television companies on more, including comcast. >> you think this is just a community center? it's way more than that. comcast is partnering with community nt from low income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. >> comcast supports c-span as sion providers, giving you a front row seat to >> this week the u.s. conference city, missouri. next we hear about the agenda at an opening news conference that included the mayor of reno, nevada, who currently serves as president of the u.s. conference of gun violence, and top issues.s were mentied this is about 35 minutes.

>> mayors, are you ready? i'tting all pumped up. we are so happy to be hosting here in kansas city. and yesterday i became a father.

a nonpartisan institution finding solutions foities. we are led by the mayor of reno who will>> thank you, mayor luci learned last night what a [inaudible] congratulations on the new future mayor. i li it. thank you so much. fabulous. it is impressive. and the food is to die for. fabulous. anyway, thank you, everyone for being with us today. obviou this is our june press conference for the united states conference of mayor and honestly i am reflecting g baton and i y busy.

we have done several liens with state representatives on mental health, homelessness. mayor bassler■ an impressive jobring 45 mayors. it wasso we are moving the needn some of america's biggest sayh y heavy heart whenever i have to reflect on think about theast presidents of the conference of mayors and thinking about once again know getting thinking about gun violence in our country and i was thinking about the past president and thinking about mayor nan whaley, mayorua,

mayortt, all with mass shootings. days ago, five days ago, massmayor lucas,t your parade. think aboutt. i have not had one in my cad ths shooting in my state, in nevada. it reminet a matter of if, but a matter and . and it is absolutely unacceptable. k=as mayors we have some of the loudest voices in our country and we have to make the commitment that we will absoluly n stop.

i would like mayor barnett from rochester toomay a few words because the last few days ve been really difficult for your community. you. it is hard. i hav organization and i have watched my colleagues go through situations lthinking foolishly d happen to me and five days ago dbytis, city in michigan ven s on saturday. i got the call so many mayors dread, but there is an active shooter new city. i raced to theway i thought aboi needed to in the strong stance i would take and leadership i would providend mie splash pad, i broke down.tionals

designed to be a place fors, yoe visited my city to know who was at a splash pad, it is families with kids mostly under 10. a gunman came up and fired shots. most of themto the kids are stin critical condition. the first thought■u when i wake up is that there is an eight-year-oand my city shot ind his mother who used her body to shield him from the seven other shots. i find myself were many before have found themselves, the intersection of mental healt and gun violence. it is not a matter of if, but a matter of when. as it has happened in my the gunmen took his life.

they found 11 other guns. and assault rifle loaded on the table. he probably stopped only by excellent police action. my job is to now try to heal the community. obviously the shooter h now menl alit has been the focus of our president under her leadership and it is so needed across the country and wondering why i am here so quickly, five days later, it is for my mentamy friends haveeen e hours that followed the shooting. the president, the g70 of the ih

today called or texted me in the two days tha shooting. they know what it is like. so i will add my voice to all of mayors and of courseun violenced mental health and what we as ma i support and applaud our president for her leadership on mental health. rest on in my community now o■& that list of cities that been struck by gun violence. we be defined by the issue, we will be defined by the response. thank you, mayor. >> i was just thinking about our last meeting, our leadership cap. ■kanyway, i want to thank each u

are doing in your cities on mental health. 70 of you have come to me and said -- so many of you have come to me and said you are talking about it. th■ is still an issue that has a huge stigma so i want to commend brian and all of the mayor's behind me who are also addressing their own mental yú health. thank you souc andy gensler because hntcontinue on l mental health initiatives. he has been on the hill lobbying like crazy. so many so receptive and know that something needtoumber one decisive at statistics of ages 18 of them report suicide and depression and dgan it tell you this country is facing when it comes

to mental health? is staggering. so mayors have made the comee make change in the country when it comes to access to mental and erasing the t goes with it so i just to thank my colleagues for being so incredibly gracious and genuine about the suggles r mental health across the country. with that,er, please come up. [applause] >> thank you so much for leader. we are so grateful toyour tremes president of this cfe past yeari speafoe i say how grateful we e for your steady leadep, counselr

incredible ability to have all ardless of where we come from, the size of our city, feel welcome ith you here today with my mayors. last year i was able to host at my hometown of columbus and i think the mayor lucas is going to hit it out of the park with an incredible conference here. our annual meeting is a time when america's mayors come frome another, collaborate on behalf of our cities d pe raise our shared voice to drive progress in these challengg youe this often for me but i will say

