By Kate Moran
Staff writer

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To find the most exciting public policy innovations of the moment, look beyond the partisan gridlock of Washington to the cities and towns that are experimenting with ways to promote clean energy, preserve the water supply and curb violent crime, the president of the National League of Cities said Thursday.

President Bart Peterson, the mayor of Indianapolis, opened the National League of Cities conference in New Orleans by saying local governments emerged as the nation's pre-eminent policy incubators starting in the 1990s: the era when a standoff between President Clinton and a Republican Congress resulted in a government shutdown.

"The epicenter of creativity and leadership has shifted out of Washington," Peterson said.

More than 3,500 mayors, city managers and council members from around the country arrived in New Orleans this week to swap ideas about common interests, from highway congestion to aging public infrastructure to the recent slump in the housing market.

Through a series of neighborhood workshops and bus tours, they also tried to soak up lessons from New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and other city leaders on how to plan for and recover from disasters.

"If there is any group that has institutional empathy, it is those of us who lead cities across the country" that are prone to disasters such as wildfires, earthquakes and tornadoes, Peterson said.

Lessons from Katrina

The National League of Cities booked its convention in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina, and it was one of the first to affirm its conference plans when the tourist industry was still off-kilter from the storm.

Though host cities generally underwrite the convention by providing convention space, free buses or other perquisites, the National League of Cities and several corporate sponsors took care of the bill this year.

Peterson said the conference participants, many with spouses in tow, would spend about $15 million in the city by the time the conference ends Saturday -- "at no cost to New Orleans because of the special arrangement that was made."

Nagin said the conference "had the opportunity to cancel, as other conferences were canceling, but they decided to hold true and honor their word and come to the city of New Orleans."

Nagin said at a morning news conference that he wanted to help other mayors prepare for disaster by conveying how slow the federal government can be to reimburse cities for the repairs they have to make after a catastrophe.

"If you do not have quick access to cash to make things happen, you're going to struggle like we're struggling," he said.

Aaron Day, a legislative liaison for the city of Fort Worth, Texas, said he sympathized with those efforts to wring reimbursements out of the federal government. Fort Worth took in thousands of evacuees after Katrina, but the city still has not recouped all the money it spent providing food, shelter and other provisions.

Improving infrastructure

Fort Worth Councilman Jungus Jordan said he came to the conference with a special interest in how to improve conditions on the highways in his area. As his metro area has grown, traffic congestion has worn down the roads and diminished air quality.

Though Fort Worth is exploring commuter rail, he said the federal government also needs to re-evaluate the vehicle it uses to bankroll highway improvements -- a gasoline tax -- as cities such as his try to promote the use of hybrid cars, which consume less gas per mile than traditional cars.

At an afternoon workshop, a legislative director with the National Governors Association also raised concerns that the federal gasoline tax, which has not been raised since 1993, could not keep pace with the need for road and highway improvements.

Joanna Liberman Turner said the federal government had burned through the highway trust fund, which now has a deficit of about $3.8 billion. She said state governments have had to borrow money to keep up with highway projects, forcing "future generations" to pay for road improvements that serve consumers now.

Visiting leaders were attuned to the disasters that can erupt when government fails to maintain its infrastructure: not only roads and highways but also the levees that failed in New Orleans and the interstate highway bridge that collapsed this past summer in Minnesota.

'The nation's issues'

Los Angeles Councilwoman Wendy Greuel said thousands of California residents went without power during the summer months, partly because utility rates had not been raised for several years to keep up with infrastructure demands.

She warned that voters often clamor for government investment after disasters but typically do not support tax increases to back them up. She said a fire chief in California wanted to buy helicopters to abet wildfire rescues several years ago, but taxpayers blocked his efforts: a decision they might have regretted during this year's fires in San Diego.

Cynthia McCollum, the first vice president of the National League of Cities, said the organization would try to present a united front to encourage the federal government to invest in public infrastructure. She said member cities also would encourage federal leaders to explore the threat that rising sea levels pose to coastal cities.

"Our issues are the nation's issues," McCollum said.

The conference continues today with appearances from high-profile speakers such as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former chairmen of the Republican and Democratic national committees. Donald Powell, the president's Gulf Coast recovery czar, will speak Saturday.

Kate Moran can be reached at kmoran@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3491.