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See the State of The City Watch it on KLTV-8 on Cable through March:
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2010 State of the City
Mayor Bob Murphy presented his annual State of the City address at a March 10, 2010, benefit luncheon sponsored by the Lakewood Foothills Rotary Club to benefit several Lakewood nonprofits such as the Jeffco Action Center and programs at Warren Tech. The text of his remarks follows:
Welcome and thank you for coming to this first State of the City luncheon. I want to thank the Lakewood Foothills Rotary Club for approaching us with this opportunity to bring the State of the City from the studio out to the community and at the same time help raise funds for their important work right here in Lakewood. I want to thank FirstBank for stepping forward to be the title sponsor, all the table sponsors, and to each of you for coming.
The State of the City sounds like a serious event, and you might want to treat it like the State of the Union. But please...keep the standing ovations to a minimum! I’m kidding, of course.
In all seriousness, the annual State of the City is a great opportunity for the mayor to let the community know how the City is currently doing and our direction for the future.
Successful communities understand and honor their past, yet always build toward that future. Today I am going to tell a story about such a place. It’s a city that’s still young in years but has been and continues to be built neighborhood by neighborhood, park by park, business by business with a very considered and deliberate strategy. As you’ll hear, it’s a strategic plan we follow everyday, and because of that our table is set for a future that is bright indeed.
It’s a story about wise decisions made by those who came before us – decisions that laid the foundations for our citizen-driven form of government, for our status as a safe community and for a quality of life that is symbolized for many by the strategy to set aside one-fourth of the city, over 7,000 acres, for parks, trails and open space.
It’s a story about partnerships like those between City planners and residents who come together to design neighborhood plans. It's about partnerships with our schools that allow our Community Resources Department a chance to enhance students’ classroom experience by offering programs that we do best such as those in after-school arts and sports.
Partnerships with our business community that help create jobs and bring in the revenues that allow us to provide the high level of services our citizens expect and deserve. We partner with our providers of affordable housing and much needed services for our seniors. And, of course, partnerships with our wonderful volunteers and service clubs who provide countless hours of service to the City and to so many community organizations.
It’s a story about foresight, not just by our founding fathers (and mothers!), but by all of you who just five years ago agreed to invest in your community, a decision that laid the foundation for our current financial stability. And, it’s a foresight that continues today as your City leaders work with the entire community to plan together for our future.
And, I just have to say this, in an age of frustration and even some anger toward government, it’s a story about how government can be good, if policies are driven by the common vision of neighbors, businesses and their citizen leaders, and carried out by a professional staff dedicated to customer service.
So, you see, it’s really a story about success, one that is ultimately about all of you, and your untiring commitment to this place, you call home.
Now on to the “state” of our city. It’s a state our Finance Director Larry Dorr calls “cautious but stable.” Now, Larry is an accountant, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I would go further. As you will hear, because of prudent management by Larry and so many others, because of plans now in place for an incredibly exciting next few years and because of a unique series of huge investments currently underway, I would say that Lakewood, already a vibrant, livable community, is a city truly poised for greatness!
It’s no secret that 2009 was a difficult year. It was tough for many of us, trying to stretch our budgets. If you’re like me, you probably cut back. You bought only what you absolutely needed, certainly not everything you wanted. That’s understandable, but the fact is the revenue stream for cities in Colorado to provide services to you is largely based upon sales tax. We all bought less, so that vital part of the City’s income was down about 8 percent, which is about $4 million. That’s real money!
But there was good news too. Other revenues, like those from the construction and investment activity I’ll get to in a minute, were up. And, like you, our staff found a way to spend less. Your City spent less in its 2009 General Fund than it did in 2008, and we plan to spend even less this year than we did in either of the prior two years.
We are doing this without cutting a single service and with no layoffs or furloughs. We are doing this with the grocery food sales tax now eliminated. We can do this because we are cautious, and diligent. A hiring freeze last year left 29 positions unfilled. In order to save money in 2010, our dedicated employee group will sacrifice. Those who merit raises will wait an extra three months to receive them.
