Kurth keeps optimism in annual speech

Our business community has felt the effects of the economy. Some Rancho Cucamonga businesses have had to reduce staffing levels, cut back on operating hours or even close their doors completely. It seems that many businesses -- from small independent companies to large financial institutions to major retail giants like Circuit City and Mervyn's -- have been the unlucky casualties of this unpredictable economy. As a result, unemployment has soared across the nation. According to the State Employment Development Department, Rancho Cucamonga's annual unemployment rate for 2009 was 8.7 percent as compared to 5.1 percent in 2008. This is a significant difference.

The recession has hit local city governments particularly hard.

The need for our services in Rancho Cucamonga is up and our revenue to pay for them are down. Today, the state's budget crisis still looms and once again the state's solution to this problem is to balance its budget by taking local redevelopment monies.

For Rancho Cucamonga, this means a takeaway of nearly $39 million from the Redevelopment Agency. If this proposal is successful it will greatly impact several critical infrastructure and community facilities projects in our city such as the I-15 and Arrow off-ramp, as well as future phases of Central Park. Over the past decade, our Redevelopment Agency has been responsible for funding or enabling many significant infrastructure projects such as the Have grade separation, Foothill Boulevard street widening and traffic safety improvements, police and fire facilities and countless other projects, which have met local needs and facilitated private investment and the creation of jobs in our community. According to the Sacramento Regional Research Institute economic multipliers model, the loss of these redevelopment funds statewide equates to a loss of approximately 37,000 jobs and untold loss of private investment and expansion. The message we need to continue to express to the state is balance the budget within your own financial means. I know we have the support of our local state legislators -- Sen. Bob Dutton and Assemblyman Bill Emmerson -- thank you very much for respecting local government finances.

Needless to say, we are doing all the necessary things to help address these challenges. First, we have joined the California Redevelopment Association's lawsuit which challenges the constitutionality of the state's takeaway of redevelopment funds. CRA was successful in its first lawsuit and we hope to have the same success this time as well.

We are also actively competing for many federal stimulus funds that will sustain jobs in the community. For example, we recently applied and were successful in receiving an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant that will allow us to offer our residents an opportunity to improve and enhance energy efficiency in their homes. This grant will also support the city's "green team" in the development of the sustainability action plan.

Another example is our building permit fee deferral program. This program defers development impact fees for one year and allows plan check and permit extensions for up to 2 years.

However, despite the turmoil in the economy Rancho Cucamonga is still the golden city on the hill. We've done this by prudent financial planning and maintaining a strong vision of a balanced community. In turn this has allowed significant private investment in the community.

And I have got to tell you. This is not just about me as your mayor. Everything we do as your leaders, we do as a council and all five of us participate in all of our decisions. In fact, it is really a partnership of council and staff making decisions with all the community input we can possibly get.

One growing retail chain with a significant investment in Rancho is Fresh and Easy Neighborhood Markets. As most of you now know, Fresh and Easy is a grocery chain that offers a wide range of healthy and freshly prepared meals. They recently opened one store in the Victoria Gateway Center at Foothill and Vineyard in the Thomas Winery Plaza Center. Plans for a third store have been proposed by the retailer and we are very excited about the news. The introduction of these new Fresh and Easy Markets to Rancho Cucamonga is certainly a sign that the local economy is on the rebound. But what is equally exciting for the city is the fact that the company is making significant investment in Rancho Cucamonga all at one time.

One other company deciding to make Rancho Cucamonga their home for their recent expansion is Gentex. For those of you that don't know, the Gentex Corporation Western Operations is an innovative technology company recognized as a world leader in the design, development, and manufacture of aircrew life support equipment. They have recently expanded into a 100,000 square foot building, more than twice their current building size. Their long-term lease is valued at $8 million. It is anticipated that the new Gentex facility could eventually add an additional 100 jobs to its current workforce of technicians, engineers and administrative staff.

Victoria Gardens has also seen new additions to its retail mix. For example, Dukez, a men's apparel store located across from the food hall on North Mainstreet and Beach Bums (beach, surf and casual wear) opened recently on Kew Street. And opening later next month will be Paisano's Ristorante Italiano near the AMC Theatres and Candelas, an upscale Mexican restaurant, which will be located near Flemming's.

Also, back with a new prototype to expand its appeal is Shakey's, which opened a few months back. Shakey's offers some exceptional high-tech amenities. The main dining room features a double sided jumbo sports entertainment screen as well as multiple surrounding flat screens showcasing a variety of programming; the party room has its own set of flat screens designed to accommodate guest-supplied videos; and Shakey's classic game room is filled with digital and old-school arcade favorites for kids young and old.

