration did not include money in its budget to continue our energy block grants. The new Senate outline of a Climate bill announced recently does not include our block grants. Speaker Pelosi has promised multi-year funding and her representative Urban Caucus Chair Congressman Chaka Fattah of Philadelphia will be here speaking to you at Friday’s lunch. He has been our champion on this issue since Past President Trenton Mayor Palmer and I had the first meeting with him on the creation of energy block grants for cities. We do have friends of the energy bock grants in high places. We just need more. And mayors assembled here will beckon the call of President Kautz, and we will go forth as we have before, pushing Washington to understand they can not get to the promised land on climate protection unless mayors are involved. There’s one speech, one forum, one C'span session after another about this approach and that approach. Meantime, mayors are not just talking about it; they are implementing smart climate protection, steps toward more energy independence, and green job initiatives every day. We have the political strength and will. And we must never, never, never give up until Washington recognizes that climate damage is caused by human behavior and mayors will change human behavior. We are making progress. Thanks for your leadership on this issue. We must work to strengthen our partnership with the Congress, the Department of Energy and the Obama Administration and press them hard to include in the climate bill the energy block grants to have a sustainable source of funding in the years ahead. President Kautz is standing strong on this issue. Stand with her and we will prevail.
Trenton’s Own - Mayor Doug Palmer, our 65th President - Distinguished Public Service AwardOn Saturday, we salute the one of a kind human being, leader, father, humorist, tough-love mayor, platinum politician, “agile and mobile” - Mr. Douglas H. Palmer. Throughout his career, he has believed in the Conference of Mayors and it has been part of his being. He came to us as President when we lost our beloved President Dearborn Mayor Mike Guido. Throughout his career, there are untold stories of how Mayor Doug Palmer worked to make this family of mayors, the Conference of Mayors, stronger for ourselves and stronger for our cities. Time and time again, I have seen him stand aside, pull back for himself, and put this organization in front of himself. Mayors present saw true leadership in 2008 when he presided over the hot debate over the Iraq War. We were split down the middle on that hotly contested day. Back in the day, we might have had a fistfight. That was the day that the mayor of Fresno quit our organization blazing away as he walked out. And that was the day - that was a defining moment when President Doug Palmer calmed the waters with his voice, his eyes, his charisma. He is a natural. Recognized by his peers, we honor Mayor Doug Palmer at our Saturday City Livability Lunch. Be with us. Let’s praise and thank people while they are alive and vibrant. As he leaves office, we thank his wife Christiana and his daughter Laila for giving us so much of his time on the morning or mid-night train from Trenton to DC to help all of us fight for what this organization stands for. Thank you Doug. Agile and mobile - forever!
The Oil Gusher Disaster in the Gulf, Florida, and Atlantic CoastThe BP oil gusher destroying our ocean, wildlife and the economic life of so many of our member cities and small business will affect our 78th Annual Meeting. Together we gather to determine what shall be the role of our organizations we go forward. We will listen to our mayors hit hard in those states and President Kautz will leave Oklahoma with a plan of action that will be first of all tailored to what the mayors and cities of that great region of America, unique and delicate to the environment must be supported because it is what America is about. While we don’t know what to do about what BP has done, I have never seen the mayors held hostage to anything. Mayors are doers and I know we will leave here determined to support and do everything possible to help Americans confront and demand BP and Washington action to protect the economies and humans and wildlife and fisheries of Americans for our own American cities and towns who are facing some hard times after the battle to kill the BP gusher is over. Join with President Kautz, Tallahassee Mayor John Marks, Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden and other affected mayors on Sunday afternoon at 2:00 pm to learn more and offer your assistance to help the mayors hit hard by the present and future oil destruction and damage to America’s Gulf area, the Florida Gulf Coast and the Atlantic Coast.
Immigration ReformThe Arizona statute fueled the fire of passion across the nation on the multi nation issue. The Arizona law comes forth and exposes Washington for sitting on their hands to pass true immigration reform, long a priority of The U.S. Conference of Mayors. It is ironic that one of the mayors, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, has been thrust forward on this issue and has been at times a lone voice and leader within our Conference and in Washington advocating immigration reform.
Vice President Antonio Villaraigosa has been most active on this issue in Los Angeles and as a part of the national conversation on this issue on national television. The New York Times cited Trenton, NJ as an example of a best practice for the nation to consider as local governments act in a void created by the current Washington inaction on this issue. On Sunday morning, we will have an immigration forum inside our morning plenary session. President Kautz felt strongly that we frame this session to go beyond the deficiencies of the Arizona statute and to include a framed discussion on immigration reform. Janet Murguía, President and CEO of the National Council of La Raza will moderate this session. We encourage all to attend. This is an issue that affects us all in the land of immigrants and the great diversity of our nation - unmatched anywhere in any other nation on earth.
New Mayors Forum - New Faces and Old Places Facing Today’s Challenges - A Forum for Not Just New MayorsThis past election has provided our organization with more new mayors than any in recent history. President Kautz and Membership Chair Brian Wahler are presenting the media, our members, and corporate members an opportunity to see, hear, and get to know the new leaders coming in this year. This session is for ALL delegates and participants. It is not just for new mayors. I will be moderating this session and promise I will do my best to make it interesting. Please come by and feel free to join in the q and a and open dialogue.
Thanks for being in Oklahoma City! On behalf of President Kautz, Vice President Villaraigosa and all of us, thank you for being here for our 78th Annual Meeting. If I can be of any service or provide information to you about this meeting or any other matter please let me know 202-744-9110. See you soon!

