Washington, DC
June 3, 2005

Welcome to Chicago and the 73rd Annual Meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors!

Over the next few days we will reflect and look back on the year which gave us a Presidential election, the second inauguration of President George W. Bush at our Winter Meeting, the continued terrorist threat cities of all sizes face, the local budget challenges as cities cope with the unfunded federal mandates that keep coming down from Washington and State houses, the misguided proposal to eliminate The Community Development Block Grant Program, the uncertainty of Amtrak and the lack of a clear national rails policy, the hassle between the White House and Congress over a needed transportation to improve the condition of our national infrastructure which the American Society of Engineers have given a grade of "D-plus", an energy bill passed by the House on Earth Day containing a provision that provides liability protection to the manufacturers of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), which is a gasoline additive that has contaminated many water systems in the nation, a national tax reform commission that will present challenges to us and we hope opportunities of a change in the tax code to provide us new tools and incentives for economic development, the beginnings of new unfunded mandate legislation to stop new unfunded mandates that continue to come down and hit us since the Kempthorne bill was passed ten years ago, public schools that lack the modernization to help us produce competitive high school students, public schools that are tied to the mayor's fate but public schools that are out of the mayor's control due to the independence of school boards elected in their own right, the new violent gangs of this century which are thriving in suburbs and are the evidence that some are linked to international terrorist organizations, street crime that still produces too many murders and robberies due to the plentiful supply of guns for our young people and criminals, the "reentry issue" which is the cold fact that 630,000 of our own are coming home from prison into our own neighborhoods and onto our streets, the continued environmental issue of clean air and water, epidemic obesity in our children, the lack of a clear and consistent border control policy to stop the inhuman treatment of persons flooding some of our cities who are not equipped to deal with the services and jobs needed for the influx, a new AIDS virus and an increase of AIDS cases especially among African-American women, a visa policy that is stopping all incomes of international citizens from deciding to come to America and stay in our hotels and spend their money in USA cities, affordable housing in many cities, a lack of national direction and funding for the incredible opportunity for brownfield development in our cities - urban and suburban, the possibility of tax revenues being lost due to telecommunication legislation, a failure to recognize the potential pay-off for our nation if only we would elevate the arts, entertainment, parks and sports to an equal level with other economic development initiatives at the federal level, rat control, snow removal, hurricane cleanup, graffiti removal, anti-city state legislatures on, some governors that don't get it, city hall reporters that don't know the difference between a city budget and a banana, federal law enforcement officials that spend their time trying to indict mayors ignoring the violent gang bangers and terrorist thugs that live in our cities urban and suburban, the security of our ports to prevent a nuclear device coming through that could wipe out cities and kill millions, the lack of a nuclear arms control treaty to prevent the spread of nuclear arms that are not designed to be dropped from airplanes when a city bus is a much easier way to go to get the job done.

These are not the issues we heard Mr. John Kerry and President George W. Bush discuss in the last campaign, which, believe it or not, was just a few months ago. But these are the issues that our President, Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic did his best — and that's all we can ask — as he forged an alliance with our sister organizations, The National League of Cities and The National Association of Counties — to push issues mentioned above up front and center before our national candidates for President, The House of Representative and The Senate. While the culture of life" abortion, same sex marriages, etc., were the issues of the day in battleground states, masterfully played by the President's brilliant political team, we learned a lot. Our goal was not to take sides; our goal was to get both sides to recognize and support what is needed and what is working in local governments, city and county which is the essence of what is working in America.

Our purpose was a bipartisan purpose and there were forces on the Republican front and Democratic front to thwart our bipartisan message. President Bush and his team knew where he was going all along; Senator Kerry snubbed us twice, once in Boston when Boston and Host Mayor Tom Menino begged him to come meet with us at our 72nd Annual Meeting in Boston. And he snubbed us again when he didn't come in October to Akron, Ohio for our Leadership Meeting when at the same time he had a meeting in Ohio only a few minutes away.