Again, the table for this financial stability was set by all of you in 2005. This allowed us to nearly triple our savings account in just five years. Your willingness to invest one extra penny in sales tax, and our careful management, has led us to be the envy of many neighboring communities.
By the way, you can now follow every penny of City expenses online through the new Lakewood Ledger. It’s just another example of our belief that better technology leads to greater citizen participation.
As I’ve been saying, prosperous communities are those that build strong foundations. The most fundamental of these is public safety. Forty years ago, the table for this was set when the City’s first leaders had the foresight to require that our police agents have a college degree. It was a bit revolutionary at the time, but it was the beginning of the “culture of excellence” that continues today in the Lakewood Police Department. City Council believes safety is such a core community value that we continue to allocate nearly half of our General Fund dollars to our Police, Courts and their direct support services. The result is a department consistently rated as one of the best in the nation. In fact, recently Division Chief John Camper became the 64th Lakewood agent to become chief of another agency by accepting that role in Grand Junction.
Business is another crucial foundation. During the last decade, the City has worked hard to ensure we have a varied and thriving array of shops, restaurants and entertainment venues. They provide products, services and employment opportunities for our residents. And, the increasing choices available are now drawing others to Lakewood and provide those much needed sales tax dollars to pay for our police, parks and streets.
We have stores from the large – like Wal-marts represented here today – to the small – like the locally owned Wystone’s Tea in Belmar and the Village Roaster with two Lakewood locations. We have stalwart community anchors such as Pickering’s Auto and Rockley Music. We have everything from high-end clothing stores to businesses with an international flair like the Taste of Denmark and the House of Windsor. And more choices are on the way! In 2010 we hope to hear some exciting announcements about new nationally known retailers coming to Belmar.
This year, we are taking more steps to create a strong foundation for jobs by focusing on our small businesses, the lifeblood of sustained job creation.
Our first step was to move the Economic Development Division into the Mayor and City Manager’s Office, signaling the commitment City Council has to helping all of our new and existing businesses thrive.
This move has already resulted in several exciting new initiatives unfolding now through May. First, we launched “Lakewood…Open for Business,” a new program on KLTV8. This 30-minute show promotes and encourages support for local businesses, and it will visit favorite haunts of Lakewood consumers as well as visionary new start-ups. Each month it will focus on the interesting people, restaurants, stores and companies that make Lakewood a unique business community. For those of you who don’t have cable television, the show is also available on-demand on the City’s website for viewing at any time.
The next initiative we’re rolling out is the Business Bar, conveniently located in the Economic Development Office at City Hall. It will serve as a one-stop shop for business owners and potential entrepreneurs to perform market research, find educational tools and receive one-on-one business counseling. The Business Bar is the result of a partnership with the Jefferson County Business Resource Center and the West Chamber of Commerce.
We will also be launching the Business Academy, which will expand the City’s existing small-business support. This program is designed to mirror a small business school, providing an increased level of financial and technical support to participants who complete courses. The academy assists in developing the skills needed in three important areas of the life of a business – the startup phase, the growth phase, and the expansion phase. Our goal is to launch and grow businesses right here in Lakewood.
We are also working within the City toward a local purchasing program along with a “green” purchasing effort.
We’ve also taken a new business-friendly approach to minor small business code violations such as improper signage. Now one of our economic development specialists makes the first visit with a business before involving a code enforcement officer. Most of these minor issues are easily resolved by the sharing of information. We also take the opportunity while visiting that business to provide information on the business support initiatives I just outlined. We believe this is one more step forward in our positive relationship with the business community. Of course repeat offenders will ultimately receive that code enforcement visit.
We have been building other foundations. For more than 15 years, Lakewood residents have been able to create long-term plans for their neighborhoods. These plans bring neighbors together to discuss what makes their neighborhood unique. In the end, they create an outline of what’s important to the neighborhood and a vision for what residents want their neighborhood to become.
