ing about congress needing to act there are also policy congress needs to take to remove constraints on federal assistance to rebuild something only the way it was before supposed to building it for the future. see back absolutely. [applause] >> it's time for me to leave and we are just about out of time. >> what happened to the questions and answers? >> all right. i'm afraid not. but listen show we'd give you each their cell phone numbers and you are welcome to call them them. >> let me invite you to do this. follow-up e-mails to these folks of their departments and they will follow up and i will say this. for those of us trying to work with what should be our federal partners to have the kind of

direct conversation and have the direct and put around issues that we care about whether it's climate change or infrastructure and know that we have within these agencies and leading these agencies folks who are genuinely looking for ways they can improve their partnerships to help us do our jobs locally so to each of you thank you so much and we really appreciate you being here. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

they were suggesting i give all of you my cell phone number and you can pass that along. please follow up. it is now my great honor to introduce the 51st secretary of the u.s. department of the interior. as secretary she leads an agency of more than 70,000 employees. the department of the interior serves as the steward of approximately 20% of the nation's land including national parks, national wildlife refugees and other public lands. the department also oversees the responsible development of conventional and renewable energy supplies on public lands and waters. it is the largest supplier and manager of water in the 17 western states and it upholds

trust responsibilities to the 566 federally recognized american indian tribes and alaska natives. prior to becoming secretary sally jewell served in the private sector. most recently as president and ceo of of rei and she joined rei as chief operating officer in 2000 and was named ceo in 2005. during her tenure regarding i nearly tripled its business revenues to $2 billion was consistently ranked as one of the 100 best companies to work for in "fortune" magazine. secretary jewell also as we know has become a great partner with the national league of cities and our agreement with the department of the interior to further a program to connect kids where she has made her

special mission i think as secretary. please join me in giving a very warm welcome to secretary sally jewell. [applause] >> hi everybody. are you awake? it's long enough after lunch we should be fine. thank you for that kind introduction ralph and i just had a nice visit with chris coleman. it is a pleasure to be here with all of you today. i just want to start by thanking you all for your public service whether you are a mayor or a city councilmember or a commission or whatever they call you in your public service i have come to appreciate just how tough your jobs are and how important your jobs are so thank you for everything you do. yes we can give you a round of applause.

[applause] also and to express my appreciation to clarence anthony and the good work he does with the national league of cities that i got a chance to meet clearance and we were talking about partnership that i will talk about in a little bit and it's clear you are important to this country because you have the president of the united states. you have a good chunk of the cabinet and it seems we were all in town for the national league of cities which is great. so i want to talk to you about a bit different dimension than some of my other colleagues. i want to start by asking you to close your eyes for a minute and picture the most special place of your childhood. would you just humor me and do that for a minute? okay, you got it? how many of you for that special place was that outside? that's what i figured. a pretty good chunk.

so when you think about that special place it probably had something to do at the place you grew up or a trip that i loved one take you to. for me, oftentimes a special place would be romping around in the hobo jungle behind my house. it was a hobo jungle -- i used to camp out in the backyard which is a great stepping stone to a life of enjoying the great outdoors. my parents took me to city parks and state parks and national parks today is to sail in sailing dinghy zambezi camp all the time. i think i remember camping 52 nights when two nights one year and that was a bit about my childhood was about. when i think about that and i think about the trajectory of my career much of what i have done and where i have chosen to live has had to do with the quality of life of those communities.

and that's something that you all care about because whether you are from a large city or a small town or a large county with few people or a small county with lots of people you want your future generations to stay. you want them to come back. you want them to say this is my special place. i want my children to have the same kind of experiences that you had when you closed your eyes about those special places. that has something to do with how we create an environment around our cities and a lot of that does have to do with parks and open spaces and public lands. when i was preparing for this i asked a couple of my colleagues what their special places where and what parks and open spaces meant to them. my colleague david who is here and let my youth initiative at the department of the interior the only person i brought with me from the outside world, david is the only child of immigrant parents and parks or where he

learned to speak english. so they were very important to him. emily also here on my team is in her mid-20s and i asked her about that. she said she played in the creek. i can't remember if it was her house or her grandparents house but played in the creek in pennsylvania where she grew up. in her case there is a lot of development that is happening. it's a lot of retail and rei looked at putting a store there because of the retail magnet but like so many to places like the hobo jungle where i used to play, it's now all apartment buildings. it has all been developed and yet when i made a decision about where to live after college i looked at quality of life. i knit up in a rural community in oklahoma because i started my career in the oil business but what do we do there besides go to football games? i hadn't gone to football games since my own high school but football is big there so that's what you do but also the wichita

mountains. that is where he came face face with texas longhorn cattle that were out there. i saw lots of lizards and reptiles. the first time i dipped my feet in the cool running stream i realized they had leeches there as well. it's nature. the buffalo river in arkansas was not a long drive and that's one of the places we went to recreate. it may move to denver and it was about the rocky mountains and about skiing but it was also about theater and quality of life within the trinity. we moved back to seattle. family is always going to be the most powerful tug that we have. but these are special places and i think for all of us as we think about how we create a future for families where they choose to live by us i'm going back to seattle after this job. i have my first biological

grandchild into stepgrandchildren so i know i'm going back there. the tug is very strong but what is it that's going to attract your kids to come back to your communities? that's something that i think is relevant to what the national league of cities is doing here and with the department of the interior and the ymca. i also thought about when i was running rei where do we open store's? we doubled the number of stores in the 13 years i was there and we put a store in places place like in greenville south carolina. why? greenville is turning its face to the river and embracing its river which used to turn its back to the river as many communities did animated communities more livable. to put parks along the river. it was very inviting and an eagle scout project which was little brass mice hidden around greenville and you can look in a treasure hunt and you can look in shops and buy yourself a little doughnut which i did. when your business person like i

was at rei you think about that. think about putting a store in a place like pittsburgh that turned a-gram field site into a great retail calm -- complex. for a city that turned its back to the river and the river had been a dumping ground of so many rivers were particularly in the east of really all over the country put a bike path along the river. rei put a store for people to test out bikes on the bike path. you have a lot of control of the livability of your cities. parks and open spaces in communal areas and community activities really help to find quality of life in our communities and they distinguish one community from the other. but we have a challenge and that is that children are growing up more disconnected from nature than ever before. the millennial generation young adults age 18 to 33 they are a larger generation and the baby boom by more than 3 million.

