The Press-Telegram couldn't get to the recent State of the City address in Downey, so I asked Mayor Mario A. Guerra to send along a draft of his speech to readers.
He didn't have the exact text of the speech but emailed his notes. They follow, in their unedited entirety, after the jump.
Mayor's 2009 Priorities & Programs
One
of my main priorities includes forming a Green Task Force to address
the City's environmental issues and ensure that it operates in a
positive, environmentally manner. The redevelopment of Downtown Downey
is another important priority, which seeks to bring new businesses to
town and attract more visitors. Porto's Cuban Bakery is set to open in
Downey within the next year it is expected to attract about 2,000
people each day to our downtown.
They have
invested almost $15,000,000 in our city and I see that as a sign that
we are doing some things right. Many cities tried to lure them and they
found Downey to be the right fit for many reasons, including our
business friendly approach.
I also seek to
reinforce and expand Public Information through a wide variety of
communication and media sources. A website sub-committee has been
created and will work together to establish effective communication
between the City and its residents.
The
reinforcement of the Emergency Preparedness Program is also underway,
with a committee already working with the local community to create
emergency procedure plans. A Citizen's Patrol and Youth Commission are
two other programs, which I hope to create within the next couple of
months. These programs will help encourage citizen participation and
create a stronger community.
The Diakonia
Award will be awarded monthly to residents who provide service to the
community. This "servant" award will help recognize those who give back
to the community and hopefully encourage others to do the same. With
over 92 churches in our city and 15 plus service organizations, our
city is made up of people giving of themselves to others and we are
very proud of that and should recognize this.
Financial Outlook
The
City of Downey is financially stable and will continue to provide the
same services and programs, without being forced to make any cuts. The
City of Downey's current fiscal budget for 2008-2009 is $138,371,450.
The budget is divided into 3 main parts: General Fund ($68,711,568),
Special Revenue Funds ($37,387,965), and Enterprise Funds (32,271,917).
The
General Fund is the biggest part of the budget consisting of general
tax revenues, allowing for the financing of the City's basic services.
Police and Fire continue to be the biggest part of the General Fund.
The Police Department makes up 41% and Fire makes up 25%. Public Safety
is, and will continue to be top priority. And because of the fiscal
responsibility shown by our leaders, today and in the past, we are
blessed with rainy day funds that are set aside for economic times such
as these. And although we have suffered some sales tax losses like
every other municipality, we are well positioned for the future
financially
City Departments
Police
I
take great pride in our Police Department. They do a terrific job in
combating crime. And we are still hiring since our council has approved
the expenditures of additional officers.We really do feel public safety
is our top priority as a city. Overall, crimes against persons are down
12.7%, but property crimes are up slightly at 2.7 %. This unfortunately
may be attributed to the economic climate. We continue to have a strong
field operations team. So far, we have had 4,330 arrests, 15,536
traffic citations and 25,867 parking citations. Here in Downey we have
a zero tolerance policy for Graffiti. Currently, there two full time
trucks that go out each day to remove graffiti from our City. I
encourage you all to call and report any Graffiti that you see in our
City. It will be cleaned up within 24 hours. This is one of my biggest
pet peeves, so please call 562-923-4484.
Fire Department
We
are also very proud to have our own Fire department. The City of Downey
is an independent city, meaning we have our own Police and Fire. We are
one of 53 cities in LA County to have this and for that we are very
proud. Our Fire Department was founded in 1957 and since then has
provided great, quality service to our community. Our four fire
stations are equipped with the best equipment to provide the services
needed.
Public Works
The
City's Public Works Department does in excellent job in maintaining our
streets, parks and community in good shape. We are not only putting
great emphasizes on serving the public, but also on going GREEN. Our
Keep Downey Beautiful Program exemplifies our commitment to being
environmentally friendly and helping keep our neighborhoods clean.
Community Services
This
department offers an unlimited amount of programs and activities for
people of all ages. We take great pride in our youth programs, Library
services, enrichment classes, our Barbara J. Riley Community &
Senior Center, our new Discovery Sports Complex and soon to open, our
Columbia Memorial Space Center. This fascinating new Center, will offer
youth the opportunity to explore space by engaging in hands on learning
activities. We were known as ' Home of Apollo " and our legacy
continues today with the space shuttle. We are very proud of this fact
and need to make sure our children know our history.
