Washington, DC
September 8, 2006

Mayors and police chiefs came to DC in late August to announce that street crime is back. Los Angeles Police Chief Bill Bratton, the current President of Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), along with Conference of Mayors President Dearborn Mayor Michael Guido, joined the chorus of mayors and police chiefs who are warning Washington and the public that the recent crime spike of criminal statistics illustrates that the crime issue is back. So, the facts are here and they are indisputable.

The partnership between PERF and the Conference of Mayors is most important as we go forward and we are most appreciative of the good work of Chuck Wexler, Executive Director of PERF, and his team as they provide more statistics that give us an accurate picture of what is happening on our streets and in our neighborhoods.

At the Washington meeting, we reviewed our National Action Plan to Combat Violent Crime, adopted in 1993 and we all heaped praise for a job well done then by Louisville Metro Mayor Jerry Abramson. The facts of 1993 are almost the same as they are today. Mayor Abramson recalls his discussions with President Clinton, who was focusing on health care reform, but listened to Mayor Abramson as he advocated during those days for a federal response to the crisis that affected all of us. Through Mayor Abramson’s advocacy and political skills, we amassed the political support to pass the Clinton crime bill giving us 100,000 cops and block grants to help us stop the crime in those days not too long ago.

While today, as crime rises, the statistics are the same as 1993 but it is with all due respect to past victories, 2006 is a different world.

In 1993 we had a wave of violence in our nation and a President and Attorney General who were all over us.

In 1993, national television carried violence in American cities, large and small, from sunup until sundown. Today, this 2006 crime is not on CNN, ABC, NCC, FOX or CBS national news, but is on the local affiliates 24/7. Test it. Turn on your local TV channels. The reports are chock full of rape, murder and robbery. But when you switch the remote to the national news, its terrorism, the Iraq War and, yes, who killed JonBenet Ramsey ten years later or the long-awaited photos of Tom Cruise’s baby.

So it is a different world. And the mayors are different too. Mayors today are not as focused on what they expect from the federal government. They just know it’s a problem. At this meeting in Washington, it was clear to all that we must continue to educate the general public and Washington as to the crime within our nation. And that is what came out of this meeting — a partnership between PERF and the Conference of Mayors to release statistics to inform the nation and our federal government just what is happening in our urban and suburban areas. It will take a while. But we will get the attention if recent trends continue. Murder, rape, robbery across the board creeps into cities, large and small and the suburban community and people demand some answers, some accountability. We are not there yet. We were told to continue to tell the story. It’s not pretty but we have to do it and we will.

We thank PERF and all the police chiefs and all our mayors who came to Washington to help us frame our future strategy. We will need your help as we go forward.

As we focused on crime last week here in Washington, Conference President Guido now convenes our Leadership in Santa Barbara. We will hold executive sessions to develop bipartisan strategies on the challenge of poverty among our working families and strengthening our workforce population as we push forward with a goal of all Americans having the job to produce the resources needed to have a meaningful, healthy and productive life here in the USA.

In addition to crime and poverty issues, we are very much involved in and on top of a movement to provide protection from climate change through a new way of looking at and using energy in America.

The poverty, jobs, skills gap and workforce issues coupled with the challenges of crime are subjects that will receive much mayoral bipartisan attention in the coming months.

And in Atlanta October 26-27, we will hold our second energy summit. Energy Summit II in Atlanta will be solely devoted to the renovation, rebuilding and new building of all buildings residential and commercial to be carbon neutral by the year 2030.

These issues and others will all be part of Mayor Guido’s plan to present proposals to the 2008 Presidential candidates at our Winter Meeting next January.

Mayors all agree that we must start now to educate all Presidential aspirants as to how we view the partnership we want with the next White House.

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson is questioning our government’s policy on a number of issues. We hear a lot of questioning in a private fashion. Mayor Anderson’s public speech is printed in its entirety beginning on page 13. Mayor Anderson has been a strong member of our organization and throughout his political career.

We are saddened at the sudden death of Pittsburgh Mayor Bob O’Connor. Mayor O’Connor and I talked at our Las Vegas Annual Meeting in June and no doubt he would have been an active player with our organization. We express our profound sadness to our member city, Pittsburgh, and to Mayor O’Connor’s family and staff. His death is a loss to us all.

Mayors who came to Chicago for our first Energy Summit are already signing up for our second Energy Summit in Atlanta, October 26-27. Mayors are all joining in to be a part of our Climate Protection initiative, led by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and Carmel (IN) Mayor Jim Brainard. Together with their leadership, along with our Energy and Environment Chairs, Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory and Austin Mayor Will Wynn, we will continue to lead the effort to change our energy policy from the bottom up.

Conference President Mike Guido asked Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin to host our Energy Summit II because of what Atlanta has done to be a leader within our nation for the number of LEED certifiable “green” buildings. Together we will share and together we will push Washington to recognize and support the leadership of our mayors who have stepped up to protect their cities and our earth for now and the future. Please register now for our Atlanta Energy Summit; Contact Debra DeHaney Howard 202-861-6702, or Judy Sheahan 202-861-6775.

I look forward to seeing many of you soon in Santa Barbara and in Atlanta in October for our second Energy Summit.