they have grown up very scheduled. they have grown up trying to juggle competition between school work which was pretty intense for them organized youth sports sometimes which went year-long, television and video games which are powerful draw and very little time exploring the natural world on their own. parents were afraid of strangers chastised by other parents for letting their kids walk home from school alone. all of those things that many of us didn't thought was normal today's kids are not getting to do and yet it is those kinds of activities that help bring build creativity, build independence, build self-confidence. so if they department of the interior we have launched a youth initiative. david my colleague is running it and it is working with all the bureaus of the department of the interior to say let's be part of the solution here. the first step is let's let children play. how about that?

let's let them play. [applause] i was at a tribal school, had been allotted to -- to what is the native american schools and i will get down with little kids and say what's her favorite part of school and inevitably they say recess which i get. that was my favorite part too. the play is the first step letting kids play giving that the time and space to plan on telling them what to do but also when they are playing fair playing and i think the finest classroom in the world and that is the classroom that has no walls. that is mother nature. of course that can be nurtured and supported by adults, adults like my colleagues interpretation of education at the national park service or the fish and wildlife service. the schoolteacher goes to the ranger teacher program and takes the skills learned as a ranger during the summer back into the classroom.

but it is a place to learn. so let kids play. let them learn in the outdoors and let's let them serve. i say that because i have done hundreds of service projects all over the country. when rei opened a store we would do a service project. when i was in pittsburgh we floated the river and picked up garbage out of the river. the martin luther king jr. holiday we went down with 450 people many of them young many of them from the community around on a cost to you river around d.c. and be picked garbage out of the river and cleared brush of the bike path felt more safe. i guarantee that everyone of us children felt a connection to the place they never had before and fell felt the pride in that place that was going to change their behavior themselves toward garbage and littering and cycling and open spaces and enable them to help change that

behavior. so play, learn and serve and some of them are going to want to work in jobs like mine like parks and rec folks and wildlife biologist and scientist that understand the natural world. we need them in every level of government. 40% of my employees will be eligible to retire within five years of who's going to replace 40%? it's not easy to sign up for public service as you know. people aren't clamoring to work for the federal government i can tell you that because we have done a good job of putting down federal employees and yet they are so critical to what we do. that is what we are doing it interior. the national league of cities has promoting access to -- project and thank you for working with the foundation raising $2 million, helping each other figure out what works. at a local level that is like it was for me oftentimes people's

first experience to nature. the president announced three weeks ago when he was in chicago announcing the palme national monument that we were launching every kid and that was focusing on fourth-graders and getting every 4th-grader in their family starting next school year free pass to national parks and other public lands. so we are going to blend that with a program that you have with the effort we have got going collectively and we will collectively get every kid in a park. that will shape their lives in a positive way and it will shape the way they think about your community so they will choose to come back there and live if they go away to school. so it's about partnerships and this time when there's not enough money to go-round. how many of you have plenty of money for your parks and open spaces? i don't see a single hand. that's kind of what i figured. and yet parks bond issues on the

ballot and a few have had good experience with those? that is what i figured. certainly not everybody but people love their parks and open spaces so how do we get creative and smart about how we spend our money? one of the things we are doing is partnering with you so last april mayor becker who i will say early in his career was a park ranger at grand canyon national park and -- to give him a hand for that and st. paul mayor at the time was the head of this organization chris coleman who did his summers during college as a bartender and a waiter at glacier in grand teton national park, yes. [applause] so it's probably no coincidence that they are great partners for us and perhaps leading this organization too. [applause]

thank you. because they care about these places, these special places that make the united states standout among countries around the world. if you have hiked in the alps there is no wildlife. you can get a beer on the trail. it's kind of nice maybe a warm fluffy bed but there is no wildlife. we have something that is very different. our national parks and public lands and historical places our history and culture. they are the blend of the small and the big and the pride we have in who we are and our individuality but also our commonality. in the announcement in september with mayor becker and mayor coleman we had neal nicholl the present of the ymca and the u.s. and i will tell you in advance that i've been scheming with neal nicholl for years. he used to be the head of the ymca of greater seattle and at the time he said we serve

6 million children a day in daycare but we have got very few programs. we have 9 million people under the age of 18 that are members of the ymca for two day camps and summer camps with us. we have 40,000 young people that we employ in our camps and we have over 500 volunteers so we thought bingo let's work together where we have cities that want to support parks and open spaces. we have the ymca that can harness volunteers and is serving a lot of young people and you have got the federal government and the department of the interior and specific with 20% of the land of the united states. let's been -- blend these things together and that's exactly what we are doing. we are launching later on this week the beginning of a 50 city's campaign which is taking strong federal presence strong

support from the local community and strong ymca leadership. we are blending that with a financial contribution we are announcing later this week that will fund it to get many more kids out playing in parks and open spaces and while 50 cities is a small subset of what is represented in this room would i know we are going to do is we are going to learn what works and they national league of cities is going to teach us what works. we are going to do a better job by working together. we have a memorandum of understanding together. the national league of cities will provide technical assistance. the ymca is going to be orchestrating a lot of these efforts and we are out raising private money to do is do we have support already for many of our programs to engage young people through companies like american eagle outfitters and coca-cola in camelback and north face and the big announcement coming later on this week. what it says is we don't have to do it on our own budgets.

we don't have to do it all with their own employees. we can do it by working together in partnership. we can be so much more together than we are apart. so i want to thank the leadership of the national league of cities mayors becker and coleman and all of you for stepping up and showing us the way with the work you are doing and recognizing. yes, let's give you you guys around of applause applause for that. [applause] recognizing that we want our young people to stay. we want our young people to come home. we want them to build careers and raise their families and have as much fun growing up as we did. we all have work to do but if we do it well he will be the gift that keeps on giving. young people will have a connection, place that will never leave them. communities will be more fun and more livable. we'll create an environment

where people will want to raise their families and that will build on itself. i just want to end by saying thank you or your leadership, thanks for standing up for the things that make your communities more livable. thanks for giving us a chance that big federal brackensick to be your partner and to work collectively with the private sector to make this happen. you guys are great. i wish you all the best and we want to be your partner. thank you. [applause]

