Politics & Government
Hermosa Mayor to Attend U.S. Mayors Meeting
The 80th winter meeting is held this week in Washington, D.C.
Hermosa Beach Mayor Howard Fishman is expected to travel to Washington, D.C., for the 80th winter meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which is reportedly to include the release of a new report on the economic health of cities and a meeting with President Barack Obama.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and about 250 mayors—including at least 17 from Los Angeles and Orange counties—are also scheduled to attend.
Villaraigosa became president of the Conference of Mayors in June.
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The mayors are expected to urge Obama and Congress to act on a transportation-spending bill that has been stalled in committees.
They also plan to point out the absence of cities' needs as an issue in the Republican presidential primary campaign.
Find out what's happening in Hermosa Beachwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The conference will begin Tuesday (see accompanying event agenda under photo), and continues through Friday, when Obama senior advisor David Plouffe and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a former Obama administration White House chief of staff, are scheduled to speak.
The mayors will meet with Obama cabinet secretaries and members of Congress throughout the week.
The centerpiece of the conference will be Wednesday's release of the group's State of America's Cities report, which will include 2012 employment forecasts for the nation's metropolitan areas. Los Angeles closed last year with an unemployment rate of more than 14 percent, according to city officials.