Nowhere has this effort been more critical than in the neighborhoods adjoining Colfax Avenue. I spoke earlier about the many significant investments currently underway in Lakewood. The largest of these is the West Corridor Light Rail line, a once-in-a-lifetime public investment. We are fortunate and grateful to have this first FasTracks line coming to our community. For five years, we have been working with our businesses and neighbors along both 13th Avenue and Colfax to ensure that changes brought by the light rail will serve as an asset to these historic neighborhoods while also helping to revitalize Colfax Avenue.
Part of this planning has created new zone districts that are designed to facilitate the best development in the right locations. These districts allow property owners more uses on their land and open Colfax to new possibilities. They promote increased life and vibrancy on Colfax by encouraging people to live and work closer to stores, restaurants and the new rail stations. In fact, we expect ground to break this year at Colfax and Garrison on a new transit oriented development of offices and retail to be developed by the Lakewood firm Weston Solutions.
The most exciting ideas usually come from our citizens. That’s what’s happening at the Oak Street Station. Our Advisory Commission for an Inclusive Community thought it would be wonderful to try to acquire the exquisitely restored Car #25 that used to run on the west corridor and find a home for it at Oak Street. This “back-to-the-future” vision includes fundraising for a working center to restore old rail cars and a museum on the site. Visitors, students and residents could soon see history come alive! We are grateful to the commission, two local rail groups and to Council member Ed Peterson for working to make this vision a reality.
On the other end of the city in the Rooney Valley, long years of planning with community members as well as with the town of Morrison and Jefferson County have laid a foundation for an innovative future. It is home to one of the first agreements in the state for sharing tax revenues. The Rooney Valley Association is focused on making this a premier destination for residents, visitors and new businesses. It is already home to yet another significant investment, as Carma Colorado has already brought more than $100 million into Lakewood to begin creating Solterra, one of the most distinctive residential communities in the metro area. And it’s working! During a difficult time for home sales, more than 100 homes have been sold at an average price of nearly $700,000!
This planning could also lead to the creation of a hub for sustainable development focused on clean energy and high-tech jobs.
More investment is taking place at the Federal Center, already Lakewood’s largest employment hub. Our work with the General Services Administration to create a new master plan and annex the site into the City is now paying dividends. The federal government just announced an injection of over $200 million to improve the World War II vintage infrastructure, add solar technology, and invest in new construction. We can see the beginnings of that work with the activity along Alameda. A lesser known part of all this is an agreement we have in place with GSA to look for the opportunity to build recreational fields on the site near Kipling and Alameda for shared use with their employees and our residents.
Of course, the shining symbol of this partnership can now be seen rising at the St. Anthony Medical Campus. Through the amazing work of the hospital administration and its contractor G.E. Johnson, who are both represented here today, the first phase, Ortho Colorado, will open months ahead of schedule on June 7. The larger acute-care section of St. Anthony will open later next year. The campus also includes two medical office buildings opening in the near future.
Why have I spent the last few minutes talking about investment in Lakewood? It’s simple: jobs and the quality of life that comes with having a good one. The St. Anthony campus will bring more than 2,000 jobs that didn’t exist in Lakewood. These are permanent workers who will shop, dine and perhaps buy homes here, in turn creating more employment opportunities for all.
And, during these tough times, the St. Anthony site will have 1,000 craft personnel on-hand at the peak of construction to add to the hundreds of jobs created during the construction of the West Corridor Light Rail.
But let’s never forget that the most important investment for our future is in our kids, and the City is actively working along the entire educational continuum from preschool through college. The story of our recent work with the Jefferson County School Board to keep O’Connell Middle School open is well-known and has been personally the most rewarding endeavor in my time in public office. It is rewarding because it shows what our culture of collaboration can accomplish. It's exciting to foresee O’Connell with a new International Baccalaureate program. O'Connell should become a magnet for achieving students and families while anchoring eastern Lakewood for years to come. I also have to mention the incredible work business leader George Valuck, Council member Sue King and District Attorney Scott Storey are doing to bring Jefferson County’s first-ever Boys and Girls Club to O’Connell. The club will be a major positive influence for the kids in our community.
