July 7, 1997 - To The Mayor From The Executive Director

San Francisco

J. Thomas Cochran, Executive Director

The 65th Annual Conference of Mayors in San Francisco will go down in our history as the best in more ways than one.

It was powerful because our President, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, is a national political figure who has earned respect for, and drawn attention to, our organization, our cities and our mayors across the land. Our host Mayor Willie Brown, throughout his career and now as Mayor of San Francisco, brings a style of leadership that stirs us to listen to his every word and watch his every movement.

It was powerful because the President and the Vice President both graced us with their presence. Vice President Gore appeared and spoke at three events. The President gave the best speech on cities in his career; he issued, with HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo, the first State of the Cities report; he met with your officers, with me, and with White House staffers Lynn Cutler and Mickey Ibarra afterwards. He showed real insight into our priority issues, and Mayor Daley commended him for his report, his presence, his speech andour partnership.

It was powerful because Cabinet Secretaries came and stayed; they didn't just do photo-ops and get the next plane out. No one watched their watches. Secretary Cuomo, Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater and Labor Secretary Alexis Herman, over several days, had private meetings with mayors, to listen and to learn. They went to our daytime events and evening events. There were edge conversations. We had total access to our Cabinet there, and the mayors were most appreciative because so much of the business of the cities must be dealt with in a very direct way face to face.

Also, Mayor Daley spoke with the President about stronger Cabinet presence at our meetings, and the President agreed that the federal Cabinet agencies would have a stronger presence. The concept is to have intergovernmental and sub-Cabinet officials in one place at both our Annual and Winter Meetings, for one-stop-shopping and dialogue with mayors.

Mayors said, and I agree, that President Clinton gave the best speech on cities of his Presidential years. He based his speech on The State of the Cities report prepared by HUD Secretary Cuomo and his team. Secretary Cuomo listened to the mayors last February when he was in Key West for our leadership meetings there. What they were saying is that there are incredible success stories in cities throughout our nation; they also emphasized that there are tough challenges. Secretary Cuomo got the President's ear, and the results were a home run for the President. The mayors are saying, "Now the President is talking cities, urban and suburban." Mayor Daley commended President Clinton for the report in their private meetings, and there were comments made about consideration being given to an annual report for future years. As Rockford Mayor Charles Box said, "It's great for mayors and cities that the President is screening up the city agenda." The mayors want more of the Bill Clinton they saw and heard in San Francisco.

Secretary Cuomo followed through after the President to give us an across-the-board look that went beyond the traditional HUD programs, moving into the public safety and public schools arenas. The Secretary is performing the way mayors envisioned the HUD Secretary would perform when they created our agency in 1965. They wanted him to deal with the President on a range of issues, not just housing. There have been private conversations expressing deep concern about Cabinet officers having to deal with White House staff in situations where the political lines are sometimes murky. Concern was expressed in our Executive Committee, with Mayor Daley arguing that Cuomo should be given a larger portfolio, that he should be our advocate on a number of issues. The White House seems to be heading in that direction and the President's report, prepared by HUD and advocated by Cuomo, is a positive political development. We must follow through on the initiatives and challenges contained in the report.

Another political point: what President Clinton and Secretary Cuomo are saying is that cities are back but that today we still have tough challenges before us. We should yell and shout about our victories but still be determined to take on our challenges. Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell talks today about the tale of two cities the greatness and the weakness, the happiness and the sadness. But it's okay to talk, and act, on both. We can boast and we can build our cities even stronger. At the same time, we must bring our challenges up front and center so that we can devise a practical way to meet them head-on. We can brag without being accused of being callous about the poor; we can talk about the need to bring all Americans up the economic ladder to eradicate poverty without being accused of holding a tin cup in our hand. Speech writers, be aware: you can put happy talk in your speeches and you can also put some talk about pain, misery, violence and sadness so long as you give us initiatives, so long as you do something more than just tell us that you feel the pain.

The President's speech did all three: First, he bragged and boasted about what he and the mayors have done together. And he should: crime is down, unemployment is down. Second, he told us there's still some hurt out there: troubled youth, violence, drugs and AIDS. He talked about the tough challenges we face. And third, he proposed a number of initiatives to help us move toward solutions. We will work with him, his staff and Cabinet to face our challenges and overcome them. For example, lets move the brownfields agenda up front so that in January we can put it on the bragging side of the ledger, where we have crime now.

The mayors' response to the President and Cuomo was unanimous: this is the way it should be and all mayors are committed to build on the doctrine contained in the Cuomo report given to us by President Clinton. We have turned some corners; cities are coming back and we must move forward on all fronts along the urban/suburban front line, not to rest until our cities, counties, neighborhoods and streets are safe, healthy and productive. The spirit of San Francisco has lifted us. The energy is there now and mayors are once more national players in a new and different political arena where the average voter knows you just want to get the job done for your people and your cities. There's division everywhere, in so many of our institutions, but we have never been so united. With a united United States Conference of Mayors that stays focused, nothing can stop us.

Vice President Gore saluted the good work we are doing with the National Association of Counties, with Larry Naake, the NACo Executive Director, and their officers. Incoming Presidents of both USCM and NACo, Fort Wayne Mayor Paul Helmke and Hennepin County Commissioner Randy Johnson, presided over a first- of-its-kind forum with many more to follow of city and county officials telling the world what they are doing every day to make their metro regions economically stronger and more livable for their citizens.

Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer and Wayne County Commissioner Edna Bell reported to the nation that nothing is going to stop them from building that metro area into a world class region. In Baltimore next month, at the NACo Annual Meeting, we will continue our drive with the counties to let the business and political world know that there are cities and counties working together. Working together at the local level, our agenda will continue to evolve, as it has with unfunded mandates and crime, and continue to make our political base stronger as we push Washington to adopt our agenda.

Vice President Gore was thanked publicly by Tulsa Mayor Susan Savage and former NACo President Randy Franke for his support in helping us form our joint center. Conference President Daley and Mayor Savage presented former USCM President and Seattle Mayor Norman Rice with a special award for his leadership in fostering sustainable city/county efforts nationwide. Truly, Mayor Rice has taught us much and he is credited with bringing the sustainable communities philosophy into our political culture.

Secretary Alexis Herman has responded to Seattle Mayor Norm Rice's call to be another advocate for cities and counties in meeting our challenge to take people off of welfare rolls and get them onto a payroll. She needs our help. Her history and career before going into the Clinton White House make her the perfect "jobmaster" for the Administration. The $3 billion promised to mayors by President Clinton last August took some detours, and we had a bumpy ride earlier this year when advisors to the President were treating the $3 billion political understanding of August 1996 as a fairy tale. The Administration today is in full force, thanks to Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell and others, supporting us in providing Secretary Herman as administrator of the new welfare-to-work initiative. Certain Members of Congress want to send more money to the states. Many states today have surpluses; on top of that, the new welfare reform bill gives states millions. Money is being piled up at the state capitols. Mayors, wake up and listen to what President Clinton told you toward the end of his speech in San Francisco. He cut his eyes toward all of us at the head table then looked straight ahead at hundreds of mayors and said the states are loaded with money right now. He was a governor and he understands welfare reform like he does golf. He is telling you that the welfare reform bill signed last year has created big financial windfalls for states. He is also supporting his promise to deliver on the multi-billion-dollar welfare-to-work proposal he announced with Chief of Staff Leon Panetta and then-HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros at the Democratic convention last August. He has designated Secretary Herman to take the lead and we are committed to working with her.

Again, there are forces in Washington that would send more money to state capitols and leave us with what Seattle Mayor Rice has called "the mother of all mandates." We must work closely with Secretary Herman on this major challenge the President has given her to take the lead in getting all Americans who are able from welfare to work. Please pay special attention to our phone calls and faxes on this priority initiative.

Chicago Mayor Daley is much more of a national figure than he realizes. When he spoke to a packed house at the National Press Club on public schools he gave a stand-up, on-your-feet, focused speech on public schools and children in Chicago and throughout America. He tells it like it is. He tells people we do it "the Chicago way" and afterwards people call me and comment on how much they appreciate his honest "get out of my way" attitude about what needs to be done.

As he ended his annual report to the mayors in San Francisco, he was given the longest standing ovation that I can remember at an Annual Conference of Mayors. On our video and in his conversations, he is humbled by the other mayors around him not just the big cities, but cities like Gary with Mayor Scott King and Boise with Mayor Brent Coles. The mayors with their ovation in San Francisco were saying, "thank God we've got him." Mayor Daley grew up in this organization, as a child with his father, so it's home to him. But he has worked it, and he's worked it hard, for us. His tenacity and courage on the tough issues within his city and within the Conference of Mayors has raised his political horizon even higher than his father's. I have seen him talk international politics as it manifests itself in the international drug trafficking problem. No one is more at ease with the corporate titans of America. He talks to school children. He listens and he reads to learn about what other mayors are doing in every region of our country. And among politicians, he has the best sense of the average voter I have seen in a long, long time.

As a human being, you just feel good about life when you are in Mayor Willie Brown's presence. As an executive director of a mayor's organization charged with creating an Annual Meeting, it doesn't get any better than Willie Brown as a host mayor. Early on, over a year ago, he gave us his Chief of Protocol, a creative and most positive person, Ms. Charlotte Mailliard Swig. Together, we formed a great team and together we have raised our social and cultural events to a new plateau. When media carpers questioned "the parties," I pointed to the cultural diversity Mayor Brown presented us. First, with the Grammy Award-winner Etta James at our leadership dinner Friday night, and then with the calvacade of legends, from John Lee Hooker to the new legend, Tracy Chapman, and capped with the Van Cliburn-award-winning pianist, Jon Nakamatsu. Then came the poetic and beautiful Cirque du Soleil, and then a Chinese parade and an opportunity to see Chinese customs and culture through Chinatown. So we weren't just eating and drinking. With all honesty, one could say that every night we were having a workshop sponsored by Mayor Marc Morial's USCM Committee of the Arts. Yes, we have to eat, and some of us do partake of the spirits, but we seldom get this kind of opportunity to witness and feel in a beautiful and spiritual way such an incredible array of outstanding Americans from the music and arts professions. It was a magnificent and stupendous gift from Mayor Brown. We thank him and Ms. Swig for giving nourishment to our spirit and our soul. Mayor Brown's philosophy was simple: They deserve the best. Thank you, Mayor Brown, and thank you, Charlotte, for giving us the best. And thank you, citizens of San Francisco and all powers that be, for giving to Carol Edwards, our Director of Conference and Convention Services, and me these two special people who produced a few days of San Francisco, U.S.A. in June of 1997 that will be with us forever.