By Conference Staff
September 25, 2006

The leadership of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, meeting in Santa Barbara September 14-16, identified three key issue areas as priorities for the 2008 presidential election season: 1) crime and homeland security; 2) energy and environment; and 3) poverty, work and opportunity. The mayors said that other issues may be added to this agenda, but these three areas need the most focus and attention.

The more than 40 mayors who comprise the leadership – executive committee and advisory board members, as well as committee and task force chairs – also discussed ongoing defensive battles related to the Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG), telecom rewrite and eminent domain. The need for increases in CDBG will also be a part of the proactive presidential agenda.

Conference President Dearborn Mayor Michael A. Guido told the leadership, “The fact is that Washington has not been very receptive to our concerns over the past several years – and in many cases we have been forced to fight defensive battles, and we will continue to do so.” The mayor added, “With so many major issues continuing to face our nation, we must also push our national leaders to think creatively and with vision on more long-term issues.”

Possible presidential candidates from the Democratic and Republican parties have been invited to participate in the Conference’s 75th Winter Meeting January 24-26. In addition, the Conference is working toward a number of bi-partisan issue forums in key primary states.

While the economy is growing, most American households are still experiencing a decline in real wages, James Diffley of Global Insight, Inc told the mayors. Nationally real median income fell from 2000 to 2004. In 2005 real median income rose 1.1 percent, but these gains came entirely in the top 20 percent of households.

“We still have 80 percent of households experiencing declines or stagnation, even though we are seeing increasing productivity from the American worker,” Diffley said. Weighted down with increasing mortgage rates from adjustable rate mortgages, increased energy costs and health insurance rates, many households are feeling pinched during the economic recovery.

Detroit Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick, who chairs the Conference’s Council for the New American City, said metro economies are the engines of American growth providing over 85 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, employment income and jobs. “Any discussion with future presidential hopefuls must begin with the understanding that cities are the future of American prosperity,” he said, “but we must also discuss the pressures that our families are experiencing as they adjust to a new economy and the new workplace.”

Building on the work of several recent meetings held by the Conference and the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), the mayors discussed ongoing increases in violent crime rates in cities across the nation, and the need for the federal government to re-engage in the crime issue. In a discussion led by Rochester (NY) Mayor Robert Duffy, Chair of the Criminal and Social Justice Committee, and PERF Vice President Miami Police Chief John Timoney, the mayors discussed how funding for key programs has been all but eliminated, and how federal partnerships on law enforcement with agencies have been drastically reduced as resources have moved to the fight against terrorism.

Final 2005 crime numbers released this week by the FBI show there were:

• 1,390,659 total violent crimes, a 2.3 percent increase, the largest increase in ten years;

• 16,692 murders, a 3.44 percent increase, and the largest increase in 14 years;

• 862,947 aggravated assaults, a 1.8 percent increase, the largest increase in ten years; and

• 417,122 robberies, a 3.9 percent increase, the largest increase in ten years.

While the mayors and chiefs have not set their crime agenda, they did focus on a number of issues including numbers of police officers on the streets, technology, FBI assistance, DNA backlogs, and illegal guns.

The leadership was also briefed by Sugar Land (TX) Mayor David Wallace, Cochair of the Homeland Security Task Force, on the need for continued attention at all levels of government to key issues such as interoperable communications and evacuation planning.

Recognizing that energy and environmental issues are a key component to competitive cities, Guido said they will be a major part of the Conference’s Presidential election agenda – and called on mayors to provide recommendations for a National Municipal Energy Plan as well as efforts to reduce the impact of climate change.

Energy Committee Chair Austin Mayor Will Wynn and Environment Committee Chair Charlotte Mayor Patrick McCrory outlined the Conference’s recently passed resolution intended to be a starting point for a national dialogue for a national energy plan that also includes a consideration for the environment. The 10-point plan consists of:

• Reducing Energy Usage

• Promoting Green Buildings

• Ensuring Residential Energy Assistance

• Addressing Climate Change

• Encouraging Diversity in Energy Generation

• Improving Municipal Vehicle Fleets

• Encouraging Incentives to Improve Vehicle Fuel Efficiency

• Investing in Transit and Walkable Communities

• Sharing Best Energy Practices Among Cities

• Encouraging Private Sector Initiatives

Wynn and McCrory highlighted their own efforts to implement many of the above-mentioned items. Wynn promoted his Plug-in Vehicle Partnership Program, which is a buying consortium to demonstrate market demand for this new technology. McCrory highlighted his own efforts and challenges to bring mass transit to Charlotte.

