Now, to make this happen, there’s no question we’ve got to get Washington to work much better, and that starts with getting unaccountable money out of politics.  We’ve got to take –we’ve got to take on Citizens United and get rid of the secret money that is rigging the system.
Now, I think it’s fair to say many of you in city and state elections run under tighter regulations, or at least disclosures, than we now do on the federal side.  I don’t say this as a Democrat, I say this as an American:  I think we are really skating on thin ice.  It’s getting to the point where we have no idea where money is coming from.  It’s not being disclosed.  It could be foreign government money.  It could be criminal cartel money.  You don’t have to say; we’ll never know.
Hillary Clinton, speaking to the U.S. Conference of Mayors on June 23rd, 2016 (x)
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Funding What Works: This week we announced the launch of the Social Innovation Fund Pay for Success Grant Competition, which provides $11.2 million in grants to help cities, states, and nonprofits develop innovative projects. This leading-edge approach partners the private, public, and nonprofit sectors by aligning payments for social services with verified outcomes.  Meaning, government funds are only paid to service providers who demonstrate results -- so the public sector gets a very high return on taxpayer investments.
Grant applications are due by July 31 --Â please help us spread the word about this opportunity!
Mayors Heart Us: At its annual meeting this week, the U.S. Conference of Mayors unanimously passed a resolution supporting national service, calling it a “critical and cost-effective strategy to meet city needs.” They pledged to work with us to find additional sources of funding, expand our collective impact, place a priority on hiring AmeriCorps alums, and participate in upcoming recognition events. Take a minute to read the resolution.  If you're on Twitter or Facebook, thank the U.S. Conference of Mayors for their support and use #usmayors.
The Name Says It All: You've heard about ServiceWorks -- the three-year nationwide initiative that will deploy 225 AmeriCorps members and thousands of volunteers to help 25,000 underserved young adults prepare for college and careers.
This week, Points of Light announced the 10 organizations chosen to execute the program, which is the largest corporate-sponsored AmeriCorps VISTA program in the program's history.
Powered by AmeriCorps, the Citi Foundation, and Points of Light, ServiceWorks will formally launch in August 2014 when the first 50 AmeriCorps VISTA members are trained and stationed at host sites in the 10 cities. An additional 75 AmeriCorps members are expected to be chosen in 2015, and a final 100 in 2016.
National Service in the News
AmeriCorps
Here's how to deal with the desperate children at the border
Los Angeles Times - Online (LA), June 23, 2014
The Obama administration deserves credit for redirecting funds and boosting staff to provide legal services through its justice AmeriCorps program, and eligible lawyers and paralegals should be encouraged to apply for this noble and important program.Â
AmeriCorps NCCC
Silver Spring resident completes FEMA Corps service
The Gazette (MD), June 24, 2014
Through the National Civilian Community Corps, John Scott of Silver Spring spent 10 months working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency Corps.
Lewes resident graduates from FEMA Corps; to begin new service soon
Cape Gazette (DE), June 24, 2014
I first heard about FEMA Corps by going online to apply to AmeriCorps. After Hurricane Sandy affected the East Coast, I knew I needed to do something to give back to my community. FEMA Corps proved to be the perfect opportunity to volunteer in the field of disaster relief,” said Vandiver.
AmeriCorps VISTA
ArborWild exposes kids to nature
The Daily Register - Online (IL), June 21, 2014
Two volunteers from the AmeriCorps VISTA program helped out with the event by overseeing crafts and teaching children through interactive, hands on activities. “VISTA stands for Volunteers In Service to America,” AmeriCorps [member] Kimberly Lilly said. “It’s sort of like the Peace Corps, but domestic. We go into areas with high levels of poverty and low access to resources.”
Senior Corps
New Haven students remember 'Grandpa Holley'
Point Pleasant Register (WV), June 23, 2014
The story begins during the 2012-2013 school year, when Mitchell Holley was serving as a foster grandparent in Rhonda Tennant’s fourth-grade class. Holley and his wife, Carolyn, both served in the grandparent program, and for a while, Mr. Holley was the first and only foster male in the county.
