To The Mayor From The Executive Director

Tom Cochran

Chicago-PreSummit Sessions

September 18

Gary, Indiana Mayor Scott King chaired a session on violence in schools and after school programs in Chicago yesterday. We are preparing a draft document to be on the table for our delegates to the Summit on School Violence and Kids From 2:00 To 8:00 PM which will be held in Salt Lake City September 24. Attorney General Janet Reno will be with us. Conference President Deedee Corradini is fired up about this meeting and her enthusiasm and leadership on youth initiatives is being recognized and applauded by mayors and others throughout the nation. Her goal is to galvanize the mayors to develop a comprehensive user-friendly national plan that will help us stop the violence and give children the opportunity to reject patterns of behavior that lead to violent actions.

At the meeting here in Chicago, as we move to the Salt Lake City Summit next week, we are beginning to see what Waco, San Leandro, Saint Louis, Stamford, Gary, Boston, Chicago, Rockford and Minneapolis are already doing to stop violence in school and after school. We will be in a good position when our leadership meets with President Bill Clinton in mid-October to present our national strategy which will be a compendium of what is working to stop youth violence in cities across the nation.

Governor Tom Carper

We are fortunate to have Delaware Governor Tom Carper to join us in Salt Lake City at our Leadership Meeting. Mayors in Reno at our Annual Meeting last June resolved that we should work with governors on a number of challenging issues. We also have informally discussed the possibility of doing some best practice sessions with governors on issues such as brownfields. Indeed, some states have led the way in helping cities with brownfield redevelopment. Some have been a stronger partner with mayors than some agencies of the federal government by adopting a more common sense approach toward brownfield redevelopment.

Mayors are eager to join with governors in working to remove drugs in our prisons. Again, some states are already working and are successful to prevent the release of prisoners who are on drugs. The police chiefs are voicing their concern. Recently, Reno Mayor Jeff Griffin and Ed Somers of my staff met with Mr. Eric Holder, Deputy Attorney General of the U.S. Department of Justice to present our concerns on this issue. We were well received and no doubt mayors will be talking to Attorney General Reno about this challenge before they meet with Governor Carper.

Earlier this year, Mayor Corradini reached out to Governor Carper and requested him, in his capacity as incoming Chair of the National Governor's Association, to develop opportunities for mayors and governors through our two organizations to work together in a bipartisan way to solve common challenges. We all know that if cities, counties, and states come together on an issue, we win.

Babette Penton to Lockheed Martin IMS

Babette Penton, Assistant Executive Director of the Conference since 1987, has accepted a position at Lockheed Martin IMS in Washington, D.C. Throughout her career over the past 20 years she has worked for the Conference, or on issues closely aligned with the Conference. Recently her leadership has brought us to new heights in our relationship with corporate America and helped us develop a number of new health awareness initiatives. Aside from her contributions to increase our corporate development, she has been a trusted political strategist for me and my predecessor John Gunther. She will be missed, but she isn't going far. In her new position she will still be here in Washington, and of course, Lockheed will be better informed about local government and cities because they will have her guiding that corporation closer to local government to help cities service their people on a number of fronts. Please join me in thanking Babette for her dedicated loyalty and distinguished public service to The United States Conference of Mayors and wishing her the best at Lockheed Martin IMS.

Salt Lake City -- September 24-27

I look forward to seeing many of you in Salt Lake City next week. Mayor Corradini has worked hard to make our meeting there meaningful, productive and enjoyable. There are a number of tough issues facing us this year and we will get the game plan we need from Mayor Corradini and your leadership next week. After our Leadership Meeting in Salt Lake, we promise to stay in close touch with all of you in the months ahead.