Executive Director's Column

Last week, the long awaited new climate bill was announced. The energy block grants for cities and local governments are not included in this proposal. Once again, Washington goes backward and away from the federal-city partnership on climate protection and energy independence.
Last year mayors were encouraged with the partnership we developed with Senator Boxer and her people, and we were included in her bill.
But the announcement last week did not mention our energy block grants, which are the cornerstone and catalyst to mobilize over 1,000 mayors to act.
We are frustrated and perplexed that the bill announced last week does not include the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants. We have to ask the question… if the Senate leadership stood together with mayors last year on the capitol lawn, then what happened that now gives reason for mayors and local officials not to be included?
Today, within the Mayors Climate Protection Center of The United States Conference of Mayors, we have 1,036 mayors and cities looking for a partnership with the federal government on greenhouse gas reduction and greater energy independence.
The mayors of this nation are recognized around the globe for their outstanding work on this issue, throughout Europe, thanks to President Kautz's work, with the European Union and EuroCities and at the COP-15 in Copenhagen. In Asia, with our continuing partnership with the Japanese Association of City Mayors and, recently, at the Sixth Sino-American Summit in Chengdu with the mayors of China, we continue to share our best practices and common goals.
The fact is that the cities of America are leading the nation on this issue while many states and some in Washington fail to recognize the contribution that we continue to make.
Science tells us that the threat to our globe is caused by the actions of human beings. The mayors of the United States are number one at changing human behavior. Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants are tools that we need to forge the public/private initiatives as well as enlisting and involving the 85 percent of the American people who live in cities and their metro areas.
We believe there are many Senators who have not reversed their sentiment toward mayoral and city involvement. As mentioned, last year we were heralded for the progress of mayors and cities. Our activities have not decreased or subsided over the past year and we have enlisted many more cities within the United States Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Center.
This issue is a top priority of The United States Conference of Mayors. We will continue to use our grass-roots efforts to include within the current legislation the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants that are so important to our national efforts.
The bill today has a goal of reducing carbon pollution by 17 percent by 2020 and by 80 percent by 2050. Today we stand and speak out to say that the nation cannot meet these goals unless mayors, cities, and their metro regions are totally involved in this national effort.
In Washington, as with all major legislation, this is a work in progress. And, we look forward to engaging with Senate leaders to correct this situation and affirm the crucial role of mayors and other local officials in this effort.
The mayors want a partnership with Washington, the executive and legislative branches of the federal government. It seems that Washington doesn't want us. It is shortsighted and unrealistic to think the nation can meet our common goals toward climate protection and energy independence without mayors and local government.
We must keep up the fight to add our energy block grants to the proposed climate bill. Ask your Senators to push for mayors and cities and our block grants as we go forward. Remember again it is the people who count and 87 percent of the American people live in cities and their metro areas and majority hold climate protection and energy independence as a top priority.
The legislation announced last week will need your political attention once it is properly introduced.
We are working now to amend the bill so that we can include our energy block grants, which are so important to meet the tough goals Congress has set out for us to meet. They can't reach these goals unless mayors and our people who live in the metro areas are mobilized.
Let's come together by contacting our Senators and stressing the energy block grants to be included in this new legislation as we all go forward together.
The Miller Bill - H.R. 4812 - Local Jobs for America ActPresident Kautz, Vice President Villaraigosa and our leadership and members have been quite active in securing endorsements of 161 members of the House to support what mayors believe to be the first real jobs bill (H.R. 4812 Local Jobs for America Act). The Miller bill would provide $75 billion for direct funding to cities and counties for job retention and the rehiring of those laid off or for new jobs.
We are allied with the National League of Cities, The National Association of Counties, The National Urban League, and other powerful organizations on this priority legislation.
Coupled with funds for municipal jobs, included in the Miller bill is $23 billion for teachers.
The recent strategy is to attach this legislation to the supplemental appropriations bill that will continue to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We are concerned that the Obama Administration has voiced their support in the form of a letter from Education Secretary Duncan supporting only the funds for teachers, police and firefighters. The Administration has not requested of Congress our funds for municipal jobs as contained in the Miller bill.
Conference President Kautz and Vice President Villaraigosa are actively involved to clarify and gain support of the municipal jobs portion of the Miller bill to make certain that in addition to funds for teachers, there will be funds for job retention, rehiring or hiring of municipal employees.
Shanghai Expo - USA Pavilion Opening - April 30Conference President Elizabeth Kautz, and Mayors Bob Foster of Long Beach, Bill Finch of Bridgeport, Elaine Walker of Bowling Green and I were invited by US Chinese Ambassador Jon Huntsman to stand with him, cut the ribbon and welcome the very first Chinese visitors as we opened the USA Pavilion of the 2010 Shanghai Expo.
President Kautz and mayors came to Shanghai after she presided over the Sixth Sino-American Mayors Summit in Changdu. The summit was a part of the very successful partnership we continue with the Chinese Association of Mayors.
Father Swears in SonIt was a special occasion for me to be with the Landrieu family earlier this month to witness former New Orleans Mayor Moon Landrieu, USCM President 1975 - 1976, swear in his son, Mitch Landrieu to be the next mayor of New Orleans. Also in attendance were all the former mayors including former USCM President Marc Morial.
Mayor Mitch Landrieu will be very active with us. He, along with our other dynamic new mayors, are bringing new energy, new faces and new ideas to our organization and President Kautz wants to put these new mayors to work for all of us.
Oklahoma CityThe 78th Annual Conference of Mayors will be in Oklahoma City soon! And that is where you, as a mayor, need to be.
President Elizabeth Kautz and Host Mayor Mick Cornett have worked hard to make this a meaningful, productive, and yes - enjoyable - fun meeting!
Register now. We need you in Oklahoma City.

