President Clinton Receives Conference of Mayors Distinguished Public Service Award

by Ed Somers
January 29, 2001

In a White House ceremony on January 16, Conference President Boise Mayor H. Brent Coles presented President William Jefferson Clinton with The United States Conference of Mayors Award for Distinguished Public Service.

This is the highest award given by the Conference and President Clinton is the first U.S. President to receive the award. President Clinton was nominated for the award by Mayor Coles and Immediate Past President Denver Mayor Wellington E. Webb, and the award was voted on and approved by the Executive Committee.

Joined by over 250 mayors, Mayor Coles said in making the presentation, "under the partnership built between President Clinton and the nation's mayors, major strides have been taken to improve the lives of millions of Americans in cities of all sizes. More than 80% of American families live in a city, and have thereby benefitted from this powerful partnership."

Coles pointed out that "together, President Clinton, mayors and police chiefs pushed the 1994 crime bill through Congress, and the Department of Justice demonstrated a new willingness to cut the red tape. As a result, tens of thousands of additional officers have been put on America's streets and a new era of community policing has been ushered in - helping to make Americans safer."

"President Clinton has also led this country during a period of unprecedented economic prosperity.

Poverty and unemployment have been drastically reduced, even in our central cities," Coles added.

Coles then emphasized, "and as so many have mentioned, we mayors - Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike - have never had greater access to a President, White House and Cabinet than we have had over the past eight years."

President Clinton said that he was extremely pleased by the eight-year bipartisan partnership between the Administration and the mayors. He stressed the shared belief that "public enterprise matters... and that ideas matter to how people end up living," adding that it is important to "keep score" to see if public policy is working.

And Clinton said that the "score" shows that the nation is truly better off than eight years ago, with crime and poverty rates down, welfare roles reduced, and 22.5 million new jobs created.

Clinton thanked the mayors for their work on key issues such as the crime bill, brownfields cleanup and school modernization, but added that much work remains to be done.

He said that cities have to continue to be the focus of building "One America" and breaking down barriers between people through thoughtful public policy.

In talking about the strong partnership between the Administration and the mayors, White House Director of Intergovernmental Relations Mickey Ibarra observed, "in many ways, President Clinton was his own director of intergovernmental relations."

Joining the mayors in the White House were former Cabinet members Alexis Herman from Labor, Richard Riley from Education, Aida Alvarez from the Small Business Administration and Andrew Cuomo from HUD - who introduced Mayor Coles.