[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: NLC update and council request

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Appelbaum, Matt

Colleagues - Just a very brief update on the National League of Cities summer meeting, which took place in late June.  More importantly is a request that my council colleagues consider getting involved in NLC before I leave the scene.

NLC has two major conferences in the spring and fall, and for Board and Policy Committee members a much smaller meeting each summer.  As an NLC Board member I spent much of a couple of days working on legislative issues (I'm on the Board's legislative subcommittee) and then with the full Board on a wide variety of administrative and policy issues.  The NLC Board is much too large to actually be terribly useful, although a number of us try our best to have relevant discussions - and, of course, being on the Board provides access to NLC leadership and key staff, all of whom I know quite well.  One interesting and quite timely topic of discussion was about the recent trend of states preempting cities in a wide variety of ways, notably regarding GLBT rights and guns; needless to say NLC generally champions municipal independence (and while Colorado cities all too often fight similar preemption battles, it's important to note that Colorado home rule cities have much greater authority than cities in many other states).

One interesting item that came up during the meeting was a proposed rulemaking from the US Dept. of Transportation regarding performance measures.  I assume our transportation staff knows about this and has commented on it, since it is quite troubling.  While performance is of course important in assessing how best to use federal money, this proposal is essentially based entirely on moving traffic at high speeds, and pretty much nothing else.  It could reduce incentives for multimodal choices or other approaches that reduce VMT, and there is really no effort to reduce GHG emissions.  I have more information on this, and NLC is, appropriately, quite concerned and has submitted its own comments.

I've also been actively involved with NLC's University Communities Council, which is currently chaired by Wade Troxell, the mayor of Fort Collins.  We spent a day discussing ways to invigorate the Council and setting an agenda for the year.  We also took a short trip to the Univ. of Missouri - KC, where we heard about a remarkable number of programs that integrate the university with the community.

Finally, my request to my council colleagues is that someone consider getting involved at NLC.  While things move rather slowly at NLC - and things don't move at all in Congress, but do move eventually in important ways at the executive agencies - it is still useful for us to be actively engaged at the national level.  As you probably know, I spent a number of years on the EENR Policy Committee (Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources), including several as vice-chair and chair.  Macon served on the TIS Policy Committee (Transportation and Infrastructure) for a couple of years.  Both committees engage in issues of considerable interest to Boulder.  Obviously the University Council is also of interest to us.

Since I'm planning on vanishing into the sunset next year, if someone is interested in NLC they should get involved while I'm still there, since I can provide many introductions and help ensure our continued presence on one or both of the key policy committees.  The next NLC conference is in Pittsburgh from Nov. 16 - 19.  While not essential, it would be best if a new member attended, since that would provide an introduction to the committees, whose new membership begin meeting in at the spring conference.  New attendees get a reduced registration rate regardless of when they register (I believe), but hotels fill up and of course flights can get more expensive.

--Matt