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NEWS SECTIONS: World news | Election news | News from Europe | News from North America | News from Latin America | News from Asia and Australia | News from Africa | Urban events | NEWS SPECIALS: Local elections in England & Wales 2008 | London elections 2008 | Latest news story | London and Glasgow terrorist attacks 2007 |Kansas City mayor
sues city's council
Kansas City, 29 November 2008: After little more than 18 months in office, Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser is at war with his city council. The mayor has sued the council after it enacted an ordinance designed to prevent the mayor’s wife, Gloria Squitiro, from volunteering in his office. Ms Squitiro has created controversy since her husband took office. She is also alledged to have referred to a former mayoral employee, who is black, as "Mammy."
Some former supporters of the mayor, including the newspaper The Kansas City Star, have distanced themselves from him since the lawsuit. The paper, which backed him during the election campaign, has now said its endorsement was a mistake.
Mayor Funkhouser replied that the ban on his wife infringed on the integrity of his office. "I don't think the lawsuit against the council is disrespectful at all," he added. Local media reported that the mayor defended himself by saying that he and the council had a disagreement about their respective roles. “I think not to take the action that I've taken is disrespectful to the office of the mayor," he explained.
Mayor Funkhouser had a troublesome start to his term in office. After one month in office he had to return a car, which the Japanese carmaker Honda had lent him free of charge. One month later, he appointed a member from a anti-illegal immigration group, a move which resulted in the cancellation of a number of conventions by national civil rights groups. Furthermore this January, the mayor was subject to a failed re-call effort over his attempt to fire a black city manager without first consulting with the city council.
Californian cities to roll out
electric vehicle infrastructure
San Francisco, 22 November 2008: The northern Californian cities of San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland are joining forces to increase the availability of electric car services and provide incentives for investment in the technology. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom told the press that the aim was to make the Bay Area - and eventually California - the electric vehicle capital of the US. Mayor Newsom, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, announced a nine-point plan to promote the adoption of electric cars.
Starting in January 2009, the three cities will work to provide charging outlets at homes, businesses, parking lots, and other buildings; incentives for employers to provide electric vehicle (EV) charging systems in their workplace; government programs to promote EV purchases; programs for bulk orders from city and state governments.
The mayors will also work to identify and secure a suitable standard (110V) for electric outlets to be in every government building in 2009; and work on a roll-out plan for placement of 220V EV charging equipment throughout each city including city parking lots and curbside parking.
The three cities will be working with Better Place, a venture-backed company designed to reduce demands on petroleum through infrastructure favouring electric cars. The company plans to invest up to $1 billion in the project by 2012. Better Place has completed similar projects in Israel, Denmark and Australia, but the Bay Area effort will be its first US project.
American cities ask
for federal money
Chicago, 16 November 2008: American city mayors are seeking money from the federal government to help with pension costs, infrastructure and social projects. Chris Hoene, director of policy and research at the National League of Cities, told reporters that revenue was down 4.3 per cent from last year in American cities. “Cities are in what looks like the first wave of a three- to four-year financial decline.” He said revenue from property, income and sales taxes are all down at the same time for the first time in a survey taken since 1985, and widespread cuts in services were likely.
Meanwhile, the mayors of Philadelphia, Atlanta and Phoenix - Michael Nutter, Shirley Franklin and Phil Gordon – sent a letter to US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson asking to use a portion of the $700 billion financial bailout to assist struggling cities. Philadelphia’s Mayor Nutter said that cities were facing an economic crisis not seen since the depression and needed help just like financial institutions or motor companies. "I want to make sure that cities and metro areas are at the table, that their voices are being heard, that our challenges and problems are well understood, so that we can get relief," he added.
According to press reports, Mayors Nutter, Franklin and Gordon asked for loans to help cities pay pension costs. They also want $50 billion in loans for investment in infrastructure, and additional one-year loans to cities unable to borrow cash because of the tight credit markets.
US mayors look for forward
to working with new President
Chicago, 10 November 2008: During his election campaign US President-elect Barack Obama pledged to halt the decline of urban areas is cities like Detroit, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Now mayors from America’s big cities expect him to deliver. They see Obama as the first President since Lyndon Johnson in 1964 willing to make inner cities one his priorities. Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman said the key thing was that we now have a partner in the White House that we didn't have before. "We know that when we call, he will listen," the mayor added.
In June, at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Miami, the Illinois senator promised to spend billions of dollars to fix crumbling infrastructure, invest more in public transportation, restore community development funding and address other problems that plague metropolitan areas.
On his campaign Web site, Obama listed dozens of urban priorities, including the creation of a White House Office on Urban Policy. The office would "ensure that all federal dollars targeted to urban areas are effectively spent on the highest-impact programs."
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said that the new President would help cities a great deal. "We're looking forward to when he's able to straighten out the mess that was left for him," Jackson continued. Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic is optimistic, too. On a visit to the city, Obama met Plusquellic and, according to the mayor, acknowledged to him the work that Washington needs to do to resume support of American cities that has been lost over the last eight years.
