Working in Washington.

Monday's start of the NLC Conference was the Opening General Session. Ronald Loveridge, the current president of the NLC kicked it off with a report on the conference and the many activities in which the NLC's involves itself. We then heard from Valerie Jarrett the Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President on Intergovernmental Affairs and Engagement. The keynote speaker was Judy Woodruff of PBS and Washington News Hour. Ms. Woodruff spoke to current issues in a well balanced way. She spoke at the end of her presentation about the divisions in Washington and across the country between political parties and her belief that at no time in her history has she seen it so bad. She made an appeal to local elected officials to set the example and return to bi-partisan government practices. It struck a chord with me. It is about doing what is best for the people and areas which we represent and that can not be compromised by political one upsmanship. As an aside, without regard to any person's political beliefs, everyone that I spoke to in Washington had the same response, just vote and quit fighting about it.

The first workshop of the day for me was Advocacy 101:Strategies for Lobbying Congress. Tomorrow Mr. Antomen will spend most of our day doing just that so it seemed like a good choice.

There was a networking lunch were I hooked up with the mayor of Coon Rapids and a mayor from Florida and compared some of our recent city activities. We also had some discussion with representatives from Kansas who were at out table but they had a group of their own and were more focused on their discussion. After lunch I attended Successful Neighborhood Stabilization Programs, which was interesting but not exactly what I expected. However at the meeting a gentleman asked a question of interest on the topic and identified himself as from St. Paul. We talked after the session was done and shared some ideas that were more on track with what I had hoped the session would be about. I was glad that I had attended that session just to have had the opportunity to met him.

The conference wrapped up with the Afternoon General session where we heard from Ray LaHood Secretary of the Secretary of the Department of Transportation, Steven Chu the Secretary of the Department of Energy, and Arne Duncan the Secretary of the Department of Education. All were interesting but Steven Chu presented some particularly interesting information about the country's efforts to move towards a new "green" economy.

I then went to a reception on Capitol Hill for Minnesota delegates and our representatives in Washington and rounded out the day by having dinner with the mayor and a council member from Moorhead. Those guys must have gotten ten updates on this year's flooding problems while we were there. I was interested to hear about their twenty year program to make trips to Washington to meet with their representatives and some of the results from those trips.

I was very tired by the time I returned to the hotel and slept well that night.