Making Waves Newsletter July 2023

A Letter From Our New Chair

Dear Members:

First let me say, it is an honour to serve as your Chair this year. This is an incredible organization that is working to represent 250 cities to further the environmental and socioeconomic integrity of our basin.

I want to thank my friend, Mayor Billy McKinney, for his leadership over the last 12 months. Billy guided us through tremendous growth, both in our membership and our policy successes. I know that Billy will continue to work with the organization to promote the issues we are all so passionate about. 

I would like to give everyone an update on our latest Annual General Meeting (AGM). Over 160 people attended our 20th Anniversary AGM in Chicago this past June. Every attendee left the two-day meeting with new insights to advance climate action plans in their cities. We learned from world-renowned experts, and from each other, on how to take action to control carbon emissions and mitigate the impacts of climate change. 

We heard from both Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago and Mayor Cavalier Johnson of Milwaukee about their efforts to battle climate change in their communities. We were also honored to host Governor J.B. Pritzker of Illinois to share his vision for robust climate action.

The topic of climate change is the number one issue our planet faces. The planet’s temperature in July was the hottest ever recorded. Experts are saying that these temperatures are the warmest seen in 120,000 years. Forest fires, torrential rains and other natural disasters are becoming more frequent as our climate changes. Our communities are ground zero for climate change planning and we must step forward now if we are to protect our planet.

The issue of water equity was also at the forefront of our meeting. We announced the creation of The Mayor Richard M. Daley Water Equity Community Award. Mayor Daley himself joined us for the program as we presented six communities with this annual award.  

The following communities received an award that will help them take on the challenges of water equity: Benton Harbor, MI; Dunkirk, NY; East Chicago, IN; Mount Vernon, NY; Richmond Heights, OH and Kahnawà:ke, QC. The communities of Lansing, MI and Muskegon, MI were also provided free memberships for 2024.  We look forward to each of these mayors working with our Mayors Commission Water Equity to ensure that every resident of the basin has access to clean, safe and affordable water.

Several local elected officials became new members of our Board of Directors this year, including: Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago, IL; Mayor Bill Bazzi of Dearborn Heights, MI; Reeve Bert Liverance of The Archipelago, ON; and Grand Chief Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer of Kahnawà:ke, QC. Grand Chief Sky-Deer is the first representative of a First Nations community to serve on our board and we look forward to her assistance in reaching out to other nations and learning her perspectives on the challenges First Nations experience within the basin.

This year’s meeting was incredible, and we look forward to hosting the 2024 conference in Montreal, Québec. Stay tuned for an announcement of the dates and theme of this upcoming conference.

As I like to tell my friends and colleagues, Chaque jour est un chemin nouveau. Each new day brings new opportunities. Let me close by saying I look forward to working with each of you to guide our organization to new opportunities and more successes in the coming year. With your help, we can achieve great things for our communities and this globally important basin. 

Please remember that I am just a phone call away if you would wish to speak with me about our efforts.

Merci beaucoup. Thank you. 

Gino Moretti

Chair of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative

Maire, Municipalité de Saint-Anicet

Member Meeting

On June 7, Cities Initiative members gathered for the Member Meeting portion of the Annual General Meeting to appoint the organization’s auditor, amend bylaws, submit resolutions and elect the new Board of Directors and Executive.

Coinciding with the Cities Initiative’s 20th anniversary, the organization received a record number of resolution submissions – 14 in total, ranging from banning non-essential PFAS to taking action to fight and prepare for climate change. You can find the full list of adopted resolutions here.

Members also adopted two new bylaws – one expanding the Board of Directors to up to eighteen positions, with the new seats reserved for Indigenous representation in both Canada and the United States. This provided the opportunity for Cities Initiative members to elect Grand Chief Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer of Kahnawà:ke (located on the South Shore of Montreal), the first representative of an Indigenous community elected to our Board. Another bylaw ensures that the Cities Initiative remains an organization created by mayors for mayors by ensuring that at least 50 percent of the Board positions are filled by member mayors (or equivalent highest elected representative). You can get to know your 2023-24 Board of Directors by visiting our website here.

Members also voted in favour of holding our next Annual General Meeting and Conference in Montreal, Québec in 2024. Stay tuned for the conference dates and further details!

