Fireside Chat with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, moderated by Chicago CFO, Jill Jaworski

Transcription:

Beth Coolidge (00:09):

Hello everyone. My name is Beth Coolidge and I am a managing director and head of the Midwest Public Finance Group at UBSs. And I'm also fortunate enough to be the co-chair of this great conference. I know there were a lot of great ideas discussed not only on the infrastructure side, but the human infrastructure side and some of the things that we can be thinking about in the future as to how we bring those two things together. It is my great pleasure to introduce our final panel, which is our keynote panel from this great conference. I had the opportunity to hear Mayor Johnson speak at the Civic Federation last week, and I think a few of you in the room were there as well. And I know that his priorities and vision for Chicago in that speech and in that fireside chat were very well received. Another of the mayor's decision that has been very well received, especially by the people in this room, is his appointment of Jill Jaworski, one of our very own as CFO for the city of Chicago.

(01:19)

Jill has been a thought leader and innovator in our industry for more than 25 years. Many of us in this room have had the opportunity to work with Jill during her tenure as either a banker or MA at PFM. In her time at PFM, Jill opened the Chicago FA office and grew it from a one person shop to a fully staffed practice that advised the city and all of the major sister agencies. She also built a specialized practice serving transit agencies nationally after a career advising and consulting to governments. She's excited to be on the inside working with the mayor and his staff to affect real change in how the city manages its finances. Jill has also served on a number of boards over her career, including CSBI, the Society of Municipal Analysts and the MSRB.

(02:13)

Brandon Johnson was sworn in as the 57th mayor of the City of Chicago on May 15th, 2023. Mayor Johnson began his career as a public school teacher first at General Academy in Cabrini Green, and then at Westinghouse College Prep on the west side, where he experienced firsthand how school closures, unemployment and gun violence impacted his students and their communities. He then went on to become an organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union, where he led a multiracial coalition to defend neighborhood schools from privatization, reduce high stake standardized testing, and expand access to state funding. Prior to becoming mayor, the mayor was elected at Cook County Board Commissioner from the first district in 2018. During his five years on the Cook County Board, he led efforts to pass the just housing ordinance, which prohibited housing discrimination against formerly incarcerated people legislation to secure legal representation for immigrants facing deportation and coordinated Covid 19 resources for low income seniors in nursing homes.

(03:23)

Mayor Johnson and his wife Stacy live in the Austin community where they're raising their children, Owen, Ethan and Braden. But I have to add one more fun fact. Mayor Johnson is one of 10 children and I am the oldest of 10 children. So I can attest to the fact that coming from a large family, you develop very special skills and especially if you come from a household with one shower. So I know that the mayor has impeccable negotiating skills, which will definitely come in handy when dealing with 50 alderman on the city council. But without further ado, please help me welcome Mayor Johnson and Jill Jaw Jawroski.

Jill Jaworski (04:12):

Thank you, Beth. Can everyone hear us? Okay? Great. It's really exciting to be in this room. I mean, I look around, I see so many friendly faces here. I see a lot of city employees as well. I'm glad so many of you are able to attend the conference today. I see some former city CFOs in the room, so it's really exciting to be here with this audience here today.

Brandon Johnson (04:35):

So no former mayors, just former CFO's.

Jill Jaworski (04:37):

I'm not seeing former mayors, but the lights are bright, so it could be that I'm missing him in the corner somewhere. Ron could be hanging out somewhere taking notes.

Brandon Johnson (04:49):

He should be.

Jill Jaworski (04:51):

Absolutely, absolutely. Well, we're going to do this as sort of a interview fireside chat. I think a lot of you have probably heard or read a lot about the mayor and been at some of his speeches. I've been really inspired both working with the mayor and listening to him talk and excited about the plan that he has, the vision for the future and the high hopes that we all have that we can execute well on it. So I just want to start off before we get our questions to say, we talked about this coming over is, mayor, can you give us the elevator speech, the short version of what is your vision for the city? What made you want to run for mayor and what do you want to accomplish?