But more importantly, Shakey's has also taken measures to conserve the environment by incorporating many green features into the new restaurant, including extensive use of renewable and recycled materials such as bamboo and recycled glass; energy-saving lighting and restaurant equipment; and finishes to help guests breathe easier. Moreover, Shakey's is helping America reduce its dependence on foreign oil with clean, renewable, mojo power. That's right mojo power! In partnership with a waste vegetable oil recycler, Shakey's used fryer oil is collected and converted into second generation, renewable fuel for use right here in the U.S. Now that's mojo power!

In more recent news, a few weeks ago we were told that Linder's Furniture, a Southern California home furnishings and consumer electronics chain, will open its first superstore next month as part of a major expansion. Linder's Furniture will be taking over the former 50,000-square-foot Wickes Furniture showroom, located adjacent to Costco Wholesale. Linder's expansion into Rancho Cucamonga reflects the company's confidence in our local economy.

In fact, Tom Campbell with Linder's board of directors commented, "We feel good about the economy and the industry. The economy is turning around and it's the right time and the right place to pick up some real estate."

And we love to hear that.

The business landscape isn't the only area of our local economy that we have been nurturing. We have also stepped up to help address a national and local issue -- creating programs to combat the collapse of the housing market. This past March we held a second Foreclosure and Prevention Workshop for our residents. The workshop was hosted in partnership with Sen. Bob Dutton's office. As with our first workshop, we provided resources for local homeowners in financial distress. Over 250 homeowners received assistance to help keep them in their homes. Approximately 33 counselors representing various lending institutions and several HUD-approved nonprofit housing agencies provided services during the event.

In addition to the Foreclosure Prevention Workshops, the city has been successful in directing more funding to our first-time homebuyer's program. This program has helped families realize their dream of homeownership in Rancho Cucamonga. This additional funding was possible, in part, by obtaining $2 million grant from the Federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

As most of you probably know, vacant, unmaintained residential and commercial properties can have negative impact in neighborhoods. This is why we have adopted an abandoned properties ordinance. The ordinance requires owners of foreclosed residential, commercial or industrial properties to register with our Building and Safety Division. This enables city staff to easily maintain contact with the property owner should any property maintenance issues arise. Since the ordinance was established in March of last year, we've had approximately 250 properties registered and approximately 30 percent of the properties have received abatement work.

We have also held very successful neighborhood clean-ups that have assisted more than 210 residents with the removal of over 36 tons of trash. (I think that's all of them together, not from one house.) This program has been very successful over the last few years and we will continue to provide this service to our residents.

You heard me tell you earlier that Rancho's unemployment rate in November was estimated to be approximately 9.1 percent. The good news is that just last month, the Daily Bulletin reported that in November the Inland Empire added 5,600 jobs. This was the second consecutive month the region created jobs. While most of the jobs were temporary, seasonal jobs, the positive news is that the last two holiday seasons did not follow this trend.

In fact, our efforts to boost employment rates have been very successful. In April of last year, we partnered with Congressman David Dreier to host the "Road to Employment" job fair at Central Park. More than 4,000 people showed up at the event, many of which waited in line for hours. Some people even had to park a few blocks away and walk to the event. This event was so successful we knew we would have to do it again with a focus on hiring our local workforce.

So, in October with the goal of assisting our residents in finding local employment opportunities, the city led a joint effort of west-end cities, organizations, and elected officials in facilitating the first ever Inland Empire West End Job Fair. This event -- billed as "local jobs for local residents" matched businesses in the participating communities with local job seekers. The participating cities and organizations included Rancho Cucamonga, Chino, Chino Hills, Montclair, Ontario and Upland; the Rancho Cucamonga Chamber of Commerce, County of San Bernardino Workforce Investment Board, L.A./Ontario International Airport, First Presbyterian Church of Upland, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin and Sen. Bob Dutton's office, with additional support from Sens. Bob Huff and Gloria Negrete-Mcleod, as well as assembly members Bill Emmerson, Curt Hagman and Norma Torres. Many of you in the audience today supported this job fair -- thank you very much. Your hard work and our team effort made the event a great success.

Approximately 3,000 job seekers lined up for an opportunity to meet with about 95 local employers representing approximately 1,500 full and part-time positions. The five-hour event included plenty of time for attendees to talk with employers, fill out and submit applications and attend a variety of job search workshops presented by our own Library Services Department staff.

Many Rancho Cucamonga-based companies representing a variety of industries participated in the job fair. Some of our Rancho employers included Alliance Human Services, Amphastar Pharmaceutical, JCPenney, Panatron, Primerica, Rancho Specialty Hospital, RehabAbilities, Shafer & Company, and the local state of California employement Development Deparmtent office.

