State of the City
April 28, 2008, 7 p.m., Garfield school.
First, I would like to thank Superintendent Estrop for making this wonderful new facility available to us this evening. Garfield School is a perfect example of what Lakewood can achieve when we work together, and it is particularly compelling because this building is a blend of the new and the old Lakewood.
I would also like to thank Council President Mike Dever and all of the members of Lakewood City Council for their attendance here this evening. Lakewood is fortunate to have an excellent City Council, and I say that not just because they have been supportive of my efforts in the first 100 days. Although, I would not say it is often or as loudly if they hadn't been. But, I say it because they have an oversight function, which I respect, and which they have exercised in these 100 days, and our local government is the better for it.
It is my mission here this evening to do two things: first, to briefly assess the current state of affairs of the City of Lakewood; and secondly, to outline your city government’s plans for action in any area of endeavor where we can move our city forward.
In just two years, our city will mark the 100th anniversary of its incorporation as a city. In those 100 years, the city has faced a succession of major changes, from the initial development of our current housing stock and infrastructure systems, the development of our commercial corridors, the economic upheaval during the Great Depression, to our rapidly growing population in the years following World War II and the development of Gold Coast area. Each generation of Lakewood leadership faced different challenges, but each generation found its way through the obstacles and preserved our city’s status as a strong and vibrant community.
In the last few years, however, a subtle change occurred in our public policy discussions here in Lakewood. As we began to face more traditionally urban problems, instead of facing these problems with the candor these situations demanded, it became popular or prevalent to deny that Lakewood had any significant problems. And anyone who claimed that Lakewood was facing a serious crisis ran the risk of being accused of lacking sufficient pride in our city. This approach to our civic dialogue had the additional political benefit of insulating our political leaders from any real responsibility for making progress against a formidable set of problems.
While this trend may have been politically convenient, the timing could not have been more inconvenient for Lakewood’s well-being. Because, as nearly everyone now admits, in the last few years, our city has faced a wave of challenges, any one of which would tax the ability of the city to deal with it. As far back as the 1980s, the poverty rate of our city began to climb. At the same time, the growth in our income tax revenue was anemic at best. Our housing stock, much of which was created at the beginning of the 20th century, was rapidly aging and required ever more vigilance and more investment. At the same time, the phenomenon of urban sprawl began to affect our city, as new investment, as well as affluent residents, began to leave Cleveland and inner-ring suburbs like Lakewood for the surrounding counties, taking their resources with them.
A city government, which had a reputation of being responsive, failed to adapt to changing fiscal realities and continued to increase the size of local government. Investments in technology were insufficient by any standard, and we did not match the productivity gains realized in the private sector. The number of employees and the resulting cost of city government continued to rise.
We eventually reached a peak of 555 full-time employees, while the number of total employees grew to in excess of 700. All of this took place while our population was falling from a high of over 70,000 down to nearly 50,000. Consequently, a budget surplus of millions of dollars dwindled down to almost nothing.
And all of this happened just at the moment in time when we needed those resources more than ever before, creating a perfect storm of civic challenges which truly threatened this city. The sub-prime mortgage crisis, with the resulting wave of foreclosures began impacting our city's neighborhoods. Over the last 10 years, there was a slow increase in crime, until it has reached the boiling point in some of our neighborhoods. Our police department responded admirably to the situation. Our officers are more productive than ever and the number of arrests increased almost every year. But despite their best efforts, there's no doubt that the overall security of our neighborhoods has declined, and that is a story which is told not only by crime statistics, but it is a story that all of us have heard from our friends and neighbors, or perhaps that we have experienced ourselves.
Last year's municipal elections stood for one simple, overriding principle: the voters of Lakewood knew that their city was in trouble. And they insisted that we do something about it, immediately. So, we have.
In December, we brought in the state auditor's office to confirm what we already knew- that our city was more than $4 million in debt, and decisive action must be taken. Working together with City Council, we passed a city budget, which for the first time in recent memory, actually spends less money than the previous year's budget. Not “less” as a rate of spending, or any other definition of “less” according to an accounting trick. I mean, literally, it spends less money than the year before. This was not possible without tremendous sacrifices that were made by city employees. Health care plans were changed, benefits were limited, and positions were also eliminated. And although some of the decisions were painful, this is the first time that city officials can tell their constituents that their local government is actually getting smaller.