>> now the american public transportation association holds their annual legislative conference on transportation and infrastructure funding. this portion of the daylong event features a discussion on surface transportation legislation where panelists urge congress to pass a long-term surface transportation bill. it runs about an hour. [applause] >> good morning. how is everybody doing? had a great great session already this morning 7:30 this

morning. who all was in there eating breakfast? i right. listen welcome to the 40th annual legislative conference and for nations capital. yesterday were some great sessions weren't they? with the mayor of washington d.c. and various speakers. it was just wonderful. thanks everyone for being here. the conference really comes at a momentous time in the industry and we have a lot of things to do this week gearing up for a new surface transportation bill out there. this opening session really sets the stage iv our discussions over the next few days. in this session we will hear from michael melaniphy and pete ruane with our ruane with our

path but first our sponsor this morning his route match. help me welcome joseph hails vice president for business development who will share a few comments on stage here. [applause] >> thank you phil. again my name is joe hughes bird and vice president for three parts of route math software product management customer relations and business development. as a brief overview quickly route match provides software for public transit in both the rural urban smaller area so we figure we have worked with many people in this room filled to begin with and many agencies and the office here. our partners and every year we come to this event because it to me is the epitome of the pure

partnership. it's the most important event of the year for transportation and it represents a group of people that go off and do their own business separately but here they are partners for the greater good of the overall. so we are very excited to be a part of this. we would like to think that we can help in any way we can bet we hope to get to work with all of you guys for the next two days and learn a little bit about where things are going and hopefully make some impact for the greater good of the whole industry. with that in mind i have a couple of things. one, don't forget while you are here that the purpose of this event is to direct the industry's advocacy efforts and legislative strategy. the keywords i saw their work advocacy so everyone here is an advocate and second is that you are doing it for the industry. so please look out for your cohorts, your friends and the other guys that couldn't be here. don't forget the rural folks

that don't get to come to these things is often and make sure you remember that as a partnership. we believe it works and we would like to see that for everybody here and finally please participate if you haven't signed up for the stand up for transportation day on april 9. we think that will be great in terms of momentum. thank you afes and thank you phil and thank you rarity for being here but i believe this is the most important event of beer that is why we sponsored and we look forward to seeing you guys for the next two days. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you joe. really appreciate your sponsorship of this opening session. before i get too far in the program i want to recognize the nafta executive committee, the board of directors and past asked the chairs. if you were in that group please stand up so we can give a round of applause. [applause]

[applause] thank you for all your work and all your service. many of the leaders in this room, let me say i was honored to chair the apta strategic planning effort about a year ago or so. we got it approved by the full board of directors. this plan sharpens our focus and guides or operations for the next five years. this is the cover of that document. i think the marketing folks did a great job in putting this together. five significant challenges that we put forth and we were calling these megatrends, sort of the environmental that we believe that we will be working in for the next five to 10 years. just very quickly and you won't see it on the cover of the strategic plan itself for safety and security was the first one. resource advocacy or funding and

we have been talking about that all week, workforce development, demographic shifts and technological innovation. ..

this strategy is collective power as we bring attention to our infrastructure and talk to congress. on this day, april 9, we are looking to put up media events, presidents and in as many american cities as possible. i'm happy to say that i believe we have about 140 events are so. that is a lot of defense all over this country. it's time for us to work together republicans, democrats democrats, the white house, it's time for us to work together as you know to make sure that we address this when i call embarrassingly massive infrastructure deficit. the last time i looked the

infrastructure deficit was about 88, $90 billion. that's just to maintain our current infrastructure so it's time to find that into all of those things. as we move forward, and i always talk about the whole car analogy. it's almost like buying a car and not changing the oil for 10 years and expecting your cart to continue to run. it's really ridiculous. i was at a board of directors meeting. i was talking a little bit about how ludicrous it is for us to have to beg for funding to maintain infrastructure. 10.8 billion trips last year 10.8 billion trips were begging to maintain our infrastructure. it's really a shame. ..

mayor stanton actually signing to have phoenix is a part of the stand up for transportation day. everyone has a vital role in this. as. as i mentioned 147 agencies

and businesses coast-to-coast have signed up. who is not on the map? your not going to raise your hands. [laughter] 147 agencies and businesses with over a hundred events so far. a few things that i would just mentioned in order to sign up for this 1st is at now. the 2nd is identified your problems a resource tool you can figure out who your partners are. we want are. we want to recruit all types of groups, environmentalists seniors, veterans seniors veterans, students with disability, we want to have in your areas

in your local areas engage everyone in their stand up for transportation day. the 3rd piece is planning your event, ribbon-cutting, rally, an employee roundtable. turning your buses and the billboards. ..

i really believe that because i don't think infrastructure apathy can last forever. i don't think dysfunction this function at the highest level can last forever in terms of infrastructure so i do believe we are going to get a long-term bill. what i have talked about is if we get that long-term bill and if money and man falls from heaven tomorrow and we have a long-term transportation bill will we have a qualified workforce to build and rebuild infrastructure in this country? and i'm not sure. i'm not sure that we have a track maintainers the signal

folks. i'm not sure that we have a the qualified workforce in this country to maintain our infrastructure. so this idea of building career pathways for the hardest to fill positions in this industry are very very important because we have to grow our own and that includes in this career pathway community colleges. that includes trade schools, building this type of career pathway where we can grow our own. so when the money does flow, we will have a great pool of folks that are arctic trained to do this work that is much needed in this country, rebuilding bridges and highways and legacy systems and all of those things. so get on board. let's get started and i hope to have 200 events by april 9 or on

april 9 and i think we can do it. with that, please help me welcome routematch president and ceo michael melaniphy. please give him a hand. [applause] ♪ >> good morning everybody. how are we doing? didn't phil do a great job? give him a hand. phil washington, our chair. [applause] each year at this time we gather here in washington d.c. to share the message of public transportation with our elected officials and congress to help them understand the important impact that we have of the vitality of this nation and i'm so thrilled to have all of you joining us here today. your commitment to come here to the nation's capital to share our story is so important.