it again because i think ittione at our annual meeting and also back at home. represent cities big and small, constituents from all walks of life, our backgrounds are■c■ varied, our issues wide-ranging. citi have different politics. but as not allow these differences to divide us. we honor thety as we work together to find common ground in building thriving cities across our nation. this organization has shown what is possible wh w share our shared voice to drive progress. the last several years we have seen incredible successes for er cities, including at the federal level are in the mit of a renaissance thanks to the american rescue plan made

bi because of republican and independent mayors lifting their voices in supporting it.nd s being built thanks to the bipartisan infrastructure law. sustainability projects are powering our future thanks to te inflation reduction act. and of particular importance to are rising thanks to the chips on science act. it is important to note that these game changing initiatives were champions not ju party, but by republican, democratic, and independent mayors alike. fi ground will continue to be critical as we tackle the us, challees like responsible gun ownership, mental health crisis,

immigratiow- clima change, and the nationalhomelessness and laf affordable housing, which is impacting every city across the nation, regardless of size, geography, or politics. as american mayors we will continue to collaborate on solutions that can be applied nationwide. we will continue to: federal partners to develop a coordinated national response. as america's how important it is to make our voice heard and to speak as one. we will continue to do that this week and in the weeks and months to come. we have a lot of work to do but i cannot think of a more talented group in a better position to get the job done than america's mayors.

as we tell and congress and state legislatures all the time, if you wagive it to a mayor, and we will get it [applause] >> i love that. we will get it done. next up, mayor david -- mayor david holt, come on up. >> the mayor of oklahoma city, america' city and the second vice president of this organization and i want to begin by joining the chorus of gratitude to our president and , mayorit has been documented tt oklahoma htoricall■4s here because everything is up-to-date in kansit been impred

with your seven story you might have heard about oklahoma city st about as high as a building ought to hosting anuaft and great opportunity. i helped host as the mayor chief of staff in 2010 o a memories o. there is no greater opportunity to spread good news about your city than to host a few hundred of the most trusted and influential people in the country so thank yougytality and congratulations to you and your community for putting theknow we kansas city experience that will surely leave us with a lasting i also want to think reno mayor

hillary schieve before her last year of leadership especially on ment and homel the portfolio of aty is evolving and your priorities as president oforganization hasd that and i andy ginther for your upcoming presidency. this is amazing, we are all your upcoming predencset tocomm. you are an ideal person to lead us througher high-stakes national election. by gratitude to allwho have joi. we see each other's work here and there in bit pieces flying by on tv or social media and it inspires us. we just heard a sober reminder

this w watched with sadness the terrible act of gun violence. mayors lead and bring people geernd across the spectrum to find and they are the mt effective leaders the nation has right now. mayors get things done. i know usually when we come to an annual meeting we ar not necessarily speaking to a collection of national price like we -- press come upa group. isuntry and so it is today. members of the kansasy media gather to work for only one mayor, a pretty g but nonetheless may be you have not had a cnce aci national politif

mayors is not like the noen seae tv. we stand shoulder to shoulder. we are serious people. we can be funny but we dogame. we feel the burden on our shoulders and give it the respect it deserves. we practice politics by compromising, ng forward, and we are outcome oriented. we do not think a scathing tweet or press release is an accompshin oklahoma we call it o seek to divide us, who say that llre enemies. they will call them vermin.

in my city we have a scholar in what happens when you take words of dehumanization to the loga's, democrats, independents, will not stand for this election rhetoric. our platform will have subanandy and respect. pluralism, compromise, pragmatism. [applause] people who have been given these titles should feel an obligation to use them to preserve this uniqueexperiment, to appeal to the betterment angels of our nature. fee that obligation and we will do our part. so tha y■ to the local media for joining us today and thank you for allowing meo e are as america's mayors. youunique group of

life, and i am deeply■k honoredo stand among you. thank you. >> i love your sense humor. how far can youin>> six. [laughr] is important for the mo always kmayors are in attendance so i would like every mato to see how collaborative mayors can be. [laughter] go ahead. >> california. [inaudible] ■>> [inaudible]

>>xfcalifornia. [laughter] >> [inaudible] ■r■"■x■=4>> albuquerque, new me]

[applause] >> [inaudible] >> seattle, washington.

>> [inaudible] ■'■■o>> santa fe, new mexico. >> fremont, california,happiestd states. >> riverside, california. uk>> bedford, massachusetts. >> white plans, new york, the

birthplace of the state of new york. >> >>stown, ohio. >> rochester hills,>> californi. >> miami beach, florida. >> allentown, pennsylvania. ■cw>> tucson, arizona.

