The 66th President

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vice Presidential Short List--Two Power Players Face the Powerful Mayors

As we convene our 76th Annual Conference of Mayors in Miami today, it is worth noting that we have two Governors who are being mentioned by many political observers as running mates for Senators Obama and Senator McCain.
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell is no stranger to us and our organization. As Mayor of Philadelphia, he turned that city around from a financial crisis and emerged to worlk closely with us to forge a Crime Bill during the Clinton years. Next month he becomes Chair of the National Governors Association and he was quite visible in the Hillary Clinton camp during the current Presidential primary campaign. On Sunday morning at eleven o'clock July 23--- Governor Rendell will speak to us on the subject of the need to modernize our national infrastructure.

On the Republican side, Florida Governor Charlie Crist will address our mayoral delegates at our closing luncheon on. Monday June 23. Governor Crist was key to Senator McCain whipping them all and lknocking our former NYC Rudy Giuliani in the quest to win the Republican sweepstakes and become the presumptive Republican nominee that he is today. Crist seems tanned and ready. Just this week he reversed his positoion on the oil drilling ban and lined himself up even more with McCain. Crist is an attractive and vibrant and fit--- with movie star looks and recently drew great tabloid and pop press as he appeared in Washington DC for the black tie Washington White House Correspondents Dinner. He looked at home among the glitz and the glamour and all agree that McCain needs a little of both as Obama has the "rock star" image of change energy and excitement

So its more than the wonky world we live in of providing basic city services of daily city life to milliopns of citizens. . Its much about the tv and what happens on the tv--- the box.
Both Rendell and Crist can handle themselves and come across as good or better than most on television.

I am not picking or predicting today. I am just telling you they are here on Sunday and Monday for you to look over and decide for yourself. If not VEEP, one or another could end up in the Cabinet that will be announced later this year in December. They are power players on the national stage of today. And they are where the power is---the mayors of the United States of America.

Trenton Mayor President Doug Palmer and Forward

Doug Palmer’s contribution to The U.S. Conference of Mayors and to American cities will stand as a political landmark in our history. Without him, there would be no 10-Point Plan. Some may say that any Conference President in an election year would have asked the staff to put together a list of our priorities. Probably so, but the question is what does a leader do to breathe life into ideas and specifics he or she believes to be the top priorities of American cities.

All of us involved in creating and developing the 10-Point Plan know that Doug Palmer has been brilliant in the way he has advanced our cause to today’s political and business world. He has taken our message to Capitol Hill, to Presidential candidates, through Presidential primaries, to our corporate and business community, to the religious community, to advocacy groups, to non-profits, to suburban and rural America and into the “hood.” His political style is multifaceted, exciting, serious, funny, disarming and, yes, sincere. His presentations and performances bring a brand of leadership that combines politics and show business. He can begin with laughter and throw it into fifth gear and make you cry. Then he can switch gears and make you listen and then switch gears and make you want to follow him through hell to support the 10-Point Plan.
There’s in no way you can teach his kind of leadership and style. No one taught Ella Fitzgerald how to sing, or Frank how to croon, or Elvis how to move, or Astaire how to dance. They were born with it. It is innate. Those people in the baseball world are called naturals. Doug Palmer is a natural leader.

Deaths of other mayors have touched his soul, his being. As a young councilman, he sat in a church listening to Mayor Joe Riley eulogizing magnificently when we all went to Trenton in 1989, burying Mayor Art Holland, our President, and said to himself “Maybe I could be mayor.” He ran four times and has served five terms.

And then another death of our beloved Dearborn Mayor and Conference President Mike Guido on December 5, 2006 brought the mantle of leadership to him. It was a day I will never forget. Recognizing the depth of President Guido’s illness, I was bringing the senior executive staff to Trenton, and Mayor Guido died as we traveled and in that instant, according to our constitution, Doug became our President.

And, in that instant, Doug changed. I saw it with my eyes. He stood up in the Trenton City Hall the next day his manner, speech, movement struck me to think there had been another person inside absolutely ready to emerge and transform before our eyes.
And from that day forward, he has led us to where we are today in June of 2008 looking straight ahead at a new American era of change that is upon us. Our organization poised and ready to be at the table and be a part of creating the new America that American voters are screaming for in 2008 and will be demanding in 2009.