As the Plain Dealer noted in their recent news coverage and editorials, many suburbs are facing the same set of challenges as we are, while also finding themselves in a precarious financial position.
But we are taking this crisis as an opportunity. Our goal now is not to just survive, but to be a regional and even national model in overcoming these issues. It was not enough for us to simply rein in our budget, or reduce the size of our local government so that we could limp along to the next year. Our goal was to make cuts of such a magnitude that we would have available funds to take action on the crucial issues which I just described.
In particular, our goal was to have funds available to make investments in four major areas: public safety, our housing stock, technology, and economic development. It would have been easier to defer these investments to another day, when we might have more funds available. But these problems just can’t wait. And many of our residents are not in any mood to wait for action on housing or public safety. So the time to act was now, and we passed a budget which allows us to respond.
At the same time, we have demonstrated beyond any shadow of a doubt that we are rapidly restoring fiscal stability and responsibility to the city, and we are regaining the trust of our people to handle their financial affairs. This year I will be proposing a Rainy Day Fund to encourage us to save even more for the future. And this year’s budget was not only balanced, it also provided for a $500,000 surplus, the largest budgeted surplus in four years.
Not spending more money than we take in is a basic principle we must live by. My parents, who grew up in the Depression, taught me to live within my means, and I bet your parents taught you the same thing. Businesses and families abide by that principle, and your government should too. And that kind of fiscal responsibility is not a Republican Party principle or a Democratic Party principle, it’s an American principle, and I’m determined to make it a guiding policy of Lakewood government.
Lakewood residents are getting fed up with crime, and they wanted a local government that approached crime as a public safety problem, not just a public relations problem. I agree with them.
Last week, after forming a task force made up of myself, Chief Malley, our city prosecutor, residents in the community, as well as the Captains of Lakewood Police Department, we unveiled a 25-point public safety program for Lakewood.
Its primary points include adding four new full-time police officers, adding up to 10 part-time officers, instituting neighborhood police stations across the community, working aggressively with the Lakewood Schools, county, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, and setting up block clubs and block watches in every single neighborhood in Lakewood.
The good news is that the residents are responding. They are signing up for block clubs and block watches in record numbers, they are embracing our more visible and aggressive law enforcement tactics, and they are welcoming the change to a neighborhood-based law enforcement strategy. And I am particularly proud that our police department is embracing this change of strategy as well, for they are full partners in this effort to restore our previous levels of safety to this community.
I plan on taking the same approach with our housing crisis- a very focused task force followed immediately by implementation of an action plan. One of our citizen working groups has already laid the groundwork for this effort. By this July, we will have our plan for re-inventing our building department complete, and we will enter a new era of high expectations for our homes, high-rises and commercial areas. Working together with Lakewood Community Progress, Inc., one of our local non-profit organizations, we will be funding a major neighborhood-based housing strategy. Every neighborhood will receive an annual quality of life assessment, with a plan for correcting deficiencies, working with homeowners to improve their properties, and, when necessary, citing and prosecuting unresponsive property owners. And if that unresponsive owner happens to be a major financial institution, that will not shield them, because our law department is poised to use every means at our disposal to enforce our standards, whether it be against the owner down the street , or a bank in New York or Los Angeles.
Also, for the first time, we have set aside funds to directly purchase foreclosed and abandoned properties. We can then turn these properties over to a non-profit corporation, and the proceeds from any sale will go into a fund to purchase more properties.
The use of community groups and non-profit corporations is one creative way to achieve our hopes for Lakewood. A public purpose does not need to always be performed by a public employee paid a salary by the taxpayers. Community organizations and volunteers play a crucial role, and sometimes elected officials just need to get out of the way and let them do what they do best. Part of the way to evaluate the strength of a community is by the number and activism of its civic organizations, and by this standard, Lakewood is still strong. Part of my role as mayor is to encourage the citizens, through these organizations, to take a larger role in our civic affairs. As one example, a few weeks ago, I invited all of the pastors of all of the various faith communities in Lakewood to City Hall to meet with us and discuss issues of mutual concern, an invitation that had not been extended to them in over four years.
