When Danville Mayor Karen Stepper traveled to Washington, D.C., last week to attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors and meet with others in the nation’s Capitol, she did not just represent the 45,000 people of Danville. She and the four other mayors of the Tri-Valley went as a team, representing their combined constituency of 250,000. Joining this local mayors group is part of Mayor Stepper’s new pledge to be inclusive of surrounding communities, both reaching out to them and drawing them in to Danville.
The Tri-Valley mayors also included San Ramon Mayor H. Abram Wilson; Dublin Mayor Janet Lockhart; Pleasanton Mayor Jennifer Hosterman; and Livermore Mayor Marshall Kamena. Since the city of Livermore has a paid lobbyist in Washington, D.C., she was able to help set up interviews for the mayors with our representatives’ staffs in Washington. Together the five Tri-Valley mayors communicated their common problems, with the clout of a quarter of a million constituents.
As the five mayors attended workshops and meetings at the conference, they carried more weight together as they gathered information and made contacts that can help their cities deal with their common problems, notably transportation on the clogged highways during commute hours. They also presented themselves as a unit for disaster preparedness since any preparations include the question: Can neighbors join together to help each other? They also noted that the entire area has special vulnerabilities due to the Livermore National Laboratory with its mission of developing and safeguarding nuclear weapons; Camp Parks in Dublin, with its military training; and SBC communications headquarters in Bishop Ranch in San Ramon.
We applaud Mayor Stepper for reaching beyond Danville’s borders, not just in attending the conference but in joining with the other Tri-Valley mayors for greater recognition. It is important for economic reasons to bring others to town, but it is also important to join with our neighbors to make our needs known in Washington.
