Nation's Cities - September 5, 2011

4 NATION’S CITIES WEEKLY
September 5, 2011

NBC-LEO Conference Focuses on Leadership Development
by Brenda Ramirez
NLC’s National Black Caucus of
Local Elected Officials (NBC-LEO)
constituency group convened its annual
summer conference — “Empowering
Our Communities, Strengthening Our
Leaders” — August 10–13 in Beaumont,
Texas, under the leadership of NBC-
LEO President Michael Johnson, coun-
cilmember, Phoenix. The conference,
hosted by NBC-LEO Immediate Past
President Audwin Samuel, councilmem-
ber, Beaumont, focused on leadership
development, revenue growth for cities
and towns and business and networking
opportunities.

The opening plenary session
— “Welcome to Beaumont” and
“African Americans and the Future
– Jobs, Unemployment and Business
Opportunities” — offered participants
an opportunity to learn from the experts
about national employment trends in the
African American community. Beaumont
Mayor Becky Ames and Jackie Levingston,
mayor of Groesbeck, Texas and past pres-
ident of the Texas Association of Black
City Council Members, were present at
this session to welcome attendees.
The conference also featured plenary
sessions on the topics of redistricting and
voter suppression, financial literacy, com-
munications technology and municipal
finance.
Keynote speakers for the confer-
ence luncheons — “The Effectiveness
of Leadership,” “New Leadership for
Our Communities,” and “Empowering
Our Communities, Strengthening Our
Leaders” — included Jimmie James, vice
president and north operations manager
for ExxonMobil Pipeline Company; NLC
President Mitchell; and Kristal Lauren
High, editor in chief of Politic365.
“You know the importance of grass-
roots movements and that all politics,
and policy, is local,” said High while
addressing local officials during her key-
note remarks. “And to truly effect change,
you must begin at home, in your house,
in your neighborhood, in your county,
in your city, if you ever hope to effect
change anywhere else in the country.
There is a very simple truth about the
role you play in our national policy and
political calculus: You are the heartbeat
of America. You are the ones without

At the NBC-LEO Summer Conference, from left: NBC-LEO President Michael Johnson; NBC-LEO
Second Vice President Jacquelyn Johnson; NLC First Vice President Ted Ellis; Kristal Lauren High,
editor in chief of Politic365; Paula Hoisington, vice president of Net Communications; NBC-LEO
President-Elect Deborah Denard Delgado; and NBC-LEO Immediate Past President Audwin Samuel.
whom we cannot be the land of the free
and the home of the brave that our fore-
fathers envisioned in creating the great
social experiment called America,” she
concluded.
Both the graduating 2010–2011 class
of NBC-LEO Foundation Fellows — Ivy
Taylor, councilmember, San Antonio,
Texas, and David Howard, council mem-
ber, Charlotte, N.C. — and the new
2011–2012 class — Erica Gilmore, coun-
cilmember, Nashville, Tenn., and Trey
Chinn, councilmember, Laurel, Miss. —
were honored during the conference.
The conference also featured a com-
plimentary Leadership Training Institute
seminar, “Ethics and Integrity… For the
Other Guy,” which focused on helping
public leaders gain a better understanding
of universal moral and ethical principles
and how to incorporate them into one’s
leadership style.
Conference attendees had an opportu-
nity to participate in a mobile tour that
focused on showcasing the best that the
city of Beaumont has to offer. Sites visited
during the tour included City Hall, the
Civic Center, the Riverfront Park, the
Port of Beaumont and the ExxonMobil
Refinery.

Details: For information about NBC-
LEO membership opportunities and
activities at the upcoming NLC Congress
of Cities in Phoenix, contact NLC staff at
(202) 626-3169.
Inaugural NBC-LEO Foundation Fellows Graduate
by Rikka Batulan
The ceremony for the first gradu-
ates of the NBC-LEO Foundation
Fellows, David Howard, council mem-
ber, Charlotte, N.C., and Ivy R. Taylor,
councilmember, San Antonio, Texas,
took place August 11 during the National
Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials
(NBC-LEO) annual summer conference
in Beaumont, Texas, at a special honor-
ary luncheon.

NBC-LEO President Michael Johnson, far left, and Audwin Samuel, chair of the NBC-LEO Foundation,
far right, with the first NBC-LEO Foundation Fellows graduates, David Howard and Ivy R. Taylor.
Mitchell Jr.
Following this event, the outgoing
fellows addressed the NBC-LEO mem-
bership.
Howard said, “Being a part of the
inaugural national fellows program will
always be an extremely special part of
my first term as an elected official …
from the beginning, the members of
both NBC-LEO and the Foundation
embraced both me and Ivy as family.”
Taylor made special mention of Daisy
W. Lynum, commissioner, Orlando,
Fla., and immediate past chair of the
Foundation, describing desire to be like
Lynum, “a mover and a shaker,” when
she “grows up.” She went on to say that
Lynum truly believed in her and had rec-
ommended her to the Foundation Board
when the fellowship first launched.