Mayors mixed on Reagan pledge

When President Reagan's statement of greetings to the heavily Democratic US Conferene of Mayors annual meeting was read aloud, there was warm clapping from every corner for the chief executive's pledge to work with the cities in a "meaningful partnership," Monitor correspondent Lucia Mouat reports. But Democrats an Republicans here appear clearly split along partisan lines over whether on not Mr. Reagan's budget trims and the channeling of remaining aid to cities via the states will really accomplish what the President intends.

In his remarks at the opening session Richard Hatcher, president of the conference and head of the black caucus of the Democratic National Committee, said Mr. Reagan's "federal retreat" in effect asks the cities to volunteer as "guinea pigs" in an untested experiment which Mr. Hatcher suspects is "unsound."

As one of the President's two representatives at this conference, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Samuel Pierce protested that a curb on inflation and the added development stimulated by the President's policies would, in the end, help cities more than straight dollar aid.

"The Reagan administration is not anti-city and will not abandon t he cities, " he said.