Executive Director's Column

Forty years ago on April 22, 1970, we witnessed the largest human public demonstration in the history of America when 20 million people stood up on Earth Day and created a grassroots political movement that changed, at that time, the way federal political and governmental system views and treats our nation’s environment.
Some say this movement was sparked even earlier by a shy Pennsylvania woman scientist, Rachel Carson, who wrote her book Silent Spring. There was controversy when she raised serious questions about the destructive and biological harm caused by the way chemicals were used on our farmland and in our high density populated cities. Her book caused an uproar. The industries came out strong attempting to discredit her. At a White House press conference when asked his thoughts on Carson and her book, President Kennedy supported her. She testified before Kennedy’s Science Advisory Committee and the 1963 Kennedy report largely backed up and supported Carson’s claims. Due to her writings and her advocacy, the current national policy of handling pesticides was reversed. The spark was lit and the environment was strengthened as we moved to the 1970s after her death in 1964. She has to be given notice and credit before we get to Earth Day 1970. And President Kennedy too. He believed in science and he knew she was right and he, along with his Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, one of the greatest environmentalists of our political history, stood together in those historical days.
Earth Day 1970Forty years ago, after the grass roots movements of civil rights and opposition to the Vietnam War, there emerged the environmental movement and we saw a young student leader and environmental activist named Denis Hayes join up with a Senator from Wisconsin, Gaylord Nelson. It was Hayes who had the vision to place the environmental issue into the body politic. And it was Nelson who had thoughts of how to implement the vision with teach-ins in all our schools. Senator Nelson reached out to Republican Environmentalist Congressman Pete McCloskey of California and they co-chaired this great event.
Three million American citizens turned out for Earth Day 1970 and it was a shocker to the political world. In New York City, Mayor John Lindsay closed Fifth Avenue. He along with mayors and I, shoulder to shoulder, with thousands marched down Fifth Avenue. It was a great experience. Mayor Lindsay was chair of our Legislative Action Committee. Part of our urban and national agenda was to push for passage of air and water anti-pollution environmental laws that we lobbied along with other national, state and local groups, to push them through Congress and to President Nixon’s desk for signature and enactment.
Earth Day 1970 was a serious political event. It wasn’t just placards, t'shirts, chants, and screams. It was a political movement. Washington felt the pressure and rose to the occasion. There was not inertia as it is today. In a strong bi-partisan manner, Washington acted.
After the demonstrations were over, the movement turned toward elective politics. The movement, led by Hayes, came up with a list of the most anti-environmental members of the House and the dubbed twelve Congressmen as “The Dirty Dozen.” Grassroots efforts were strong against the Dirty Dozen. Seven of the twelve Congressmen were defeated, including a powerful chairman. When Congress returned that year, Speaker Albert and Congressional leaders knew that Earth Day ‘70 had been transformed into a more political machine geared toward elective and legislative politics. Senator Ed Muskie championed the Clean Water Act. The Environmental Protection Agency was created. Federal laws were passed right and left and Nixon signed them all. Many people still do not accept how President Nixon supported and signed such historic environmental laws during his first term before Watergate hit him.
President Carter’s environmental record is probably as strong as any other President since Teddy Roosevelt. Many political observers feel President Carter’s style and the way he asked people to give up something, to deprive themselves in order to save the planet did not motivate enough. Americans wanted alternatives. They didn’t want to sacrifice. Inflation was high, gas lines were long, American hostages were locked up and blindfolded in Iran. The body politic was in a bad mood. But Carter persevered he gave the nation his MEOW speech, moral equivalent of war, for energy and environment.
He put solar panels on the White House and turned off the night lights at the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials to conserve energy. President Reagan came in, turned the night lights on, removed the solar panels and thus opulence was in.
Through the years we find President Clinton and Vice President Gore doing more for the environment after they left office.