Brandon Johnson (05:35):

Yeah, thank you for that question and good afternoon or good evening everyone. And Jill, thank you for your leadership. It's good to know that a couple of outsiders are now inside the system to build really an economy that works for everyone. Look, I've talked an awful lot about what a better, stronger, safer Chicago would entail and what it looks like is a city that truly invests in people that is truly our greatest asset and star strength. And by investing in people, you're building an economy around values that quite frankly, we all can agree on that having a working class infrastructure within the city of Chicago creates long-term economic sustainability for those very neighborhoods. And so over the course of these first 16 weeks, 24,000 young people that have been hired 4,000 over our initial goal, my ultimate goal is to double that over the course of the next couple of years.

(06:42)

But it also looks like having a real community safety plan with the first time in the history of Chicago, a deputy mayor committed to community safety because that's top of mind for everyone. And then finally, I talk an awful lot about the full force of government as a public school teacher, I have developed a practice of interdisciplinary studies where as much as I know everyone gets excited about social studies, you have to be able to use cross curriculum to be able to capture the imagination of people. And so using social studies to talk about the economy, using social studies to talk about the environment. And so the full force of government that places the value of our greatest asset, which is the diversity of our congregation, our people, that's what a better, stronger, safer Chicago looks like. Investing in people with the full force of government.

Jill Jaworski (07:43):

And you might actually have some people in this room that like the social studies analogy because there's a number of us in here, myself included, who have a political science degree, which is highly related. So this might be a great audience for, well, let's do this, understanding that. So let's start off by talking a little bit about the budget. I mean the forecast, the initial forecast was just released today. Obviously there'll be a lot of discussion around that. But when you think about the release of the budget and the work that we have ahead of us, what are the areas that you think about when you think about really improving city finances?

Brandon Johnson (08:22):

Well, the first thing is I've made a commitment not to balance our budget off the backs of working people. That particular formation has proven repeatedly that it's no longer sustainable and maybe it never has been sustainable, but the type of balancing act that the city finances have become accustomed to has just left many of our families struggling, quite frankly. And so it's why I'm grateful to have a full team, our finance team working diligently to find revenue streams that can address the hardship or the hardships that people have experienced over the course of decades. The final thing is it's finding revenue streams that allow us to, one, make sure that we are protecting the retirement of public employees who have dedicated their lives to the city of Chicago. And two, being able to address one of the most immediate dynamics, which is we have 65,000 plus residents of Chicago that are unhoused. And so finding revenue streams that are sustainable tied to our values and building a budget around those values that does not place the burden on working people and having a financial team that is committed to working tirelessly to ensure a budget that builds a better, stronger safe for Chicago. Those are the elements and dynamics that we're taking into this next phase of my administration.

Jill Jaworski (10:04):

Yeah, one of the things that you talked about there, new revenues speaks to my heart. This is one of the main reasons that I am in your administration is. I have a passion about how do we find new revenues for the city that are equitable and really can change the way in which we fund the city's mission. I am completely in agreement on the challenges that our tax structure has placed on our lower income residents and our need to fix that. And that's a big focus of all of us going forward. One of the things you talked about is matching the revenue streams. You talked about dealing with our very large population of unhoused individuals in the city. Can you talk a little bit more about the Bring Chicago Home Initiative? It's a really, I think, key initiative that we'll be getting a lot of press very soon, and can you talk a little bit about that to this audience?

Brandon Johnson (11:07):

Yeah, sure. So having served in the public school system when you have 20,000 plus unhoused students that are showing up every single day in our schools, that is a failure, quite frankly, of our political structure. It's unconscionable that we have had such a run of not serving and treating and responding in an equitable, intentional, urgent way to the most vulnerable people in our population. We're a better Chicago than that. I talk a lot about coming from a large family because I can tell you when you're hungry and there's housing insecurity, you're not showing up to Mr. Johnson's social studies class eager to discuss causes of revolutions or any other element or dynamic that's associated with content. And so this opportunity that we have is one that we cannot miss as a city. This has been an effort and a movement that predates my time, quite frankly, not just as mayor, but even as county commissioner, that we've been pushing towards this to challenge even folks in labor to think beyond wages and benefits and how do we build better systems of care.

(12:40)

And so when you think about our assets, whether it's our airports, our buses, police stations, all of these assets are essentially behaving as shelters and I know we can do better. So bring Chicago home, it creates a pathway to tie revenue to programs and investments. That is the baseline for how we build sustainable communities. And the last thing that I'll say on this is bring Chicago home. Yes, is an effort to address the fact that we have so many unhoused in city of Chicago, but we also have to be very intentional about how we create generational wealth. For every $1 a white family earns in the city of Chicago, a black family earns 1 cent. Even though black families historically and even today contribute to our local economy in a way that quite frankly has not been matched. We're talking about globally, nationally, trillions of dollars.