Meanwhile in Los Angeles, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s chances of being re-elected in March 2009 after real estate developer Rick Caruso announced that he would not be running for the city leadership. Political observers commentated that the incumbent’s re-election was now virtually assured as “Rick Caruso represented the only real challenger he would have faced”. However, the Villaraigosa has not categorically declared that he would run a full second term as mayor. There has been wide speculation that Villaraigosa was looking to run for Governor of California in 2010.
New York Mayor to
run for a third term
New York City, 24 October 2008: New York's City Council has voted in favor of extending term limits for elected officials, paving the way for the city's billionaire mayor to run for another term. The move had many vocal opponents in the Council who said any change to the existing term limits law should only come through a public referendum. The measure to extend term limits law narrowly passed by a vote of 29 to 22, following two hours of lively, and at time contentious, debate in the City Council.
The legislation will allow elected officials to stay in office for three consecutive four-year terms. Lawmakers are currently limited to two four-year terms. The move came at the request of New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who just three weeks ago announced that he wanted to be able to run for a third term in office. Mr. Bloomberg's second term expires at the end of 2009.
Bloomberg, a former Wall Street tycoon and self-made billionaire, said he wants to remain the city's mayor because he believes his business savvy will help steer the city through tough financial times brought about by the crisis on Wall Street.
"As our economic situation has become increasingly unstable, the question to me has become far less about the theoretical and much more about the practical. So, to put it in very practical terms, handling this financial crisis while strengthening essential services such as education and publics safety is a challenge I want to take on for the people of New York," he said.
Bloomberg, a powerful and popular mayor, had many vocal opponents as he pushed to extend term-limits.
Referendums in the 1990s had twice confirmed the two-term limit and many New Yorkers said that only voters should be able to change the rule - not the City Council. About two-thirds of the council would have been forced out of office under the two-term limit, but they can now stand for a third term at the November 2009 election. (Report by Victoria Cavaliere, VoA News)
NYC divided over mayor’s
decision to seek third term
New York City, 4 October 2008: Following New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s announcement that he would be seeking a third term despite being term-limited to two four-year terms in office, a number of polls show that New Yorkers are divided over the issue. While a survey by Quinnipiac University showed that 54 per cent of registered voters supported extending term limits from eight to twelve years, a Marist poll said only 46 per cent of respondents supported Bloomberg's request for a change in the law. Some 44 per cent were against the mayor's third-term attempt. New York City council will introduce legislation to extend term limits to 12 years on Tuesday, 7 October.
Mayor Bloomberg cited the current crisis in Wall Street as the main reason for his decision to seek a third term (in 2005 he called the very idea of overturning term limits an absolute disgrace). “Given the events of recent weeks and given the enormous challenges we face, I don't want to walk away from a city I feel I can help lead through these tough times," he said.
Opponents of the mayor said any change should be submitted to New Yorkers in a special election, since they approved the two-term limit in referendums in 1993 and 1996. The mayor agrees, but wants a new referendum conducted after New York’s next mayoral election in November 2009. Commentators described the mayor’s comments as cynical.
However, the New York Times in an editorial supports the mayor’s point of view: “Term limits are seductive, promising relief from mediocre, self-perpetuating incumbents and gridlocked legislatures. They are also profoundly undemocratic, arbitrarily denying voters the ability to choose between good politicians and bad, especially in a city like New York with a strong public campaign-financing system, while automatically removing public servants of proven ability who are at a productive point in their careers.”
Mayor Bloomberg feted by
Democrats and Republicans
New York City, 28 September 2008: While New York’s commentators speculate whether Mayor Michael Bloomberg might seek a change of term-limit rules, which at the moment prevent him from running for a second term or whether either Barrack Obama or John McCain consider offering him a cabinet post, former US President Bill Clinton called the mayor an exceptional candidate for any job in the USA. Clinton said Bloomberg was one of the greatest mayors NYC ever had. "There is no job to be done in America in any area of importance to our future that he would probably not do better than just about anybody else I ever met," Clinton added.
Bill Clinton praised Mayor Bloomberg at the 2008 annual meeting of the former president's humanitarian foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative. It has been speculated that Bloomberg would be a strong candidate for the US treasury secretary in either a Obama or McCain administration. It has also been rumoured that Bloomberg might be heading for the World Bank after the end of his term as NYC mayor. Senator McCain suggested that Bloomberg should be tapped to oversee the $700 billion fund that would be created to bail out struggling US banks.
Canadian mayors demand
long-term vision for cities
Montreal, 23 September 2008: Three weeks before Canadians will elect a new government, the country mayors have told all competing political parties that their cities needed more money for infrastructure, affordable housing, public transit as well as cultural and recreational facilities. Jean Perrault, president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, said politicians should ask themselves what kind of towns and cities Canadians want to live in. "They want cities with clear air and water, cities with plenty of recreational facilities and transit systems that give commuters the option of leaving their car at home," he told reporters.
Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay said Canada needed a long-term vision for its cities. "We cannot continue to take decisions piecemeal, we need a long-term vision and commitments because the municipal model as we know it today is obsolete," he warned. Meanwhile, Toronto Mayor David Miller asked all political parties to use the election campaign to tell voters what plans they had for the country’s major cities. "Are they going to invest in public transit? Are they going to invest in our aging infrastructure in a permanent way? Will they support the creative industries and stop the cuts in arts and culture?”
Portland named as the
greenest American city
Portland, 22 September 2008: Portland, Oregon, has been named America’s greenest city. Based on 16 economic, environmental and green/clean tech categories, the environmental research organisation SustainLane has examined cities’ ability to maintain healthy air, drinking water, parks and public transit systems, as well as a robust, sustainable local economy with green building, farmers markets, renewable energy and alternative fuels. The researchers found that right across the US, city mayors are taking actions to make their communities more environmentally sustainable.
Each year the number of cyclists increases by more than 10 per cent, while trains are also making a comeback: New light rail and other public transit infrastructure investments lead to more dense, energy efficient and liveable cities. Wind and solar energy production and energy conservation are priorities in Boston, San Francisco, Portland, Houston, Austin and Sacramento, and are being looked at as possibilities across nearly every city researched by SustainLane.
The ten greenest US cities are: 1) Portland, 2) San Francisco, 3) Seattle, 4) Chicago, 5) New York, 6) Boston, 7) Minneapolis, 8) Philadelphia. 9) Oakland, 10) Baltimore.
US cities will find it much
harder to make ends meet
New York City, 16 September 2008: In the week when Wall Street suffered one of its worst days in history, America’s National League of Cities (NLC) published its annual report on the financial state of US cities – and the news is as downbeat as that from the country’s investment banks. “Cities are getting hit with an alarming wake up call about city budgets,” said NLC President Cynthia McCollum. The report found that the decline in property tax revenues (3.6 per cent from the previous year, in inflation-adjusted terms) is having an impact on the fiscal health of local governments. Unlike the previous economic downturn in 2001, when property tax revenues were able to buffer the effects of declining income and sales tax receipts, the weak housing market is likely to affect city budgets until 2010.
Moreover, the report found that other sources of revenue are headed downward as well, with sales tax receipts declining by 4.2 per cent and income tax revenues expected to decline by 3.3 per cent in inflation-adjusted dollars in 2008 compared to 2007.
As a result, 64 per cent of city finance officers surveyed expect cities to have a harder time meeting fiscal needs in 2008, and 79 per cent forecast even bigger problems ahead in 2009.
“Even if economic conditions improved immediately, the nation’s cities are likely to be realizing the effects of the current downturn through 2010,” said Michael A. Pagano, co-author of the report and dean of the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “The sharp decline in property tax receipts erodes a critical buffer that has helped cities through economic downturns for the last three decades.”
On the spending side, increases of 3.0 per cent in 2007 were met with flat or declining revenues, according to the report. Taken together, city finance officers project a budget gap of 2.8 per cent in 2008, with revenues declining by 4.3 per cent and spending declining by 1.5 per cent in inflation-adjusted dollars over 2007.
The areas affecting city budgets most heavily include prices and inflation (including energy prices), which were identified by 98 per cent of respondents. Increases in infrastructure (85 per cent) and public safety spending (83 per cent), and employee-related costs for wages (95 per cent), health care (86 per cent), and pensions (79 per cent) were also cited as budget-busters.
To meet budget shortfalls, half of the cities responding (49 per cent) have increased fees, while 28 per cent have increased the number or types of fees and 23 per cent increased the level of impact and development fees.
Regionally, cities in the West are being hit hardest, with 74 per cent of finance officers stating that their cities are worse off in 2008, followed by cities in the Midwest (67 per cent), Northeast (61 per cent) and the South (53 per cent).
The situation also varies depending upon local tax authority. Finance officers in cities reliant upon the property tax were most likely to say their cities are worse off (75 per cent), compared to cities that utilize a mix of sales and property taxes (60 per cent), or cities that use a mix that includes a local income tax (52 per cent).
The pessimistic assessment is registered regardless of city size. Sixty-nine per cent of the nation’s largest cities reported a lessening ability to meet needs, 68 per cent for cities with populations 100,000-299,999, 65 per cent for cities 50,000-99,999, and 61 per cent for cities with populations under 50,000.
Mayor Monitor rates the performance of mayors from across the world More
Kansas City mayor sues city's council
Californian cities to roll out electric vehicle infrastructure
American cities ask for federal money
US mayors look forward to working with new President
New York Mayor to run for a third term
NYC divided over mayor's decision to seek third term
Mayor Bloomberg feted by Democrats and Republicans
Portland named as the greenest US city
Canadian mayors demand long-term vision for cities
US cities will find it much harder to make ends meet