City officials report on New Orleans meeting
Manager, commissioner attend sessions
By Joey Berlin
Friday, November 16, 2007
Emporia City Manager Matt Zimmerman and Commissioner Kevin Nelson have been going from session to session in New Orleans during the National League of Cities’ annual Congress of Cities and Exposition.
Reached by phone in New Orleans, Zimmerman said he and Nelson arrived Wednesday and attended a workshop on conflict resolution. On Thursday, they went to a workshop on the rental health inspection program in the city of Los Angeles, as well as the event’s opening general session, which featured Terry Tamminen, the former environmental advisor to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Tamminen’s address focused on climate change.
Zimmerman said there were certain steps in the area of climate change that could be examined, “but a lot of it had to do with what they’re seeing and what they’re trying to do in California, which is fine, but I’m not sure it’s all that applicable to Kansas. So it was less than helpful, I guess, to us here in Emporia, Kansas.”
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was scheduled as today’s keynote speaker.
Zimmerman said he and Nelson haven’t been able to see much of the city, so they haven’t seen any of the damage still remaining from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
“Honestly, I’ve been walking between the hotel and convention center, other than being in the French Quarter for dinner last night, and that was a cab ride there and back,” he said. “And the French Quarter was the least-hit out of all of New Orleans.”
The commissioners will return to Emporia after Saturday’s closing session. The commission will gather with the Human Relations Commission for a rental inspection housing meeting on Monday at 7 p.m.
Commissioners should name Emporia’s new police chief within a week, Zimmerman said.
“All candidates have been interviewed,” he said. “We’re really just going through the last checks right now, which I don’t anticipate any problems with at all.”