Social Innovation Fund
Local company wins National AwardÂ
Arklatex, June 23, 2014
Of the job seekers and existing workers served, 287 education/training credentials have been earned. It is funded by grants from the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, the Social Innovation Fund, and a consortium of local funders.
National Service Blog
National Service Strengthens America
NationalService.tumblr.com, June 23, 2014
Whenever I read stories that attempt to rank how well a nation is doing in one way or another, I feel as though something is missing. It’s not that these rankings are unimportant; it’s just that it leaves me cold to see a country’s well being described through pie charts and bar graphs.Â
Today during my speech to the US Conference of Mayors I spoke about how city government is part of the solution. It will be a leader in addressing some of our nation's greatest challenges -- from income inequality and affordability to climate change.
Has The Internet Enabled Local Government To Replace Nation-States?
Rutgers University Political Science Professor Benjamin Barber has written a provocative book, "If Mayors Ruled The World", which is scheduled to be available this November. Â
His thesis, as described on his website, is that:
The issues dominating our headlines – global warming, terrorism, economic inequality – do not stop at national borders. Nonetheless, our chief means of addressing them remains the nation-state, a 17th century framework constitutionally unable, and temperamentally unwilling, to collaborate across frontiers in order to solve common problems. What is to be done? Let cities, through a global “Parliament of Mayors,” run the world. …
[Cities] are unburdened with the issues of borders and sovereignty which hobble the capacity of nation-states to work with one another.
… regardless of city size or political affiliation, local executives exhibit a non-partisan and pragmatic style of governance that is lacking in national and international halls of power. … Through these qualities of leadership mayors have retained the trust of citizens in their office, helped cities become beacons of good governance, and spearheaded city-to-city collaborations in order to better address shared problems.
For more, you can see him present his ideas at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BJgmV7GRVc and http://www.booktv.org/Program/14242/If+Mayors+Ruled+the+World.aspx .
Indeed, there is no doubt that mayors can collaborate in ways that were impossible before the Internet. Anne-Marie Slaughter, former Dean of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School and former Policy Director for the US State Department (arguably one of the most prominent institutions which defends the concept of the nation-state), wrote “A New World Order” in 2004. That book describes all kinds of examples of cross-border collaboration in everything from judicial opinions to environmental action.
Others, from former Vice President Al Gore to Professor Joseph Nye, have also pointed out the various ways that the power of the nation-state seems to be in relative decline.
Since the global communications network makes possible connections even among local areas that are not geographically near, there is also the potential for networks of local governments or regions to develop without regard to national boundaries – virtual metroplexes. For example, it may be that two cities separated by thousands of miles – for example New York and London – have more connections and more in common than nearer cities like New York and Syracuse. The global communications network now makes it possible for these two distant metropolises to coalesce as one.
The ability of distant urban areas to work closely together raises questions of governance, even governance issues that cross national borders. However, much of this activity is occurring below “the radar” of nation-states; they are unaware and cannot keep track of all such interactions.Â
I think that Barber's proposal is too ambitious for cities, given all the problems mayors face doing their jobs now. It is worth noting that, within the limits of time, mayors do take global positions — such as the more than a thousand mayors who have agreed to a climate change pledge — but that's not the same thing as running the world.
At the same time, Barber's view is also a bit old fashioned by viewing cities in the image of the traditional nation-state. It is curious that he calls for a form of governance -- a parliament -- associated with the mature nation-state, rather than looking to newer alternatives for collaboration which would run into fewer legal and institutional obstacles. I would expect a more flexible collaborative approach, a different way of doing public service if the world Barber envisions comes about.
Nevertheless, there is no doubt that mayors can collaborate in ways that were impossible before the Internet. Â It's encouraging to see that this topic will be getting more exposure and I look forward to seeing the reaction when the book comes out.
Along with Mayor Bill Finch of Bridgeport, Connecticut, I made a fun presentation at the annual meeting of the US Conference of Mayors. More about that, but some background first.
