Workman to Represent City in DC

City Manager Bill Workman will represent Redondo Beach at the 80th Winter Meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C. from Wednesday through Friday.

Workman was scheduled to fly back east Wednesday after Tuesday night's City Council meeting. He is going instead of Mayor Mike Gin, who is unable to attend because of work obligations.

The meeting is expected to include the release of a new report on the economic health of cities and a meeting with President Barack Obama.

More than 250 mayors, including Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and at least 16 other mayors from Los Angeles and Orange counties, were expected to attend.

Villaraigosa became president of the Conference of Mayors in June.

The mayors are expected to urge Obama and Congress to act on a transportation spending bill that has been stalled in committees. They also plan to point out the absence of cities' needs as an issue in the Republican presidential primary campaign.

The conference began Tuesday with remarks by Secretary of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, a former San Gabriel Valley congresswoman, and continues through Friday, when Obama senior advisor David Plouffe and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a former Obama administration White House chief of staff, are scheduled to speak.

The mayors will meet with Obama cabinet secretaries and members of Congress throughout the week.

The centerpiece of the conference will be Wednesday's release of the group's State of America's Cities report, which will include 2012 employment forecasts for the nation's metropolitan areas.

City News Service contributed to this report.