Today it could be better. The Cap and Trade Legislation is dead in the water and an alternative energy bill is being introduced by Senators Kerry of Massachusetts, Lieberman of Connecticut and Graham of South Carolina. The details will evolve and change in order to get enough Senate votes.
The big meeting in Copenhagen last December was a bust for national governments.
The fact is that the cities of America are leading the nation on the whole question of climate protection. We have 1036 cities signed on to the United States Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. And in other nations, mayors are leading their nations. Conference President Elizabeth Kautz took our message to Brussels and Stockholm last fall. European mayors have joined with USA mayors, and are pushing their central governments to be more active on climate issues.
We fought hard to get the energy block grants into the stimulus package passed by Congress and signed by President Obama last year. The stimulus money is just now hitting our cities and mayors will continue to lead the way. These funds that we fought so hard to get will be seed money mayors and cities need as we continue to leverage, create jobs, and make a difference throughout America.
Recently Conference President Burnsville Mayor Elizabeth Kautz led a group to meet with Energy Secretary Chu and we believe this is a new beginning with the mayors of America working with the Energy Department as we did when HUD was created with our big push in 1965. Our goal is to work with The Energy Department. We seek a partnership with our federal government and President Kautz is leading the way. We have optimism and hope as we follow up with DOE to strengthen our partnership.
Today, in Washington while there is inertia in some places and confusion in other places, mayors and cities are leading the way using every tool that we have to get things done.
Every day I hear and see of another mayor out there with a new idea backed up by actions. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a mayor that makes the founders of earth day proud.
Currently Mayor Bloomberg is trying to reduce the carbon footprint of his city by turning the 13,237 yellow taxi cabs “green” with a rule requiring taxi cab owners to buy hybrid or other fuel efficient cars whenever they retire their current vehicles. The current taxi fleet is responsible for 580,000 metric tons of carbon emissions – the same amount as an entire town of 30,000 people according to Mayor Bloomberg. The rule would save 34 million of gallons of gasoline a year, reduce New York City’s carbon footprint, and our dependence on foreign oil. A federal judge struck down the rule finding that the federal laws cited prohibits cities and states from setting their own fuel efficiency standards. Mayor Bloomberg wrote in the Washington Post, “Only in Washington could a Clean Air Act prevent efforts to create clean air!” He goes further and says, “The Federal impulse to standardize must be balanced by the local need to customize.” Mayor Bloomberg says that since taxis are regulated locally, cities should have the authority to set emission standards for them.
Mayor Bloomberg is urging mayors and local governments to support the Green Taxis Act, supported by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Representative Jerrod Nadler
Today the nation’s mayors, The United States Conference of Mayors, support Mayor Bloomberg on this legislation. It would allow local governments to take a local step that would give us the opportunity to make sound decisions for our cities and expand the market of hybrid and fuel efficient vehicles.
Mayor Bloomberg and New York City’s green taxi initiative is another example of a smart climate change policy that pushes a smart economic policy.
Yes, cities are leading the nation on these efforts and Congress must support us and not stop us from doing the smart thing when it comes to climate change as we go forward.
Earth Day 1970 to Earth Day 2010 - it’s not the same political atmosphere for national action but there’s one thing for sure, cities have not stopped leading the way for smarter transportation, housing, energy, and health policies that affect our planet and our people. Together we will continue to push the federal government for a national consensus in Washington that will produce smarter climate centered, job producing measures and incentives. Meantime, we follow Mayor Bloomberg’s lead. We’ll do it one step at a time. Mayors are not waiting for Washington to act. The taxi cab issue, the fleet issue, not exactly global, but with thousands of green fleets - it will be worth it until there is a consensus like we had following the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970 - forty years ago. We have made progress since then. We must find the consensus today we had back then, and if any group is leading the way toward a consensus, it’s the mayors like Bloomberg and others who are out there every day finding consensus and getting it done on the streets and in the neighborhoods of the cities of America.

