by Paul Bass | Mar 12, 2012 5:40 pm

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Posted to: City Hall

“High energy.” “Confident.”

Those adjectives were the first to come to Mayor John DeStefano’s mind after he got his first chance to size up President Barack Obama.

DeStefano got that opportunity Monday afternoon. He joined 13 other municipal officials from around the country—in D.C. for a National League of Cities conference—in the Roosevelt Room of the White House for a POTUS rap session.

The mayor had met Obama before, but only in passing. This was his first policy discussion.

First the group met for 20 minutes with top presidential economic adviser Gene Sperling. Then Obama and aide Valerie Jarrett joined them. For the next 40 minutes, the visitors took turns describing the issues at the top of their agendas, and the president offered responses.

DeStefano said in an interview afterwards that he brought up school reform, the need for more help training and linking out-of-work New Haveners to jobs in the city’s eds-and-meds economy, the need for more help for community colleges’ role in that jobs effort, and the need for action on immigration.

He brought up the immigration point last.

“We have a large immigration population. Most of it is undocumented,” DeStefano said he told the president. He noted that the population is “disproportionately entrepreneurial.”

Obama responded by addressing the community college question. He agreed it is important.

The mayor is expected back in town by Tuesday evening, when he plans to attend Gov. Dannell Malloy’s public meeting at Wilbur Cross High School on education reform.