Thank you, Jim. And thanks to you all.

I want to say to Jim Garner, that as President these past 12 months, you have been a caring leader, and provided outstanding leadership during a year filled with challenges.

You gained the respect of Mayors from around the country. And as one who won the respect of the White House as well - - you made our conversations with the President of the United States much easier about issues such as Homeland Security.

For many years, the Conference will be grateful to you for extending yourself into international issues, and creating a presence for our organization in Europe and Africa.

It is an example of an initiative I am going to attempt to continue. In fact, I've already been contacted by the two presidents of the only two countries you did not visit during your one year in office. I have agreed to go to those two countries. (Laughter)

I want to thank my fellow mayors, who elected me to a position of leadership in the Conference. It is truly an honor, and there aren't words to describe the feeling that mayors from all over the country have expressed their confidence in me.

I am looking forward in the coming year, to working with Bev O'Neil and Mike Guido, as we engage the issues that are important to Mayors.

I also need to acknowledge the assistance of our staff. To Tom Cochran and his Washington team, many thanks for the support you've already provided to me. One of the best parts about this job is working with the competent Conference staff.

I also want to thank Mayor Tom Menino of Boston for his hospitality this past week.

Like every mayor, I could talk about the tremendous support I've received from the people - - in my case, of the City of Akron, many of whom have come to Boston to share this evening with me.

I want to ask some groups of people to stand and be recognized, and I'll ask you to hold your applause until all are standing.

I have a great relationship with my city council and its president Marco Sommerville.

Let me ask those Akron city council members who are here to stand;

And members of my cabinet. They will be challenged in the coming year to keep the city running smoothly as I take on these extra duties;

There are other members of my staff, and other people from City Hall who have joined me for this occasion;

Friends from Akron, including my very good friend the County executive Jim McCarthy;

And my family: My mother and step dad Mel and Betty Channel, my son David, daughter Michele and son-in-law Mike with their daughters Abby and Ally, and my wife Mary.

Join me in thanking this great group of people on whom I will be relying during the coming year. (Applause)

This is my 18th year as Mayor of Akron. It wasn't even a job that I aspired to. I was happy being a member and president of city council, but after Akron's Mayor was elected to Congress in 1986 - - I was unexpectedly thrown into the job.

After 4 months, I turned to my wife and told her that this was always what I was meant to do-it was what I wanted to be "when I grew up," only I didn't know it. I've been so happy that this opportunity has been afforded to me.

But I learned to know enough about the job to know what I didn't know... but thanks to people like Mayor Joe Riley of Charleston, Mayor Paul Helmke of Fort Wayne and Victor Ashe of Knoxville, I was tutored in the fine art of running a city. That happened here, at meetings of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and why I encourage other mayors to stay involved. You can learn so much..

I see my service in the leadership team of the Conference very much as paying back something I owe to other mayors who are recently elected, and sharing what I've learned over the last 18 years.

Some things haven't changed since I entered city hall 31 years ago as a 23 year old councilman. There are still potholes to fill, and we still answer the calls to police and fire departments.

But what's new is that today we are using advanced technology to track calls, and we hear mayors talk about "customer service," instead of "constituent complaints."

Many people rightfully refer to Mayors as CEO's, and we are. We're in charge of billion-dollar budgets, we're tasked with real demands to cut costs, to manage ever-changing streams of revenue, and to find news ways to be productive.

There are two other things that have changed since I attended my first annual meeting of the Conference in 1987.

* The Mayor is the new leader in the defense of our Homeland - - a topic that I've already spoken about during the conference;

* And, the Mayor has had to become the principal agent of change in maintaining much of America's Economic Security.

Mayors are the ones who facilitate and assist businesses to retain and create jobs. We're the ones who find business, and work with them to attract and create jobs. It's part of my job now that didn't exist 31 years ago.

Today's release of the Metro Economies Report, published by the Conference, explains our important role. The report shows that our nation is not one giant economy. It is really 500 different metropolitan economies --- that are directly impacted by the choices that mayors and their city councils make each and every day.

As I see the year ahead, I see a year in which we must make the case that "Cities Are Doing America's Business."