(13:54)

And so I know when my wife and I purchased our first home, the home was $150,000 and we have six degrees between the two of us. And we needed two government programs to invest in us, to help us come up with a down payment. And we have done everything right, strong credit, go to school, accumulated a massive amount of debt for someone to tell you what a comma splices, and then to follow In this dream, this search for economic security and stability, that absent and investment in us, we would not have been able to afford a home that's $150,000. And now in Austin or throughout the city of Chicago, the average price of a home has now reached almost 300, in some cases $350,000. So bring Chicago home is a pathway to demonstrate our commitment to invest in people, and that's how you build a better, stronger, safer Chicago. That's how you alleviate the pressure and the tension on many of our systems because we have overcompensated this, these particular institutions because we haven't treated an ailment.

Jill Jaworski (15:16):

And I think one of the elements about the Brink Chicago Home Initiative that's really important is the manner in which those funds are going to be spent. And can you talk a little bit about how important affordable housing is? Because as you said, we've got infrastructure that's acting like a shelter and long-term housing is something that we need as a solution.

Brandon Johnson (15:39):

And we will probably get into this later as well. When we talk about housing and affordable housing, we also have to talk about public housing because there are real opportunities for us to invest in the vacancy that exists in the city of Chicago to create pathways for more sustainability and affordable housing is so critical and vital to the city of Chicago because absent affordability, we're going to lose our greatest asset. It's our diversity. The average price of a home in New York, it's about $1.2 million. I don't know if there's anyone in this room. Well, maybe there are. Who can afford a 1.2 million home? Perhaps there are.

Jill Jaworski (16:31):

There's Some people in this Room.

Brandon Johnson (16:31):

If there are, I kind of figure that. I want you to see Jason Lee, when this is over.

(16:42)

He helps build my political apparatus, but the average price of a home in Los Angeles, I believe is like $700,000. We're not Chicago if we don't have a diversified workforce working people in a city that has tremendous history, that stretches well beyond the shores of North America. And so my vision for Chicago, it's actually not a radical one. It's not a new one. It's the vision that our forefathers and mothers had to create real livable spaces that everyday working people can afford to thrive and grow in. Who doesn't want that in their economy? And nothing against individuals who can afford $1.2 million homes. We need them as well because when they sell that property, there's a small little tax on that that's going to generate revenue so we can deal with the unhoused. So everybody's happy now.

Jill Jaworski (17:48):

It's a perfect circle. Absolutely. There was an article recently in the New York Times that talked about how there are a number of cities, United States and Chicago is one where we have a surplus of vacant land and a shortage of housing, and it's really exciting to see this initiative move forward. We hope it continues. We hope it passes. We hope it gets in front of the voters, and we hope that the voters pass the referendum to help us make progress in that area.

Brandon Johnson (18:19):

Yes, because Jill, look, the vacancy, it is a dynamic that we have to address, but it really does create an opportunity for us. Absolutely. I mean, we literally have space where not only can we create and build housing and make sure that it's affordable, we get to hire people to do it. So we literally get to create jobs to build in spaces that have been neglected while also growing the tax base because now you have individuals that are working, contributing, paying rent or paying mortgage, paying taxes. We're growing the economy from the core of who we are as a city. We're growing an economy that's centered around people, not things, not just places and all. That's great because look, the things in the places that we have in Chicago, they're assets. So we know that people are attracted to downtown. I mean, Edge Sherin sold out Soldier Field, a hundred thousand people. Beyonce sold it out, the hotels doing very well, and she said, hello, Brandon to me at the end of her concert. So me and Beyonce are on the first name basis now.

(19:41)

And with all of that, we have not fully expressed and tapped into the variety that exists within our neighborhoods outside of downtown as one neighborhood. So the vacancy we're clear how it happened, we are, and now it's on us. We are the generation that's responsible to not just right the wrongs of the past, but to set up an economy for the next generation. And so 100 years from now, whomever is teaching social studies, they get to speak of this moment of how we built a better, stronger, safer Chicago through an economy that was centered around people. There's something pretty special and very inspiring about that possibility.

