Washington, D.C.
July 8, 2004

Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic, the 62nd President of The United States Conference of Mayors, in his inaugural address, in Boston, called for a bipartisan unity on key priorities voted by mayoral delegates assembled at our 72nd Annual Meeting. Mayor Plusquellic charged all mayors to work with him and our leadership to develop a metro policy for all USA cities. The keystone of his message is for USA mayors to forge an even stronger partnership with America's business community to present to the Presidential and Congressional candidates an economic agenda. He will champion our metro-economies theme which supports strong metro economies for a strong national economy.

Recognizing that the federal largesse of big spending is less, Mayor Plusquellic said that smart investments of federal and state funds are needed in order to give mayors the leveraging power to attract new business and new jobs for our cities, large and small, in the metro economies of our nation.

He said in his inaugural address, as he was installed as our new President, "Mayors do America's business." When he spoke those words, hundreds of Akron, Ohio citizens were in the audience representing the Akron City Council, the business community, friends and family. They knew why he made that statement and they understood it. They will tell you that some mayors talk about innovation and changing their economic strategies to keep their city economically strong. They know that Don Plusquellic talks it and he walks it. He is the "poster mayor" for converting Akron from a rubber industry town in the last century to a thriving competitive new American city now based on a polymer and plastic industry.

For over 30 years, first as a young Akron city councilman, to a five-term mayor, Mayor Plusquellic has dedicated his life to accept national economic changes as an opportunity for change and progress. His Akron leadership team developed a new economic game plan to win jobs and attract new business. Because of his leadership style, bringing all to the table for consensus and action, Akron today is economically secure providing a quality of life that is recognized nationally.

Mayor Plusquellic is bringing the Conference Leadership to Chicago in August to produce a metro-city policy and strategy document that we will present to President Bush and Senator Kerry. It is our hope that our agenda will provoke some discussion and vision as to how mayors can work with the business community and the federal and state governments to strengthen the metro economies of the nation. In the 2000 presidential election many of the domestic challenges we face each day were not adequately discussed. Brownfields redevelopment was mentioned in one of the Presidential debates in the Spring of 2000 and it was Governor Bush who proposed an initiative during that debate. It was frustrating to many Democratic mayors that Vic President Gore did not take their issues like brownfield development up front and center.

Let us hope that the 2004 Presidential debate and discussion will be centered more on the incredible opportunities that exist. Aside from the Iraq War and homeland security, there are domestic issues that mayors will be pushing forward as we will have the biggest national conversation in our country which comes every four years during the Presidential election.

Before Mayor Plusquellic became our President, he had substantive meetings with key Congressional leaders and White House staff to ascertain some issues where we could find common ground. Browfield development and home ownership are two issues that have wide support in both parties. Unfunded federal mandates are still a big issue for local governments.

Mayors are key to the development of new initiatives and new strategies with the business community and federal and state governments that will enhance the quality of life for all Americans and boost economic growth for our metro economies and our nation.

Over the next few weeks, working with our top officers and past Agenda, Conference President Plusquellic will produce a draft document that will be presented to our Chicago Leadership Meeting on August 10-11. We will carry forward a new Metro--04 proposal with determination to lift our domestic issues higher. Our thrust will be to the future. The more of our issues that President Bush and Senator Kerry agree on, the better we are after the big one is over and one of them is our President. We want to be in a position at our Winter Meeting to be working with the President of the United States on the issues facing the millions of Americans living in our metro areas.

President Plusquellic, as he announced in Boston, wants to bring us closer to the National League of Cities. In his first private meeting as our President, he and I met the day after our Boston Annual Meeting with the President of NLC Charlie Lyons and NLC Executive Director Don Borut.

Mayor Plusquellic's first public appearance as our new President will be at a NLC event at Valencia Community College in Orlando Florida where the focus will be on education. He also has agreed to join the NLC Town Meeting here in Washington, D.C. in September to support NLC President Lyons' NLC Initiative "Resurrecting American Dream."

He also will be addressing the Annual National Association of Counties Meeting in Phoenix and meeting with their leadership.

He has worked closely with Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, Chair of the Homeland Security Task Force created by Secretary Tom Ridge. As Vice chair, Mayor Plusquellic worked it hard to help us with the challenge President Bush has raised about getting the billions of homeland security funds "unstuck" so the money can get to where it belongs and that is down to our city fire and police departments.

So Mayor Plusquellic, as your new President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, is reaching out, building consensus among our local government partners with the premise that the more we are united and all together the more successes we will have as advocates for local government.

We thanked Mayor James A. Garner, our 61st President many times as he ended his term as "America's Mayor." One thing we will never forget when we established our Homeland Security Monitoring Center and validated our funds were not reaching our cities, he stood before the kleig lights and television cameras at our Washington 2004 Winter Meeting to tell the nation that this was "completely unacceptable." The ghosts of our founders were in the room that day because in 1932 mayors established The United States Conference of mayors to tell President Roosevelt that direct federal-city funding for key challenges must be established. This is a cardinal rule and virtue of our organization ... especially with our responsibility for the police function within our nation. Mayor Garner's belief and strength on the direct funding issue was key to President Bush and Secretary Ridge forming the Ridge Task Force. Today, progress is being made by the officers that follow Mayor Garner. We owe so much to Mayor Garner who stood firm to demand attention and solutions to the tremendous challenge we face in the flawed system which has caused delays and confusion in providing the resources to our first responders. Thank you Mayor Garner. We are not there yet, but we will get there, thanks to your strategic and tough leadership. We are working off of your shoulders.

Never before in the history of The United States Conference of Mayors has a host mayor had so much pressure as our host Mayor Tom Menino and produced a meaningful, productive and enjoyable meeting we will never forget. Faced with picket demonstrations, his own Senator and Democratic nominee skipping our meeting, Mayor Menino has the support of all mayors in his bargaining and negotiations with his police force. In front of him also is the Democratic National Convention but with all of the pressure coming at him, he and his staff never faltered in providing a superb 72nd Annual Conference of Mayors. The people of Boston are with him and the mayors of our nation empathize with him because they have to make tough decisions each day. We salute Mayor Tom Menino and his team and we thank him for his strength, courage, and vision as our Host Mayor ... and also for just being a great mayor of a great City ... Boston, the city where it all began. It is the city that continues to produce new ideas and new strategies for all mayors as we go forward to provide cities that are great places for our people to live and to work and to play which makes America's future so dependent on the likes of Tom Menino, the 55th Mayor of Boston.