thank you for making an effort. opportunity as we come together to be meeting with their colleagues to share ideas and share concepts to influence decision-makers. this year is more significant. this year has his more pressing. map-21 expires and 83 days. the presidential election is only 610 days away not that far at all. the good news is we have a great message to bring to the administration and to bring to congress. do you know what it is? americans want more public transportation. and the numbers tell at all. it's extraordinary. look at the figures for 2014 hot off the press. last year there were 10.8 billion trips taken on public transportation. say it with me 10.8 billion. a it's outstanding. that is 101 million more trips

than were taken last year. this ladies and gentlemen is the highest public transportation ridership figure and 58 years. the last time ridership was this high gasoline was 23 cents a gallon. isn't that extraordinary? the public revolution for public transportation is happening. happening now and it's happening all across the country. this phenomenon just isn't in our largest cities, it's happening all across the nation in cities large and small. it's not just on the coast. some of the highest ridership happened in cities under 100,000. when you hear people ask i'm in a rural area why does this matter to make? the ridership increases in cities under 100,000 has doubled the national growth rate last year. this is extraordinary. there are great things happening happening. from san diego to nashville from harrisburg illinois to bowling

green from wenatchee washington to new york city people opted for public transportation in record numbers. writers are telling us they want more public transportation. and now you need to let congress know that we need to make the investment in public transportation to meet this growing need. it's incumbent upon all of us to educate our legislators. they love to do -- they need to know that this nation must have a robust multilevel surface transportation bill. we cannot continue to have short-term extensions. over the last 10 years we have had 23 short-term extensions of the surface transportation bill. this is not how you build the greatest country in the world. this is not how you lead a national economy. this is short-term thinking. this is not how our country works. we need a big long-term surface

transportation bill. are you with me? absolutely. when do we need a? now, absolutely right. we need it now because there is a presidential election coming and that's going to take up all the oxygen in the room. we need to have that -- we need to make it happen now. we need to get up on the hill make things happen. how do we achieve our goal is? as chairman washington shared us advocacy and local education. sure we can share messages here in washington d.c.. you hire us to be the experts but you need to share that local message in your towns and communities. it's so important. when you go up on the hill the next couple of days take this packet with you. it's loaded with information to help you educate our members of congress, to help them see the $10.8 billion or 10.8 billion trips that we have going on in this country. we need to show them how this

investment is paying off in growing demand and how we needed in order to continue to provide safe reliable dependable service each and every day. congress doesn't need to go far to seek troubled infrastructure. look at the capitol dome. it's happening right where they work every day. now it's time for you to help share the message how we to make investment in our infrastructure as well. when you're up on the hill someone might ask you how should the paper this robust public transportation though? certainly it's our job to explain surface transportation and why it's so vital to our nation's infrastructure and our nations future. but congress that's their job to find the resources. ..

if we can get rid of that we can solve the nation's i'll a problem. don't fall into that trap. let them know the story is not correct. remind legislators in 1983 president ronald reagan but for the program to raise the federal gas tax from $0.4 to $0.9 and called it a nickel

for america bridges roads highways transit. that is the origin of the 8020 split. the dollars it go to transit from the highway trust fund in mass transit account have always been they're for transit. they have never funded diversion. it is about a system working together. we have had a very long partnership. partnerships are what make this program work, state, local federal government that is what makes our nation great and transportation system work well. let let us not forget, it is an interdependent system. buses and trains take cars off the roadways so that we can have free flow of goods and services throughout our roadway networks. it all works together.

removing is from the highway trust fund is a bit like removing the street light or the bus. it all has to work together. dot has their own bills the grow american act. we may not agree with every subpart or section i have to tell you this bill does a great job of telling congress we need to move in the right direction and that this stuff matters. we can't do it alone. we have to do it together. joining her we will be acting fra administrator fienberg to share the administration's position and proposals and take your questions from the audience. we are thrilled joining is appear we will be too great

leaders in the transportation field who work tirelessly in washington dc. when you see me testify on capitol hill there are very often to people standing next to me. great transportation leaders who will help tell the story of how we work together to move the ball forward. passage of the surface transportation bill is a lengthy process. the 1st the 1st day we pass that we gather information needs, but dated together and brought it to the hill and our partners so that we can see together what those needs were. now we are in the 2nd stage with different ideas put together to coalesce to what will become a bill. lots lots of different bills and ideas. do not be distracted by the shiny things in the water. stay focused on the mission

and message as we shepherd shepherded through the next stage of actual transportation. we should be bold in our approach because we know the needs a real. we know that we have been able to functionally fully demonstrate that public transportation has a significant financial impact on this nation's economy. for every dollar invested in public transportation the economic return is four times that. it is about jobs getting americans to work. nearly 50000 jobs for each $1 billion investment of federal dollars in the public transportation system a huge return.

even more importantly the federal government doesn't build stock and trains in transit shelters. the consultants, oems make this business happen. most of those are role dollars. 73% 73 percent of government dollars flow right through to the private sector. creating jobs all across the nation, high-paying high-quality jobs. sure to share the story with policymakers on the hill. opportunities to get the jobs. i no you can storm that bill. back to the communities,

that is where the real work happens. show them not just tell them the federal dollars are going. the factories, your offices commute job sites. dispatchers, engineers, fieldworkers let them understand what is federal dollars that we are creating my public transportation options are people in all 435 congressional districts from all 50 states in this nation. help them understand the perspective of where the federal good dollars are going. they can.to that train, shelter and say there are federal dollars at work there. enhancing the ability in the community.

you all convey that message. year from the administration and members of congress and partners take them to the hill, share the story that we need well-funded, long-term surface transportation bill for our industry and for america. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you michael. very insightful remarks. thank you for your strong leadership and dedication to the industry. it is industry. it is my pleasure to introduce our future speakers. first up a nationally recognized expert in

transportation policy funding, and finance with the us chamber of commerce. she wears. she where several hats, the chamber's executive director of transportation and infrastructure and vice president of the americans with transportation mobility coalition and leads the chambers let's rebuild america initiative. help me welcome to the stage. >> thank you for having me here today. what an energetic opening. i have not been doing covers us all know this much energy in the morning. maybe not ever. i we will know what they put in your coffee, that is terrific. i'm pleased to be here again. you will here repeatedly it

is important for you to be here. this is a test. how many of you believe that? thank god i don't have to convince you of that. there are new staff on the hill. some of the people have talked to you for years. walk into offices completely knew staff, 23 -year-old was looking at you. transit. what is transit? you have to tell them how many of you have a newly elected freshman member of the house or senate you will

go see today? these people do not know anything about what you do. it is not just about talking about a little bit of what is going on in your town and why this is important. you have got to explain to them how transit fits into your economy how it fits into your transportation system how it creates jobs sustains employment, but most importantly how important the federal government is to that the federal investment. investment. there is a lot of noise on capitol hill today. we transportation people tend to think that we are unique and special. we are transportation. we are transportation. we have a trust fund. it is all good. except for the last ten ten years or so it has not been quite all that good and now when you go to capitol hill

you know it took the senate six weeks to pass a department of homeland security bill. just an appropriations bill by the way nothing complicated. the senate spent three weeks debating the keystone pipeline. i don't know if your familiar, but we have been they're and done it before. the president vetoed it. the senate took three weeks to do that. they got a debt ceiling debate coming up. jim the bank will expire again. there's a lot of noise on tap -- on capitol hill. it helps cut through that noise. from the district from the

state representing employees, the supply chain. you're putting a face on it. you may have ten minutes to any and all over the 23 -year-old. you you might have a half hour with a member of congress but this is your chance and here is why it is important. transit is under attack in washington. i cannot open a newspaper during the week when i don't see an article, an op-ed that has been placed by the heritage foundation. transit is a waste of money out of the highway trust fund and if we just fakes that little problem took that waste out we solve all of the transportation funding problems.

