Washington, DC
June 15, 2007

Welcome to Los Angeles! Happy birthday to The United States Conference of Mayors. Our Diamond Jubilee Meeting ... Celebrating 75 years of service to USA mayors and cities.

As we gather here we are most appreciative of our host Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for his personal contribution for a most meaningful, productive and enjoyable 75th Annual Meeting.

We thank and commend our President, Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer. We left Las Vegas last year thanking Long Beach Mayor Beverly O’Neill for her leadership and welcoming Dearborn Mayor Mike Guido as our new leader. It was a joyous time for the great and good Mayor of Dearborn. Little did we know he would be taken from us in a matter of months. It was, and still is a painful time for us and the Guido family, Kari, her sons Mikey and Anthony. Through it all, as painful as it was, we made it because of the personal caring and leadership of Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer. Suddenly, he was our President. And instantly he became the leader that we so needed.

As we went through the sudden and sad leadership transition within our organization, we had an earthquake political transition here in Washington that gave us a new Congress.

The new Congressional leadership presented Mayor Palmer the opportunity to seize the moment and use his tremendous energy and political talent to push our agenda forward.

Our agenda, a 10-Point Plan, “Strong Cities, Strong Families for a Strong America,” that he personally developed and gained ownership of the nation’s mayors, has propelled us forward. Today, thanks to Doug Palmer’s leadership and those mayors who let him lead, we are back on the center stage again as national and world players.

Since the Winter Meeting alone, we have established the Mayors Climate Protection Center, established a national U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Awards program, and conducted the largest ever national survey providing information relative to climate protection efforts and challenges in cities throughout America. Building on the initial successful efforts of Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, President Palmer has been pushing the numbers higher. Today we have 532 mayors who have signed onto our Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.

And last but certainly not least, we have successfully managed to have introduced into the Senate and the House, a new Energy and Environment block grant (EEBG) program that when enacted, will provide federal resources to cities across the nation for the purpose of initiating activities among millions of city residents that will culminate in successfully reducing greenhouse gas emissions to help us meet our goals that will indeed protect our planet Earth.

Other issues, crime, housing needs, transportation, health insurance, poverty, tax reform and unfunded mandates are still with us. And we pledge our help to be strong in helping you and your cities meet the challenges that are still before us.

No doubt, we look to our future. As mentioned before we are on the move again and the stars are lined up for it to be the Century of Cities and a most significant role of mayors as we move toward a new federal government in 2008.

All Presidential candidates from the Republican and Democratic Party are invited to our Diamond Jubilee 75th Anniversary. Some will come; some won’t. We appreciate so much the ones that will be here. We regret others could not make the time. It is their loss.

We will now go forward building our organization to be stronger in its service to mayors. We begin in Los Angeles and end in Miami next June a very special year celebrating, along the way, 75 years of service to mayors and cities.

As we look and work in the future ever changing, we must be agile and mobile.

We also pause to look at our great history. We are happy to present to you 12 short and succinct videos throughout our Annual Meeting here in Los Angeles defining moments in our history. These are moments that help change America. We hope after seeing them, you will see how many changes in our society would not have occurred had it not been for the courage of mayors within our organization to speak and act, sometimes when other political leaders were silent. We hope too that you will realize, as I do, just how the bonding and coming together of all mayors within our great organization gives forth that special energy ad common trust that serves as a catalyst to move our nation forward for a better life and a better country.

Let us celebrate now and continue to appreciate our heritage and history. We learn from the past. But let us always keep our eyes wide open, our minds open and hearts tough. Together you are the greatest group of political leaders on Earth. You are The United States Conference of Mayors. We salute you, let us continue to build a stronger America and strong cities for all our people.

The 75th year starts here in Los Angeles. Let us enjoy this meeting knowing together with Mayor Doug Palmer’s leadership and your giving him the support, energy and your own leadership, we will during this year of celebration accomplish much and be proud of our organization and further, be proud of what mayors do everyday and every night to make our world a better place for us all.