[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: Report on Metro Mayors

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Appelbaum, Matt

Colleagues,

As you probably know, Boulder is a member of the Metro Mayors Caucus, a group of 40 mayors in the Denver metro area (including most of the cities that are in DRCOG but not, of course, the counties).  The Caucus had its retreat a week ago; here's a brief report:

*        The new executive committee was selected, and I'm delighted to note that I was among several new members chosen.

*        We heard presentations from DRCOG and CML regarding their regional efforts, and how we could better work together.

*        There were presentations from four sub-regional economic development organizations.  Can't say this was terribly interesting or enlightening, although it did engender some discussion about how the metro area could cooperate more, and battle less, over economic issues.

*        There was a terrific talk by Bruce Katz of Brookings on how metro areas worldwide are the keys to economic prosperity.  Here also threw in a number of excellent observations, even if his repeated claim that a carbon tax is essential may not have gone over well with everyone in the room.  You can see his presentation (as well as all of the other presentations) at http://www.metromayors.org/Meetings.html -- look for the Retreat item and then links to the various talks.  It really doesn't do his talk justice, but it does provide some interesting statistics and observations.

*        We had a good discussion on what it means to have "consensus," whether any one member can "veto" action by the Caucus, etc.  Not entirely clear how this will be finally resolved, and it may well come to a head over any FasTracks or CDOT tax ballot issue.

*        And there was a discussion about priorities for 2012.  Clearly, FasTracks and CDOT taxes will be on the agenda.  Other priorities will be set based on a simple survey that went out to all members after the retreat.

Also last week we had the first meeting of the executive committee, where we put FasTracks and CDOT on the agenda for the upcoming Caucus meeting on Feb. 1., with the main issue related to FasTracks being the NW corridor.  In addition, we agreed to ask members to sign on to a letter supporting the creation of a US Patent Office site in Denver metro; this support has been given by everyone (I believe) and the letter sent to congressional reps.  Finally, after some editing by all of us on the executive committee, a description of the issues and concerns surrounding the possibility of a CDOT regional highway tax was produced and sent to the mayors in advance of the Feb. 1 meeting.  I know this issue was not well-received at DRCOG and it will be interesting to see the mayors' reactions.

--Matt