>>audible] >> york, pennsylvania. >> [inaudible] [laughter] >> can see why these are america's mayors. any questionsy have. whoever asksquestion, you get ao my city. [laughter]

>> [inaudible] >>i think one of the most importan there are a lot of different reasons why people fall into homelessness. one of the path -- fastest growing sectors of the un-housed people in the late 60's and 70's whoindustry, no pension, no 401, and they get priced out of the housing market. the other thing is it is a myth that people on the street do not want to leave the street. them housing, they will. we are concerned about a couple threats we face. we are moving into summer and it

is exposed to be in r. we often provide shelter during the winter. now we have to think about providing us shelter during the summer= is a supreme court decision that will come out any day called grantsconcerned to cd potentially lead to criminalization of homelessness as opposed to addressing the problem. a housing crisis throughout the nation and we need to address it and i believe mayors are in the best position to do that. it we came together about 48 mayors in d.c. advocating for housing and i think we have best practices and successes in many of our different cities. [applause] ■a

[inaudible] >> just start recognizing we have more discussion to do. i on this conference served as a chair of the crimina and social justice committee for several years. this is all something that needs to be identified as a problem facing every city. the states, everything in between. we loofoar on a few other issues later on this weekend. there will be dius vegas inspird the trump admist act. we think it is important that and independents act to find a way wefuture. another thing this conference has talkedbo for ysxears are resources from our federal partners in connñbecti withow we can address can violence, gun trafficking, and a number of the

issues are problematic. in my city i get to talk to mayor jones in st. louis all the time. victims, younger and younger assailants. i think there should not be a 14-year-old walking around with a semi automatic or modified automatic weapon. ! those conversations are coming up and we look forward to having more to share. >> [inaudible]

irst of all, i think we are so far bind. overdue. i have said we really believe this is the number one crisis in america. we have got to get services to children early and often. mayorsng at ways to provide emergency services at every school. we are talking about every school in my city. we are getting ready to open up a 24/7 mental health initiative. /iwe are treating mental health right now in our jails and er's. er's are where we fix broken bones, not broken brains. jails is absolutely unacceptable hospitals. mayors are looking at different

■■■ways on what does that look e in our cities. city i'm opening up a 24/7 mental health iniat officer cane somewhat there in -- can take someone there. sometimes they will take them no place, there is no place to take them. that is the reality in this country. mayors quite honestly have been the only ones talking about the severe mental health is no wondg these tragedies across we have r mental health to the capacity we need to, so access. with the cares act■q money -- wt did we call the first allocation? the very first cares act money. bought online therapy for every singesidin my

city. access to mental health services, these mayors are taking on this initiative to provide that in theirt we have - believe it is the number one crisis in this country we are still not talking about enough. my colleagues behind me have taken on this and doing many innovative approaches in their cities, but wll and weo make sure we do everything we can inwe have been doing a lot d groundwork there. senator raskinecause of mayors knocking on his door and he will be bringing forward legislation? senator carper and cortez masto -- z masto. how many representatives?

every single one of them said this is important. i believe it is the work of emao mental health. >> [inaudible] >> tha >> sure. i will start it. ibelabor the point because i think we have a chance to discuss thiissuteeekend and u to those conversations. steps. everything mentioned is part of it. part of much of what we are dealing with. mental health isn't those who might be hospitalized for communities every day. as chairman of the criminal justiceable to do police right - police ridealongs in the cities.

whether it was st. louis number of places, trying to have a number of resources that alternatives to enforcement, officers have often said that. to get not just our citizens to believe that is important, but our state and federal pareryou cannot just har city jail as t only solution for your violent crime issues. belabor points related to gun regulation otherto note there are certain things that are unlawful. weapons is a challenge. the supreme court last week gave us a different interpretation that i think departed from what republican and administrations have said previously. we will continue to advocate to make sure the most violent firearms like automatic weapons which ha 19 34. that is why you don't see tommy guns on the streets. why are we allowing them to be

the sorts of things we see and more shootouts every day? discussing. it is collaborative solutions arounds important about why we are here together, we areideas. no bones about it. if there is a wonderful idea in los angeles or reno, you rest assured in kansas city we will take it and try to make sure it is enacted in our community. that isng to do to address these foundational issues. gunme places are legal. in my home ste are preempted by state law. there are deep policy issues. there are ones we can take an frankly all of us, whether you are living in thstate, the t we are trying to make sure we solve. is largely what we will e

discussing. >> thank you. yo question was how do we make our residents feel safe? i want rents t know there are many times where the hbeen d throh good police work, monitoring chatter. we had one last■]mñl÷ year in ty of riverside where we averted a g by our police officers being able to monitor what was going on at one of her biggest events of the year. --b■ biggest events of the year. yes, it is a reality, but we are looking at it all the time. i think every mayor can say that. >> thank y'all so much. [a