We're the ones out there to facilitate the making of business. We really are "doing America's Business."

In this regard, I am borrowing from a theme first struck by Mark Morial almost 3 years ago. And that is we are a nation of "Competitive Cities."

We've come a long way, and we really are ready to compete with any city in the world.

In many ways, Mayors have spent the last decade re-building and re-inventing their cities to get ready for the next century. We need to do more. It's not that we are competing with each other, but cities in Korea, China, and many places in the world.

And this re- investment is working. I know this is so because of my personal experience.

One year ago today I walked out of a hospital after having open heart surgery. And now, I can tell you I've never felt better. Cities - - like heart patients --- get to re-invest in their "infrastructure" and come out better than before.

We can bring our cities back, if we work together, and that's why I want to move this organization to do everything humanly possible to make sure that over the next 5 months in particular, that the candidates for national office are engaged with office and talking about OUR issues this Fall!

I will take the 5-point plan we adopted at our winter meeting in Washington, update it in a draft that I will get ready with the help of our past presidents and current officers. Then, in just 42 days - - I will convene the leadership at a meeting in Chicago to review the draft and prepare a final national agenda that we can use to talk to our Democratic and Republican candidates for national office, an agenda of needs that are common to all cities and all mayors

But my recent experience on the Task Force on State and Local Homeland Security Funding leads me to believe that there is another area I want to emphasize: collaboration with other governmental units.

Akron, Ohio is the most collaborative city in the United States. Any success I've had over the past 18 years has come from conversations where there are many voices.

I propose that in the coming year, we join with others who share common ground with Mayors.

At The Big 7, we will find collaborators among governors, county executives, managers, and city councils. Let's not emphasize the few points where we disagree, but let's emphasize the areas of common ground where we agree, and let's put forth an agenda that needs to be addressed today.

I also believe we need to reach out to business. I've believed that since the day I was elected to city council - - With those businesses who share our principles like Homebuilders, Realtors, and Mortgage bankers. We need to continue to build our business council

We need to reach out to non-profit organizations like the ICIC and the Council on Competitiveness who have some something to offer in the discussion on how cities retain and create jobs for young people.

And we will work to bring people together.

Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and I worked together to represent states and cities in crafting a coherent policy to guide the federal government in distributing homeland security funds. And I heard Governor Romney say some things today that I never thought I'd hear a governor say. I tried to compliment him, by saying, "you really sounded like a mayor," which is the greatest compliment that we could pay him. (Laughter)

A couple of months ago, I went to Washington to pick the brains of the leadership in congress and the White House to say, "rather than my preparing an agenda that you don't care about -what would you like to do?"

And what I heard - - even at the White House - - were two things were consistent with our policies in the Conference: Home Ownership and Brownfields.

And in response to an appointment from the Speaker of the House, Congressman Mike Turner from Dayton - - a former mayor --- wants to work with us in making development of Brownfields a priority, and we're going to do that over the next 4-5 months.

The last thing I want to say today is perhaps the most important, because it is an over-arching principle that is at stake. We've had a difficult time in our society, we're split right down the middle-that sometimes our debate becomes intense, personal, vindictive, and destructive.

And our Conference is a reflection of our entire society.

What this organization needs is to go back to our original commitment to make absolutely certain that we do things in a bi-partisan way, to do what is best for the country. (Applause)

And I will do everything I can, to assure that.

We need to drawn on lessons of leaders in the past, and I want to mention two:

Victor Ashe -- a Republican - - as President of the Conference of Mayors helped us preserve the Community Development program by confronting GOP stalwarts in Congress who threatened to extinguish it.

Jerry Abramson- - a Democrat - - was as responsible as any other individual for taking the Clinton White House to task over un-funded mandates.

So I'm asking my fellow mayors to tell me when I'm doing something wrong - - criticize me and let me know the direction that you think we should be going, to help me better lead this organization.

I need each one of you to make the same commitment I am making - - to make this year a non-partisan effort to do what is right.

I need each and every one of you - - to provide that leadership in your own respective party with your own party leaders. If you can help me do that, we will have a successful year, and the citizens of our cities will benefit.