Please note at the bottom of this article, that Mayor Smith was elected to the USCM Advisory Board. These positions are highly competitive, and it is noteworthy, that the Mayor of one of the smaller cities in the conference was accorded this honor by his fellow Mayors.

 

Maureen Lofton

Assistant for Governmental Affairs

City of Meridian

 

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

For Immediate Release                         Contact:          Elena Temple (etemple@usmayors.org)

July 3, 2007                                                                             (202) 861-6719 

                                                                                                Ione Hess (ihess@usmayors.org)

(202) 861-6725

                                                                                                                                    

           

Trenton, New Jersey Mayor Douglas H. Palmer

65th President of The United States Conference of Mayors

 

Serves As National Spokesperson For The Nation’s Mayors

 

Washington, D.C. – Trenton Mayor Douglas H. Palmer has been officially named the 65th President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) following the 75th Annual Meeting of the organization.   More than 200 mayors gathered in Los Angeles for the Annual Meeting which was held June 22-26, 2007.

 

Palmer was slated to assume leadership of the organization in June of this year, but instead began his term as President in December of 2006 following the untimely death of former USCM President, Mayor Michael A. Guido of Dearborn, Michigan.  Palmer will serve as President of The USCM until the end the Annual Meeting in June of 2007, to be held in Miami, Florida.

 

A lifelong resident of his hometown, Palmer has been the Mayor of Trenton since July of 1990.  Palmer was also Trenton’s first African-American mayor and has been re-elected four times since to lead a sustained revitalization effort of the city. 

 

As President, Mayor Palmer sets the Conference of Mayors’ agenda, appoints committee and task force chairs, and serves as the national spokesperson for the organization.   Palmer is also pushing a Mayors’ 10 Point Plan that outlines the organization’s legislative agenda – Strong Cities, Strong Families for a Strong America.

 

“Every day, in every city, in every state in this country, mayors are making a difference in the collective lives of millions. Mayors don’t have the luxury of choosing the issues they want to focus on; we have to deal with whatever issue confronts our cities,” Palmer said during his inaugural address.

 

Also during the Inaugural Breakfast, Mayor Manny Diaz of Miami was recognized as Vice President of the U. S. Conference of Mayors.  The former Chair of the USCM Advisory Board, Mayor Diaz assumed the role of Vice President when Mayor Palmer was named President of the organization in December. 

 

Seattle, Washington Mayor Greg Nickels was elected Chair of the Conference’s Advisory Board, which puts him in line to become USCM President in 2009.   Advisory Board members meet twice a year at leadership meetings -- held once in the Fall and once in the Spring – to provide leadership and guidance to the development and implementation of Conference policy and programs.  The next leadership meeting is in Trenton, NJ in September.

 

The term of the top three officers is one year.  The top three officers, organization past presidents and the USCM Trustees make up the Executive Committee of the organization.  The Executive Committee meets twice a year – during the Winter and Annual meetings in June – to review the organization’s budget and internal matters. 

 

The following mayors were elected at the June meeting to serve as new Trustees and new Advisory Board members of the U. S. Conference of Mayors.  (The term of USCM Trustees and Advisory Board members lasts as long as the mayor is in City Hall.)

 

Trustees

Michael B. Coleman, Mayor of Columbus, OH

Mick Cornett, Mayor of Oklahoma City, OK

 

Advisory Board

Juan Carlos Bermudez, Mayor of Doral, FL

Robert L. Bowser, Mayor of East Orange, NJ

Joy Cooper, Mayor of Hallandale Beach, FL

T. M. Franklin Cownie, Mayor of Des Moines, IA

John Marks, Mayor of Tallahassee, FL

John Robert Smith, Mayor of Meridian, MS

Kathryn L. Taylor, Mayor of Tulsa, OK

Elaine N. Walker, Mayor of Bowling Green, KY     

 

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The U.S. Conference of Mayors is the official nonpartisan organization of the nation’s 1139 U.S.

cities with populations of 30,000 or more.