Washington, DC
July 15, 2011

Las Vegas - Historic

History was made in Las Vegas last week when for the first time in American history, a husband swore his wife in as mayor of an American city. Oscar Goodman and his wife, Carolyn, came to Las Vegas in 1964 with around $80 in their pockets. His success as a lawyer defending notorious defendants is nothing new to us. Carolyn Goodman is strong, capable and a true professional.

When she fought for what she believed in, education reform to correct inadequacies in the Las Vegas public school system, she was frustrated. She took her energy and founded the Meadows School, a multi-million dollar operation with full'scale employees, teachers, assistants, and all that goes with funding and running a first class institution.

Oscar swore her in and went upstairs in his old office. I followed him and we watched Carolyn preside over her first city council meeting. She ran the entire meeting like a seasoned city politician.

Even more politically important, she wanted her own mayor pro-tem and she had a candidate challenging her choice. Also, there was an attempt to put someone other than her, the mayor, on the Convention Authority Board. These two campaigns were waged during the transition time between election day and swearing in. But she was ready for the fight and won on a 4-3 vote.

While there was ceremony on the first day of her inauguration, commentators and political pundits noted her political savvy and strength, and if she had lost these two votes, it would have hurt her in the long run.

But she stood tall and with tough love on her first day as mayor, and it is always with a smile.

At dinner, after events all day, we sat together; she looked and talked like it was a normal day and we, of course, talked more than politics at the intimate dinner of eight. She has vision for her city. Her strength, demeanor and style are perfect for Las Vegas. The bright lights, the glitz and the gambling are definitely a big part of Las Vegas. But Las Vegas is a real city and today there are challenges, as in most cities, such as crime, foreclosures and unemployment. She will be an avid, successful promoter of Las Vegas, and she will face the human challenges that her citizens live with each day.

We are lucky to have her as today’s mayor of Las Vegas. We are thankful that she decided not to stop giving her life to public service and grateful she decided to run for mayor and we look forward to her contribution and active participation within our great organization.

Alvin Brown’s election was the biggest upset in modern city politics. He won it because he is, and comes through as, one of the most genuine people in public service that I have ever known.

At his inauguration in Jacksonville, he was most humble, talking about his grandmother instructing him to read by using The Bible. He then tells the audience that it was the King James version with ancient words he still sometimes doesn’t understand. He shouted out as to what he wants for his downtown and the first item is a grocery store and he just comes right out and says, “Winn Dixie” because he is a Winn Dixie meat cutter, a reference to where he worked to sustain him as he worked toward the incredible political career ahead of him.

We are pleased that Mayor-elect Brown came to our Baltimore meeting even before the swearing in that I attended later. And he will be a strong member of this Conference of Mayors. Mayor Alvin Brown will bring the city of Jacksonville to the forefront through our organization. We welcome him and pledge our best, knowing that he will be there to help with our agenda and we will be there for him and his city. It’s a mayor and a city to watch because Mayor Alvin Brown will take Jacksonville to new heights.

Conference President L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has invited both Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman and Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown to our Summer Leadership Meeting in Los Angeles. And as busy as they are, both of them will be with us.

Since our Annual Meeting in Baltimore, a group of Conference Leadership Mayors have met with President Obama in The White House and the debt ceiling issue was on the agenda.

This past Monday, The White House hosted a conference call with President Obama as he requested a bipartisan group of mayors to stand with him against Republicans and Democrats in Congress who would not vote to raise the debt ceiling.

Following the call, President Villaraigosa sent a request from our headquarters asking mayors to stand with President Obama by issuing press statements.

The debt ceiling vote in 2011, an almost unnoticed automatic vote of Congress in the past, has suddenly emerged with this new Congress, all committed not to raise taxes in their elections and to cut, slash and burn discretionary programs, to be a vote that could put the full faith and credit of the United States of America in jeopardy.

In Washington, it’s one deal after another, people walking out of meetings, pundits say the meetings are “testy,” the President telling the seniors they may not get social security checks, Republicans slamming Republicans and the talking heads having a field day. No one has any idea how this will be resolved but in the end many believe and know that members will be terrified and will vote to extend the debt limit. Meantime, it is sickening to watch. Washington today is indeed more out of touch with the American people than ever before.

Lost in the discussion too, in the debt ceiling hysteria, are our discretionary programs such as CDBG, workforce funds, COPS, and homeland security. We were making some traction on key Conference of Mayors priorities before the debt ceiling vote moved up front to dominate and crush any discussion of protecting our discretionary initiatives that are so vital to cities during the great recession.

We must continue to stress with The White House and Congress that our city funding is not thrown under the bus in a possible deal in the middle of the night and friends come out and say, “We did our best.” At issue is the very fundamental principle upon which the Conference was founded when mayors and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt came together in a federal-city relationship. We are experiencing political turbulence today that could result in serious cuts that could be the death of key city programs. Today’s possible drastic surgery makes the Reagan Revolution and the Gingrich Era cuts look like nip and tuck. This atmosphere is much more serious since many members would gut and cut us to the bone and into the bone marrow.

More than ever, mayors need to stand up and say enough is enough. We can be strong if we have one voice and one United States Conference of Mayors. The Conference staff and I stand ready to fight even more to the end. We must never, never, never give up. I know we can count on the unified political movement to stop those who would destroy the 80-year old federal-city partnership. We send our money to Washington. According to our laws, Congress must redistribute the money to our nation. In today’s world with over 84 percent of our nation living in cities and with our local economies driving 90 percent of our national economy, we can and must demand better and fairer decisions across the board from Washington. We must remain vigilant and demand equitable solutions and decisions to the challenging national and local economies in this summer of 2011.