you are here today -- did i use a bad word? you are here today to call ball should on that people. [laughter] you are here today to see if carly theory and assign an op-ed in the "wall street journal" almost identical in the los angeles times this is transit is a waste of money. you are looking as members of congress and the eye and their staff and say you tell me this is a a waste of money the people writing your buses and trains and challenge them. it is easy for them. they get together and talk to them. when i get fired definitely not sending you my resume. thing out of not qualified to work and metro or whatever. this is really easy. were just going to jump into

training. it will be hard when you are in their offices. the the market audit just signed, transit is local the local folks should pay for it. i was in south carolina doing a presentation infrastructure. anyone hear from south carolina? in the back. thank you. a lot of the right things including we have to raise the gas tax. i complement tom rice for saying, what we ought to do is raise the gas tax. rice put up a chart and showed and said south carolina we don't get me real transit money back. to which i replied thanks to his e-mail and research

south carolina 47 percent of your resources come from the federal government. don't tell me it doesn't matter small amount. that is a pretty big deal in south carolina. then he said then he said, we give all of this money to washington. it only goes to two transit systems, los angeles, new york. you get to go unexplained not all local. we have been investing in transit for years. this is an opt out the market should decide. this is a waste but investment. the complete system.

you are going to go out there and take on the people saying transit is not need to be a part of this and you will take them on directly. do not let them off the hook. that's crap. they can call the leadership these transportation people are wearing me out. the united states house and senate. the house senate. the house is on recess this week they come back tell the leadership who has been beaten them up and that helps determine the priority list. resources floor time getting managed in the senate when they realize if we don't get something on the floor and get it done members get beat up at home.

it is time to not let them off the hook. i will give you one other thing to think about and that is you are all in this together. the us chamber of commerce. the transportation commerce. the transportation builders association. that mobility coalition. we are all in this together, but for you and transit you are all in this together. if you go to the hill and it becomes bus versus light rail or people dragging the conversation, i conversation i don't know why your doing this you want to do this big transit versus small transit is the kind of division that congress needs. it is the excuse that they need to say, there is no unity. unity. you have to go where the

unified voices today. passing a long-term a long-term transportation bill. don't let them drag you into a conversation about what part of transit is better than the other. forget that. this conversation is about we need a long-term fully funded transportation bill that supports growth the supports investment and jobs just like michael said we need it now. we will be standing up with you for transportation april 9. perfect timing. the very end of the easter recess or as they call it district work. so for the ten days before that because it starts on march 30 you can be taking people out and showing them projects showing where federal investment happens

how you are partnering with dot how transit is impacting your business community and on april 9 in case any of you had not thought about what you are going to talk about what what a great story you have. what a great op-ed you have or blog post or a whole tweet because you can talk about what you have been doing for the last ten days showing your members of congress in your delegation to make your community were transportation is about. if you can't pick up the phone and call your state or local chamber of commerce and need help let me know. michael has my cell phone number. i'll give it to you if you really want to. we will make that happen. it is a tremendous opportunity for all of us to

stand up together for transportation. i am proud to stand here with you today. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you janet. she is fantastic, isn't she? she really is. [applause] we will hear from the president and corporate executive officer with the american urban transportation builders association. forty years of experience in a vice president of the chambers america's for transportation mobility coalition. he previously was deputy

director of the office of economic assessment and the secretary of defense under president's economic just make committee. please welcome peter lane. [applause] >> good morning. i'm glad i got here early to hear the comments of fill and michael and janet. i have one response. listen, i picked up a great idea of how to fund their problems on the way in here. anyone valley park? [laughter] forty-two bucks? holy moses. so you tell the members of congress they all want to valley park at this hotel everyday of the week and we

will get 10 percent of that for the rest of the year which we will fund at least the transit program if not the whole bloody thing. well michael i heard you twice this morning on wto p. the leading radio station which has the leading traffic report every morning. you did not tell me that truck was broken down on 295. well done. we don't have much time. i hope all of you know that there is a pm our name. our members all modes of transportation, improvement transit capitol projects and

that is a major market for many. nearly 40 years now. 113, 114 years old. that is a hard time. we are pleased and janet made reference to this. recently this. recently we cosigned a letter to the "wall street journal" which got published responding to the want to be presidential candidate. that was a lot of fun. we did some public opinion already. and over the years many of you know we have had a number of joint advertising programs together and are lobbying efforts and passed

legislation. of course, as bill and michael both referenced, we have referenced, we have been partners on various coalitions for many years. there are still some out there that would like to divide us and we only represent the highway industry. that's a crock. we represent the transportation construction industry. all of the ports, high-speed and the highways and transit and bridges of this nation. so, what -- it cannot be overstated and has been said already but i we will say it again the importance of working together in these coming days and months. now, you know that we have opponents. and the heritage, i call

them out. i am not afraid to mention they are. they have informed a lot of people with bad information and are out there trying to divide us in the mainstream and media the public and most of what they put out there is mythological not fact-based. those two people -- those two groups have one thing in common. they are both wrong. they are both wrong. now zero-sum game is a metaphor we all like to use. we will not get trapped in that. we are here to advance the cause of transportation because, frankly there is a

chronic underinvestment in all of the modes of transportation in this country. so we won't get trapped. they are not going to do that for sure. it has happened happened in the past. i wrote when i joined last century that is exactly the way it was and some of you remember that. we were the highway committee. never shall the two meet. what a crock. that has not been the case in recent it -- the case in recent years. the vast majority of congress, you already know do recognize finally what we are facing, the facts, not the myths have been adequately conveyed by all of us over the years over the months, over recent days

