By Ed Somers
March 7, 2005

The priority of saving CDBG from elimination dominated the Winter Leadership Meeting of The U.S. Conference of Mayors held in Key West on February 24-26.

The mayors who comprise the Leadership (Executive Committee and Advisory Board Members, and Committee and Task Force Chairs) — Democrats, Republicans and Independents — unanimously charged the Conference staff to implement a total advocacy effort to secure all votes from members of the House and Senate Budget and Appropriations Committees for full funding ($4.7 billion) of CDBG at HUD.

As previously reported, a new coalition has been formed with other state and local government organizations including the National League of Cities and National Association of Counties, and business and public-interest organizations to defeat the proposed elimination of CDBG.

At the request of the White House, the mayors were briefed by Assistant Commerce Secretary David Sampson on the Administration's proposal to eliminate CDBG and create a new program at the Commerce Department with a new structure called "Strengthening America's Communities" formed by merging 18 different programs, and reducing funding for the combined programs from $5.3 billion to $3.7 billion. Both prior to and following that briefing, the Leadership unanimously reconfirmed its opposition to this proposal, and its continued strong support for: 1) CDBG being funded at $4.732 billion in FY 2006; and 2) CDBG remaining at HUD.

A number of activities are being planned to continue the push for CDBG. The CDBG Coalition has garnered the support of 55 Senators so far for a letter to the Senate Budget Committee supporting our position (see related story). In addition, a House version of this letter is now circulating sponsored by Representatives Chris Shays (CT) and Barney Frank (MA), and the Coalition is working the grass roots to get signatures on this letter.

The mayors directed Conference staff to particularly focus efforts on members of the House and Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee which is being done through a war-room phone bank effort. The House and Senate Budget Committees are expected to markup their bills the week of March 7.

Plans are being worked on for an event in Washington and events will be organized in cities across the nation during national CDBG Week (March 28 to April 3).

In addition to focusing on CDBG, the mayors discussed a number of other budget and policy priorities including homeland security and law enforcement, communications policy, transportation, drug interdiction and other important areas.

The mayors were joined by National Association of Counties (NACo) Executive Director Larry Naake who highlighted the importance of CDBG to counties and his organization's strong support for the Coalition effort. NACo recently held a lobby event for its Large Urban Counties Caucus devoted to pushing for CDBG.

NACo will hold its spring meeting in Washington on March 4-8 and will use the opportunity to push for full funding of CDBG.

As the mayors continue to struggle with the lack of focus on crime issues in Washington, and continued problems with homeland security funding, they were joined by two of the nation's premier law enforcement experts. Representing the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) were its Executive Director Chuck Wexler and Vice President and Miami Police Chief John Timoney.

The mayors and PERF discussed the need to focus on dual-use issues related to homeland security and crime. Mr. Wexler pointed out that while crime is down nationwide, there are many cities that are still experiencing high crime rates, and problems such as gang violence and meth production and use are growing.

The mayors and chiefs also plan to engage with new Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff on the many law enforcement issues related to preventing acts of terrorism.

The mayors also discussed with PERF the growing issue of stun-gun use. The Conference requested that PERF conduct a study on the issue and provide some guidance, which PERF said will be undertaken and should be released some time in the Spring.

With the mayors engaged in discussions with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on freight railroad hazmat notification procedures through local jurisdictions, the mayors are looking to Congress and key committees for a legislative response to this urgent security issue.

Since September 11, the Conference has repeatedly called for advanced notification of these rail shipments. Once again highlighting the urgency of this issue, the January chemical train wreck in Graniteville, SC, had the effect of the detonation of a weapon of mass destruction.

The Conference is expecting a response shortly from U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta and will be resubmitting the letter to DHS, with the appointment of Michael Chertoff as new Secretary last month.

Responding to the Administration's unprecedented zeroing out of Amtrak in the FY06 budget and the supplementary forced bankruptcy language, the mayors wrote a letter to United States Department of Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta stating "cities cannot afford a shutdown of intercity rail operations, as bankruptcy procedures would surely bring."

The mayors also urged the "Administration take immediate action with the Congress to move a balanced and smart authorization of Amtrak, including the identification of long-term and stable funding for intercity passenger rail."

Important to this debate, the mayors urged the "Administration to hold a steady ship while Congress debates the immediate future of intercity passenger rail, including providing sufficient funding in the Fiscal Year 2006 Appropriations to sustain Amtrak's national network of passenger rail service."

For more information on the Conference's campaign to not only preserve, but, build a 21st century national intercity passenger rail system visit the Conference's website at usmayors.org.

Advisory Board and Communications Task Force Chairman Dearborn Mayor Michael A. Guido laid out the Conference's strategy to protect local government communications tax revenue, and the critical government services provided by the taxes, from public safety to education programs.

Central to the Conference's strategy is forcefully protecting rights'of-way fees and compensation. The battle between the communications industry and local government is about our ability to be compensated for the use of the public rights'of-way.

For more information on the important issues in the communications rewrite discussion, including the March 1 National Governors Association Winter Meeting between local and state government associations and industry stakeholders from the telecommunications, cable, satellite and Internet sectors, see related story in USMAYOR.

Coast Guard Rear Admiral Jeffrey J. Hathaway, Director of the Joint Interagency Task Force South briefed the mayors on the federal government's coordinated drug interdiction effort led out of Key West. JIATF South promotes security cooperation and coordinates country team and partner nation initiatives in order to defeat the flow of illicit drug traffic.

Last May, the Conference teamed with Pareto Energy to discuss providing viable and economical solutions to cities' growing energy challenges. After visiting approximately fifteen cities, it became clear that many cities were suffering from rising energy costs, frequent blackouts and power quality disruptions, all of which has a negative impact on city services and economic stability. Guy Warner, President and CEO of Pareto Energy, was in Key West to discuss this opportunity with the mayors. Pareto Energy is a group of engineers and financial specialists dedicated to energy efficiency through the organization of commercial energy users into Energy Improvement Districtsª (EIDs) designed to confront deregulated energy markets and optimally set up energy savings technologies, on site power and micro grids.

The new partnership (Metro-E) would collaborate to enhance the quality of local government services by bringing the private sector to city hall to develop solutions to cities' most pressing energy and electrical power problems, including: blackouts, energy price spikes, energy security concerns, rising energy costs, tighter emission standards and the desire for greater control over energy supplies and quality. Mayors attending the meeting in Key West agreed that the growing demand for energy would be a central concern for cities in years to come and additional resources and alternative are a necessity. Metro-E would serve as an educational resource for the public and private sector about the steps both can take to prevent future problems, improve infrastructure and stay abreast of today's evolving energy sector.