June 25, 2009

This edition of U.S.Mayor goes to press — almost two weeks have passed since our 77th Annual Meeting opened and we realized that our friends within the Obama government would not be attending due to the local labor dispute between Host Mayor David Cicilline and his employees.

Charleston Mayor Joe Riley, The Dean of US mayors, and an ardent, early Obama supporter summed up the situation with one short sentence "It was a mistake."

It was a heartbreaker for me. White House staff and the Cabinet had worked with us to bring the Obama Administration to Providence. I kept hoping up to the last minute someone would come. I never did accept that a local labor dispute would cause all federal government employees not to be able to attend.

Adlai Stevenson in his concession speech in 1952 quoted a story told by Abraham Lincoln to describe how he felt — "It hurts too much to laugh, but I'm too old to cry."

And I knew that, as life, the show must go on. And we did. And we will.

Press inquiries continue, but I don't want to talk about what happened in Providence any more and I won't comment to the press about the Administration's absence. We have too much to do.

When these kinds of situations occur within a political family, you tread in the treacherous waters of the modern media. You have a responsibility to this organization; you have a responsibility to the true friends of the Conference of Mayors who have worked within so hard to bring our mayors to The White House on a common agenda for our nation. And having worked in the Executive Office of the President, you are very mindful of not wanting him to be hurt politically. President Obama has been most supportive of our policies and has been most open and accessible to mayors.

Still, no one came. I had to confirm that fact to the press as we opened the conference. After that with the opening press conference with Mayor Joe Riley's statement, the operative words for me were that it was "a mistake and we are moving on."

The Obama White House, the Federal Agencies, and The U.S. Conference of Mayors are linked as a family to work as a family to meet the goals of creating three million jobs by the end of next year and to work together to enact the change that this organization has sought for 77 years. President Obama came to us in Miami last June at our 76th Meeting and summoned all mayors to join him in making our cities thrive to save this nation from the economic downturn that continues.

After Mayor Diaz and I were told by White House staff that the Administration would not be able to come to Providence, there were many conference calls prior to the opening press conference in Providence. The initial outburst of anger and surprise diminished as reality set in. Mayor Diaz stood before the cameras and reminded all that political family members must respect each other.

There will be times when you have to speak out and call it what it is. And then you go back to work on the things you need to do because there is no malice here, no anger. Just a group within the family saying, you shouldn't have done that to us and to our members. We needed you. And we still need you. We must work together to help you with climate legislation, healthcare, green jobs, immigration reform, the big transportation bill, the Copenhagen Climate Protection treaty, nuclear disarmament. Mayors' support goes beyond traditional government programs. Our grassroots support can make the difference for our new President. And we will be there as we go forward to support our new President as he pushes his agenda, our agenda and our policies, forward to make our cities, our metro areas stronger and our nation stronger. So we look to the future. That's the way it is in a family. There are differences at times. You hear them out so that common respect is shared. Then you know that life, laughter and work go on.

We commend Host Mayor David Cicilline for his great dedication to make our 77th Annual Meeting meaningful, productive and enjoyable. I will let this edition report on the meeting itself. Providence is indeed a destination city. Mayor Cicilline can be proud of how mayors stood with him under great pressure.

Mayor Manny Diaz pushed our 10-Point Plan through five action forums on Infrastructure, Crime, Poverty, Environment, and the Arts in five cities in 60 days. He led us to two National Conventions, managing a hurricane response effort through one. His global leadership and urging our nation and our mayors to work with Latin American nations and other nations will stay with us in the future. The Main Street Stimulus package for the first time contained funding for the priorities of our organization that we have called for over the past 40 years. Years from now we will see Mayor Diaz's year, 2008–2009, as the defining moment when our metro cities begin to prove to this nation that national investments to eradicate national challenges to problems within our cities is the way toward an even stronger America. We thank you Mayor Manny Diaz, our 66th President.

President Nickels called for a new deal for American cities in his inaugural speech. He is the founder of the modern-day Climate Protection Mayors movement. Today we have over 950 mayors active in the Climate Protection Center. The Climate Bill is before Congress now. He is leading the mayors working with President Obama to help pass it.

Mayor Nickels has charged staff and mayors to track the stimulus monies so that we can make the case if the states are slow or reluctant to pass the funds down to our cities in our metro-areas.

Our new President is asking for your help on the climate bill now before Congress. He has hit the job as your new President with full force.

Together with the Obama Administration, the new Congress, Mayor Nickels is determined that we must move now to remove the silos of funding and to design and implement a better way to serve the 85 percent of city people now living in America's metro areas. Early on, Mayor Nickels pushed for a new way for the federal government to do business with cities. In Providence he asked for a new deal for cities. It echoed our birth when the mayors met with Franklin Delano Roosevelt 75 years ago.

In the weeks ahead, we will be providing you more of Mayor Nickels' direction, vision, and action. As we left Providence, he and I met with our new top officers, Vice President Elizabeth Kautz of Burnsville (MN) and Second Vice President Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles (CA). Mayor Nickels wants a cohesive and comprehensive strategy for the cities in 2009. And he wants your help in developing it. We are in the infancy of this new Obama Administration. We have miles to go. We are fortunate to have Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels at this moment. This next year is most important as we continue to implement the stimulus initiative, help define the White House Office of Urban Affairs, enact transportation reform legislation, cap and trade funds for our energy block grants, and work with dynamic HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, as together we revitalize HUD to be the cornerstone to other agencies as we begin to walk the walk and recognize how the metro economies are the answer to America's challenges and future.

Congratulations to Mayor Nickels — our 67th President and congratulations to mayors Elizabeth Kautz and Antonio Villaraigosa. What a team! This is an exciting time to be a mayor. We are faced with budget cuts and the economic pain is there, but we will prevail. And we are lucky to have these three mayors, Nickels of Seattle, Kautz of Burnsville, and Villaraigosa of Los Angeles. Stay tuned. Stay with us. Together, we can and we will.

Thanks to all mayors for your involvement and your action. You give us the reason to be even stronger as your advocates here in Washington, in our nation and across the globe.