, so none of them none of them consider don't know the truth. they may refer to the latest ad. the facts are out there which is one of the good news. the last eight years the last eight years of uncertainty has clearly led to some bad decisions around the country. a lot of states have held up investments because they cannot count on the federal government's partnership. it essentially was a frozen program in recent years. in fact, we had major cuts that no one wants to talk about. we have taken a $3 billion to the overall highway program.

so i'm here not to talk about negative things but positive things. the truth is out. out. you will know the facts. more important than that after this eight year time frame of uncertainty indecision putting things off i believe no one has commented on his opening remarks and that we will get a long-term peace of legislation this year. i am among the minority. see janet and others not in their head. a lot of our colleagues do not. a lot of our members don't. a lot of our member companies do not believe we will get a long-term peace of legislation this year. they are laying back some laying off.

that has caused serious problems of economy and uncertainty. we monitor this closely. you are well aware of some major states already announced that they will cut back. here we are in march. we have until the end of may to deal with the expansion, but most importantly, we still don't know what the solution to the highway trust fund problem is. sized of ally -- valet parking approach i mentioned. look, they know what they have to do. both sides of the aisle know what they have to do. we think that they will have the courage this time to do the right thing. we are very encouraged,

particularly on some conversions of longtime resistors, longtime opponents of doing the right thing. they are now they are not prepared to do the right thing. so we will rollout something in a few days that we will add to what is being discussed at the moment. nothing incredibly novel. in some regard simply it reiterates past proposals dressed up a little bit garnished with new information new fax/facts and aimed at getting this debate of a dime off its rear end. and you will be surprised at the bipartisan some port you will run into this week.

maybe not surprised, but shocked. some of you are probably shocked. i think it is real. i think your going to see a very serious attempt to finally deal with this in the coming weeks. now we could talk about very specific things, and i'm not sure we want to do that. a couple of things have happened recently. that is why we have this positive outlook, naturally optimistic. sometimes people think we are foolish but not members of the brigade in this town, and it town and it is a pretty big grade. pretty big brigade. they don't want to face the top political opposition just last week just last

week 285 members of the house 285 out of 412 450 whatever the number is 435 it is a majority. on both sides of the aisle trying to let us and hey in, hey let's get it done let's resolve this problem let's get it done. we have also seen right after the elections, in fact last november the knew senate majority leader on national tv so there are only two things we want to deal with. tax reform. taking care of the transportation trust fund issue. don't tell me there is no support. there is real world support. it is up to us to close the deal. so where are we?

people love to ask that question. where are we? where are we? where are you standing? this is an old marine saying one hair short of ugly. do you know what that means? one hair short of ugly. well it is ugly. it is going to get uglier come the end of may. so the timing of your event is perfect. he could not have schedule that at a better time. we have the transportation construction coalition coming in after easter with all of their gifts from the holiday. we will be storming the hell as well so that we will have a wave a wave of industry representatives carrying a

message and trying to get congress to do the right thing. but, you know we can talk all day about specific solutions, but the bottom line is this this whole issue forget about all of the ways it is a political problem. how do you solve political problems. you solve them politically. we have facts and missions studies, research up the hanging for years, decades centuries. this is a fact free zone. you solve this politically which is why you are so here.

michael t this up perfectly. janet added icing on the cake. you have got to tell your story. you have got to tell specific facts and say folks, you don't do the right thing there will be consequences political consequences. a lot of people don't like to do that. you have to talk to members talk to them back home get in their face tell them your story. what good is all that? today they know most of the facts. and that is very different in the past. you now have to add that final sentence, we are keeping score. we are paying attention. we are not stupid not naïve you were here -- you were sent here to do a job.

and and it is a tough job. with all respect. it is a very tough job that our elected representatives have, but they wanted it. they knew that ahead of time. we did not force them to come here. i don't see them up there in chains. they are here on purpose. and that is to solve our nation's problems to deal with our nation's challenges and the future. that is why they are year. you remind me of that. so how are we going to do it? well, we have got to change the debate their is clarity mostly now but you have got to remove the bubblewrap. i might get bruised, i might

get hurt baloney. take it away. these are the hard facts. these are the hard facts and if you ignore them there will be consequences. we keep score. not appear on some family trip. the area to do a job. no time for subtleties. if you think you are talking to daffy duck up there you know, hey be patient be patient. remember be patient. remember, what is the key? follow-up. follow-up. you have got to follow up with everyone he met with talk to him and

you follow it up back home. go back and visit the local offices. such and such, she said such and such. i want i want you to know that, and when they come here going to recess and that is when they're are lots of them coming out i i want to see them again take them out to my job site as shannon mentioned, et cetera mentioned, etc. etc. so, also, in terms of avoiding subtleties you are going to hear ideas that you know, -- we have this -- i guess my -- i don't know. i was in an annapolis yesterday. and we are you you know for the saint patty's day parade. and the knew governor was leading the parade. and i am there with six of my nine grandchildren my

wife. my wife. of course i am drinking lots of beer. [laughter] so the governor comes up has agreed thing on. i say governor, you are going to build the line right? he said, i'm in favor of the green line. i'm in favor of the green line. we did. we did intervene on that project. we don't normally do that. in fact i fact i just sent a nice valentines letter to governor cuomo last week about the situation in new york. plenty of folks your from new york. we don't normally do that either. both of those situations had national implications. far beyond their respective states. if they if they don't invest year if we don't invest in the state it affects the whole bloody country. i got to tell you my

five-year-old grandson pulls over and says how come you did not give us any candy? i said, peter that was bad. >> candy after you give them candy. [laughter] okay. so you are going to hear what i call some jedi mind -- i won't say the next word. crap. in terms of how they are going to solve this problem. there is an elementary basic deal with this. what is this. what is it called? raise the bloody user fee. have the political courage to do this.

it is right in front of you. the most proven and efficient way to get it done. do it. [applause] >> give all three of our speakers a great hand. [applause] bear with me. we are going to do a photo up. i we will ask to speak us to come back up. we have the t-shirt and the bag of chips. come on out please. we don't have the bag of chips. [laughter] >> thank you. >> you want this over here.

stand up. >> stand up. >> stand up. >> stand up. [applause] ♪ [inaudible conversations] >> we will hear more about transportation infrastructure in our next session. we have got the mayor's transit roundtable roundtable starting promptly at 1030 right back in this room. we are adjourned. thank you for coming. [applause]

>> on the next washington journal associated press state department negotiator on negotiations concerning the uranian nuclear program. ..

