Accelerator celebrates San Antonio meeting and a big 2024

Dear Friends, Colleagues, and Partners:

I am eager to report on last week’s incredible Advisory Council meeting in San Antonio, but first, as we close out 2024, I want to share some BIG headlines with you. Accelerator for America will enter 2025 having supported 166 localities since our founding! Accelerator for America Action, which provided support this year to successful ballot initiatives in Phoenix, Nashville, and Columbus, has now helped approve $75 billion in local infrastructure funding. Our work this year also includes building the Funding Pathfinder through the Local Infrastructure Hub, launching the National Housing Crisis Task Force and its Federal Policy Agenda, and releasing analysis and tools on topics ranging from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to our nation’s insurance crisis. You can check out our workstreams in Economic and Community Development, Workforce Development, and Transit and Infrastructure on our brand-new website!

Our mayors and other local leaders are working hard to create greater economic mobility in communities across the country, and we are proud to collaborate with all of you to deliver solutions, connections, and resources that drive local impact!  

REMEMBER THE ACCELERATOR!

We close 2024 reminded of how Accelerator for America began. AFA was launched exactly one year after the 2016 election, and last week’s gathering in the Ruby City reinforced that our organization was created to bring local leaders together to make progress within any federal context. And that’s exactly what we’ll continue to do.

Our Advisory Council’s tour of the renowned headquarters and training facility of the 5-time NBA champion San Antonio Spurs was truly a slam dunk – let me say that our host mayor, Ron Nirenberg, really brought his A-game!

On the gym walls, huge black letters spell out, “Pound the Rock.” The Spurs’ team president and head coach Greg Popovich (the winningest coach in NBA history) adopted that phrase as the team’s mantra, and it stems from a Jacob Riis quote:

“When nothing seems to help, I go look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”

The point is to emphasize the team, not the individual – to reinforce that victory does not come from one play or one player, but is the culmination of all of the hard work, collaboration and inspiration that leads up to that winning moment.

It’s a lesson for all of us and a reflection of AFA’s collaborative model that brings together leaders from local government, business, labor, philanthropy, nonprofits and academia, and all levels of government to collectively solve pressing local problems.

MAYORAL PERSPECTIVES

Mayors Quentin Hart of Waterloo, IA, Kate Gallego of Phoenix, AZ, Quinton Lucas of Kansas City, MO, Ron Nirenberg of San Antonio, TX and Freddie O’Connell of Nashville, TN shared their perspectives from the stage at the outset of our meeting. The national election was a main focus of discussion, but, as exemplified by the lessons Mayor Gallego shared from her city’s successful Prop 479 and that Mayor O’Connell shared from his successful November Choose How You Move ballot initiative, local leadership and investment is essential to people’s everyday lives no matter what policies are being made in Washington.

At the same time, it is imperative that local leaders engage with federal policymakers and share with them real-life successes driven by federal investments. At the end of the day, the rubber hits the road in our neighborhoods and communities, and we all have more opportunities to thrive when we come together. Local leaders must lean into “common ground” issues with Washington counterparts – for example, the need to build more housing that is attainable for more residents, restore American manufacturing and create high-quality jobs, and invest in place-based innovations that enhance both the security of our country and the economic security of our people.

Other mayors who attended and shared insights from their communities included Paige Cognetti of Scranton, PA; Tim Kelly of Chattanooga, TN; Andy Schor of Lansing, MI; Corey Woods of Tempe, AZ; Philip Jones of Newport News, VA; Rex Richardson of Long Beach, CA; Matt Tuerk of Allentown, PA and Yasmine-Imani McMorrin of Culver City, CA. They were joined by their local government colleagues, City Clerk Anna Valencia of Chicago, IL; Commissioner Eileen Higgins of Miami-Dade County, FL; Controller Chris Hollins of Houston, TX; Chairman Michael Kelly of Johnson County, KS; and Commissioner Jeff Travillion of Travis County, TX.

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP & TOOLS

• Infrastructure development has, is, and will be foundational to all the work we do at AFA. Through federal scarcity and federal largesse, AFA’s network of innovative public and private sector leaders have collaborated to keep projects moving and people working. One of our first panel conversations featured Mayor Freddie O’Connell of Nashville, alongside Maurice Henderson Jr., Vice President of Corporate Development at HNTB; Jannet Walker-Ford, Business Line Executive for Advisory and Planning at WSP; and David Gilford, Head of Policy and Strategic Partnerships at SIP, to discuss how local governments can stay the course and continue advancing their infrastructure efforts through the federal transition and beyond.
   