McCrory and Wynn committed to further vetting of the issue and welcomed input from mayors to move forward on a national strategic energy and environmental plan.

Carmel (IN) Mayor James Brainard and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, co-chairs of the Mayors Council on Climate Protection, outlined the goals for the newly created Council and their individual city efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Brainard has implemented traffic roundabouts that increase fuel efficiency by decreasing the number of idle vehicles. Carmel has also purchased hybrid cars. Brainard said that original estimates said that it would take five years to recapture costs but with rising fuels costs, it now takes only 2.8 years.

Nickels announced that nearly 300 mayors have signed onto the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which is a commitment by cities to try to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by seven percent from their 1990 levels. According to Nickels, 80 percent of all energy is consumed within cities. The nearly 300 Mayors that have signed on represent nearly 50 million people with all but six states represented. Nickels also highlighted his own work in Seattle and discussed the formation of a Green Ribbon Task Force consisting of the public and private sector. The Task Force has created a list of recommendations to help Seattle’s efforts to meet their greenhouse gas emission reduction goals.

Mayors wanted additional information about how to make the case in their own communities to implement the policies and programs that all of the mayors outlined including data about actual savings from these programs.

Guido encouraged all mayors to attend the upcoming Energy and Environment Summit in Atlanta October 26-27. The meeting will focus on best practices on how to make all buildings energy efficient and carbon neutral by the year 2030.

Poverty, Work, and Opportunity Task Force Chair Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa updated the Conference of Mayors Leadership on his task force’s work thus far. He briefed the mayors on the three mayoral meetings and on the meeting of experts and workforce development directors, which the Conference of Mayors has held this year.

Villaraigosa distributed a draft task force policy document that is based in great part on what was learned at those meetings. That document is intended to layout a national agenda, which recognizes that economic expansion in metropolitan areas is key to economic opportunity for all Americans.

Jobs, Education and the Workforce Committee Chair St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay commented during the discussion that he would ask his standing committee to review the policy document and provide detailed feedback to broaden its education and workforce development sections.

Stressing the importance of consensus and bipartisanship, Villaraigosa stated that the task force’s work will build on successful strategies that have bipartisan support. Mayors around the table praised the work of the task force, particularly its focus on moving people out of poverty and into the middle class, and described successful initiatives they have undertaken in their cities.

Cardell Cooper, Executive Director of the National Community Development Association (NCDA), joined Conference Executive Director Tom Cochran and Assistant Executive Director Gene Lowe in a discussion of the CDBG program. “CDBG continues to be the bedrock of economically viable city neighborhoods,” Cochran said, adding that CDBG was the most targeted of all federal programs to low and moderate income people. Cochran thanked the mayors for their strong support of the program over the last couple of years when CDBG was targeted for deep cuts and elimination.

Cochran and Cooper suggested that the Conference of Mayors, NCDA, and other national organizations mount an effort to double CDBG formula funding to more than $8 billion each fiscal year. The mayors agreed that this goal should be pursued through a vigorous grassroots campaign and by engaging candidates in the 2008 presidential and congressional elections.

Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett, chair of the Urban Economic Policy Committee, told mayors that as of September 15, the Senate has not taken action on an eminent domain bill. He also reminded mayors that since 43 states have either passed or are in the process of considering legislation addressing the Supreme Court’s Kelo decision, there is no urgent need for federal legislation.

However if the Senate decides to act on a bill, Cornett said mayors do not want the Senate to take up the House bill, H.R. 4128, which was approved last November. He pointed out that it is a very restrictive measure that would preempt the ability of local governments to use eminent domain to address many vital public needs such as the removal of blight, the provision of low and moderate-income housing, and mixed-use development.

Although the House bill was introduced in the Senate the week of September 4 as S. 3873, Cornett told mayors it is unlikely it will be considered by the Senate. He explained that Senator Arlen Specter (PA), chair of the Judiciary Committee, has been working very closely with many mayors and listening to their concerns about the House bill. Cornett said Specter has also been working with mayors to draft his own bill and it is uncertain if it will be introduced before members adjourn. He also told mayors that some members are trying to attach “takings” provisions (that would give property owners the right to side-step local and state procedures for resolving land use disputes, and sue local governments directly in federal courts) to the eminent domain bill. He said that too is unlikely.

