Federal Lobbying

I haven't posted in two weeks so now I'll catch up. Tom asked me to sit in on a conference call with one of our federal lobbyist teams, McBee Strategic. Some larger metropolitan cities are able to keep an office in Washington D.C. to conduct their own lobbying but Phoenix does not. We have two teams lobbying for issues concerning Phoenix like: Infrastructure, Aviation, Transportation, Water, and Environmental. The City hires lobbyists depending of their specialty and as we need specific or more general concerns addressed.

The conference call lasted about an hour where we simply went over the latest issues that happened since the previous call. A new technology is being used by the City called Sharepoint, that allows for people to have meetings across the country without actual meeting in person. We can make instant changes to documents on Sharepoint, view presentations, schedule future meetings through calendar, and view past notes on meetings. What I like about Sharepoint is that we are able to all see the same page and not be confused about what is being discussed.

One topic that I found interesting in the meeting was the Brownfields. At the time I did not know what they were and researched the topic. The Brownfields is a term used to describe real estate that is contaminated or perceived to be contaminated by hazardous substances or petroleum in soil or groundwater. The complexity and cost of cleanup creates an obstacle to redevelopment or reuse of the property. The cleanup and redevelopment of the Brownfields bring many economic development benefits to a community. The benefits of redevelopment include: job creation, increase of property values, reduction of potential health risks, and revitalization of neighborhoods.

To learn more about the Brownfields look here:
http://phoenix.gov/greenphoenix/land/brownfields/index.html