Jill Jaworski (20:33):

Absolutely. I know the other night at the economic club speech, one of the things that you mentioned was how many people we have the capacity for in Chicago and how the biggest single thing that we could probably do to improve government finances is increase the population in Chicago.

Brandon Johnson (20:53):

Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that. That's an important note. And I know for some people, it's probably surprising that conservatively 400,000 more people could live in Chicago. The number that is more real than the conservative number is really around 700,000 people. Now, again, if you're driving in the city, it almost seems unimaginable to think that that many more people could reside here, and this is why.

Jill Jaworski (21:22):

Need to take CTA.

Brandon Johnson (21:23):

Well, that's what it's going to get at. This is where the opportunities are, where we can create a transportation system, much like our four parents before, had to figure out how to move the economy through a highway that this is a city that built highways to me to tell me that the ingenuity and the innovation died 100 years ago. The people who understood that today would come into fruition, understood their assignment, and they were willing to work through whatever dynamics that sometimes keeps us apart because they understood the greater good. They weren't intimidated or afraid of the differences that were at the table. I know they had arguments. It's impossible to do this work without having arguments. I know this full force because I was raised in a large family. We argued over the Thanksgiving menu, and it's the same menu every year.

(22:26)

But somehow we figure out you have to have sweet potatoes, Turkey, and I'm not hosting it. As long as we do those three things, we're going to have a great Thanksgiving. And so look, we get to bring our ideas to the table, 400,000 more people, 700,000 more people in the city of Chicago. That's going to create an economy that has endless potential that's going to create an economy where we now have to build who is not going to want to invest in a city where, quite frankly, when we look at the global shifts of populations across the globe, people need to move to places that have water, transportation, good universities, land. Are you all see what I'm getting at? Who wants to go to, I won't mention other cities, I don't want to get tagged, but we have everything that's needed to build and innovate our economy for the future like no other region, particularly in North America. And I would even argue globally though, there are some dynamics. I know on the continent of Africa, that's a different panel discussion, but at least on these shores, United States, there is no better place to do business to experience growth, to invest than in an economy that has room to grow, the very people that run economies, and those are the people who live, work and buy stuff.

Jill Jaworski (23:56):

I couldn't agree more. Very well said. Let's shift a little bit and talk about a couple other topics. city's low pension funding ratio has been in the news for a while now. How do you think about the city's increasing pension obligations? The increasing pressure on our contributions?

Brandon Johnson (24:21):

Yeah, The risk and the challenges that we have around our pensions. You can't overstate the challenges and the dynamics that we are experiencing right now. And again, there were political decisions that were made that placed our moment, our generation right in the middle of what essentially is a crisis. And so let me just acknowledge that this is a very severe dynamic that my administration is not only going to address, but we're going to create a pathway to solvency. But I also just want to express that this is something that I understand quite well. My father was a public employee and his pension is what is sustaining him right now, and there are many neighborhoods throughout the city of Chicago like the one that I live in Austin, that if you were to remove retirees out of our economy, the 60644 zip code would collapse that the vast majority of the economic movement in Austin occurs because people have retirement security. That's a real thing. And so by law, this is available to the people who serve this city and protect this city. And our financial team, as you know, we're working day and night. I don't know if I should say that as a unionist, I don't want Jill to follow a grievance against me, so we do give her breaks occasionally.

(26:06)

But we're working tirelessly.

Jill Jaworski (26:08):

I was warned about the hours.

Brandon Johnson (26:09):

Before your job. Well, I mean, I certainly can tell you that the work that our team is doing to build consensus while also making sure that we are setting up future generations to not have to be bogged down by this liability and responsibility that we have, that again, understanding it and living it, that's what I bring to this conversation, and we're forming working groups. We can get into that, but I just want to at least level set that not addressing it, first of all will be a constitutional violation, but two, it's economically irresponsible, and three, it undermines the essence of who we are, the soul of who we are, and the essence of who we are is that people who serve this city that we love, the people who protect this city that we love, we need to make sure that we're protecting them when they have served their time and they move on to retirement. And I'm confident that we can do that. The structural damages that have occurred over the course of multiple administrations, I'm confident that we have the financial team, the actuarials, that can actually help deliver a mature response to how we make sure that we're protecting people's retirement.

Jill Jaworski (27:42):

One of the things you mentioned was the working group. I mean, there's been Senator Martin proposed a tier two legislation to address folks who are in the tier two pensions and the concern that they will not meet the social security safe harbor, meaning that without changes, they would actually earn less from their pension than they would've had they been in social security. Can you talk a little bit about your thoughts about that proposed legislation and how you've worked to address it?

