President Obama meets with NLC membrs during a reception in October. He met again with NLC officials Monday, March 12, 2012, including staff and members of the Michigan Municipal League. (Official White House photo by Pete Souza).
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Michigan Municipal League CEO Dan Gilmartin was among a national contingent of municipal leaders to meet with President Obama Monday (March 12, 2012) at the White House as part of the National League of Cities (NLC) annual legislative meeting – the Congressional City Conference. Gilmartin and other city leaders shared with the President their stories of what is happening in America’s hometowns and underscored the need for the federal government to take action to help accelerate job growth in the country and the importance of federal investments in our local communities.
“We had a terrific discussion with the President focused on how local economies can help drive the national recovery and how we can work together to bring jobs to families in our communities,” said NLC President Ted Ellis, mayor of Bluffton, IN, in a prepared news release. “The President gets it. He knows cities well and has been working to strengthen the federal-local partnership since his first days in office.”
Gilmartin, a member of the NLC board of directors, attended the Congressional City Conference with several other officials from Michigan including League Vice President and Linden Mayor David Lossing and League staff Arnold Weinfeld, Summer Minnick and Jason Mancini. The NLC members who met with the President – mayors and city council members from across the country – also highlighted for him the importance of federal investments in our hometowns like the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), the need for strong education and workforce training programs; the need to streamline regulations; and the need to fix the broken immigration system. You can follow the Congressional City Conference on Twitter at #CCCNLC. Gilmartin writes about three areas where the Federal Government can assist cities. Follow Gilmartin on Twitter at @dpgilmartin.
Matt Bach is director of communications for the Michigan Municipal League. He can be reached at [email protected] and (734) 669-6317.
Dan Gilmartin