>> >>

the. [inaudible conversations] good morning. hello? welcome. great to see you. i scheerer enthusiasm in the crowd today. you will not be disappointed good morning. and the president of the utah transit authority and i am honored to host this panel today with three great years from three incredible cities. i have been in the business

a long time and i started my career here in virginia and i appreciate the fact c-span is here to spread the dialogue about investments in transportation in utah we benefit it with our partnerships from the agency's ever first-degree rape came to was a 1997. subsequently we got 148 miles of rail built in 14 years perhaps the quickest of the nation and we are benefiting significantly. one decade ago our partnerships decided to make a commitment to invest the tax resources in transportation. we're now one of the best economic states in the country.

and i will tell you that no elected official has lost their job because of that commitment that they made one decade ago. our governor is now the chairman of the national association of governors. our state senate and of the chairman of the national league of legislators our chamber of commerce is on the national board of the chamber of commerce and the mayor of salt lake city is now the president of the league of cities we're looked at a state that is well run knowing how to get things done but note that investments in infrastructure is to the economic growth and vitality so we are here today with three incredible mayors who will talk to you about their stories.

but first want to read as the president is competing with us at the national league of cities so i appreciate the mayor's being here but i have something to read from the president of the the densities that says the american public transit association and american league of cities has enjoyed a close working relationship for many decades. the results of which have been tremendous with transit progress for those cities that we serve. the accomplishments is an important example of the benefit of this collaboration. sb else the president and mayor of salt lake tai look forward to continue to working with a long-term well funded transportation reauthorization this year.

it is an important contribution with this reauthorization ever. so with that those that participated yesterday in the legislative conference represents infrastructure alliance that made three points that is the focus of today's conversation. number one, and make a local. and talk about economic benefits and commerce and transportation and does what it has done and how it will affect your community in investment saugh -- because it will pay dividends in the future you will not barrault, it will cost less

in the mayor will talk about that. so you hear from three strong conservative and fiscally responsible energetic, unmotivated, a fast-growing communities each of which have a passion for transportation and a transit. they have a vitality of their own developing a sense of place in the community like no others. the cities that are surrounding them like salt lake and dallas and phoenix are suburbs to their cities there. so i will have you buckle up your seat belts because you were in for ride. i will introduce the three mayors in the order they will speak and then propose the three main topics first to want to have them share with you about their city in the vision then they will

drill down to talk about transportation and transit projects and what they see the benefits of the community. and then to 0n with the partnership's of what we can do together to offer recommendations but the mayor to a left first is mayor price and she is the mayor of fort worth texas the 16th largest city in the united states established in 1849? as part of the mexican-american war. but what i found interesting is there are three transformational times in the fort worth history. number one there were part of the cattle drive and initially established fort

worth. then they became the crossroads of the second major wrote way into the city then having close to 400 miles that is a huge investment so we will hear it as a mover and shaker elected 2001 the 44th mayor and henley's efforts to help the communities and talks about alternative modes of transportation and maybe she will talk about rocking and rolling. and bin added cyclist -- an avid cyclist and apparently a proud maverick with a bachelor's degree from university of texas arlington.

and the mayor from base in arizona i looked up on pepita - - week dps they call let the center of the universe. [laughter] i'm sorry. >> dole said as short the third largest city in arizona 38 in the united states and the history actually goes back 2,000 years ago with the tribes that developed canals and other forms of transportation in. as a 40 is mayor of mason's he has had a long history being on the city council and in many organizations and has a polysulfide degree from brigham young and has

the law degree from arizona state and has managed and practice of this of his own and boarded raised in recent and runs marathon and is finished to a full i.r.a. men -- "iron man" and his finish the 20th marathon in fourth boston marathon of hope we can keep up with him. lastly the mayor of ever for tin city utah. surveying as the mayor that has been there since 2006. they sure they're celebrating there 150th birthday as a high growth community population has exploded it was listed by

cnn is one of the top places in the united states and also has a rich transit history in 1913 it has a railway that goes right to its community there. so the mayor has been on the city council with a law degree excuse me doctorate from byu in the cougar as well and spending his entire career in the educational system he does have eight children and 30 grandchildren there he is a leader in our community you virtually every transportation committee our relationship with the organization is the best in the country so with mayor applegarth and what he does there's a lot will ask them to talk about there city's so they can paint the

picture for you about what is going on then we will move to more transportation and agenda. we will start with either one of you. >> hopefully they're not on. we have spent appear talking. weighed no we're not capitol steps although we will tap dance for you. in addition into running marathons. i understand you were coming to fort worth in may. you will love it. actually we are the 17th largest city now we were beat out by 150 - - 105 people in charlotte. i think it is a statistical error. [laughter] one of the fastest-growing cities in the nation about

1,000 people per day come to texas and 350 land in dallas or four words so rears huge with 800,000 citizens and in the next years will be more than 1 million. and we'll raise say we are a big spread out city is 352 square miles and 344 square miles so ultimately we are a big land mass. we're obviously behind on mass transit because we love our suburban santa our pickups we're just now getting people to think about public transit. we have always had it is only serve to the working class. you mentioned streetcars but we is to have the largest line of streetcars we don't have a single one any longer.

we poured a lot of concrete but we know as leaders he will never pori enough concrete to accommodate. you simply will and our young millenials to run for the high-tech jobs or aviation or tourism fell one to one car they're moving back to the inner city as well as the suburbs the we have to rebuild the listeners cities and transit is the way. they want to leave one car in their garage and not take it out to get around the and they want the last mile to be a connection on bicycles and we have a strong museum district with 65 million visitors last year we have run -- redone the convention center in are about to do

would begin to make a big difference on what we have done. but we are the fourth anger period thomas's hear from dart somewhere. we are a huge region but they cannot separate allosaur for words. once you, you can separate is the -- easily their new comeback two ft. worth. [laughter] but in the last two years into the next three years we will have $44 billion of infrastructure construction. we say everybody has orange cones and they are sick of them. but we have to get ever public transit better where the millenials letter coming and more important the silver tsunami is your. the number of people who