Now I can't help but think that we might have helped in adding some of those jobs to the November employment numbers.

Now let me change the subject here and tell you of a very important initiative we've been working on over the past year. We hope you have heard of it, it's our healthy Rancho Cucamonga program or Healthy RC for short.

Healthy RC embraces the idea of living a healthy lifestyle through lifelong learning, active living and environmental sustainability. To put it simply, Healthy RC encourages a healthy mind, body and earth.

Our goal is to make it easier for our residents and the employees of our local businesses to make choices that will improve their health and well-being. This approach brings together both new and existing efforts with the goal of improving the quality of life in our community. Through the Healthy RC initiative, a number of significant accomplishments have been realized over the past year.

For example, we have received the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities grant in the amount of $360,000 that will enable us to implement Healthy RC related policies to increase opportunities for physical activity and access to healthy, affordable food.

Our Library Services Department recently obtained a $17,000 grant for its Fit for Life program that will provide healthy and wellness activities as well as create a Healthy RC book collection.

We also created a new Healthy RC Web site that offers additional tips and resources for our residents and business community.

Additionally, we have added walking and running clubs to our community recreation programs and have created a healthy dining program that identifies healthy dining options at local restaurants.

And in the spirit of keeping a healthy earth we have made substantial progress in reducing diesel use by implementing alternative energy technology and reducing fuel demand in our city fleet.

I have a short video I'd like to share with you that tells what we did.

(Video)

We also implemented water conservation measures and increased the use of recycled water in many of the landscaped areas of the city.

Speaking of water conservation, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the Cucamonga Valley Water District's Frontier Project. This project is extremely important today and for the future generations as we continue to place demands on our natural resources. The Frontier Project showcases the latest in sustainability design, but more importantly it provides an educational resource for our residents and business community. CVWD's vision has created a successful public/private partnership with many organizations working together to demonstrate how we can improve our living and working environments and become more sustainable. We are extremely proud to have been a partner in this project through the donation of the wood planks recycled form the Regina Winery for the outside trellis shade area and for some of the wood accents within the building. Congratulations CVWD.

So, as you can see over the past year, we've made significant strides in fostering a more healthy and sustainable community. We are only one example of many organizations like CVWD who are responding to this societal change.

In our case however, we've taken the idea one step further and not only considered the environment but also included a healthy mind and body. Healthy RC is also about the health of the city organization, our financial health that allows us to provide services to our businesses and residents. Healthy RC will be the foundation by which we make choices now and in the future.

Another area in which we have always placed great importance is public safety and quality of life. In fact. one of the main reasons this city incorporated in 1977 was the desire to provide enhanced public safety services to its residents. Today, this policy has not changed. The number one goal adopted by the Council in 2009 was improving public safety. Public safety is a significant part of our Healthy RC initiative as well.

Accordingly, in 2009 city crime rate rankings compiled by an independent publisher, CQ Press, lists Rancho Cucamonga as one of the top 50 safest cities with populations over 75,000 or more in the entire nation. The rankings were compiled using figures for six serious crime categories. CQ Press relied on numbers that law enforcement agencies in the 50 states reported to the FBI in 2008.

According to CQ Press, Rancho Cucamonga's city crime rate ranking indicates that it scored higher than many other communities also considered to be safe cities such as Bend, Oregon; Boulder, Colorado; Carlsbad, California; Scottsdale, Arizona; and West Jordan, Utah.

Rancho Cucamonga has consistently ranked as one of the safest cities in California and in 2008 the city's crime rate was 50.6 percent below its 1993 levels when it already had one of the lowest incidents of crime in the state. It reached this milestone by reducing the number of crimes by 1,200 despite adding 64,221 more residents.

Another component of our Healthy RC and public safety efforts include our animal care and services activities. This past year we continued to improve our animal care programs and increase our education and outreach to the community. In cooperation with Victoria Gardens, we are members of the VG Kids Club, which gives us the opportunity to participate in child-oriented educational programs at Victoria Gardens. Also, our library services and animal care services departments have joined forces to develop a program called Tales to Tails (tales as in stories and tails as in an animal's tail). This innovative idea brings dogs from the center to help children with reading problems. Reading to a pet helps children improve their reading skills. We have also increased our animal foster program by 7 percent and our rescue program by 25 percent.

In November, we initiated an educational outreach program in which our animal care and services staff go door to door to educate citizens on licensing, spaying and neutering and additional resources we have available in our Animal Care and Services Department. We know this will be a very successful program.

