Denver Mayor Wellington E. Webb in his inaugural breakfast as he became our 57th President, is telling us we must "reach out to every individual and organization that brings good ideas and a bold vision on behalf of our cities." He stated, "we need to sharpen our image so that it reflects the innovation and creativity of our cities and our local leadership."

Mayor Webb announced new partnerships to support his initiatives. He cited the Brookings Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy headed up by Mr. Bruce Katz for "creative, innovative and practical solutions to urban challenges. He told the mayors the Brookings Center has "helped to reenergize and redefine the national policy debate about cities."

Mayor Webb announced three other "very important partners - the initiative for a Competitive Inner City, established by Michael Porter of Harvard; the Social Compact, a Chicago-based coalition of business leaders including Roger Joslin, the Chairman of State Farm Fire and Casualty and the National Urban League, under the leadership of Mr. Hugh Price. Mayor Webb said in New Orleans, "all three of these groups have done landmark work in promoting the market potential of our distressed neighborhoods."

To assist him with his Working Families Initiative, Mayor Webb told the mayors "we will be partnering with the Progressive Policy Institute." Our new President commended Will Marshall, President of the PPI for fashioning "a thoughtful middle ground on a wide range of issues." Mayor Webb said the PPI, "has produced some of the best thinking in the country on addressing the urgent challenges of our nation’s working families."

In announcing his partnership with these five organizations, Mayor Webb pointed out that "in these five organizations we have business leaders, policy experts, Republicans, Democrats and representatives of every region in this great nation."

Mayors will also be involved in developing the urban policy. We will build on our newly created Best Practices Center where we have brought the best and most practical ideas and solutions to the nations’ attention.

We will build on the first ever city/county Joint Center for Sustainable Communities where we have worked in partnership with the National Association of Counties Large Urban County Caucus to focus on solutions and support national, state, and local initiatives to improve and strengthen city/county partnerships throughout the nation.

We will build also on our Mayor’s Metropolitan Political and Economic Center where The Conference of Mayors is redefining the political/economic map of The United States by bringing to the nation the documented message that the metro economic engines are driving our national economy and indeed making us number one in the world.

We will also build on our Brownfields Development Task Force thrust where we for the first time surveyed the nation to show Washington and the national press where the brownfield sites are in this nation. We will also build with our new partnerships a federal response for our cities that will say it is time for us to recycle our land and leave no blemished neighborhood behind.

Mayor Webb’s priorities: public safety, successful public schools, expansion of parks and open space, and the development of new strategies for economic development all complement and fit very well in the new political culture we have developed within the Conference over the past six years. Mayor Webb says "We have changed. And we will continue to do so."

He cites three priorities he will focus on in the coming year and he says he will need mayors as leaders in developing policy for: (1) Smart growth and regional cooperation; (2) Promoting the competitive assets of the cities; and, (3) Investing in our working families. He promised a document within three weeks which will describe each of his initiatives.

As we head toward our Leadership Meeting in Denver September 23rd to 25th, Mayor Webb will be reaching out also to mayors to develop the urban policy initiative he wants to present to the Presidential candidates next year. He has made it clear that it is the mayors who will decide on the policy agenda after we have heard from the experts, academics, and business leaders. Our Denver Leadership Meeting is most important as you sign off on the document that we will take to those running for President.

In the coming weeks, we will communicate to all mayors more information on the process to involve all of you in developing the bipartisan political agenda for 2000.