It was a sunny day at the nation’s Capital on Thursday, October 18, as First Selectman Dan Rosenthal and Newtown Police Chief James Viadero moved through the White House ahead of a three-hour informational summit with dozens of colleagues from across Connecticut and Rhode Island at the adjacent Executive Office Building.

The Newtown officials and nearly 100 others were summoned to attend one of the Trump administration’s White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs (IGA) informational conferences.

The IGA serves as the primary liaison between the White House and state, county, local, and tribal governments. The office focuses on building and maintaining relationships with state and local officials.

Part of this process includes welcoming the country’s state and local leaders to the White House for events.

“There were some other Fairfield County towns represented, and I saw some people from eastern Connecticut were there,” Mr Rosenthal told The Newtown Bee. “Since there is no county government in Connecticut, they reached out to a number of towns across the state, either to the elected official or the police department. In our case, Chief Viadero got the call.”

“There were a number of chiefs from Connecticut and Rhode Island who had some questions and had a brief amount of time to ask questions,” Chief Viadero said.

Among the Washington officials on hand were White House representatives Doug Hoelscher, deputy assistant to the president and director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs; William Crozer, special assistant to the president and deputy director of Intergovernmental Affairs; and Stephen Munisteri, deputy assistant to the president and principal deputy director of White House Office of Public Liaison.

Trump Cabinet representatives on hand included Administrator Linda McMahon of the US Small Business Administration; General Mick Zais, deputy secretary of the US Department of Education; Mark Menezes, under secretary of the US Department of Energy; Mike Platt, assistant secretary of legislative & intergovernmental affairs for the US Department of Commerce; Chris Syrek, deputy chief of staff for the US Department of Veteran Affairs; and James Akin, special advisor for intergovernmental affairs at the US Department of Housing & Urban Development.

Senior Administration Officials briefed attendees on administration priorities, with a focus on small business regulations, workforce, commerce, education, energy, and veteran affairs priorities, noting their importance to Rhode Island and Connecticut. IGA has almost completed a two-year initiative to host county commissioners and municipal officials from across the nation at the White House for conversations on improving the federal-local relationship and to advance shared priorities.

“Linda McMahon spoke about things that the Small Business Administration was doing, then we heard from a representative from the Department of Education,” Mr Rosenthal said. “One key point we heard was that the state is getting more money for the opioid epidemic.”

“McMahon also talked about some of the things they were doing to change the stringent regulations that are hampering business,” Chief Viadero said.

“And at some point or another, our department is dealing with veterans who may need services,” Chief Viadero said. “And since our department has a number of veterans as well, I thought the deputy chief from Veterans Affairs had some pretty interesting things to say and that was a good resource to meet. Most of the agencies were not related to law enforcement, although the deputy secretary for education did talk about school security and a number of grants that will be coming down for that.”

It is the administration’s hope that connecting state and local elected officials with White House officials and others in federal departments and agencies improves those relationships, promotes federalism, and advances shared priorities, according to the IGA.

“I give them credit for the effort,” Mr Rosenthal said. “They said it was the first time they had attempted this kind of outreach process, and the experience was nice.”

The Thursday visit began with a self-guided tour of the White House, before the first selectman and chief headed across the street to the Executive Office Building.

“They provided me a list of e-mails and phone numbers of all the pertinent contacts within the federal government that I might need,” Mr Rosenthal said.

“It was important to sort of put names to faces in the process of getting that resource list,” Chief Viadero said. “It was good to hear about those resources first hand, and the message I heard loud and clear was the administration wanted to hear from us if we needed their services — and in most cases, if we called on them now, we’d hear back the same day.”

“Making the connection was a positive, but the visit was more informational than interactive,” Mr Rosenthal added. “If anything, I thought there could have been a bit more time for questions at the end.”

Mr Rosenthal said he was interested in the entire process of visiting these secure federal facilities — experiencing everything from the meticulous security process before entering the White House to taking in the splendid and intricate design elements as he and Chief Viadero explored the halls of the Executive Office Building.