Clarence Anthony is the CEO and Executive Director of the National League of Cities (NLC), the largest and oldest organization representing America’s cities, towns and villages and their leaders. Under his leadership, NLC helped deliver billions of dollars in direct federal relief through the CARES Act and historic American Rescue Plan Act to help support local governments respond, recover and rebuild from the COVID-19 pandemic. In this time, NLC also ushered passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, delivering transformative investments in transportation, broadband and water to communities across the country.

Mr. Anthony began his career in public service as mayor of South Bay, Florida, for 24 years. Mr. Anthony has served as both president of the Florida League of Cities and of the National League of Cities. He was part of the founding group of Palm Beach County Black Elected Officials and the tourism development board Discover Palm Beach County. Following his time in local office, Mr. Anthony represented local governments on the world stage as founding treasurer and interim manager of United Cities and Local Governments. He later founded Anthony Government Solutions, a firm focused on strategic visioning, policy development, and management restructuring for government and private sector organizations.

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Transcript

Clarence Anthony:

They’re looking at how they collect data around race and implementation and where they’re spending those dollars. And now we got a chance, again, to look at ways that we can really implement these programs, so that everybody in the community will see their lives change. And that’s, for me, real personal. I got to be honest with you.

Leon T. Andrews, Jr.:

Welcome to The Measure. I am your host and moderator, Leon Andrews, president and CEO of Equal Measure. Equal Measure partners with foundations, nonprofits, and government organizations to apply new ways of thinking and learning to advance social change. On The Measure, we host conversations about centering racial equity and how to design, implement, evaluate, and communicate efforts to transform inequitable systems. We are honored to welcome Clarence Anthony, CEO and executive director of the National League of Cities. NLC is the largest and oldest organization representing America’s, cities, towns, and villages and their leaders. And Clarence, by full disclosure, was my former boss. Welcome, Clarence.

Clarence Anthony:

Well, you can say that, but Leon never really needed a boss, so. Thank you for having me as your guest.

Leon T. Andrews, Jr.:

Too kind. Thank you, Clarence. I’d like to start with a more personal question for you. Much of our focus at Equal Measure is on place-based systems work, which looks at long-term investments to transform inequitable systems in areas such as health, education, economic mobility—a lot of issues that the National League of Cities works on—especially for our Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color. So, we think a lot about places, their culture, their context. I think it is also important to personalize the work, which is where I wanted to start with more of a personal question. So, as you think about place, culture, and context, talk about your own life’s journey.

Clarence Anthony:

I grew up in Florida, and when most people think of Florida, they think of sun, palm trees, and beaches. Well, I grew up in rural Florida, where it was sugar cane fields, celery fields. And my family, in our journey, we were a migrant family. So, we’d work in Belgrade, Florida, for about four months; go to Sanford, Florida; Goshen, New York; Middleburgh, New York; Frederick, Maryland; and work and then go back that cycle. But one of the things that I had that I didn’t recognize until I became older was this structure of family around me.

Never, ever felt I was missing out on anything because everybody else around me was living that same life. But what I found was that my work ethic came out of that experience. My view of people and not judging people came out of that experience because, again, everybody was working hard. My experience in terms of diversity was different, because in that time we were in migrant work, so most of our bosses were young white men. And then seeing my dad, who was a little older, being treated a certain way, also had an impact on my life as well.

But one of the things about that journey was we would drive on buses for 15 hours, going from Florida to New York, without taking a break. But there was something about coming up on bridges, and then you’d see these lights way from afar. And I would always say, “Gosh, that’s a great place. That’s a city. I bet there are opportunities there in that city where those lights are.” And I never forgot about that, even as I became involved in government, my businesses, and then this role, because I truly believe that cities are a place that opportunities are created. My work is to make sure they’re created for everybody that lives in those communities.

Leon T. Andrews, Jr.:

And I love the way you described your story. I think hearing you talk about place in the context of cities, crossing that bridge, seeing those lights, thinking about opportunity and how much that has played out in your own career and journey, where you are right now, where you think a lot about place. Place is fundamental to the work of local leaders, whether they’re in cities, towns, and villages. That’s what they do, day in and day out, across the nation. So, I know both you and I believe in that as we talk about local government. It’s where we think innovation is happening. As you think about the opportunities that you see across the country, collaborating with local leaders, what have you seen as key factors for sustaining meaningful transformations of systems?

Clarence Anthony:

The first thing that I think is happening around the transformation issues and dealing with equity and racial equity in America is the first step is to find a leader. And when I think about leadership, it’s in the area I’d say of equity and justice. Now, it’s very tough right now because we were going through the COVID time, and it was all of this “wokeness,” if you will, of people all of a sudden like, “I’m going to give you 10 million, I’m going to give you 5 million.” And that’s what they would do, is give these dollars to the nonprofit communities. We’re giving the dollars, but what was really missing was the leadership. And that’s where local leaders came in to utilize those dollars to address those inequities that they saw in their communities. And I think the power of leadership inspires others to step in. Now, I do think as we look at these issues now, there’s a trend, too, though, push back on the issues of equity and inclusiveness. And I think it’s going to take more leadership than ever.

