2 NATION’S CITIES WEEKLY
November 21, 2011

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

The following is an excerpt of 2012 NLC President Ted Ellis’ acceptance speech during the Annual Business Meeting at the Congress of Cities and Exposition in Phoenix. Ellis is mayor of Bluffton, Ind.

These are interesting times, aren’t they? Times when history is bending. Nowhere is this more evident than in our cities, towns and villages.

One summer day in 1891, Mayor Martin Walbert boarded a train car and set out on what would be the better part of a day’s journey out of town.

History was bending then, too.

As Martin left the city, he must have wondered what the future would hold for his community.

Abroad, the European economy was weak and already in a recession. The U.S. was less than two years from its deepest-ever depression.

At home, the public was clamoring for an end to the open ditch carrying human and animal waste along the south side of his city and into a major river. They demanded that new streets be constructed to replace the muddy ones, but their demands exceeded their ability to finance the repairs.

The citizenry was still restless over the immigrants – the Germans – who did not speak the language and yet, they said, took jobs away from the locals. And the Irish – who had their own brand of English – were reputed to drink, avoid work and take advantage of law-abiding citizens.

Then there was the crime problem.

In those days when communication was slow at best, horse thieves and swindlers found it easy to slither into the city, commit their criminal acts, and blow town. Maybe there was a shyster or two on this very train with the mayor.

In a rare quiet moment as the train tracks clacked beneath him, it is not difficult to know what Martin was feeling because we have all been in the same place: seemingly insurmountable problems; not enough money to fix them; and constituents demanding more than they are willing to pay for.

No doubt he sometimes questioned why he ran for office to begin with.

It was the need to share information with other mayors from other cities that took Martin out of town that day. Ten other mayors would join him in this first such meeting of mayors in the U.S. — the very first recorded state league meeting.

Elsewhere in the United States, officials were seeking one another out for similar reasons. Soon, other state leagues began forming. In the 1920s, his state league joined others to form a “league of state leagues” – which eventually became the National League of Cities.

Bluffton, Indiana Mayor Martin Walbert could not have known how his train trip that day would take him to the genesis of an organization that would one day affect millions of Americans living in cities.

He could not have known that 120 years later, we would still be dealing with environmental, transportation, immigration and funding issues at the local level.

He did know, however, that his and other communities faced problems and opportunities that transcended city or state boundaries; and that sharing ideas and information was the best strategy for dealing with those issues.

They also knew that by speaking with one loud voice they could make things happen. (One of their first big lobbying successes was obtaining free use of the newfangled telephone service for police and city business, including league business.)

No doubt there was reluctance from his community to consider new approaches to persistent problems; but, for Martin Walbert, it was the difference between solution and stagnation.

Such is our challenge today. The world has changed significantly in the last 30 - 10 - even five years. And the very way we think about things is changing.