turn 65 and will for the next 10 years if you have not google but it will blow your mind how many there are and i am one of them. and i am told of the time we won transit because they will not dry if much longer. there want to take the transit but they wanted to be technically savvy and paul lot the next bus locator to see when it comes forwards was 110 in july and august you want to stand on the corner you want to be in your office or to say here it comes. we're beginning to get there in the federal government has helped with some of that budget is passed to be appealing to people to put the bicycle on the front which they currently cayenne , of the bus take the bite of to complete the last

mile. it just is not been able to accommodate all the cars. my friends hate that to say beekeeper selling them we will try to keep parking them to put them on buses but the gridlock will kill us. on our meter arterial across interstate 35 runs through for worth it is the best parking lot in the nation of [laughter] and in the next four years it will be remodeled and there will be an express lane courtesy of a federal grant down the center. we have a development on the four north edge -- far north edge and the alliance town centers sprung up from an old ranch property it is now 35,000 jobs and rapidly

growing one of the largest retail centers that part of the development incentive is between five and 15 percent of the employees have to come from the inner-city. we have struggled getting them up 35. once it is redone there will be an express bus up in the of boarding and reverse it in the evening and they will have to develop a circular system and that is in the master plan. but the t is our transportation in system and federal grants and it has been very successful. the next big project is life rail. we have one now it is a joint project with the

trinity will express with 8,000 riders per day that is a commuter line between dallas and fort worth. has been successful because people don't see the boundary between the cities they like to come to go to build a the stockyard or the museum's then back but the next big project is live rail and come see us for you will love it. [applause] >> thanks for letting me be here. the answer is so crowded with the national the densities' we were joking we were lucky to come here to avoid the chaos of the other side of town. the key for giving us a convenient out. i will respectfully disagree to the location of the center of the universe.

[laughter] it is a dual edged sword but i'm a little bit grouchy i am here by now because right now it is the center of the baseball universe with the spring training city of not here right now i'll be watching either the chicago cubs or the a's and would be wearing short sleeves with a diet coke. march is a great time to be there because of the spring training activity and the weather is perfect. the next time you look for something to do it in march put mesa arizona on your map to clear one of the larger cities that is not a household word in your lexicon. we anchor the east valley of the phoenix metropolitan area that are half a million

people, 37 ethnicity in the country's second largest in the biggest metro region. we're on our own but very much a part of the phoenix transportation system and other regional transit authorities we are the beneficiary of funding through them and through having having the asset to our west but on our own a pretty advanced large city her gore recently a few months ago forbes' label less the most conservative city in the united states. event there is not a lot of larger urban cities that have a conservative bent but there are maybe three examples of that phenomenon right now. so which is an interesting

location to analyze the location so i incurious to hear my family -- fellow panel members. we are a large city and a growing city and still trying to carve our way out of the downturn with the announcement of the new $2 billion a couple facilities so we're in a good wave of economic development but at the same time, i grew up in the downtown area in mind childhood was part of the old route 66 so we had motels and a vibrant downtown in the '60s and '70s for of course, with the advent of the freeways built to the north in the south the downtown withered up and died and went to the big box

mall says people recognize the scenario that has been duplicated all over the country. and i was on the city council in the '90s and we will find every possible way to pump life into the downtown that it was literally a ghost town and we threw a lot of money at it but nothing seemed to to stick. towards the end of my service in the '90s and of the last votes i had is to be participate in the regional transit program to bring light rail to the city? i was more than and skeptical about the merits of the proposal that this is cute like disneyland will come to the city but i don't see it to help us from a transportation perspective five reluctantly agreed to go with the communist

conspiracy to bring the silly little cars to the community and thought i might live to regret that vote. brian so delighted to come back to city government now and no one has been happier to be wrong and i am. by rail has been a huge boon to our economy. it is successful as a transportation system to mesa for reasons and are very attractive every have exceeded writer ship in may are 10 years ahead. but as popular as it has been as a transportation system it has been more successful as an economic redevelopment system. that downtown urban core of motels and other businesses the property values along the route have skyrocketed

and we are excited. this fall we will open it through the downtown corridor the construction in is pretty much complete. we have seen all this activity now we have another 2 miles going to the east opened in into more years sold through a variety of creative and aggressive financing models with the help of regional and federal dollars we can pull off. to breathe life back into the core of my community. that everybody had pretty much given up on. i am here to tell that story to encourage people to use that as a place to look to you to get excited about my real. -- light rail. we have 150 square miles we are spread out urban and

suburban in community. blight to rail -- light rail is excited -- exciting but one train track will not have a huge impact on the transit needs. so we tried to be sensitive with the parking and ride model her as we move east for the next 2 miles away for word it will actually taken out to where people live proposal that commuter aspect will become more relevant as we pushed further east into the neighborhoods. but from a commercial perspective to generate excitement with disappointment it has been tremendously successful and i encourage you to take another look at mesa. thank-you.

[applause] >> i am the little dog city here today. make sure you understand something from the introduction and we talk about the 150th anniversary i hope you realize that was the city. not mine. not with all this great hair. but i come from their virginia java was not born and raised their but i was raised in southern california but i moved there in 1975. 20 miles south of salt lake city in the metropolitan area but there were 3,000 people when improve there. in 2015 we have 42,000 approximately and by 2035 nl least we will have 60,000. 12.six square miles.

[laughter] and its general fund budget of nine-point to million dollars to give you a feel for our city. but as i became mayor over nine years ago i wrote down goals that i wanted to accomplish or my philosophy of our what i wanted to do that way and one of the things of my a philosophy is my major job was to spend money. not to save it but in the right way and then as i analyzed from the council and did your area dash funding is property tax. of you raise the property tax they will hang you from the nearest tree.

doesn't matter but we got our city and of the of property tax business with sales tax and utility franchise tax and when you do that's people don't care where you spend money and then we raise them with good economic growth so that is where we have come from that has allowed me to do that in that way. philosophically, i might overarching goal or principal is a dozen improve the quality of life for our citizens, why do it? my job is to spend money to improve the quality of life. also inherited an area that is 12.6 square miles that

was farmland and with what i would call downtown refer to in -- referred to in is that we had a pretty clean and clear canvas that we could develop there was a senior city council member his slogan was and i adopted you only have one time to build out the city and to build it out right so that was the overarching goal. we don't have a lot of economic development but because of that which is a blessing. not necessarily in the order of importance that the goals and i have had one is to develop open space we do

that starting with parks and in the nine years i have been in as mayor we spent $28 million on parks. that is not a lot of money for you but nine-point to billion dollars for the general fund we spend a lot of money on the park's the last project will be on june 22nd. . .