Mayor has ‘conversation’ with Trump
President invites Nicholls to White House event
President Trump invited Yuma Mayor Doug Nicholls to take part in an exclusive White House event held Wednesday. The president invited Nicholls and another 99 mayors to attend the event, dubbed “A Conversation with the President,” at 1 p.m. local time.
From a reception in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Nicholls called the Yuma Sun Wednesday afternoon to share details of his trip to Washington, D.C.
He said the president spoke for about 10 to 15 minutes, then turned over the meeting to the assistant directors and supervisors of various departments.
Nicholls did not have the opportunity to talk personally with Trump this time, but the mayor previously spoke with the president during his August visit to Yuma, which Nicholls thinks contributed to the mayor receiving the invitation.
He received the invitation late last week with strict instructions not to bring anyone else. From what Nicholls heard, Trump’s administration picked mayors from the largest cities and then canvassed the rest of the country looking for communities that officials felt worked well with the federal government.
Only two other Arizona mayors, both from Maricopa County, attended the meeting.
It was a whirlwind trip
for the mayor. He flew out Tuesday night, attended the White House meetings on Wednesday and was scheduled to return home Thursday.
There was assigned seating during the “conversation” with Trump and Nicholls was invited to sit in the first two rows, which he believes is an indication of “how our community is well positioned and well thought of,” he said.
The mayor credits several factors for keeping Yuma in the president’s consciousness: the area’s military bases and the work that is done on them, the city’s proximity to the border, which is a “very important” issue to the president, and the president’s visit to Yuma last summer.
Nicholls said that Trump’s main message was that the White House recognizes that cities are where the “rubber hits the road” and government can be the most effective and responsive to citizens’ concerns and well-being.
He said Trump talked about fostering relationships with cities to “shorten the path of bureaucracy.”
After Trump’s commentary, the mayors had the chance to speak one-on-one with representatives from Transportation, Corps of Engineers and other federal departments. Nicholls said one of the topics he wanted to bring up included the city’s $12 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Redevelopment grant application to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
If successful, the TIGER grant would fund the rehabilitation of the historic Hotel Del Sol, located across Gila Street at the corner of 3rd Street, as a future multimodal transportation hub.
He also wanted to talk about other regional infrastructure projects as well as Trump’s potential administration infrastructure plan.
“There’s a lot on our federal agenda. This will take us to another level when it comes to accessibility. It’s a move in the right direction,” he said.
Nicholls’ other concerns included the designation of Yuma by the Environmental Protection Agency’s designation as an “ozone nonattainment area,” triggering new restrictions on chemical-emitting businesses wanting to open or expand in the area.
He also wanted to explore other opportunities with Housing and Urban Development now that the city has an established relationship with the agency.
He’s looking forward to building upon these discussions on his return home, Nicholls said.