Nickels, mayors accept White House invitation, but not this month

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Officials from the U.S. Conference of Mayors said Monday they plan to accept a White House invitation to meet on economic issues facing their cities.

But the conference's newly sworn-in president, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, says the mayors won't be able to make the administration's proposed date of June 29 because they want to develop a substantive agenda that reflected the conference's national meeting in Providence. He wouldn't say when they might be able to go.

Among the topics on the agenda were federal stimulus aid, gun control and the 2010 census.

"It'll take a little longer than two weeks to put together. This took six months to put together," Nickels said.

Vice President Joseph Biden and other officials skipped this year's U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting to avoid crossing a Providence firefighter picket line, although the White House has said the Obama administration isn't taking a position on the labor dispute.

Providence firefighters held an informational picket outside the city's convention center during the meeting, protesting a yearslong contract dispute with Mayor David Cicilline.

Nickels was sworn in as the conference's 67th president. He now serves as the organization's spokesman and will set its agenda.

"During the 1930s, FDR created the New Deal to get this country through tough times," Nickels said during his speech to other mayors. "Today, facing this great recession, I submit that we must forge with the federal government a New Deal with America's cities. This nation is a network of cities, each with its own promise and potential."