In the wake of continued efforts by Congress, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and state legislatures to “federalize” local government’s oversight of video/cable franchising, the mayors, led by Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, chair of the Transportation and Communications Committee, and Vice Chair Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, reaffirmed their priorities and advocacy strategy in the rewrite of the Federal Communications Act.

With a special focus on the House and Senate bills (H.R. 5252), the mayors expressed strong opposition to language in those measures that would allow providers of video/cable to use public rights-of-way in a community but pick and choose which neighborhoods they wish to serve while bypassing all others completely.

More information on the Conference’s campaign to defend local video/cable franchising is available at usmayors.org.

Led by Meridian (MS) Mayor John Robert Smith, Vice Chair of the Transportation and Communications Committee and Past Chair of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak), the mayors discussed Amtrak’s on-time performance concerns due to being forced to wait while an increasing number of freight trains occupy limited and deteriorating space on the rails.

Smith noted, “Where Amtrak owns the infrastructure, their on-time performance is 84 percent. However, most of the national system trains are suffering abysmal on-time performance, hovering under 30 percent on time.”

As a result of the discussion, Guido sent a letter to the American Association of Railroads (AAR) President and CEO Edward Hamberger requesting how AAR is working to mitigate this growing problem (available at usmayors.org).

Cities and Borders Task Force Cochair Yuma Mayor Lawrence K. Nelson discussed the gravity of the border security situation in the presentation that included numerous video clips highlighting dangerous inconsistencies in the integrity of physical security measures and the serious threats posed to public safety and security for residents, legitimate travelers, and local and federal law enforcement alike.

Of the 12,000 U.S. Border Patrol agents in the country, most are concentrated in areas of the southern border with Mexico. The health and safety risks that are posed to would-be migrants at the hands of violent and reckless criminals and smugglers was made very clear, as was the failure to invest adequate resources in travel processing facilities for legitimate cross-border travel and border ports-of-entry. Ordinary legitimate cross-border trade and travel by border area residents is a mainstay of border city economies and is critical to their economic stability. For example, in Yuma, cross-border retail commerce is valued at over $500 million annually.

The Conference supports improvements to the cross-border travel system as well as border security and immigration reform including a fair and efficient guest-worker program. For more information on Conference border security and related policy see usmayors.org/borders.

Nationwide Retirement Solutions (NRS) Executives Linda Barber and Louie Watson briefly discussed the challenges that cities are facing regarding GASB 45. It mandates how state and local governments should account for and report their costs and obligations related to post-employment healthcare and other non-pension benefits, collectively known as other post-employment benefits (OPEB). These new requirements may mean changes both in employee benefit design and the funding of public sector retirement plans. Issues regarding retirement funding are of growing importance and must be on the radar screens of mayors.

GASB 45 calls for change in a city’s actuarial, accounting, and legal services. These costs often have nothing to do with the salaries and inflation has been much higher on post-employment medical coverage in recent years. GASB 45 requires cities to quantify and report their future unfunded OPEB liabilities. This requirement often creates a significant forecast of future unfunded liabilities for many cities. The reporting requirement of GASB 45 may have the inadvertent effect of hurting bond ratings for governmental entities, thereby placing more pressure on governmental entities in desperate need of revenues to meet obligations.

Simply, GASB 45 generally requires that city and local governmental employers account for and report the annual cost of OPEB and the outstanding obligations and commitments related to OPEB in essentially the same manner as they currently do for pensions. Large entities will be required to execute independent actuarial evaluations every two years. Expenses are recognized in the year incurred, rather than current and typical pay-as-you-go arrangements. Watson spoke of one answer offered from defined contribution programs, specifically utilizing Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRA) to fund health care needs through a Voluntary Employee Benefit Association Trust (VEBA). A VEBA Trust protects assets set aside for healthcare from creditors of either the employer or employee. The IRS mandates all HRAs comply to specific guidelines. The NRS HRA plan, sponsored by the Conference of Mayors, meets these guidelines. Watson and Barber noted that NRS has associates available to assist cities adopt a Health Reimbursement Arrangement.

ts these guidelines. Watson and Barber noted that NRS has associates available to assist cities adopt a Health Reimbursement Arrangement.