AGM Speakers

The Cities Initiative was delighted to host as featured speakers several VIPs from federal, state, provincial and municipal government, partners in non-profit organizations and corporate sponsors at our Annual General Meeting in Chicago.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker delivered remarks on Illinois’ efforts to address the climate crisis and the necessity of close collaboration across all levels of government in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and develop a clean energy workforce.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Debra Shore, Regional Administrator for Region 5 of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, (EPA) discussed climate action in the context of the implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act, emphasizing the opportunity the historic federal investment affords to advance goals such as environmental justice and inclusive economic development.

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, St. Catharines Mayor Mat Siscoe and Sarah O’Keeffe, Cleveland’s Director of Sustainability and Climate Justice, showcased their city’s respective climate action plans and shared unique insights for crafting effective, equitable plans that generate broadly shared benefits for all residents.

Other featured speakers included:

• Administrator Adam Tindall-Schlicht, Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Development Corporation, U.S. Department of Transportation
• Brigadier General Kimberly Peeples, Commander of the Great Lakes and Ohio River Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• Jeffery Clark, Director General, National Adaptation Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada
• Earl Provost, Ontario Agent-General, Chicago, Government of Ontario
• David Goldwater, Vice President, Public Policy, Stantec

A full list of featured speakers and moderators is available here.

AGM Workshops

The Cities Initiative partnered with ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability – to deliver a series of hands-on workshops on climate action, which were a huge success. Over the two-day conference, we hosted four workshops, all building upon one another to help our mayors move ahead on climate action. The workshops were a productive space for building new collaborations among cities and between cities and partners; dedicating time to truly dive in deep on both climate change preparedness and emissions reduction strategies; and begin to identify what to act on next, who to partner with, and how to maintain forward momentum. A quick synopsis of each workshop is included below for those who were not able to join.

Workshop 1: Climate Challenges and Innovations

As an introductory exercise, participants interviewed each other one-on-one to learn about and reflect on challenges, opportunities, priorities and partnerships related to climate in their communities.

Workshop 2: Advancing Climate Action in Your City

Working in roundtables, participants joined in a World Café style session discussing various issues related to advancing either mitigation or adaptation action locally. Key discussion themes included vulnerability, climate science and local impacts.

Workshop 3: Practical Strategies for Climate Action Success

So participants could begin applying some of the tools and concepts introduced, ICLEI developed a series of scenarios geared towards cities of varying stages of climate planning and specific challenges experienced.

Workshop 4: Measuring Success and Maintaining Momentum

In our closing workshop, ICLEI led the group through an indicator development exercise, where participants began assessing the types of data they have and data they still need as well as the utility of common indicators for climate challenges.

Welcome to our new members from Ontario and Québec

New Team Member - Zoë Goodrow – Coastal Programs Manager

As the Cities Initiative’s on-the-ground support programs expand, we are excited to announce that our program team is growing. Zoë Goodrow joined the Cities Initiative as our Coastal Programs Manager in May. Zoë will be working closely with communities in the United States through two of our coastal municipal support programs, including the Resilient Coastal Projects Initiative.

Zoë’s environmental work is deeply rooted in her love of the Great Lakes. Raised in West Michigan, she now resides in Madison, Wisconsin. She comes to the Cities Initiative from Clean Wisconsin, bringing a strong background in environmental science, research, outreach and advocacy. 

She has managed a diverse portfolio of projects and built several research and outreach programs from the ground up. Her most recent project was the development of the Green Infrastructure Toolkit for Wisconsin Municipalities – a resource that supports communities in taking advantage of funding and policy opportunities for initiatives that promote climate, coastal, and community resiliency. 

Zoë looks forward to expanding her work in Wisconsin to communities across the Great Lakes Region. Welcome, Zoë!

• September 21: Webinar - Environmental Finance Centers: Accessing Technical Assistance for Water-Infrastructure Projects (U.S. Members Only)
• September 21: Webinar - Leaders for Sustainable Change: 2023 Wege Project Winners (Canadian Members Only)
• October 19: Webinar - PFAS, Drinking Water, and Municipalities: The Evolving Policy Landscape in Canada and the United States