Obama to meet with new mayors at White House to talk jobs

WASHINGTON -- President Obama will meet Friday with a group of newly elected mayors, including Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and New York Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, for a discussion on job creation, a White House official said.

The president plans to discuss federal-local partnerships that could spur growth, the official said.

Obama has regularly tried to engage local officials on his largely stalled economic agenda. His plans for creating jobs by increasing spending on roads, bridges, ports and other projects have found little traction with Republicans in Washington. But they have at times been embraced by state and local officials eager for federal help in their region.

“Mayors understand that smart investments in things like American manufacturing and infrastructure help provide good jobs for middle-class families while providing a foundation for long-term economic success,” said the official, who asked not to be named discussing a meeting that had not been formally announced.

The group includes mayors and mayors-elect, mostly Democrats, from a dozen states, including Boston Mayor-elect Martin Walsh, Detroit Mayor-elect Mike Duggan, Minneapolis Mayor-elect Betsy Hodges, Harrisburg, Pa., Mayor-elect Eric Papenfuse and St. Petersburg, Fla., Mayor-elect Rick Kriseman.

“I look forward to working closely with mayors from across the country on how we can share ideas to create jobs and solve problems in our cities and how we can collectively make a difference on the national level,” Garcetti said in a statement issued by his office.

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Kathleen.hennessey@latimes.com

Twitter: @khennessey