By Katie Pirolt and Debra DeHaney-Howard
June 28, 2010

The first ever New Mayors Forum was held in conjunction with the Membership Standing Committee at The U.S. Conference of Mayors 78th Annual Meeting in Oklahoma City. The June 11 forum featured a select group of newly elected mayors who discussed a number of issues, including transportation, public safety, city governance, ethics reform, job creation, energy, and water infrastructure. Joining co-moderators Conference President Burnsville Mayor Elizabeth B. Kautz and Conference CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran were Charlotte (NC) Mayor Anthony Foxx, New Orleans (LA) Mayor Mitch Landrieu, Baltimore (MD) Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Atlanta (GA) Mayor Kasim Reed, Houston (TX) Mayor Annise Parker, and Newton (MA) Setti Warren.

"As the past chair of the membership committee, I always thought it was important for us to bring new mayors to create this kind of forum, and here's the reason why, when new mayors come into office they are filled with energy and are highly motivated (that doesn-t mean the rest of us that have been around for a while aren-t motivated or filled with energy) but they can bring new ideas and a fresh look to what's going on. They bring experience expertise from the different disciplines they-ve been involved with before becoming elected officials and if they were already serving as elected officials then they bring experience and expertise from that venue as well. So I have always thought it was important for us to feature our new mayors and to get them engaged into our organization, but most of all to learn from them, to listen and help us as we continue to move forward," said Kautz.

Piscataway Mayor Brian Wahler, Chair to the Membership Committee, said, "The Conference has a strong legacy of leaders and the new mayors today are part of a new group of future leaders. As these mayors take office, they are facing unprecedented economic and social challenges. But these new mayors bring strong optimism and new aspirations. Today, we take this opportunity to hear from this group who exemplify that commitment and its members early in their tenure. These mayors embody the essence of public service, and the Conference will certainly benefit from their dedication and work."

Following the introduction of panel members, Cochran led the forum discussion, beginning with the issue of transportation. Cochran asked Reed to describe Atlanta's current transportation challenges. As a former state legislator, Reed highlighted a bill that he worked on with the Georgia Governor that will yield $750 million a year over ten years in investment on metro area transportation. He expressed optimism in solving his city's transportation problems as "the tide has turned" in regards to cooperation with the state to address traffic congestion.

Commenting on the transportation issues in Texas, Parker stated that a number of Texas cities are now working together to provide a united front to address the problems with the state legislature in regards to transportation. These efforts will emphasize commuter rail and high speed rail between the larger Texas cities.

Cochran raised the issue of preparation and the transition period in becoming mayor. Landrieu said that in his own transition period, he sought out veteran mayors including Charleston (SC) Mayor Joseph Riley, Louisville (KY) Mayor Jerry Abramson, and his father, former New Orleans (LA) Mayor Moon Landrieu. Speaking to his multiple roles in government, Landrieu said, "Cities are where you can drive the change the quickest that you can measure, because in our day and age it's about outcomes, measurements and seeing it. New Orleans is going through a really interesting experiment of rebuilding the fabric of the healthcare system, insurance system, and housing, all of that together and so the delivery system if you can shorten it and you can make it more clear is a better way to get the job done."

In responding to Cochran's question: "What was the biggest surprise when coming into office," Foxx explained that Charlotte is the second largest financial services center in the country and the presence of a dichotomy between Main Street versus Wall Street in his own town. Foxx said, "The biggest surprise was not only having to address issues on a local level but having to address them on a federal level as well." Upon coming into office, the White House hosted leaders from Charlotte to discuss general solutions for the financial sector and Foxx stated that he believes the banking industry is starting to be more receptive to the changes that are taking place.

Warren addressed his biggest surprise as being the loss in confidence in the role of government in his own city and across the nation. He explained, "What I-ve seen happen is an anti-government strain and one of the things I had to work on is making sure people understand what you are doing every single day in city hall and measuring the performance of your city services and touching on people directly." Warren held eight town hall meetings over a three-month period prior to delivering a budget that had no layoffs of police, firefighters or teachers. Warren stated, "We are working very hard on building confidence back and talking about what government does and how it affects people's lives. Our responsibility is to show we-re being efficient and also have a game plan for the future."

Cochran, in his closing set of questions, asked across the panel: "If we had a meeting next Tuesday with president Obama, what would you say to him?" Rawlings-Blake said she would raise the issue of water infrastructure policy and the cost of maintaining and upgrading outdated water and sewage systems. She stated that, "If the Obama Administration does not use this opportunity to put people to work, to retool our infrastructure, it will be a significant opportunity lost and if we don-t, as mayors, come together and speak with one voice on this, we are going to miss a major opportunity to really do the type of advocacy that we-re known for."

Parker said she would express concern to the White House in regards to our energy needs. She stated, "With what's going on right now, and as Houston being the oil capital of the world, we understand that we have to have environmental protections. We need to continue to produce petroleum products to feed our energy needs, we just have to figure out a better way to do it safely."

Landrieu explained,"One of the things I-ve tried to express to the Obama Administration is that we [cities] are the places that can manifest your metro agenda much more quickly. Cities are the most immediate laboratories of democracy, where you can drive the change the quickest in a way that can be measured." He also touched on the issue of infrastructure that Rawlings-Blake had brought up, and stated, "If you don-t rebuild your infrastructure, nothing else matters because the private capital won-t come."

In her closing comments, Kautz said, "We all know that we as mayors are always dealing with change. We live in cities that are organic that are continuously changing, and so for us we need to make sure that we continue to be open. So new mayors can help us to see things differently and see things in a new way and bring new energy and creativity to our organization.

"And I look forward to working with our new mayors and really excited to also understand where their passion is and where they would like to help us in the future in regard to our standing committees and task forces."

To watch the full 90-minute forum, go to the website.