Brandon Johnson (28:19):

Look, I think it's important that people just fully understand this tier two dynamic, right? So public employees who are not permitted to participate in social security, you take that ability away from them, you create this pension system that they're paying into, and then they end up drawing less from something that they would receive, but they're not allowed to participate in it. I mean, it's just a really, really jacked up situation. And so, the legislation that Senator Marwick, and he's a friend that he proposed that legislation was situated to pass and get to the governor's desk with, I believe veto proof passage. I say this with all humility, Jill. I do, and I try my best to walk in humbleness because that's a part of my faith in my value system. There is no one else who could have convinced police and fire the entire general assembly not to move forward on legislation until my team has the ability to at least comb through it. As I said, I understand it. I live it, and the presentation that I had in that very short transition was convinced that the budgetary forecast that was placed in front of me during my transition that I just needed to verify and check it. And clearly there are some dynamics there that do not match what was initially projected.

(30:19)

And so this working group of labor, obviously management, we have the general assembly, the city council members, our finance team, other actuarials who can also provide a real pathway to sustainability. I know, Jill, you've been working on this, and I don't want to overly project in this moment, but I feel confident that what we have been working through as an administration, that we actually not only solve, but we actually set it the pension system up for long-term sustainability and we actually have a long-term permanent fix versus to what's being proposed now that you could situate it well within the next 10 to 15 years, though you're right back at it again, the next mayor, the 58th mayor of the city of Chicago, I want to make sure that the system that we have inherited that we're passing along a better one.

Jill Jaworski (31:23):

Absolutely. I mean, I think too, one of the things you've talked a lot about is collaboration and working in this working group with all the folks you talked about with labor, with folks from the state legislature with our alderman has really been, I think an example that you have set of how do we collaborate together and we're going to come up with a bill that we're going to be behind and it's going to be a better bill and it's going to be a forever fix.

Jill Jaworski (31:57):

That comes out of really you setting the tone on, let's get in a room and fix this together.

Brandon Johnson (32:05):

It speaks to who we really are, though I believe that most people want to figure things out, right? People don't want to stay in a perpetual state of contention and despair. It's unhealthy, right?

Jill Jaworski (32:23):

Well, a few People do.

Brandon Johnson (32:24):

All well, it's true.

Jill Jaworski (32:26):

Not too many though.

Brandon Johnson (32:27):

Exactly. I mean, maybe for the sake of being able to sell a particular presentation that people will find as clickbait, but I actually believe that the vast majority of people want me as mayor to model the type of power that can only be demonstrated through our collective interests. And that, again, details. We can negotiate it. We can talk about my values. We don't negotiate our values. So I hope not to overly simplify this, but since we're talking about one bathroom, my father's value system was that everyone has to leave the house clean. Those are our values. Now how we figure it out, that's negotiable, right? Some of us have to get up early. I got to do things for my sisters, always ally with women. I'll just say that. If you ever want to get stuff done, make sure that you at least negotiate with the women. And so I try that. But seriously, our value system, we all want a better, stronger, safer Chicago, the details and negotiate that, whether that's pensions, transportation, environment, education, how we work through the dynamics and details. As long as we're clear about what our ultimate goals are and who we are as a people that we're continuing to express in our values, we can accomplish more than what we actually inherited if we actually lean in more on one another. And that's the type of administration that I'm going to continue to model.

Jill Jaworski (34:13):

I am going to wrap up with one last question. I'm not going to do the economic club speech. I think there were like 30, 40 questions for you. These guys want to get to dinner and drinks.

Brandon Johnson (34:24):

And spend money and generate more revenue, yes.

Jill Jaworski (34:27):

Exactly. Exactly. Stay hotel nights, everybody's day extra over the weekend. One. Just shifting to the last topic is one of the things we've been seeing across the world really highlighted this week is some real tragedies related to climate change and the environment. Can you talk a little bit about your administration's thoughts on environmental resiliency and some of the challenges that we have faced since you came into office?

