By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Mayor Liz Lempert was in Washington D.C. Thursday to join other leaders from around the state for a one-day conference with top members of the Obama administration.
She said the group included roughly 125 politicians, clergy members and representatives of nonprofits at the invitation-only event in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, located next door to the White House. They were there for "New Jersey State Day," the first in a series of similar days the administration plans to hold.
The group was briefed on some of the administration’s priorities, which include raising the federal minimum wage and reforming immigration. Labor Secretary Tom Perez and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker met with them along with administration officials.
"It was an opportunity for us to hear from them, for them to hear from us and to meet other leaders in New Jersey," she told reporters during her regular press conference Monday at Witherspoon Hall.
She was the only politician from Mercer County to attend. Rabbi Adam Feldman, leader of the Jewish Center, the synagogue on Nassau Street, also attended representing the county.
Mayor Lempert admitted she had "no idea" why the administration contacted to her to participate. The mayor is a Democrat who worked on the president’s first run for president by helping to lead his efforts in Mercer County.
Earlier in the week, she had met with local business leaders and conveyed their concerns about a proposal to raise the minimum wage and how that impacts small businesses.
"A lot of the concerns locally are especially how it impacts restaurants too," she said. "But I think that there’s also opportunities for investment from the federal government into the local community that will help local businesses."
For her part, she said she favors increasing the minimum wage; one proposal that the Senate voted on would bring it to $10.10 an hour, up from $7.25. She said the current wage is not "affordable" for anyone, regardless of where he or she lives.
"I think there’s a strong feeling that I share but that’s shared by the Obama administration too that if somebody’s working hard and they’re playing by the rules and they’re working full time plus, that should not put you below the poverty line," she said.
The state minimum wage in New Jersey is $8.25 an hour.
The conference was only for the afternoon. She admitted that she did not see president’s pet Portuguese Water Dog Bo during her visit. She also did not take a selfie of herself with the president the way Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz did recently. But she posted on her Twitter account a photo of herself at next to a screen that says White House.
Of the overall experience, she said: "It was exciting."
