Washington, DC
July 21, 2006

Conference President Dearborn Mayor Michael Guido is working this month to solidify and strengthen his new leadership team as he goes forth as our 64th President. He will lead us through the mid-term Congressional elections and launch us into the Presidential elections of 2008.

Even now, over two years before the Presidential sweepstakes, there is speculation and story after story about the two most mentioned, mainly Senator “Hillary” and Senator John McCain. Are they likeable? Are they “to the right” enough? Will the GOP delegates nominate someone like McCain, a bit more lenient on the abortion issue? And is Hillary “warm” enough? Is she likeable enough? Thank God they are off her hairdos. At least we get a breather, for a short while, and I doubt if they’ll write about McCain’s hair.

But, on a more serious note, all of us agree that either one of these great Americans are well-equipped to be President of The United States. Both have come to our Winter and Annual meetings. And they get rousing welcomes. Both work with their mayors. And both like mayors.

We all know that the primary route toward securing the nomination is a treacherous one. In the primary process in states across our land, mayors are very much involved. That’s why starting early to bring focus on our issues is so important. And Conference President Guido will work with all of you to get the candidates to come to our Winter Washington meeting next January 24-26, 2007. We all know that in an election year, 2008, they will all be in New Hampshire or Iowa.

Once we get the attention of the candidates and get them to attend our meetings, we must have a viable bipartisan politically acceptable agenda.

We will cast our net wide. We will ask all “aspirants” to attend our Winter Meeting. The nomination for both parties is wide open. No incumbent President or Vice President is running. Not since 1952 when both parties wanted Eisenhower and Governor Stevenson was selected by the Democrats have we had such an open field.

An open field is good for us. Another thing that is good for us too are the issues of the day. Never before have mayors been more aligned with the voters. We must be smart and energetic in our process and we must be brave enough to get out of the box and do some different things if we are going to be players in the biggest struggle for the biggest prize of all contests – the Presidency of The United States.

Mayor Guido has met with senior staff this past week as he maps out his strategy. This week his two top officers, Vice President Mayor Doug Palmer of Trenton and Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, Chair of our Advisory Board, traveled to Dearborn where together we continued to work on our strategy that must be owned by the mayors. In Santa Barbara at our Leadership Meeting, September 14-16, we will have sign-off and ownership. This is all about team-building and developing a set of actions and policy positions that must have consensus and commitment in order for us to galvanize the mayoral campaign from every region in the nation.

There are a number of issues that will require new thought from our mayors to ensure that we are talking to the voters and the media in 2006, 2007 and 2008, the three-year span covering the mid-term and presidential elections. Nowhere in America do we have such a vast array of political acumen assembled as we have with our membership. We must listen to you. You must be given the opportunity to think, write, and offer your energy before we bring in the “experts” and pollsters.

Three issues will need close attention:

Energy/Environment. The 2006 ‘gas crisis” and our dependence on mid east oil has brought this energy/environmental issue to the breakfast room table. And every day new energy and environmental initiatives come from the bottom up in cities and neighborhoods across our nation. Together we can bring the agenda to the new Congress for action and into the new Presidential campaign with discussion and debate for further action with our new President.

Workforce, Skills Gap, Jobs and Education. These human issues are still challenges to our cities and our national economy. With the work of our existing Standing Committees and the various Task Forces such as our new Task Force - Poverty, Work and Opportunity headed up by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Burnsville Mayor Elizabeth Kautz, we will have a comprehensive agenda that above all will have the support and ownership of all mayors, large and small, from all regions. The immigration issues and the skills gap exacerbate these challenges. And mayors all agree that it is the businesses and private sector we must have with us if we are to make a difference.

Crime. A safe city is the first and paramount issue. In today’s national discussion, since 9/11, we have been consumed and obsessed with the terrorist threat. While money and attention were shifted, regular street crime, including gangs that make Al Capone and his guys look like boy scouts, are coming on strong and deadly in our cities and in our suburbs. Two national summits we hosted on gangs was a beginning; we will be forced to do more. In New Jersey, Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer lead the way in his region and state where he hosted a regional gang summit last year. Drugs are still being sold; and today’s drug business is much more sophisticated. The “reentry” issue, which is the terminology we use referring to the thousands of youth reentering our streets and neighborhoods, is bringing hardened youth from prison and the gangs are there recruiting them unless there are initiatives in place that provide an alternative life. And in many areas, the preventive programs do not exist.

So the sad but predictable fact is that regular street crime is coming back like gangbusters in many of our cities. Illegal guns, a most successful and entrepreneurial illegal drug trade and new “personnel” in the pipeline from failed schools and prisons, all add up to a serious challenge for our mayors and police chiefs. Today, as it was in the early Clinton era, crime is back. But in that era, we had a President who was calling us to the White House, pushing Congress for 100,000 cops and a Congress who was pushing block grants of money to help us fight crime. And we then had an Attorney General who would come and sit with us for days, quietly listening, with a little note pad in her hand. And when she left us, she called President Clinton and together they worked as a team with mayors and police chiefs to fight local street crime on all fronts as no President and Attorney General had done before.

Many people are asking today:.. Where is the Justice Department on fighting street crime? Where is the FBI? We need their help, support and focus on street crime.

And we must develop a new way of talking about street crime in light of how the voters have changed since 9/11 and Katrina. Today, when we talk about a rape in the mall, or a shootout on a school ground or street corner; somehow it is drowned out by another bombing on a subway in another country and another “terrorist” they have arrested in Miami, chatting on the internet about blowing up another building in another city. We are doing our best to stop the terrorist. And we are successful.

At the same time, there is another front and it is the war against street crime, gangs, and “domestic terrorism” that puts the fear in so many Americans who want a peaceful, productive, and enjoyable life in a society that is not afraid of its violent youth.

Mayors and police chiefs within our organization are coming together to develop a strategy and yes, a new way of presenting our case so that the Administration, Congress and the media will have no choice but to face the facts and embrace our recommendations to make our cities and our nation safer.

Crime was very much on the agenda at our officers meeting this past week in Dearborn and we will work through the summer and early September to present to our leadership viable bipartisan political options for consideration and adoption as we go forward to have a new Congress and a new set of Presidential candidates as the 2008 Presidential campaign gets further underway after the mid-term elections in November.

Last week, Conference staff met in New York City with over 40 executive city staff persons to discuss priority issues and to strengthen our communications across the board. We had as our partner the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service at New York University. It was most helpful.

We had at that meeting representatives from Mayor Bloomberg’s top staff to discuss the Bloomberg illegal gun initiative. We thank New York City Washington Director Judy Chesser for helping us to arrange this most informative briefing as we have struggled to cope with the illegal gun and gun safety issue since 1968.

We will continue to strengthen the relationship on all issues between your top staff and mine through the Executive Staff Institute and with New York University. It makes sense and strengthening these relationships is long overdue. We appreciate your sending us your staff. It is time well worth investing as we continue to face our challenges, share best practices, and learn from one another as we all serve people living in our cities.