Meet the mayor, and the mayor, and the mayor…

September 18, 2008 - 9:37 AM by David

I didn’t see any gavels calling city council members to order, but there were sure a lot of mayors from around the world in Jerusalem this week. Over 50 of them, to be more exact.

They were here for the week-long 26th Jerusalem Conference of Mayors, sponsored by Jerusalem Municipality and the American Jewish Congress.
And it was an international bunch, including the top dogs from places like Albuquerque, Antwerp, Addis Ababa, Turin, Wroclaw, Manchester, Entebbe, and Suva in the Fiji Islands.

According to Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski, the gathering is a “unique opportunity to reflect on the pressing issues that concern all mayors every day, everywhere.”

In addition to hob nobbing with each other and talking shop (“your pay your garbage collectors that much?”), the mayors also received a dose of Israeli politics with meetings in the Foreign Ministry and with other political leaders. But when I caught up with them, they were taking part in a tried and true international political tradition – downing pitchers of beer at an Irish pub in downtown Jerusalem.

Through a hometown connection, I stopped by to visit the mayor of Augusta, Maine, Roger Katz, and catch up on the old country. Sitting at a sidewalk table on a bustling after midnight side street, I squeezed in between Roger, and the mayors of Tuscon, Arizona, and Nashville, Tennessee. Unfathomably, I had the sudden urge to pay all my overdue parking tickets.

But the mayors had let their proverbial hair down, and city coffer were the last thing on their minds. We talked Tom Brady, the Grand Canyon, Tzipi Livni and Manchester United, and helped close the pub.

The next morning, the mayors were finally going to get out of Jerusalem on their last day in the country for a trip to Masada and the Dead Sea, where they’ll continue to learn the tricks of staying afloat in a volatile political world.

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