Water, Environment, and Open Space
Downey
continues to set forth water conservation efforts. An eight acre-foot
retention/detention basin was installed under our New City Park. To
this date, over 800 on site storm water retention systems for new
commercial and residential developments and remodeling projects have
also been installed. Congressman Steve Horn Way and Ardis Ave Inverted
Median Projects provide over 0.8 miles of street median storm water
infiltration facilities.
We also will continue
to strive towards keeping a clean and healthy environment and conduct
outreach to promote this around our city. From our Keep Downey
Beautiful Program, to promoting household hazardous waste and
Electronic Waste Collection events, to utilizing LED lights at 90% of
the City's Traffic System, Downey is dedicated to being environmentally
friendly.
Currently, there are plans to
relocate transit operations out of Apollo Park maintenance yard and
convert our maintenance yard to much needed park space.
Neighborhoods, Residents, and our Kids
Our
City is also lucky enough to be made up of great volunteers and
organizations that work together to make our community even greater.
The Downey Rose Float Association is a non-profit organization that is
made up of volunteers who work all year to make sure Downey has a Float
for the Tournament of Rose Parade. How lucky are we to have such a
caring and hardworking group of people!
Our
Neighborhood Watch Program, Farmer's Market, ASPIRE & Character
Counts programs all bring a great sense of community involvement and
make Downey the great City that it is.
Economic Development
Efforts
are underway for coming up with strategic plans to keep and attract new
businesses to the City. Soon coming to town are BJ'S Restaurant, Big
Boy, Porto's Bakery, Fresh & Easy and Kohl's. We have been very
aggressive in showing that we are a business friendly city and will
continue to work towards bringing in the type of business our residents
want and need. Our record points to this in the past few years.
Coca
Cola has just announced a $100,000,000 expansion to their Downey
facility, planned for late 2010. This includes adding 3 new production
lines. The facility is the largest bottling facility in the world. By
the way, the Dasani water brand that continues to grow, is basically
Downey water right from our wells 800 feet below us.
Coming
this May, we will be having a Restaurant Promotion Program, "Dine in
Downey," which is intended to help our local restaurant community. From
May 1 through May 16, 2009, we will be encouraging everyone to go dine
at Downey restaurants. This was brought forth after the Boiling Water
Incident from a couple of months ago. Our local restaurants lost a lot
of business during those couple of days and this is our way of helping
them out. We need to continue to be a business friendly city.
Planning for the Future
I
called for the City Council to hold its first City Council Planning
Sessions in over 30 years this past weekend. Our goal was to get to
know our departments more and set specific goals to accomplish with
direction specifically by the council, the elected officials in our
city.. We will prioritize council goals and strategies and we feel that
the benefits to planning now for our future sends a clear message We
want the best for the City..We also feel we are positioned for the
future and our guarded optimism is reflective in our budget and our
approach to community services.Our City continues to be one of the best
places to live in Southern
California and we are very blessed to be able to call Downey our home.
Thanks you for your continued support for our fine city truly believe that our future is unlimited
Paul Eakins reports on Long Beach City Hall, and local and regional
politics. A newcomer to the Press-
Kris Hanson reports on the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles,
covering environmental issues, economic triumphs and
pitfalls and trade trends of America’s largest port.
He also writes a weekly column “On The Waterfront”,
appearing Tuesdays, and also produces an occassional video
and column titled “On The Job,” which follows the hard-working
men and women who keep Southern California’s economy humming.
Karen Robes Meeks came to work for the Press-
I'm disappointed that the mayor did not mention our schools. The Downey Unified School District should be singled out for praise due to its consistent efforts in the community. The schools' staff and administration, including Dr. Doty at the top, continue to offer quality programs and demand excellence. The schools are one of this community's greatest strengths, and no opportunity to recognize the work they do should be overlooked.
I agree with Judy.
I agree, the Downey schools are excellent.