John M. Palatiello & Associates is pleased to announce that it has been retained to provide turnkey association management services to a coalition known as America Moving Forward (www.americamovingforward.org).
AMF is a coalition of firms engaged in public-private partnerships (PPPs) on transportation projects. You may have read in the news about projects such as the Chicago Skyway, the Indiana Toll Road, and the Pennsylvania Turnpike. As the Washington Post reported, “The decision also places Indiana at the leading edge of a nascent trend in which states and local governments are exploring the idea of privatizing parts of the United States’ prized interstate highway system. The idea goes beyond projects, such as Northern Virginia’s Dulles Greenway, in which states have turned to private companies to build or widen toll roads. Now, they are considering selling or leasing some of the best-known and most-traveled routes across America.”
The group was formed after there was a tremendous adverse public reaction to Governor Daniels’ proposal in Indiana, as noted in the Washington Post article, and there was no voice promoting PPPs and the Governor’s proposal.
AMF is not a lobbying organization. We have a New York PR firm on retainer, and the focus of the coalition is to do public awareness, education and advocacy via the media and grass roots to counter the myths and misinformation about PPPs. The goal is to help create a favorable business and political environment in the states (governors, mayors, legislators and DoT secretaries) for implementation of PPP opportunities. Wednesday evening, I gave a speech to the US Chapter of the London-based International Project Finance Association; a copy of my talking points is attached, which outlines what AMF is about.
Indeed, AMF is helping to promote the ACSE infrastructure report card as evidence of the problem, and PPPs as one of several strategies for solving the problem.
Steering Committee members include Goldman Sachs, Macquarie, Cintra and Transurban.
JMP&A will provide financial management, membership development and general management between my staff, the NY PR firm and the coalition’s steering committee. We will do no lobbying or direct government relations. You may see my name in the media as spokesman for AMF, as the PR firm will be writing and placing OpEds in newspapers, and arranging media interviews for me. I will hold the title of Executive Director. Some of you may know Peter Loughlin, who had been Executive Director. Peter will continue as a policy consultant.
Management of AMF is consistent with the services JMP&A has provided to its other association clients, such as MAPPS (www.mapps.org) and COFPAES (www.cofpaes.org). It is another form of infrastructure and “private sector utilization” promotion, just as MAPPS and COFPAES have advocated. My AMF work will also be putting me in direct contact with several Governors and former Governors, state legislators, state transportation secretaries, and members of Congress, as well as the national media.
Comments of John Palatiello, America Moving Forward Executive Director, before the International Project Finance Association (IPFA) U.S. Chapter Reception, KPMG – Washington, DC, May 14, 2008:
• We all know the challenge – infrastructure requirements vs. gov budgets
• We all recognize the potential for private investment through PPPs
• There is a need for public education on the challenge and PPPs as a solution
• Governor Daniels’ experience in Indiana vividly demonstrated the need for an organization to articulate the benefit of PPPs and counter the myths, misinformation and allegations
• To achieve this, a group of firms created a 501(c)(6) non-profit business assn
• America Moving Forward
• National organization
• Education, public awareness, advocacy for PPPs
• Locally based campaigns in key states
• Dispel the myths
• Minimize the perception of political risk
• Promote PPP as an acceptable tool in the tool box
• Promote PPPs as a non-partisan, non-ideological solution to states’ infrastructure needs, as evidenced by its sponsorship by such a diverse group of leaders from Mayor Daley and Governors Rendel, Warner and Kaine to Governors Daniels, Perdue, Crist and Perry
• Not a lobbying organization
• Provide a voice, through
• Focus Groups
• Public Opinion Survey Research
• Media, PR campaign
• Build network of grass roots and grass tops advocates
• Be a “go to” resource
• Launched www.americamovingforward.org
• AMF has grown and graduated to the point where the leadership has determined a need to take the organization to a new level, JMP is new Executive Director, my firm brought on to provide full service association management. Peter Loughlin still involved as a consultant, focusing on transportation policy
Mr. Ray discussed the history of transportation and transportation policy in the United States, and the historic role of the private sector. I am reminded of the history of Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations”, in which he wrote:
“The third and last duty of the sovereign or commonwealth is that of erecting and maintaining those public institutions and those public works, which, though they may be in the highest degree advantageous to a great society, are, however, of such a nature that the profit could never repay the expense to any individual or small number of individuals, and which it therefore cannot be expected that any individual or small number of individuals should erect or maintain.”
People smarter than me, including those I am looking at in this room, have figured out once again how there can be profit, how there can be a private sector role, and how there can be effective PPPs to meet the Nation’s economic, congestion, environmental, quality of life and fiscal challenges. PPPs are not a panacea, but a viable option, an effective arrow in the quiver of the Nation’s Mayors, Governors and Legislatures.
The goal of America Moving Forward is to create a favorable business, political, and public opinion environment so that PPPs can move forward and succeed.
We welcome your participation in our organization in this effort.
