Washington, DC
January 11, 2010

New President, Our 68th – Burnsville Mayor Elizabeth B. Kautz

On a cold Minnesota morning, January 5, 2010, in the Burnsville Performing Arts Center, with hundreds assembled for the Inauguration Ceremonies of the President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, on behalf of the Executive Committee and our members, I presented the United States Conference of Mayors presidential gavel to Burnsville Mayor Elizabeth B. Kautz, officially making her our 68th President of the Conference of Mayors.

Her inaugural address included special words of thanks to former Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels for his leadership in leading the USA mayors on climate protection with 1,016 mayors signed on now to the USCM Climate Protection Agreement.

Mayor Kautz was elected mayor of Burnsville in 1994, 15 years ago. Over these 15 years, she has faced the voters and the ballot box six times and she has won all six.

She was quick and very early in her time with the Conference of Mayors to be willing to champion the cause to increase membership and she was successful.

In her inaugural address, she spoke of how she continues to push the metro/economy concept and agenda forward. Burnsville is an economically strong city within the twin cities metro region, economically strong in the nation and strong in the world. So she understands how suburban, central city and metro county officials must all work together to bring business and money to the region, which in turn helps all the cities and counties in the metro region. Over 20 mayors showed up, beaming in their pride of Mayor Kautz ascending as our President. County officials were there too.

As our new President, Mayor Kautz's first official act was to hold an executive committee conference call meeting for the purpose of elevating Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa from the office of Second Vice President to Vice President. The vote was unanimous. Hence, as we open the 78th Winter Meeting, we will have new officers, President Elizabeth B. Kautz of Burnsville (MN) and Vice President Antonio R. Villaraigosa of Los Angeles. The Second Vice President office will remain vacant until June when the 2010 Nominating Committee, along with member mayors vote for the Second Vice President office.

Mayor Kautz will be working closely with Mayor Villaraigosa and her other Executive Committee members as she goes forward. Meetings have already been held and conference calls have helped us forge an agenda to be announced during our Winter Meeting that will be robustly supported with strong bipartisan activity as we push Congress to recognize city priorities in the Winter and Spring of 2010. There's work to be done and I can assure you, your new President is up to the task and is ready to roll. With your continued help, we will make a difference for the unemployed and the Main Street businesses; we will push for funding for our new energy block grants producing new green jobs and we will be strong in our demand for modernization of our transportation systems through the huge transportation bill that moves up front and center soon in Congress. We look forward to presenting you a coordinated priority agenda as you come to Washington, and know that you will support the Conference priorities as you return home after our meeting here in Washington next week.

Again Welcome to Washington! We have work to do and your presence helps with the Administration, the Congress, the media and the business community as we move our agenda forward in the second decade of this century. Again thanks for your participation and membership. Together we will deliver for our mayors, our cities and our people.