• After welcoming remarks from Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su, and the CEO of USAA, Wayne Peacock, panelists Wendy Chun-Hoon, Director of the U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau; Jon Gary Herrera, CEO of VIA Metropolitan Transit; Allie Perez the Founder of Texas Women in Trades; and Mike Ramsey, Executive Director of San Antonio’s Ready to Work, discussed local efforts to create more equitable access to good jobs. San Antonio’s Ready to Work program is uniquely funded by a ⅛ cent sales tax approved by the voters in 2020.  Since then, more than 9,700 residents have enrolled in training through the program, with more than 1,600 people completing their training and securing good-paying jobs. Mayor Nirenberg also led a press conference that highlighted AFA’s partnership with Ready to Work and a signing ceremony with the Mayor and Chun-Hoon memorializing San Antonio’s Good Jobs Principles.

• Bruce Katz, AFA’s longtime thought partner and head of the Nowak Metro Finance Lab, shared his insights on the nation’s housing crisis and the work of the National Housing Crisis Task Force, which released its Federal Housing Policy Agenda on the eve of the election. The Task Force is co-chaired by Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah; Mayor Justin Bibb of Cleveland, OH; Mayor Andre Dickens of Atlanta, GA; and Susan Thomas, President of the Fifth Third Community Development Corporation. As a bi-partisan group, the Task Force is actively engaging with leaders in the new Administration and Congress to advance these recommendations. True to AFA’s “Do Tank” moniker, we are leading the Mayors’ Implementation Committee of the Task Force, and in 2025, the Task Force will release a State and Local Housing Action Plan with replicable policies and activities for our local leaders.
   
• Laurel Blatchford, Chief Implementation Office for the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the U.S. Treasury, and Ryan Whalen, Special Advisor to the President at White House Intergovernmental Affairs, shared how cities can use Elective Pay and other components of the IRA to both advance climate action strategies and create wealth building opportunities for their residents. This week, Treasury released A Framework for Providing Technical Assistance and Capacity Building to State and Local Governments for the Use of Elective Pay, which describes current technical assistance programs, highlights opportunities for coordination, and outlines actionable next steps to strengthen support for state and local governments.  
   
• Emily Brock, Director of the Government Finance Officers’ Association’s Federal Liaison Center, shared the potential threats to tax-free municipal bonds and encouraged mayors to use BuiltByBonds.com to share stories of what they have been able to achieve using bond financing – and to underscore her message that these bonds, which save municipalities about 2 percent on interest payments, resulting in a savings of $800 billion over 10 years. Instead of a “cost,” that is a 266% return on investment for America!
   
• Michael Roth, Co-CEO of Next Street, and Olivia Travieso, Partner & Co-Founder of the OCI Group, used the Supply SA initiative as an example of how a better approach to local government procurement can benefit community-wide economic development. Supply SA brings together the City of San Antonio with 13 other public-sector entities to streamline procurement to help more tax dollars be reinvested in the community through contracting with local small businesses.
   
• Caitlin Lewis, Executive Director, Work For America, shared her work to help localities fill their critical staffing needs and the launch of Civic Match, a new portal to match departing federal employees and campaign staffers with local government jobs. She was followed by Joda Thongnopnua, a Special Advisor with the National Science Foundation, who invited local leaders to take advantage of up to $160 million in funding per locality through the NSF Regional Innovation Engines program.
   
• Our city bus tour, narrated by Mayor Nirenberg and former San Antonio Mayor, former HUD Secretary and AFA Advisory Council member Henry Cisneros, focused on the Port of San Antonio and the city’s west side. We learned much about the city’s history with the military, how base closures led to economic evolution, and how city leaders continue to invest in and support the neighborhood’s residents. We also saw sites along the proposed silver line bus rapid transit corridor and visited with local community leaders over pan dulce.

We end 2024 with gratitude for the opportunity to convene our Advisory Council members and partners in San Antonio for great company and food, a boat ride down the riverwalk, and, most importantly, to engage with each other on the most pressing challenges and promising solutions for America’s local communities. We are ready for 2025 and beyond.

Thank you for all that you do.

Mary Ellen Wiederwohl
President and CEO
Accelerator for America