Executive Director's Column

April 16

Washington, DC

Poland

The plane crash in Smolensk, Russia killing President Lech and First Lady Maria Kaczynski is sad and unbelievable. The political, military, parliamentary, financial, and academic leaders are all gone. My immediate thought on April 10th was to call Ambassador Ashe, our past President and former Knoxville Mayor. He said it would be in this country as if Air Force One, loaded with our leadership, crashed and killed them all. He is right.

Poland’s loss today devastates the Polish people because the place of the plane crash where the national elite died, Smolensk, Russia, is less than twenty miles from the Katyn Woods where starting on April 4, 1940, 22,000 of the Polish national elite were killed seventy years ago. These were not only soldiers. Doctors, clergy, professors, business leaders, the national elite leadership were shot individually by Russian secret police with a bullet in the back of the head. Thousands were shot on the edges of open pits and fell dead on top of their comrades.

Once again, the national elite leadership of the Polish people are taken away - instantly. The young and the old grieve together, but the old grieve deeper because their dynamic and precious leaders have been killed, twice now in the same place, only twelve miles apart in the month of April.

The other person who perished was Anna Walentynowicz. She was the “Rosa Parks” of the rebellion at the Gdansk shipyard in August of 1980. She was a crane operator, and when she wasn’t operating the crane she was handing out unofficial union newspapers. Her firing was the defining moment that jolted the workers to strike and lead the way to the legalization of Solidarity, the first trade union in the communist bloc. At the same time, Lech Kaczynski was a law student and advisor to Solidarity. When the communists cracked down with the martial law, both Ms. Walentynowicz and Mr. Kaczynski were jailed without a trial. Afterwards, throughout the 80’s the two of them worked with thousands in underground resistance. In the new Democratic Poland Kaczynski would go on to become President and she was an outside critic.

Marjorie Castle, author of Triggering Communist Collapse, writes beautifully about how these two national figures boarded a small plane to perish together just a few miles from where others of national stature in life died seventy years ago. Castle writes “the irony can not be understated” and she goes further to point out that the lesser well-known names in the passenger manifest includes relatives and descendants of the Polish leaders who died seventy years earlier. These individuals spent decades working to reveal the nature of those deaths, which was methodical execution by Russian security police and not by the Nazis.