But this story is just the most visible of the many partnerships the City has with education. For years we have utilized our existing resources to offer after-school arts and sports programs to middle school students. We have deliberately built frameworks of support around these schools, with recreation centers at Carmody and the Link, with school resource officers, and one police substation. But it isn’t just middle schools. Support includes resource officers at high schools as well.
We also lay the early educational foundations by providing Head Start and preschool programs. We are proud that our newest Head Start facility is under construction and set to open next year. It will be within walking distance of a light rail station, providing a key link to transportation options.
Our partnerships extend to higher education as well. We are working hard with Colorado Christian University to ensure this important institution that began here more than 75 years ago can remain here to grow in and with our community. We’re working closely with the Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design near JCRS to facilitate some very exciting growth objectives over the next four years.
It’s safe to say we work weekly in some capacity with Red Rocks Community College, founded here the same year Lakewood became a city in 1969.
Red Rocks is leading the way in educating and training workers for the renewable energy fields. It has received state and national recognition for curriculum in this area, including the first wind turbine program in the state.
Our commitment to fostering jobs in this field is reflected in our becoming part of the Greening Lakewood Business Partnership. This program is the first of its kind, and its mission is to bring energy efficiency to older, existing office and commercial buildings in Lakewood. At the same time it will provide job training for many including military veterans, especially those now returning from service. The launch of this program received national attention through a recent visit to Lakewood from Holly Petraeus, the wife of General David Petraeus.
Central to this is the cutting-edge curriculum that Red Rocks has created. It includes programs that teach energy auditing, renewable retrofits and the packaging of financial tools.
Working with Red Rocks, the Veterans Green Jobs program has helped mobilize military veterans to enroll at the college – with many thanks to Joan Smith, the driving force behind these efforts. The City has contributed by working with Xcel Energy, banks and the Governor’s Energy Office to facilitate funding for the businesses to pay for the retrofits.
Our commitment to the new energy economy is also reflected in the hiring of a sustainability coordinator. Funded through federal stimulus dollars, this new position will allow us to work to reduce the City's energy costs and to recruit new energy companies to Lakewood. This will help make Jefferson County a true hub for job creation in this industry. We believe we are on our way already with Lakewood serving as the headquarters for innovative companies like Abengoa Solar and ZeaChem.
This focus on partnerships includes those among elected officials at the regional, state and federal level. Council member Ed Peterson is immediate past chair of the Denver Regional Council of Governments, and Council member Diana Allen is on the board of the Colorado Municipal League and I currently chair the 39-member Metro Mayors Caucus. It’s important for Lakewood to be at the table at every level to ensure we seize every opportunity that comes our way.
The most important partnership is the one we have together: residents, businesses, City staff and elected officials. Just like that great idea about the trolley at Oak Street, we want to hear your insights and thoughts on all City issues such as the Zoning Ordinance we are now working to refine.
An important role in that partnership will show up in your mailboxes this month. It’s the 2010 Census form. We need your help in ensuring everyone in the community is counted because this important national count determines the number of representatives we have in Congress and brings your federal tax dollars back to our community. And, by the way, with all our discussion today about jobs, the Regional Census Bureau is located right here in Lakewood, employing hundreds of people now!
And finally, we are in a new era of leadership at the City of Lakewood. As most of you know, our longest-serving city manager retired last year, and normally these changes at the top can be rocky for organizations. Not so for Lakewood.
Kathy Hodgson has taken the helm, providing a flawless transition. Kathy has been with the City for 29 years. She knows Lakewood well because she has spent her entire career here serving the public.
She is committed to cooperation, open discussions and reaching out to the community. Just ask her how many times she spoke to homeowners’ associations, service clubs and business groups during the first months of her tenure as city manager.
If there is one thing you should know about Kathy, it is her dedication to collaborative planning and problem-solving. It’s her style to find innovative solutions that benefit the entire community.
I am proud of the state of our city. I'm proud of what we've accomplished, what the community has invested and the promise that we have for our future. You should be proud because we have built solid foundations together:
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