Washington, DC
October 4, 2002

Mayors, business leaders and police chiefs came to town last week — all led by Conference President Thomas M. Menino — and all voicing concern about city priorities — some long-term and some more urgent. Centered in the discussions is the lack of any direct funding assistance to cities for national homeland security efforts since September 11, 2001 — over a year ago. Housing, education, welfare reform and Amtrak legislative discussions also took place involving teams of mayors, members of the business community and police chiefs.

From the White House early in the morning to Capitol Hill to meet and dine with the powerful, mayors, business leaders and police chiefs covered the Congressional waterfront and ended at 5:30 p.m. with a final meeting with Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Whip. The last two standing mayors were Mayors Don Plusquellic of Akron and Beverly O-Neill of Long Beach. They need endurance awards for their staying power.

Mayors came to town when the clouds of war hung over us. The night before we hit the White House to meet with Homeland Security Chief Governor Tom Ridge and Attorney General Ashcroft, Senator Tom Daschle had lit into President Bush on the Senate floor charging that President Bush is saying the Senate does not care about the national defense because they are more interested in listening to special interest groups.

The heated rhetoric had somewhat calmed down the next day when mayors had breakfast at the White House and dined with the Senators and Senator Daschle was there with us as a host for the event.

Perhaps the most accurate description of the mayors mood was given by Detroit Police Chief Jerry Oliver, Sr., when he stood up along side mayors, police chiefs and Senator Hillary Clinton and looked into the TV cameras and said we are angry, frustrated and tired over the fact that we spend and work to defend our homeland to the tune of billions nationwide and Washington has not produced a dime to pay for what they should be paying for — the defense of our people during this war on terrorism.

Senator Clinton continues to push her amendment that would give us direct funding if the bill providing the funds is ever passed. Presently, homeland defense monies are in a snarl and dogfight between President Bush and key Senators concerning labor issues for homeland defense personnel.

There is a split screen picture that has two most different images. One is the mayor or police chief who is angry and concerned about the budget hole we are already in since 9/11 2001 and the Congressman or Senator who makes speeches and gets photographs taken with police and firemen and does nothing to stop the logjam and snarl we have here between President Bush and the Congress. While Senator Clinton and others have been out there for us, others are posturing and doing a lot of talking like they support the police and firefighters but after one year they can-t seem to get their act together enough to get the support we need for our domestic troops.

Conference President Menino brought us to Washington with the hope that it is our first of many more meetings that will follow. We have friends on Capitol Hill and we need more. Mayor Menino is committed to take us back to the basics on more lobbying on Capitol Hill. We welcome his leadership and mayors will support him because we realize that we must have the votes to win on our economic security and homeland security issues. If nothing else, it showed a lot of mayors and chiefs just how out of touch Washington is with what is needed at this time to get support to our police and fire departments. It also shows the people that on many of their key issues, there is a disconnect with Washington and the people living in urban and suburban cities throughout America. They just don-t get it. But it is not over yet and our issues will not go away. The need will intensify as we go forward increaWe thank Mayor Menino for his leadership and tenacity to bring the mayors to Washington at this time. We hope the White House and Congress heard us. We tried hard to make our case and will keep on trying and keep on pushing until Washington comes to its senses and realizes the need we must have now to meet the needs thrust upon us at the local level for national and international defense.

We thank Mayor Menino for his leadership and tenacity to bring the mayors to Washington at this time. We hope the White House and Congress heard us. We tried hard to make our case and will keep on trying and keep on pushing until Washington comes to its senses and realizes the need we must have now to meet the needs thrust upon us at the local level for national and international defense.