The methodical killing of 22,000 in April of 1940 and the plane crash with the national leaders in April of 2010, in the same place, only twelve miles apart, has caused former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski to call Smolensk and its environs ”a cursed place.” And Castle writes, “Smolensk will be a curse word for generations of Poles, yet unborn.”

Our Connection

The U.S Conference of Mayors has a long friendship with the Polish people and with Polish local and national leaders. I was invited in 1989 to witness the first municipal elections since the 1930s. Thousands of local officials were elected. It was indeed a celebration of democracy. The Solidarity leader who became President of the new Poland, Lech Walesa, came to Washington after he was elected and Guy Smith and I met with him at the National Press Club.

In October of 1990 with our government’s support, the Conference organized a delegation of mayors led by Conference President York Mayor Bill Althaus to conduct Mayors Leadership institutes in three cities Warsaw, Krakow, and Rzeszow. The conference fielded three additional delegations in 2004, 2006, and in 2007 and we held our first ever …outside the USA… International Mayors Institute on City Design.

We are so proud of the distinguished service of former Conference President and former Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe, our former Polish Ambassador who led and accompanied our 2007 mayoral mission to the Presidential Palace to spend time with the late President Kaczynski, who was the mayor of Warsaw before he was President. Mayors present will remember much of the enjoyable dialogue with him was about his being a mayor and it was so good to hear a President who understood the role of a mayor because he had lived it.

Polish allies, and observers, students and historians all know how strong the people of Poland are. They have survival in their DNA. They will grieve and have pain. They have an abiding faith that runs deep and it centers them. They have been persecuted, killed, destroyed, and almost annihilated throughout ancient and modern history. But they will survive and be even stronger. May God bless Poland during this most painful period as He gives them strength to be even stronger, remembering their great leaders and determined people. And soon - just as sure as the sun comes up tomorrow morning, they will wipe away their tears and march on. Then the heroic saga of Poland and her people, rich in history, with its ups and downs, goes on to fill the pages of the future.

Statement on The National Mourning of Poland and the Loss of President Lech Kaczynski, First Lady Maria Kaczynski, and National Leaders of Poland

Washington, D.C. -- On behalf of nation’s mayors and The United States Conference of Mayors, CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran offers heartfelt condolences to the Polish people and its leaders upon the tragic loss of President Lech Kaczynski.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors has a long friendship with the Polish people and with Polish local, regional, and national leaders. The more than ten million Americans of Polish ancestry living in the United States have contributed greatly to American cities and to our nation.

As an organization, the Conference of Mayors has had a cherished friendship with Poland over many years and especially since 1989. Conference CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran was invited to Poland as an election observer in June 1989, and gladly contributed to oversight of that important election, the first democratic election in Poland since the 1930's.

In October 1990, with U.S. government support, the Conference of Mayors organized a delegation of mayors to conduct Mayors Leadership Institutes with newly-elected Polish mayors in Warsaw, Krakow, and Rzeszow. The Conference fielded three additional delegations to Poland -- in 2004, 2006, and in 2007. In 2007, the Conference held its historic first-ever – outside the United States -- International Mayors Institute on City Design, bringing together U.S. and Polish mayors to share best practices on design and to learn from each other.

The Conference of Mayors is proud of the distinguished service of Former Conference President and Mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee, Ambassador Victor Ashe, who was sworn in as Ambassador to Poland in June 2004 and served until February 2009. During the Conference of Mayors' 2007 Mayoral Mission to Poland, Ambassador Ashe accompanied the delegation to the Presidential Palace to meet with President Lech Kaczynski.

During that meeting, the U.S. Conference of Mayors delegation had a productive exchange with the President. His strong intellect and convictions, strength of character, and fierce patriotism were, as always, evident. The U.S. mayors also shared observations with the President about his having been a mayor himself, enjoying the President's remarks about his tenure as mayor of Warsaw, elected in 2002 and serving until 2005.

Poland is a country that produces giants of science, literature, music, politics, economics, and all other areas-- Jozef Konrad Korzenlowski (Joseph Conrad), Ignacy Paderewski, Maria Sklodowska (Madame Curie), Fryderyk Chopin. Adam Micklewicz, Zbigniew Brzeziinski, Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II), and countless others.