Again, we learned a lot from that experience. The pain sometimes can be turned into gain and so another Presidential campaign will come and go devoid and bereft of our issues unless we start earlier. We must raise the question now for 2008. We must ask ourselves a number of questions in 2005. Are we serious about a national debate and a national referendum of the issues we deal with everyday that are indeed America's issues? We have to recognize that the future President of The U.S. Conference of Mayors that will be elevated to Chair of the Advisory Board will become the 64th President in the winter of 2008. He or she will be the leader who must muster the forces to learn from 2004 and act in bipartisan credible atmosphere if we are to be taken seriously by all candidates and the media. In the Presidential campaign of 2008. As Long Beach Mayor Beverly O'Neill takes the gavel to be America's Mayor for the coming year, it is important for all of us to begin now here in Chicago and later in our September Leadership Meeting in Long Beach to have an open conspiracy to continue the Plusquellic doctrine of an alliance of local bipartisan political activist to play hard-ball in forcing our issues on the national stage of 2008. It can be done. You have the energy. You have the power. You are hot! You just gotta use the power in a smart strategic way much earlier in the game that will end on Election Day in November of 2008.

In 2008 — the field for Presidential candidates in both parties are wide open with no incumbency involved for the first time since 1952. Do we field a Democratic mayor in the Democratic primaries? Do we field a Republican mayor in the Republican primaries? Are you afraid? I'm not. One night in the 70s, Jimmy Carter woke up in Plains, Georgia and he took a look at those running — then he said, I can whip their ass. And he did.

This is not a dream. Throughout the world big city mayors are now running for President and getting elected. In Pennsylvania, a Democratic Jewish Mayor of Philadelphia named Ed Rendell got elected governor of a power state. Mayor Daley could get elected governor of Illinois tomorrow but his love obsession and heart is here forever in Chicago. Other dynamic mayors are now in the Senate. Former St. Paul Mayor, now Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman has not only talked the talk, he has walked the walk — to help us as we continue the fight to save CDBG; he has not forgotten where he came from and just like the boy mayor of Minneapolis Hubert H. Humphrey, who was elected to the Senate, was Vice President and was the Democratic nominee in 1968, Senator Coleman has championed our causes. California Senator Dianne Feinstein, a former San Francisco Mayor and a finalist to run for Vice President in 1984, is an ally of Mayor Beverly O'Neill on the gang legislation and other issues. The Senator continues to have star appeal and gets votes from Democrats and Republicans. On the powerful Hispanic/Latino political force we have the new Mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa, just elected days ago, he is already on the front of NewsWeek magazine and those close to him such as his neighbor our President-elect Beverly O'Neill of Long Beach and his mentor former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and his people have sent the word forth that he will be with us. In Miami we have Mayor Manny Diaz who at the snap of his finger can summon Telemundo and Univision to speak the language in English and Spanish to so many of us who now rely on these networks whose audiences now surpass other main stay television networks in the nation. These are forces that must be used to activate people about our issue that are national issues that must be pushed forward.

As we contemplate how we might use mayors, we must look at the national field. Today on the Republican side, Senator John McCain and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani are high in the polls on the Republican side. The New York Mayor was a mayor. Hello. Senator McCain has consistently expressed a strong interest in our issues. When he ran the last time, he came to New Orleans at our Annual Meeting to listen and to be heard.

On the Democratic side, Senator Hillary Clinton leads the field. And if anyone gets it when you talk about cities and mayors, she does. Since the first day she was worn in, she has championed our issues and I, along with my staff and her staff, work closely together as we solicit Democratic Senators and Republican Senators to win on a number of fronts. And you have to mention in her camp will be her husband, our former President, Bill Clinton, who was a champion for cities and our metro-economies and built a bond toward Democratic and Republican mayors that is still there. And then there is New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson who is also being mentioned and who understands the national and international importance of mayors as we all live now in a global economy involving commerce and trade; he also understands us, he can talk our talk and he, throughout his career, has shown he can listen and act for our cities large and small.

So, it is not as bad as some of you assume. The question is what are you going to do about it. I say — we should seize the day and get real. We should continue with the courage and energy that our President Don Plusquellic began in 2004. We must not retreat. We must not be fainthearted. Let us come together after Chicago and afterwards plot the course early and we can make the difference in 2008.

