Washington, DC
March 2, 2007

The United States Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Center

In Key West at our Winter Leadership Meeting, I was pleased to present to Conference President Douglas H. Palmer and our mayors a significant new dynamic center of activity and innovative support for America’s mayors – The United States Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Center. I am pleased to report that my unveiling was well received and this dynamic component of headquarters activities will mirror the city innovations of climate protection activities now underway in cities in every region of our nation.

I have selected three outstanding persons with experience and credibility.

Kevin McCarty is our Managing Director of the new USCM Climate Control Center. Lina Garcia is the Director of Communications and Grassroots. Brett Rosenberg is the Director of Technical Assistance, Best Practices and Research. Their profiles are included in my memo to Conference staff.

Conference President Palmer presented our 10-point plan at our January Winter Meeting and he led with climate protection in our list of priorities. Our 10-point plan calls for a new $4 billion Energy and Environment Block Grant federal partnership to support the best practices and the mayoral political will and leadership existing in cities across the nation.

A large part of our new Climate Protection Center’s thrust will be to continue the leadership goals set forth by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels as he pushes for all mayors to sign the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement and start moving to support existing local efforts. Today, we have 402 mayors on board. Our goal is to have 500 mayors on board by June at our 75th Annual Meeting in Los Angeles. Working with Mayor Nickels is Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard as they head up our USCM Climate Protection Task Force.

We believe that mayors must do more than sign up. We believe our ongoing climate protection best practices, already compiled and published, must be increased if we are to meet our goals. We know some mayors and their cities are doing more than others. But it is astounding that all mayors involved with us want to have their own overall city plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Resources are needed to support action in our cities. The $4 billion EE Block Grant program, to be introduced soon, will provide mayors and cities funds to kick-start, promote and sustain the energy, environmental, housing, transportation and health initiatives. Together all these initiatives will have a tremendous impact toward successfully meeting our goals.

As in other eras of our history, I believe this is a defining moment in the history of our organization. We have known for some time now that if anyone in America is doing anything about climate protection and global warming, it is our mayors. Over the past two years, the sentiment among mayors at the local level to give the commitment and to act on the commitment is a turning point in our nation’s history. It is happening.

I am pleased to provide our readers a memo I sent to Conference staff on February 20, providing details of the escalated activities of our brand new United States Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Center.

We applaud President Palmer’s vision and are pleased to provide you this Center to help us all as we move forward. We will need your help. Together we are leading the way and I am convinced from the leadership and passion I have witnessed with Mayor Palmer and other leadership mayors in Key West and all our member mayors that this Center will provide the quality of support mayors richly deserve as they lead the way toward economically sound climate protection activities.

Stay tuned for more details on how you can use our new Center. Meantime, help us as we sign up more mayors to join our Climate Protection Campaign. Soon our Energy and Environment Block Grant bill will be introduced and our bipartisan political campaign to pass the $4 billion Energy and Environment Block Grant will be escalated. We have work to do as we push this legislation through the House and Senate and send it to President Bush for signature. With your help, we can and will win. The stars are lined up. This is our moment. Let’s do it!

Congratulations to a world class mayor of a world class city, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. Much has been made of the fact that he will with his 6th term pass the current record holder, his father Mayor Richard J. Daley, for time in office as Mayor of Chicago. That date will be December 26, 2010, when the current Mayor Daley hits 7,915 days as mayor. The record itself will not mean much, according to Mayor Daley, “You don’t stay here to stay here. You want to accomplish things.” Asked by a reporter what grade he would give himself as mayor so far, Mayor Daley said, “You don’t give grades. Grades are only given on election day.” The mayor won by over 70 percent of the vote. He opened his victory speech, saying, “An election is not an end. Instead it offers a new beginning.”

Thank you Chicago for giving us a great mayor, a strong and active member of our organization. He is always giving best practices to other mayors and repeats stories of how he learns from small town and big town mayors.

He called me the day after his great victory. It wasn’t to gloat even though we know they threw everything at him but the kitchen sink. The voters of Chicago proved by their vote how much they appreciate what he continues to do for them and their city. His call was about our Annual Meeting in Los Angeles and how he can contribute and offer himself and his city to continue his tradition of learning and sharing through best practices. That’s the beauty of Mayor Daley to our organization. He offers what Chicago has learned to all the other mayors and he genuinely seeks answers. He has said repeatedly that Chicago learns from other cities, large or small. We are grateful to him, his passion, his honesty and his sense of humor, his humanness. He’s one of a kind and he is a great one of a kind. We thank him, Maggie and his family for his continuing public service to The United States Conference of Mayors, his City of Chicago, our nation and to the cities of the world. God bless Mayor Richard M. Daley. We look forward to his active participation as we move toward celebrating our 75th Anniversary in June, and then onward for another term, pausing for a moment on December 26, 2010, to contemplate the significance of surpassing the time of the father, knowing that the son still has more time to continue to accomplish things. No, he is not staying there to just stay there. Just when we think he has done all he can do to make Chicago what it is, he comes up with something else. It’s like he’s saying, “You ain’t seen nothing yet!” We look forward and relish every moment of it. The 6th term is indeed a beginning. Maybe toward the 7th. Why not?