in the ranks of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Here’s what that means.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) is the official non-partisan organization of cities with a population of 30,000 or more – made up of a total of 1,408 cities across the country today. Each city is represented in the Conference by its chief elected official, the mayor – and the President of the USCM just so happens to be Mayor of Columbia, Steve Benjamin.

Elected in May, Mayor Benjamin became the 76th president of the organization – and the second South Carolinian to ever hold the position. (Joseph P. Riley, Jr. of Charleston was the 44th president, 1986-1987.)

Mayor B.’s position in the USCM makes him one of the most high-profile local politicians in the nation. We’ll tell you why – and what their leadership team is meeting about this week in Columbia (plus how you can get involved).

Mayor Benjamin + L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti at the Accelerator for America Advisory Council meeting in Columbia in February | Photo by: @colatoday

What does the USCM do?

✔ Promote city development, especially in urban areas

✔ Strengthen the city’s relationship with the federal government

✔ Ensure federal governed policies meet the needs of cities

✔ Give all mayors the tools they need to effectively lead their cities

✔ Provide a space where all mayors can share ideas + best practices with each other

Cities and metropolitan economies represent ~85% of America’s population – meaning we’re in an era where cities are really important. Because of this USCM leadership, the federal government has taken a step back, giving cities (represented by mayors) the power to make their own decisions; to say “here’s what we want to do and here’s how we want to do it.” Their overall goal is to bring meaningful change to the nation.

What does Mayor Benjamin do as the President?

As President, Mayor B. leads all official meetings of the organization and helps develop + promote their national agenda – of which their opinions and ideas are regularly communicated to the U.S. president as well as international groups (like the U.N.) and national lawmakers. Nearly every week, he’s in meetings with big-city mayors, national policy making groups + notable CEOs.

During his term – which succeeded New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, and ends June 29, 2019 (lasting slightly longer than the typical term length) – he plans to focus on the “three I’s:” Infrastructure, Innovation + Inclusion. (See his full keynote speech during his inauguration ceremony here, and read more about one of the first things on his agenda as President of the USCM: visiting the U.S.-Mexico border at the height of immigrant family separation in June.)

A couple of topics at the top of the agenda for USCM this year:

💡 Smart Cities – Cohesively using resources, talent + infrastructure to make smarter decisions about a city’s [realistic] future. Ex: Utilizing unused parts of a city, like developing the BullSteet District.

🌎 Environment – A recent survey by the USCM found that 69% of cities produce or purchase renewable electricity to power city buildings or operations + 63% already buy green vehicles for their municipal fleets (ultimately meaning cities across the nation are showing bipartisan leadership in encouraging renewable electricity, low-carbon transportation + energy efficiency). These cities play a huge role in managing all the aspects of climate change – with a group of their leaders (including Mayor B.) being part of the “We’re Still In” movement, where they intend on keeping their city’s emissions under the limit that’ll reportedly cause a 2º climate change, despite President Trump pulling the U.S. out of the Paris climate deal last year. Mayor B. just spoke on this at the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco earlier this month.

💼 Public/private partnership – Coordinating efforts between civic and public entities + private companies to problem-solve and create greater impact for a city. A local example of this, in the very early stages, is a developing partnership between City of Columbia + UofSC, where local businesses + nonprofits (anyone from Nephron Pharmaceuticals to United Way of the Midlands) propose a problem that they have, and UofSC classes work on the issue like a class project to come up with a solution. The goal would be to ultimately have 20-25 projects per semester in-the-works at all of the Midlands’ colleges. The City says it could be a win-win dynamic: The businesses benefit via new solutions, the students learn with a real-world model, employers get to see budding talent at work, students are exposed to potential employers + more of Columbia – potentially resulting in more talent retention post-graduation.

What does this mean for Columbia?

Most importantly, being Columbia’s mayor is still his #1 priority. But Mayor B. is now in a unique position to bring national + international attention to Columbia (and S.C.).

His role gives him access to things a mayor of a mid-sized city would never have access to, like talking to the Global Parliament of Mayors (a group mayors from all around the world) or presenting at the United Nations’ 2018 COP24 (a worldwide discussion on climate change) in Poland at the end of the year.

During his swear-in ceremony, so many big business people were in Columbia (like the President of Nationwide) – people and companies that have never visited here before. He has the opportunity to showcase our city (which is sometimes forgotten about between Charleston and Greenville) and truly get it on a national stage. He can help bring large investors to Columbia – ones looking for business opportunities on a large scale (Think: similar to the recent investment/expansion by $14-billion co. Capgemini at BullStreet, in which they’ll bring 200+ new tech jobs to Cola.)

Why is USCM in Columbia this week?

Yep – you heard that right. This Thursday-Saturday, September 27-29, Mayor B. is hosting the 2018 USCM Leadership Meeting in Columbia – welcoming mayors from 50+ cities across the U.S. – to discuss new policies they want to implement, with a focus on Smart Cities + the environment, like we mentioned earlier.

And, in total Columbia style, the whole thing ends in a party. The City is hosting a public block party on the 1600 block of Main St. for local citizens to meet and greet Mayor Benjamin + the visiting mayors – ft. live music from The Reggie Sullivan Band, FatRat Da Czar, Soda City Brass Band + 76 and Sunny. RSVP.

I’m exhausted just knowing about Mayor B.’s day-to-day schedule – learning more about not only what he does for our city, but what he does for our country as a whole, too. And I’m proud to have someone as ambitious as him be a leader [and another cheerleader] for Columbia.

See y’all at the block party later this week,

–Sam