Nation's Mayors Join For Fall Leadership Meeting In OKC

The nation's mayors are sending a message to the next nation's next president -- whoever it is -- give us some help, or else.

The U.S. Conference Mayors, holding its fall leadership meeting here, made it clear that, if American cities don't get some help from Washington in addressing an already failing infrastructure, our cities will only fall further behind the rest of the world.

Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett, the organization's current president, told reporters gathered for a news conference that, as a whole, the nation's mayors work well together.

"We're a nonpartisan group," said Mayor Cornett, "we know how to work together to get things done, but we also know we can't do it alone."

Cornett and his colleagues say they were successful this year in lobbying Congress to pass a 5-year highway construction bill, and they are now intent on getting similar help with the infrastructure of their cities.

"Some of the civil engineers have rated America's infrastructure system as a D-plus," Cornett noted, "and none of us, as mayors of American cities, want to be helping to lead a city that has a D-plus infrastructure."

A second priority outlined by the 40 mayors who are part of the group's leadership is partnering with the White House on initiatives that will better protect the people who live and work there from violent crime and terrorism.

"Cities and police departments are, in fact, the tip of the spear now," said New Orleans Mayor Mitchell Landrieu, "providing security, justice and opportunity for all of our citizens. We feel it -- we're the ones on the ground all the time."

Another priority for the group is convincing Congress to protect the current tax exemption on municipal bonds, a key funding source for capital projects.

"This is not dessert, this is bread and butter," said Columbia, SC Mayor Stephen Benjamin, "and it's important to us that we reaffirm our commitment that investment in our cities is non-negotiable."

But the mayors spent the most time talking about infrastructure. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said there is perhaps no other issue that generates as much consensus across a group that is so diverse, politically and geographically, as the need for help repairing the bridges and fixing the roads.

"We're going to make the message very, very clear -- that it's time to address the hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure needs that this nation has," said de Blasio. "If we don't, this country falls behind, it's as simple as that."

The group was planning to meet later with representatives from both the Clinton and Trump campaigns, in order to get their thoughts on dealing with infrastructure issues.