Also, knowing what Equal Measure does. I think that this piece of measuring what we do and the impact and the technical assistance that you guys provide and the grant making, the evaluation of what your investments are, is so key. And I think that making sure that we have data based upon race, gender, geographic data, financial data, data related to educational levels, it’s going to help us to be able to really show what we’re doing, whether it’s making a difference or not. And I think that what I’d like to see and continue to see in local leadership is being able to address when you get those funds, that is requiring equity as a part of the implementation. This is the time to use data to look at the biggest gaps that you have in your communities. It’s not just government, it’s nonprofits, it’s other groups as well.

So, if the gap is education, try to use those dollars to fill those gaps around for people of color. If you know that the gap is home ownership, why don’t you use the ARPA dollars to deal with that gap that exists? The infrastructure dollars. If you know that the roads and broadband has not been laid in a certain part of Northeast DC, but it’s 10G to 20 to 50G and Northwest, you would use those infrastructure dollars to be able to really put broadband in the least-of community. So, for me, this is an opportunity—and you use this word—to have real transformation, to have real change, to have real impact that five years to 10 years from now, as we look at 2030 and beyond, what impact have we had?

Leon T. Andrews, Jr.:

Yeah. I’d like to build on that, Clarence, because you mentioned a number of federal dollars and resources that have been poured into cities and towns and villages across the country over the last couple of years. And there are questions about whether we have a sense of, are we seeing an impact as a result? And many times, as you and I both know, it’s hard to see impact in a year or two years. Many times you don’t see it until over a longer period of time. I’d love to hear any insights you have on what you’re seeing, any examples or nuggets or anecdotes of where you are beginning to see the impact as a result of the investments in dollars in these communities?

Clarence Anthony:

I will tell you that we’re starting to see it. The first thing that the investment that the federal government made in terms of America’s cities, towns, and villages re-imagining and rebuilding what were the ARPA dollars. Because it got money in the hand of every city, town, and village in America. And that’s a historic moment. I thought about dropping the mic and just walking out.

Leon T. Andrews, Jr.:

That’s it.

Clarence Anthony:

Hey, man, you did it.

Leon T. Andrews, Jr.:

Yeah. What else can I do at this point?

Clarence Anthony:

You know everybody asked the next day, so what else are—

Leon T. Andrews, Jr.:

What’s next?

Clarence Anthony:

I think what else you’re going to do, question? The answer to that is we got to help them, one, develop plans to be able to use these dollars. And what we found was a lot of the cities, towns, and villages, the small ones, they have the money and they received it and then they said, “Oh, man, what’s next?” We stood up technical assistance and we’re coming in there for cities where I was mayor, where the city manager was the public works director and the city manager, and the city clerk was the treasurer and the city clerk. And everybody had two and three jobs.

So, we are now working in our local infrastructure hub that was funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies to really go into these cities and say, we’re going to have a bootcamp for you. We know that there’s broadband money coming out. We know that there are dollars for roads and bridges. Come to this session, and we’re going to help your staff and you to actually not only find out how you can implement those dollars from the bipartisan infrastructure law, but there are over 400 additional grant programs available under the infrastructure law. And the big thing that I must say about it is that it’s free. And every time I tell a mayor that at our conference and stuff, they’re like, “Now how much it’s gonna cost?” I said, “It really is free.” And I did grow up in a lifestyle that say nothing—

Leon T. Andrews, Jr.:

Nothing is free. That’s right.

Clarence Anthony:

So, I get scared of myself, and then I really talk them into understanding that this is, in fact, free. But cities all over America are looking at this as an opportunity. They’re looking at how they collect data around race and implementation and where they’re spending those dollars. And now we got a chance, again, to look at ways that we can really implement these programs so that everybody in the community will see their lives change. And that’s, for me, real personal. I got to be honest with you. I want to see what we did, Leon. Did it really make an impact? Is the work I’ve done having an impact? That’s meaningful to me.

And one of the things that you and I worked on years ago was engaging the community. That will be the major difference, I think, the requirement to engage the community. What I would implement in one city, it doesn’t work in every city. So, there has to be process put together that really create initiatives that apply to that community, that community’s gaps, that community’s challenges. And if we can do that, I strongly believe that this moment we’ve had after the pandemic will have a positive impact on a lot of communities throughout America.