Brandon Johnson (34:59):

Yeah. Well, it's certainly got a test right away. I hope there's no one in this room that's still debating whether or not climate change is real. I hope not, but if you are still debating, my first 16 weeks should help you come to a different conclusion. So we had wildfires and smoke coming from the north, from Canada. We had a rainfall in Chicago that we hadn't seen anything like that since 1987. It's been 40 years since we've had that type of damage. And because of this reliance and dependency on fossil fuels and the burning of that toxicity, it reduces oxygen in the air. As someone who is living in Austin, one of the most environmentally unsound neighborhoods in the city, I've suffered from asthma my entire life. I have a child who suffers from it, that as we're talking about new development and infrastructure and investments, our new construction has to move away from fossil fuels and move towards more of the neutralization of carbon so that we don't have these infrastructures that are perpetuating the very toxicity that's causing these 100 year floods and fires.

(36:49)

But I also see it as an opportunity geo, because the ability to create an economy around clean energy and environmental justice, it not only sets us up for long-term sustainability to have infrastructure that speaks again to our values, but we're talking about an entire economy that grows out of a more strategic and clean approach to how we actually develop and build. And so we are moving towards their full reinstitution of the department of the environment through my administration and having it to be well-funded and working within communities to come up with new ways of how we actually deliver an environmentally sound neighborhood. And that's everything from urban farms to, we don't even have enough natural rain barrels. We call them trees, right? I mean, if you look across the city of Chicago where the air quality is the poorest it's going to be in the same neighborhoods where schools were closed, where mental health facilities were shut down, where transportation doesn't move through, where housing is not available. This is not hyperbole. This is not a massive conspiracy. The type of environmental injustice that has characterized this city for so long we're the room that can actually bring real healing and wholeness to these neighborhoods that have been literally choked and starved out.

Jill Jaworski (38:33):

Yeah. One last thing on the environmental note. Can you talk a little bit about what happened with the floods on the west side?

Jill Jaworski (38:39):

And the city's Response.

Brandon Johnson (38:40):

Yeah. Thank you for that question. I didn't mean to just blow past that. And so the flooding.

Jill Jaworski (38:46):

I think it's a real Accomplishment.

Brandon Johnson (38:46):

Well, and I'm glad you laid it out. So first of all, I will just say that the west side of Chicago was hit the hardest, and I didn't realize how many of my neighbors had my phone number.

(38:58)

Some of these people never called me. And as mayor, I'm getting pictures and videos of these really horrific dynamics that are occurring. And so we responded the way in which I was raised to respond, there are two great commandments to love with your hard mind and soul and treat your neighbor as yourself. And so we had the full force of government on display, streets and sanitation, department of Transportation, police, fire, OEMC. We work with the philanthropic community and our corporate leaders to help us provide, first of all, to clean the wreckage out of basements. City government had never gone into people's basements under my administration. We're going into people's basements. You have 70, 80 year old who are on fixed income that we cleared out their basements, dumped all of again, the waste and the damage. And then of course, we coordinated with county, the state that ultimately led to the full declaration that allowed for FEMA to come in to provide some repair to those who've experienced damage.

(40:19)

And we're talking about individuals who were home healthcare providers who ran healthy. These are business owners who ran healthcare, I'm sorry, childcare, I'm sorry, childcare providers right out of their basements. And to see the full force of government react with that type of expediency, that is really the expectation that people have now, that it's going to literally take all of us to build a better, stronger, safer Chicago and economy that works for everyone. No one can sit on their hands. No one can just point the finger. No one can just simply have a critique they have to offer and come with solutions and expertise to make sure that this new wave of workers, it's a different generation. Jail, gen Zs, God bless them. They're different. Yeah, I know. They come to work on Monday. They want to get paid on Friday. They need a mental health day on Monday. I mean, I'm not mad at him. My father retired with 476 sick days, and he was proud of that. I never took a sick day off my life, not this generation. And so we have to find more creative ways in which government can deliver, but also creative ways in which we can finance and invest. It's worth it, though. Someone invested in me, a middle child. I won't tell you what my GPA was because my children will have a different opinion of their father.

(41:46)

But someone invested in me, a working class, public school, middle school teacher who is now mayor of the greatest freaking city in the world. Anything is possible if we come together.

Jill Jaworski (41:57):

Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate that you were able to make it out tonight, in front of this audience.

Beth Coolidge (42:03):

I can think of no better way to close this conference than this panel. Literally, you hit on every single theme that we talked about over the last two days. So please again, help me thank Mayor Brandon Johnson and Jill Jaworski.