Now lets bring it back down to Chicago. You are here this week in a world-class city, Chicago, with a world class Mayor, Mayor Richard M. Daley. I have traveled to the large cities of the world. For 36 years I have been given that opportunity and I am grateful and honored for your trust. I have had the opportunity to listen to, talk to, eat with, drink with, cry with, laugh with — dance with — and yes — sing with — a lot of big and small cities throughout the world. They don't get any better than Mayor Daley. He is, without question, as a mayor, at the top of the list in the world. Witness what you see here, a city overrunning with best practices to see and enjoy and ideas for you to take home to duplicate for your own citizens. We learn so much from him on so many fronts of city governing and city life. And yet he has and will stand before you today and humbly thank each of you, for what he has learned from you, the nation's mayors governing cities large and small.

The Millennium Park, just blocks away from our hotel, is an international happening. With private money, Mayor Daley shows you what can be done if you have business savvy like he has to convince that city business is everybody's business.

I am honored to also have known his father, Richard J. Daley. In the last century and even today he is a political icon. I remember his father once, usually quiet and reserved, exploding over the fact that we must put public schools as our main priority. His son has become our "Moses" on public schools as he now has transformed the Chicago Public School system, now under his control, to be what his father dreamed up.

So, the present Mayor Daley is much more than this type of legacy that so many have written about. He has gone above that. Today, Chicago does stand as "that City on the Hill" that President Reagan talked about. Today, Mayor Daley is recognized and appreciated by all of us for using his political and practical business mind and his fearless heart to govern and develop a city whose mantra is — let's get the job done — now, not tomorrow, not next year, let's do it now.

As we gather here this week, the distinguished American For the Arts organization joins with The Conference of Mayors to present the first Vanguard Arts Leadership Award to two women who, like their mayor, have set the standard for what arts can mean to the economic vitality to the city — but even more — what arts can mean to our young people in the formative stages of their life before they go forward as adults in our society. Maggie Daley and Lois Weisberg are an incredible team. They have developed Gallery 37, which involves youth of all ages and incomes coming together across the board in all medium of the arts, which enriches them early on. They say it all started because they were mothers, one Jewish, one Irish, who were faced the challenge of having their own teenagers with very limited cultural opportunities to engage them to stretch their minds and bodies in a healthy creative way for the future. Gallery 37 is now duplicated in cities across America and in other nations. We honor them for their work. We are thankful that God put them together in a bond to create the catalyst that has touched so many of our young people and caused those touched young people to take a positive and creative path that will make Chicago, our nation, and our world a better place. Maggie and Lois are too, icons, of what individuals can do together to show the world what arts can do for cities and for the youths of cities around the world who are looking for an answer and response to the frustrated creative talents inside their young hearts, minds, bodies and soul. So we honor Ms. Daley and Ms. Weisberg. The Americans for the Arts and The U.S. Conference of Mayors, for the first time present the Vanguard Award to both of them, knowing their work will continue and what they started and what they do will continue for they have woven a fabric of understanding and action for arts and cities that can never be torn asunder.

Chicago awaits you. Chicago is ready. We thank the Daley Staff team and The U.S. Conference of Mayors Staff team. Let us come together to learn and then act. Let us also enjoy each other. Mayors are the brightest, the smartest, and the most fun and full of life than any of all the other politicians on earth. Let's work hard. Let's play hard and rise again to go home and face the challenges you face. It is our fervent hope that this meeting will be meaningful, productive and yes — enjoyable for all of you.

We thank once more Mayor Don Plusquellic for his leadership of courage and action this year. We congratulate Long Beach Mayor Beverly O'Neill and look forward to "the class act" that she exemplifies and carries with her as she has done as a leader within our ranks and as a mayor who transformed the loss of a navy yard into a gleaming city on the Pacific edge and as a mayor who faced down the term limit question and mustered a write-in campaign to reelect her for a third term because the voters wanted her to continue. And we thank our host Mayor — Mayor Daley — who is so proud you are all here to see, to learn and to enjoy the one and only Chicago.

I look forward to seeing you soon. While you are here, if you need any assistance, or if I can be of any help, please let me know.