Leon T. Andrews, Jr.:

You came on board in 2013. You didn’t make a big deal about it, but you were the first non-white male to lead any of the seven national public interest groups for state or local government. So, we’re talking, like, U.S. Conference of Mayors, National Governors Association, International City/County Management Association. And early on, there were a lot of issues that were showing up in cities, where racial tension was erupting. I remember you saying you were tired of putting out these personal statements and condolences and “our hearts go out,” and what’s meaningful, what’s actionable. And I’m just curious, you alluded to this a little bit, where do you think cities are now three, two years past? The statements are no longer coming out like they did in 2020. Where do you feel city leaders are? What are you seeing?

Clarence Anthony:

Yeah. Wow, Leon, you’re taking both of us back to a moment that was a really tough time for the nation, for National League of Cities, but both of us personally, because we were watching cities, and we were on the phone with the White House talking about what we could do and what our role could be. I remember the moment that I just can say I got fed up and said, “Forget the White House,” honestly. “We’re going to do something because this is important that we step up at this time.” I will reflect, and I’ve shared this before, publicly being the first African American CEO of the National League of Cities, at that time, probably its 89 years of being established and never had a person of color or a woman to lead the organization. And struggling with that being the first and this issue and all the things that go through a new leader’s mind was going through mine, especially being African American.

And I was saying to myself, “Oh, my gosh, they’re going to say we finally hired somebody Black. And, see, the first thing we want to do is bring us into race and deal with the issue of race.” And I struggled with it, but I stepped outside of myself and I said, “The mission of the National League of Cities is to design solutions so that they can assist cities with the challenges that they’re having.” Regardless if I was African American or not African American, this was a major issue for city leaders. I remember us talking about how do we approach this? And we asked, what are the issues that we wanted to deal with? And it was race, equity, racial equity. And I said, “Okay. That’s fine. And what is the role of the people who are going to be dealing with this?” And we said, they got to be leaders.

And we’re continuing to help local leaders develop the tools, the ideas, the solutions, the practices to be able to address the issue of historical racism, systemic racism in our policies, our programs. And, sometimes, they don’t even know that when they develop a program or a policy that it has negative impacts on people of color. We’ve been able to help them to develop racial equity plans within their community, to be able to help engage their residents in this work in a way that is not just a city government-driven process. It is a community-based need, desire, process. And I do think that in this time though, Leon, you’ve seen this, where there are states that are trying to bar. My home state of Florida is trying to bar the schools and even local governments in working in this space. So, there’s still work to be done, and we’re going to need partners—corporate partners, philanthropic partners, community-based organizations—because city leaders can’t do it alone.

Leon T. Andrews, Jr.:

But knowing you, I know you always are thinking about what next and you’re thinking about how can we still have a greater impact? And, so, wanting to end with you reflecting on what continues to give you hope, as you think about where we are and where we still need to go as a country, as you see what’s happening in our cities, towns, and our villages. You see the environment that you’re in. You’re in DC and dealing with the environment in DC. And some people would want to say this, not feeling very hopeful at times, but you are a hopeful person. So, I’d love to end with you reflecting on what continues to give you hope.

Clarence Anthony:

It has been, to be honest with your listeners, the last four or five years has been real challenging in this role. Going through the pandemic changed all of us. It changed me as an individual, changed our nation, changed NLC, and there were a lot of sleepless nights, receiving a call from mayors and council members all overAmerica as their cities were just closed down. And then watching over and over and over again the video of George Floyd’s murder. And then just all the incivility starting to happen in America. So, it has been a tough time, and I think it’s therapy for me to be able to acknowledge that. So, as I lay out all of those issues, I do still have hope. But hope is not a plan.

My vision as NLC becomes 100 years old next year in 2024: I think that America is going to really continue—and morally continue—to value city leadership. It’s crazy. Whatever is happening positive in America, it is happening by mayors and city councilmembers taking action. Our nation and economy would not have come back if it wasn’t for mayors and councilmembers and city managers during the pandemic out there passing out supplies; making sure that seniors were getting food when they couldn’t get out of their houses; making sure that people knew where the vaccines were, that they can, in every language. Making sure it was equitable distribution. And making sure that as we returned, they were working with small businesses to say, “We’re going to give you $2 million to help you serve food and stay alive in this community.”

That’s what local leadership is, and that’s what I have so much hope for as we go forward. But the plan for the hope—because hope ain’t a plan—the plan for the hope is that the National League of Cities will continue to design solutions and tools and strategies and be their voice so that they can do their jobs more effectively.

Leon T. Andrews, Jr.:

Thank you, Clarence. Thank you for leaving us with those nuggets of hope. You need a plan. It can’t just be hope without a plan. And I love that because one of our previous guests says, “Moving hope from a noun to a verb. So, it’s got to be an action.” So, I love that. Thank you, Clarence. This has—really enjoyed our time together.

I’d like to leave you with a quote inspired by my conversation with Clarence today. It’s from the late James Baldwin: “If you know whence you came, there’s really no limit to where you can go.”