And while relying on those outside government is wise, we are also mindful that we must establish the highest possible standards for public service in Lakewood. My goal is to establish a merit system within City Hall. Bit by bit, we are changing a culture which placed too much emphasis on who you knew as opposed to the quality of work. We have employees who have worked for the city for 20 years, and have never been evaluated. That is a failure of management, not the workers. And I am happy to report that many of the employee unions are embracing the need for change and are making suggestions for new ways of providing services.
We recognize that Lakewood cannot lead the way in the efficient and effective delivery of services unless we modernize our technological systems. As in other areas, we convened a working group made up of Lakewood residents with technical expertise. Their report, done in conjunction with our own IS Department, provides a roadmap for sweeping technological changes both within Lakewood City Hall and without. We have already identified productivity improvements and cost savings which we can realize this year. The transformation of our city website into an accessible and truly interactive mode of communication has begun and will continue throughout the year. At a minimum, we need to establish internet wireless corridors on Detroit and Madison Avenues, and we are exploring possibly sharing technical capabilities with the Lakewood School District. Our long range goal is to transform our information technologies into an integrated data management and business process system, which ultimately improves customer service for our residents.
Even under all of the financial pressure we faced this year, we continued to fund wide-ranging economic development efforts, for both large developers, and small entrepreneurs. We must, even in difficult times, continue to foster economic growth, develop parking, and fill retail vacancies. We’ve established a stronger working relationship with the Lakewood Chamber of Commerce, and we are determined to build a more business friendly environment to encourage entrepreneurship. I will be presenting legislation to City Council in the coming months which will embody these changes, including the encouragement of environmentally friendly development.
With all of the talk of technical processes and budget line items, we may be at risk of forgetting the human side of who we are working for. Lakewood has an admirable tradition of providing for the most vulnerable in our community. And, despite the recent round of budget cuts, we still have the largest human services department of any suburb in Cuyahoga County. We will still be providing services like parenting programs, juvenile diversion programs, scholarships for child care, Family-to-Family services to keep kids out of the child welfare system, H20, emergency shelter services for those on the verge of homelessness, support for young families at the Family Room, transportation services for seniors, as well as cleaning services and nutrition services, and volunteer programs so that the aged don’t languish in isolation.
And we are trying to do more, although in somewhat different ways. We are partnering with the Lakewood Schools and the Cleveland Clinic to begin a new wellness program based at Harrison School, an effort I would like to expand to the entire city. We’ll be spearheading a new effort to insure greater participation of those eligible for the earned income tax credit. And we are taking the lead in bringing all of the providers of human services in Lakewood- whether they be public, private, or non-profit- together at the same table so that we can build a new community network of support for those most in need.
We also have a special responsibility to honor the veterans who have sacrificed for our country. Working with local veterans, we are redesigning and improving our Veteran’s Memorial at Lakewood Park. Also, this year we will be “adopting” a military unit serving our country overseas in Iraq or Afghanistan.
And we must continue to do this kind of work, because it is a part of a social justice mission which I believe in, and I think this city shares that belief. And to paraphrase one of my favorite American leaders, we must do these things, not just because the laws of God and man demand it, although they do; not because in the long run, these programs are economically advantageous, although they are; we must do these things because it is the right thing to do.
The common theme in all of these initiatives which you will see in the coming months and years is that they will be neighborhood-based. Your personal participation is essential to the success of these programs. Beginning in June, we will begin taking government services out of City Hall and bringing them to you directly, one neighborhood at a time. We have divided the city up into approximately 50 separate neighborhoods, and, on a rotating basis, our city departments will focus on those areas, bring resources to bear, talk to residents, and resolve problems. I personally will be walking the streets of those neighborhoods and conducting neighborhood meetings where we can exchange ideas and get things accomplished. By building a closer connection between Lakewood government and residents, we can become real partners in not just complaining about problems, or denying their existence, but by confronting them and overcoming them.
And that is why I am optimistic about our future. The state of the city is that we are being challenged. But I can report to you that we are up to the challenge, and that the residents of Lakewood have a lot of fight in them and they are coming through for this town. I am optimistic because I see the beginning of a true community effort. And that is why, years from now, when people ask me how we did it, I’m going to be happy to give all of you the credit you deserve for believing in Lakewood and all our possibilities.
Thank you very much.