Over the years we have not only invested in public safety but we have also invested in the city, which has a significant element of our Healthy RC tenets -- investing in ourselves. You will remember last year when I highlighted the ground breaking of the Haven Avenue grade separation project. This project involved taking Haven Avenue 28 feet below grade and creating a railroad overpass to help alleviate traffic congestion along this corridor. As many of you already know, Haven Avenue is one of the city's most traveled streets. It is our primary office corridor and center point of our community connecting commuters to other major transportation networks. Did you know that approximately 38,000 cars, 40 commuter trains and 17 transit buses travel this route each day?

Construction of this project took just over a year. This is amazing considering the amount of coordination that was involved with the project and the complexities of the construction process. We know that even though this project seemed like a quick turnaround to us, for many business owners and commuters along this stretch of Haven Avenue, the reopening of the street could not have come soon enough. And for that reason we extend a sincere and heartfelt thank you for your patience and cooperation during the construction and street closures.

You will also be happy to know that as a result of this project, approximately 14,000 tons of CO2 emissions will be eliminated because cars will no longer be waiting at the crossing. In addition to eliminating pollution, the project also eliminates wait times for drivers and pedestrians as the crossing gates would have been lowered a total of 64 minutes per day to allow for the safe passage of multiple trains.

We are extremely proud of this project and the engineering staff that worked so hard to complete it not only on time but under budget.

In addition to this major accomplishment we have also completed other projects that have added to the quality of life for our residents. We completed the construction of Garcia Park in this past year and it was opened to the public in June. The five-acre park is located north of Foothill Boulevard and west of East Avenue features a full basketball court, softball field, exercise course, play area and tot lot, picnic tables and barbecue amenities. It is so rewarding to go to the park and see kids play and families share time with their neighbors.

Let me to switch gears here again and speak about what truly makes this community so special to over 177,000 residents that call Rancho Cucamonga home. Our educational and recreational programs set us apart from many other communities in the Inland Empire and this is why.

Since opening the doors to the James L. Brulte Senior Center in May 2005 the participation has grown from 185,000 to an impressive 259,000 visits annually. That is more than a quarter of a million people per year. The reason for this growth is due in great part to the beautiful facility that the seniors are proud to be part of and due to the multitude of activities and classes that can be enjoyed each day.

At the core of the senior center's expansive programs in the daily lunch program which provides inexpensive hot meals to over 250 seniors at the center and in their homes. Additionally, each week over 100 exercise, craft, education and lecture classes are available. One hundred a week. The most unique program offered at the senior center is the exercise room, which was recently relocated and expanded to accommodate everyone's needs. The exercise room had over 1,600 people use this facility. Several of our seniors have come to our City Council meetings to express their thanks for this facility. I can recall two individuals that came to our meetings and said thank you because they didn't think they would still be alive if not for the senior center and the Wellness Exercise Room. Both seniors had suffered a heart attack, but because they had been exercising, improving their cardio, their doctors told them it contributed to them recovering and being healthy again. That is the best thanks a city can ever receive. It is a testament to our commitment and gives reasons and purpose to our Healthy RC goal.

Our cultural and performing arts programs have also had wonderful participation. The Lewis Family Playhouse at the Victoria Gardens Cultural Center completed its third season presenting a wide variety of performances for all ages and interests, offering a great menu of entertainment options including music, dance, comedy, family theater, and Broadway-style musicals.

Audiences packed the house this past year for exciting guest artists such as Pat Benatar, Riders in the Sky, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Art Garfunkel to name a few. We had nearly 15,000 people attend these professional performances during the season.

The Rancho Cucamonga Community Theater also presented three unique theatrical productions, which included Smokey Joe's Cafe, Noises Off and Steel Magnolias. A total of 5,822 people attended these performances. The RC Community Theatre program has been honored with three Inland Theater League awards for productions offered in 2008 and is well on its way to being known as the highest quality community theater program in the Inland Empire.

Now, one great thing about all of our recreation programs is that it brings our community together. Last year, over 40,000 residents attended various special events and programs such as the Fourth of July Spectacular, concerts in the park and our Founder's Day Festival.

We also have an incredibly active sports program. During this past summer the R.C. Family Sports Center hosted a ten-week summer sports camp for children ages 5 to 12 years old. These children participated in a variety of sports, games, crafts, movies and activities including basketball, soccer, baseball, volleyball, football and various other activities.

Our Pee Wee sports continues to be one of the more popular activities with approximately 26,575 children participating in the various sports activities.