Lech Kaczynski, teacher, thinker, scholar, visionary, organizer, public servant, patriot, Mayor of Warsaw, and President of Poland, will be always respected remembered, and revered for his unflinching and dedicated service to his people, to his city, and to his country.

The United States Conference of Mayors joins with Poland and the world in mourning the tragic loss of the national military, political, and economic leaders of Poland, of Maria Kaczynski, the First Lady of Poland, and of President Lech Kaczynski.

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Released to American and International Press, Mayor Ryszard Grobelny, Mayor of Poznan, Poland and President, Polish Cities Association and Warsaw Mayor Hanna Growkiewicz-Waltz

Executive Director's Column

April 2, 2010

Washington (DC)

Tenacity, Strength, Courage – Leadership

“We will go through the gate. If the gate is closed, we will go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we will pole vault in. If that doesn’t work, we will parachute in.”

Who said this? General George Patton in World War II? Field Marshall Montgomery, leading the British Forces? General DeGaulle leading the French resistance to recover France from the Nazis?

None of the above.

The quote is from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The last sentence of the quote reads, “But we are going to get health care reform passed.”

She never gave up. Her healthcare legislation had passed the House on November 7. The Senate passed it on December 24 after a month of debate.

On January 19, the Washington political world was turned upside down with the election of Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts to replace Senator Ted Kennedy, thus denying Democrats the 60 votes needed for a supermajority.

Washington seemed stymied on the healthcare bill after Scott Brown was elected. Press reports and political observers also indicated thatthere was wavering on the health care legislation from some in the White House and Congress.

But Speaker Pelosi never wavered. It seems that after the going got tough, she was the toughest. The daughter and sister of both Mayor D’Alesandros, Tommy Jr. and Tommy III, then made the “we will go through the gate” statement.

And while it is true that President Obama hit the road and called and met with over 60 members, and he deserves credit, it is Speaker Pelosi who stood at that critical moment and gave the leadership what they needed to go forward to victory.

Time and time again, she has stood with our mayors and our cities. She has been with us on key urban programs from day one. And working with Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer in 2007, she supported and pushed our energy block grants. She said at our Winter Meeting she supports multi-year funding for our energy block grants.

We need more leaders like her. If you have the votes, and she can count, she is willing to go for it one way or the other. She wants to get things done.The mayors once again thank her for her leadership and we know we can count on her during one of the most turbulent periods in our history.

Words of Hate

During the House vote, while some were celebrating, others, including me, were disturbed, and I still am as the rhetoric of hate continues from both the right and left and even from some moderates. Civil debate is whatmakes America the open democratic country it is. But we have to be careful in the power that many elected people have with one fringe group or another because the “nutwings” are out there. There are too many guns in this country just out there, unaccounted for, and in the hands of those who might snap and start shooting at people and we could have more bloodshed.

Since 1963, and the mood of Dallas at that time, forewarned by attacks on Adlai Stevenson, my mind went back there as I watched TV covering the verbal abuses hurled at Congressman John Lewis and the spitting upon Congressman Cleaver, the former Mayor of Kansas City.

Two things that we have now that we didn’t have in years past, more guns in the hands of criminals, mentally ill, and youth. Plus we have 24/7 television that repeats, and repeats, and repeats which drives some people to do strange, mysterious and deadly things. It’s scary. It’s not a dream. Violence in America is not a bad dream. You don’t wake up when it’s over and it’s gone. You wish you could but you can’t. Violence, guns, and yes – hate, still exist in America. We must talk about it. We must discuss it with our children and our grandchildren. And we must hold our elected officials up to condemn and take action. It’s not to be tolerated, or laughed at, or excused.

What we need is a Summit on Civility and Tolerance. What a great country! What a weak country if we let one small group or any elected individual or any other leader to endorse lawless violence against another citizen in this nation. While we are going through whatever we are going through right now with the tea party, the coffee party or any other party of any other liquid we drink, kool-aid, coca-cola, lemonade, beer, vodka, black jack, bottled or even tap water... let’s all condemn violence and threatening language and just hope that the country cools down and nobody gets killed.