Projo Politics Blog

By Lynn Arditi
Journal staff writer

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Vice President Joseph Biden and key members of the Obama administration have canceled plans to attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors annual meeting -- which begins next Friday in Providence -- because the firefighters union intends to picket the conference.

Mayor David N. Cicilline, who is hosting the conference, said he was disappointed that the mayors will not have the opportunity to meet with members of the administration, but he said he would not "cave in" to pressure from Providence Firefighters Local 799 to force him to agree to contract demands that he said would be harmful to taxpayers.

In addition to the vice president, these notables, mostly members of President Obama's Cabinet, also had confirmed they would attend what is the largest annual gathering of mayors: White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett; Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson; National Drug Control Policy head Gil Kerlikowske; Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan; Secretary of Education Arne Duncan; Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke; U.S. Sen. Mark P. Begich, D-Alaska; and Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico's ambassador to the United States. Alvaro Uribe Velez, the president of Colombia, and Tadatoshi Akiba, the mayor of Hiroshima, Japan, also had planned to join the vice president at the conference.

Shortly after his Friday afternoon press conference, the mayor's office released this statement and video in which the mayor says his proposal to the firefighters was a fair one.

Read more on this story as it develops on our 7to7 breaking news blog.

 Tags  David N. Cicilline Providence RI U.S. Conference of Mayors Vice President Biden

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