Our educational programs, led by our Library Services Department, were more popular than ever in 2009. As our library services celebrated its 15-year anniversary, we had over 1.1 million books, DVDs, CDs and magazines checked out and issued over 17,000 new library cards. Approximately 100,000 people used a library computer or the library's Wi-Fi network, and 35,000 youngsters attended a library program. We hosted a summer reading program for youngsters to help them maintain their reading skills during the summer months. Over 2,500 children participated in this program.

The "Back to Basics" children's literacy program served another class of 100 youngsters, improving the reading level of each child and promoting reading and literacy as a pathway to success.

The library's popular Kidsmobile provided service to elementary schools. Stocked with books that kids love, our distinctly designed bookmobile visits children at their school sites. The Kidsmobile provided nearly 50,000 items to children during this busy year.

And for those that can not visit the library, the library's "housecalls" outreach program delivers library materials via volunteers directly to them. This services reaches more than 50 Rancho Cuamonga residents and we deliver library materials ranging from books to DVDs to recorded books on CD.

Regardless of your age, the library's programs can add to your own life-long learning goals. As they use to say, "come and check us out."

Now let's talk about the coming year. As I said before, Healthy RC will be one of the layers in our foundation by which we are making decisions. There is a notion that we as public entities have a moral obligation and duty toward our environment. We as an organization have embraced this notion and will foster this societal change towards a healthy mind, body and earth.

That being said, as we move into a new decade we have chosen to reevaluate our city's General Plan and update our core principles that will guide us for the next 10 to 15 years. Today we are working on this update which covers seven major themes in the development of a city. They are -- land use, circulation, housing, open space, conservation, safety and noise. Our update will include some optional elements that have been identified to be important by our residents. Those are economic development, parks and recreation, community design, historic resources and community resources. All this will be included with an overlying theme of healthy communities based on sustainability and planning for healthy lifestyles.

Last year, I mentioned to you that we would be working on building a much needed fire station in the northwest portion of our city. Well, today I can tell you that we've moved one step closer. In partnership with the County of San Bernardino Flood Control District we are in the middle of purchasing surplus property from the the district to build this station on the west side of Hellman Avenue, north of Wilson Avenue. This station will provide a valuable service that has been anticipated in the community for many years in this area.

Additionally, we will be opening the final phase of the Pacific Electric Trail for everyone's use and enjoyment. Upon completion of this phase, the trail will provide seven miles of quality recreation and access across the city. As many of you know, the trail follows the route of the former Pacific Electric Railway. Eventually, when connected to our neighboring communities, the 21-mile section of the route will become an intercity urban trail from Claremont in the west to Rialto in the east.

The Pacific Electric Trail project goes hand in hand, or should I say foot in foot, pedal to pedal, or hoof to hoof with another long-awaited public infrastructure project -- the improvement of Foothill Boulevard between Grove and Vineyard avenues. The project involves removing the overpass near Baker Avenue, street widening, sidewalk and median enhancements and a pedestrian overpass that is critical to completion of the Pacific Electric Trial. Our engineering staff never rests. As soon as they finished one big project, they are ready to tackle another. I would like to point out that in the 1990s, the city was ready to begin this project but due to state takeaways of local redevelopment funding, this project was affected. We are confident that we will be able to begin this project in 2010. This is an excellent example of how it took the city over 15 years to recover from the previous state takeaways, how the takeaways impacted our own investment in ourselves and delayed a much-needed project that will benefit businesses and residents.

Finally, in the spring we plan to break ground on the lower Hellman Avenue storm drain project. This much-needed master planned storm drain includes the installation of a storm drain mainline, widening of the railroad track at Eighth Street and overlaying the entire road with asphalt rubber. This project will improve the storm water runoff in the areas, especially at the railroad tracks where property damage and rescues have occurred in the past.

Before I close, I'd like to acknowledge all the men and women that have served and continue to serve in our armed forces. Their service and sacrifice have given us the freedoms we enjoy today and everything around the world. There are three remarkable memorials that already grace our city and they were developed in partnership with public organizations and residents. For a little over four years now, as part of another successful partnership between the city, residents and a nonprofit foundation, we've honored active duty personnel with our armed forces banner program. Our council is excited about the new opportunity and partnership with the VFW. Recently this council directed our Park sand Recreation Commission to work hand in hand with VFW to develop recommendations for an appropriate memorial and location to honor our veterans. We want to work in partnership with the community to create a memorial that we can all be proud of, but more importantly a memorial that pays great tribute to their services.

In closing, let me just reiterate, 2010 will not be without great challenges for our city. But I strongly believe that there will be better days ahead for Rancho Cucamonga and this is why we are investing in ourselves for that future. We as elected officials must fulfill the responsibility as guardians of the great things this city has to offer future generations of Cucamongans.

Thank you very much and God bless you all. Thank you.