Senator McCain or Senator Obama will have to listen to us. The cities of America are where it is happening. They want change? They can’t take the change that we are offering and been offering and advocating since we were formed in 1932.
So at this moment, Doug Palmer passes the Presidential baton to Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and the Dearborn Accord of the Guido/Palmer/Diaz continuity will live. Doug Palmer has got us this far and he will be there with Manny Diaz, the next great President, to help us cross the river and get to the mountaintop.

Mayor Diaz, as our 66th President, starts the next phase of our campaign on Wednesday afternoon when mayors come together for their recommendations under the key priorities of our 10-Point Plan. Mayors Palmer, Nickels and others in the leadership will be there with Mayor Diaz as we begin the political journey to the coming together of the nations mayors with the next President of the United States.

This summer we will work in small groups. This Fall, our new President Diaz will bring us together on October 2 at The Breakers in Palm Beach for our Fall Leadership meeting. Before the mayors at that meeting will be a more succinct and clear agenda will be presented. So the steps to the mountaintop will begin here in Miami at The Intercontinental Hotel on Monday afternoon.

We will leave Miami more determined than ever. Mayor Diaz will take us across the river and to the mountaintop. And he will need your help to get us there. Together our member mayors, large and small, make our organization stronger than ever before. It’s an exciting time to be a mayor and I, along with my devoted and excellent staff, are honored to serve you as President-Elect Diaz puts our mayors up front and center. It’s long overdue. The time is ours.
Welcome to Miami! Thank you, Doug Palmer. Agile and Mobile Forever. And congratulations Mayor Diaz. You are a great leader. Your vibrant City of Miami, flat on its face, when you took over stands tall, strong and “hot” because of you – and your leadership. We look forward to the year ahead and pledge our enthusiastic and dedicated support to give you what we need for you to help get it done in this dynamic election year for all our mayors and all our cities. We can do it. Let’s go!

Tim Russert

Saturday June 14 2008.

Washington DC

Tim Russert's death notice hit our blackberries in our headquarters yesterday during our last walk-through staff meeting for our 76th Annual Meeting in Miami which kicks off next Friday. As usual, many were dealing with messages and reading their blackberries during the meeting and while we were briefed on the mayors and police chiefs meeting we are having in Miami---there was a series of gasps and rumbles of human sounds drowning out the presentation. People felt it inside their bodies when they read the words "Tim Russert is Dead of a Heart Attack His family says" and it had to come out. But it did not stop our meeting. It is crunch time here. We are days away from rollout time We continued on. That's the way it has to be.

Tim Russert's death hits Washington as we know him as a Washington operator and celebrity, who used to be a staff guy like us, a non elected guy who became famous-- who came from Buffalo and never did let you forget how strongly he felt about cities and the life in Buffalo that made him forever be "of Buffalo" even though he was a Washington person and a national repected tv professoional journalist standing above the others.

He worked as staff for probably the best two politicians in recent history. Mario Cuomo, the Governor of New York and Senator Pat Moynihan.

Mayor Joe Riley would always say that Pat Moynihan was the smartest man in the Senate. Moynihan chose Tim Russert to run his New York political office before Tim was 30. Moynihan knew what he was doing.

Tim hosted "Meet The Press" live with mayors at our Annual Meeting in Cleveland in 1996. It was the year that President Clinton came, our homepage website usmayors.org was launched, Mayor Daley became our President and Mayor Riley threw out the first ball at the Cleveland Indians game. We were all there. Ed Somers and I had two hotdogs with lots of mustard after we had turned down the box lunch with a chicken salad sandwich and a banana! We remember the important things. Tim was a big part of our 1996 Cleveland Annual Meeting.

Tim later came to our Winter Meeting the year General Colin Powell's Americas Promise was starting. He was representing the organization and was eloquent talking about the need for young people and more college graduates to chose public service, explaining how his father raised him and provided for him while working proudly as a garbage collector, driver and then foreman in his native beloved Buffalo.

Some people come to Washington and learn to dress differently, act differently, and think differently. Tim Russert didn't. Everyone knew where he was from because he told you over and over. He celebrated Buffalo in his speeches and informal talks and broadcasted it with his Buffalo Bills shoutouts on Sunday signoffs.

