Don’t Expect the Feds to Ride to the Rescue
John Kincaid, Director, Meyner Center at Lafayette College

The Fiscal Architecture: U.S. Cities and the Great Recession
MIchael A. Pagano, Dean of the College of Urban Planning & Public Affairs, University of Illinois at Chicago

Changing the Policy Debate to Help Cities Meet Their Financial Challenges
Chris Hoene, Director of the Center for Research & Innovation, National League of Cities

Continuing to Move Forward in the City of Camden
Dana Redd, Mayor of Camden

Meyner Matters 2011

The international conference, which focused on “Equality and Unity in Diversity for Development,” was addressed by the prime minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi, and other African leaders, including Paul Kagame, president of Rwanda, Omar al-Bashir, president of Sudan, and Olusegun Obasanjo, former president of Nigeria (1999-2007). More than 600 people participated, with representation from almost every African country.

“Allowing Sudan’s president to speak was very disturbing,” commented Kincaid. “On March 4, 2008, the International Criminal Court charged him with war crimes and crimes against humanity. However, many African leaders oppose this arrest warrant, and inviting al-Bashir to the conference was another diplomatic effort to try to help resolve Sudan’s humanitarian crisis and forestall an escalation of violence over the upcoming January 9 referendum on Southern Sudanese independence.”

“Ethiopia is a fascinating new federation of ‘nations, nationalities, and peoples,’” he added. “It has nine ethno-linguistically based states, two self-governing city administrations, 83 official languages, and one federal working language. The federal system was established in 1994 following the 1991 overthrow of the brutal Marxist-Leninist regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam.”

“Two of its really interesting federalism experiments are its constitutional provision giving the constituent states the right to secede from Ethiopia and its House of the Federation. This upper house of the federal parliament is not a senate, although its members are elected by the councils of the constituent states,” explained Kincaid. “Instead, this house resolves conflicts between constituent states; acts to preserve the rights of the country’s nations, nationalities, and peoples; recommends formulas for fiscal equalization and other federal-state revenue distributions; and, most interestingly, serves as the constitutional court of last resort.”

“If it works, Ethiopia’s federalism could be a model for the many African countries having comparable diversity,” said Kincaid, “but the true test of the model’s value will come only when opposition parties can win elections against the monopolistic Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front and the country can hold together when opposition parties control some of the states. A genuine federal democracy would be a huge achievement in Africa. The country farthest on this road is Nigeria.”

“Unfortunately, most national constitutions last less than 20 years,” he noted. “The workshop on Post-Conflict Constitutional Design, which included political representatives from Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Nepal, Sudan, and other countries, explored potential paths toward more viable constitutions as peace agreements and instruments for inclusive democracy and equity.”

“They were charged,” he wrote “with conspiring to defraud the federal government of its lawful governmental function of controlling the dissemination of classified documents, violating the Espionage Act (with the government contending no need to prove intent), and stealing U.S. property (the physical documents and arrangement of the words on their pages).”

“They were not indicted for releasing the Pentagon Papers to the press,” he continued. “Prosecution was limited to their procuring and photocopying the documents in 1969.”

“The contested legal issues underlying the unprecedented charges went unresolved by the federal courts because, at the eleventh hour, Judge William Matthew Byrne Jr. dismissed the case due to ‘improper government conduct’ (e.g., the ‘plumbers” rifling of Mr. Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office).”

Prof. Kincaid managed the legal defense of Ellsberg and Russo in the Pentagon Papers Trial (1972-73) and served as Vice President and Co-Treasurer of the Pentagon Papers Fund for the Defense of Human and Civil Liberties. “The Ellsberg-Russo prosecution posed grave threats to civil liberties and constitutional government,” he said, “and a prosecution of Assange will likely pose similar threats even though the Ellsberg-Russo leaks and the Wikileaks’ revelations are very dissimilar in content and behavior.

Source: The Express-Times

On June 17, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter gave the keynote address at the Robert B. and Helen S. Meyner Center’s Seventh Annual Forum on Local Government. More than 100 municipal officials and members of the Lafayette community attended the forum.

Since being elected in November 2008, Mayor Nutter has led America’s sixth largest city during one of the most trying economic times in recent history. He has sought to find innovative and cost-effective ways to grow the Philadelphia-area economy in a sustainable manner, improve public safety, and invest in education and workforce development. During his 40-minute presentation, Mayor Nutter described the challenges facing his city and many of the steps his administration has taken to provide public services in a time of austerity. Facing declining revenues and rising expenditures, Philadelphia has had to implement personnel layoffs, service cuts, and tax increases in order to balance its budget. “These are just the things you have to deal with,” said Nutter, “I didn’t create the national economic recession. I can’t get out of the national economic recession.  But I can .  .  .  move the city into the future.”

The forum, which focused on “Municipal Innovation and Sustainability,” also featured discussions of the green design components of the public works building to be constructed in neighboring Forks Township, the feasibility of erecting revenue-producing cell-phone towers on municipally owned land, implementing cost-effective approaches to energy conservation, and innovative, cost-saving measures taken by Upper Merion Township.

Part one of his presentation is below, and the remaining clips can be seen on the Meyner Center’s YouTube Channel.

He also spoke on the “U.S. Senate as a Guarantor of Territorial Pluralism” at an international seminar on “Guarantees of Territorial Pluralism” held at the Center for Political and Constitutional Studies in Madrid, Spain, on June 14-15. The seminar was co-sponsored by the Forum of Federations and the Manuel Giménez Abad foundation.

Prof. Kincaid spoke, as well, on “Health Care Reform and the States in the United States” at a forum on June 18 on “Decentralization of Health Care in Federations: Recent Trends and Lessons from Spain.” The forum was co-sponsored by the Cortes de Aragon and held at the Palacio de la Aljaferia in Zaragoza, Spain.