January 15, 2004

This week we welcome the nation's mayors as they come to Washington for our 72nd Winter Meeting.

There is a lot of interest in what mayors are saying and thinking as we start the countdown towards the November '04 Presidential election.

There are a number of things worth mentioning that we know will happen at our meeting.

USA Mayors' '04 Metro Agenda

Conference President, Hempstead (NY) Mayor James A. Garner will release a 5-point, U.S. mayors '04 Metro Agenda called "Keeping America Strong" which blueprints priorities of U.S. mayors for the Presidential candidates to consider. We are pleased to have worked with the Mayors Business Council and the Council for Investment in the New American City and other business leaders in developing the 5-point plan. We will push our '04 Agenda forward as mayors continue to engage in the '04 Presidential campaign.

Tracking Federal Homeland Security Monies

No matter what issues emerge in this years' Presidential campaign, we can bet our bottom dollar that homeland security will be the priority issue for mayors. At our Winter Meeting we will release through our U.S. Conference of Mayors Homeland Security Monitoring Center our second survey, which covers the tracking of billions of dollars of homeland security monies that is going out of Washington back to the fifty state houses. Conference President Mayor Garner will, on Thursday, January 22, release our second survey to the nation.

Through our recently established Homeland Security Monitoring Center we will continue to track for the purpose of determining if and when federal homeland security monies are making it down to the front lines of this internal domestic war to support our domestic troops so they get what they need to do the job they do every day with or without the elevated orange alerts.

Preliminary overviews and reports of the information we have received support the position that we firmly hold: The present delivery system which sends billions of dollars first to state houses and not to our nation's first responders in the USA cities is a flawed system. We are committed to continue to bring the data forward for the purpose of getting Congressional and the White House to fix the present delivery system so that federal homeland security funds come directly to our city halls to support our first responders.

Time for Mayors to Talk Among Themselves

Mayors expressed concern at our Annual Meeting in Denver that they did not have enough opportunity to talk among themselves. We have responded to your concern by providing a mayors only luncheon on Wednesday, January 21 so that you can talk to your colleague mayors about common challenges that you face. There will be no media in this luncheon so that you can have a free uninhibited conversation. We asked mayors to send in their top ten challenges and it's amazing so many mayors, large, small, suburban and urban, all have common challenges that they are facing in cities across America. We hope this will be an uplifting luncheon for all of you _ a time to get to know some mayors you haven't met before, to share and learn best practices from each other and also, last but not least — a time to give each other personal support.

Mayors hold unique positions in our nation. There's no job like your job. It's rewarding and it's stressful. You are the closest to the people and your people demand of you and it means you have to give a lot. We will continue to provide "mayors only" time at our meetings. We need your feedback — comments and suggestions after you return home from our Winter Meeting.

Thanks To President James A. Garner

We are also most appreciative of Conference President James Garner's leadership this year, who has worked diligently and insisted that we bring the power of Washington to the power of the nation — you — the nation's mayors!

I look forward to seeing you here during our Winter Meeting and if I can be of any assistance to you, please let me know.