Meet The Press has a strong history with The United States Conference of Mayors. Its founder, Mr Lawrence Spivak would hold one hour-yes, one hour long -- Meet The Press live shows for many years in the 60s and the early 70s. Mr Spivak would come with his wife and it was a big deal. You could go and watch it. You would be seated in a studio. The first one I attended the ushers-men and women- wore white gloves and you were properly seated. Mr Spivak would fire rapid questions for a solid hour. The set was two tiered with a row of mayors on top and another in the row below. Riots, civil rights, poverty, housing, the Viet Nam War, block grants versus categorical programs and states versus cities. They were remarkable sessions. We need more today .

When Mr Spivak retired, the Leadership of The Conference of Mayors presented him with the Distinguished Public Service Award, the highest honor we bestow upon an individual.

I would see Tim Russert from time to time at evening events and luncheons and he would say "how are the mayors" and I would say, They are fine but would be a hell of a lot better if we could get more on Meet The Press like we used to do!!.

His death has hit the nation as if a head of state has passed. It has so much to do with the power of television. I have said since President Kennedy's death in 1963, television has become the most important thing in our daily lives. It is the place we go to mourn. It used to be that we would go to our churches our synagogues mosques and temples to pray and try to find answers to national tragedies. . Now we turn to television and we stay with it as we go through another national event of pain and loss. And television is where we "got to know" Tim. That's why millions are hurting since yesterday's news bulletin.

Russert came across more genuine than the others. His smarts, his sort of rumpled look and as Barbara Walters said today, he wasn't pretty like so many anchors.

When he said it you believed it. We will never forget what he said about Florida before we ever heard of hanging chads in 2000. And he was quite brutal on May 6 of this year when he said it was over for Senator Clinton. Some were hurt. Some were angry Some didn't want to believe it. But that's the profession code of truth that he sought, faced and announced more than others.

Pat Buchanan, the Nixon warrior, TV commentator, author and former Presidential candidate himself was asked last night about the future of Meet The Press. Pat said it reminded him of when Thomas Jefferson went to Paris as our Ambassador, following Mr Ben Franklin . They asked Jefferson if he had come to replace Mr Franklin? Mr Jefferson said-Sir I have come to succeed him. No one will ever replace Mr Benjamin Franklin.

That can be said of Tim Russert. Yes he will have a successor. Life will go on. If its Sunday, its Meet The Press Meet the Press will continue. But we will remember Tim Russert. He was one of a kind who dared to be genuine---and from Buffalo.

Mayor Byron Brown ordered the flags on City Hall and city buildings to be lowered to half mast. All of us who "knew" Tim Russert through TV or personally, know that's what Tim would have wanted. He would have smiled--big--and those eyes would twinkle. It was all about Buffalo. And Mayor Brown, thanks! Thanks from The United States Conference of Mayors staff.

Senator Obama to Address Mayors in Miami

The Obama Campaign has confirmed with me today that the Democratic Nominee Senator Barack Obama will address the 76th Annual Conference of Mayors Saturday at noon on June 21st at our City Livability Luncheon. He is scheduled to speak at 12:30 p.m. This is good news since this is his first appearance before any Annual Meeting or Winter Meeting of The US Conference of Mayors.

Many Obama Mayors have worked hard to secure the Democratic Nomination. And many Hillary mayors will now become Obama mayors. Isn't politics fun?

Senator Clinton, invited earlier, may still address our Annual Meeting. She has been with us many times in the past and we will continue to appreciate her leadership on our issues.

As to Senator McCain's attendance, we met with him two weeks ago in Chicago and his appearance before our Annual Meeting looked promising. Miami Mayor Manny Diaz has enlisted Governor Crist and Senator Mel Martinez to help us get Senator McCain there. Senator McCain addressed us in New Orleans when he was running in 2000. He also addressed our Annual Meeting in Las Vegas in 2006 and received a standing ovation.

It is important to note also that possible top vice presidential candidates will be with us in Miami. On the Democratic side, we have former Philadelphia Mayor, Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania. On the Republican side, we all know that Governor Crist is definitely on the McCain short list.

Another significant participant is former President Bill Clinton who will give our Mayoral delegates a report on the progress of the recently signed Conference of Mayors/Clinton Foundation Agreement on Climate Change. Look for President Clinton in our Plenary Session on Sunday morning.

More later as our world turns...