Adler to attend Mayor’s School after Paris trip

After attending the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris this week, Mayor Steve Adler will fly back to the United States on Dec. 7 to attend Harvard University’s seminar on transition and leadership for newly elected mayors. Adler noted that he is no longer “newly elected” but said he could not attend last year’s seminar because he had not yet won the runoff election when the 2014 program was offered. Therefore, he will be the longest-serving member of his class and has been invited to speak to the other newly elected mayors. Adler was very excited about attending the seminar, which is funded not by cities but by Harvard, he said. According to the website on the seminar, attendees will experience “intensive seminars on major urban policy issues such as public safety, municipal finance, and crisis management, led by prominent scholars and practitioners representing viewpoints from across the political spectrum. It also offers an unmatched set of workshops to help new mayors take on the practical challenges of urban governance. These workshops focus on the ‘how’ of getting things done in the city, and are led by current and former mayors from across the country, as well as members of the media, the private sector,” and others. The mayor said he would return to Austin on Dec. 11 and return to work the following week. (People familiar with the mayor’s work schedule find it hard to believe that he will stay away that long.)