For the last couple of years, I've been working with the Council on Metro Economies and The New American City of the US Conference of Mayors on a future-oriented, 21st century strategy for economic growth. Â Â
This project recognizes the increasing proportion of Americans who will earn their living by providing digital products and services, on the one hand, and the increasing availability of high quality, casual video communications and collaboration on the other hand. Â
Together these lead to some significant changes in the character of the economy and of cities. (See my presentation at the ICF Institute for more about these changes --  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlNxLmIQ4O8.)
In the early stages, the strategy focused on ideas for mayors as they respond to these changes on behalf of the residents of their cities. More recently, with USCM staff, we've started to create pilot demonstrations of these ideas.
Recognizing that these changes in the economy enable many people to make a living almost anywhere, one part of the strategy is to provide a high quality of life, a "WOW" experience, that's unique to a city so people come and stay there. The by-product of this experience is that it can also inspire residents to innovate -- a key factor in economic growth. Â
With the Internet everywhere across a city, blending the physical and the virtual can create new WOW experiences. The presentation showed various examples that included displays and projections on walls and other physical structures, on a controlled mist from Long Island Sound, etc.
Bridgeport is a good example of a city that can benefit from this -- an older industrial city of 150,000 that is cut by an interstate highway. It has locations and structures that wouldn't normally be considered attractive, but offer great potential in a blended virtual/physical world.
Consider this smokestack that is the first sign of Bridgeport that drivers see on Interstate 95. Â
Why not make it a video screen?Â
This blending of the virtual and physical makes it possible to show what's happening in real-time in another part of town or from another time in the same place.
Consider the multi-modal transit center that people see when they arrive by train, bus, ferry or even a car. It certainly could be more welcoming.
Each summer, there is a big music festival in Bridgeport -- the Gathering of the Vibes. My last example showed how this wall could be transformed so it presents one of the star acts, Elvis Costello. Â
The song he's singing, "Pump It Up", is also the message to mayors and what they can now do with what used to be dreary places.
I left the mayors with this final thought: this is not primarily about something artistic or a way of getting advertising or even promoting big events. In a fundamental way, this is how cities need to think about urban design in this century.
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The last plenary session of the US Conference of Mayors (http://usmayors.org) mid-winter meeting consisted of a panel of mayors discussing their use and reaction to social media. Â
But, first, one side observation about the audience. Â Last year and certainly two years ago, it was rare to see much technology in the audience at a mayors' meeting, aside from traditional cell phones. Â At this session, more than half the audience of mayors seemed to have iPads and almost all of the rest smartphones. Â This, in itself, is a sea change in attitudes and understanding of technology among elected officials.
Perhaps the biggest news about this session is that it was held and that the mayors were leading it.  Here are some of the, perhaps not surprising,  highlights that give a flavor of the discussion:
Some of the mayors, a minority, tied the rise of social media to the increase in petitions to recall mayors from office -- even a short time after the election when the mayor won.
Social media cannot be treated in the same way that mayors used to handle a response to a letter from a constituent, in part because of the expectation of a rapid response and in part because the request and response are both visible to a wider audience. Â At the same time, there is still a large constituency which is not using social media, so the traditional forms of public communications must also be accommodated.
The 24 hour a day nature of the Internet and social media also means that there are no private moments for mayors. Â Everything they do can be recorded on video and posted shortly after the event. Â
This also leads to a situation where the professional and personal lives of mayors get intertwined on the Internet. Â Some have tried to separate these using various approaches, but the difference is often too subtle for the average resident.
Mayors with Facebook pages, which are completely open, find constituents using those pages to make requests for various city services. Â More popular mayors in larger cities can end up maxing out at the 5,000 friend limit imposed by Facebook. Â Thus, the experienced Facebook mayors recommended adopting a politician's Facebook page. Â Of course, one of the nice things about this style of page is that it is limited to "Likes".
The whole experience of governing with Facebook can be overwhelming to a mayor, if the mayor doesn't properly think it through. Â The mayors who have been successful on Facebook and other social media have established a formal protocol (and staffing) within their office for managing and responding to the social media.
Nevertheless, none of the mayors is turning off the spigot.  They find the greater communication with residents helpful.  They noted that, especially in emergencies, social media gets the message out better than anything else.  Some have experimented with actively using social media in governing.  One example is http://www.engageomaha.com/ created by the mayor of Omaha, Nebraska.