2008 State of the City Address -- January 8, 2008

Mayor Rob Hammond speaks to an audience of 200 Monrovia residents and business people on the community's successes, challenges and plans as the new year begins.

Mayor Rob Hammond's 2008 State of the City Address
January 8, 2008

Before we start, I want to take a minute for a special ‘thank you’ to the young men and women of our Youth Commission.

Those who are here with us tonight are Kathy Martinez, Jessica Quintana, Spencer Saccoman, Robert Fernandez, Ethan Sullander, Yesica Goblirsch, Robin Deluca, Analisa Cabral, Brenna Orozco and Dain Valdes.

You’ve seen these young folks helping out at City events all year. I want you to know that in 2007 there were 84 of them on the Youth Commission and, together, they donated 4,757 hours of work on 15 different community events. That’s a savings to the City of about $40,000 in staff time. But the payoff is much greater than that. This program grows every year, and every year new youngsters come into it and graduating teens leave it, and along the way, they get a good taste of what it can mean to be involved in our great community – to do just a little bit every now and then to help make it an even better place than it already is.

That’s a great lesson to learn, both for them and for us as a community – that just a little bit of involvement, and little bit of help, every now and then, can make this an even better place than it already is.

I want to acknowledge some other folks now, too, because I’m actually speaking here tonight on their behalf. I have the great honor of being Mayor of this City, but I’m just one member of a team that not only shares a vision for this community’s future, but works together cohesively and cooperatively to make that vision come true.

It’s a team we’re all proud to be a part of – Mayor Pro Tem Dan Kirby, a regional leader with Foothill Transit; Council Member Tom Adams, a model of local leadership and public service; Council Member Joe Garcia, who provides regional and state leadership in housing; and Council Member Mary Ann Lutz, who is a regional and state leader in water and water conservation.

And two more members of our team, City Clerk, Linda Proctor, and City Treasurer Steve Baker.

These are the people that Monrovia has elected to set policies and directions for our community and to watch over our common interests.

Along with a professional and dedicated City Staff, these are the folks who work on your behalf to make Monrovia a better place every day of the week.

I want to go back to the image that was on the screen when you came into the theater tonight.

“Progress in Monrovia has never been measured in new buildings. It has never been about buildings. Progress in Monrovia has always been about a better life with better opportunities. It still is.”

If there is one message that we want you to remember tonight, it’s this one.

When we talk about building in Monrovia – whether it’s new buildings or new neighborhoods or new programs – or even building a more diverse local economy – we’re talking about building the foundations of Monrovia’s future.

Literally -- the Monrovia of tomorrow will be built on the foundations we laid in 2007.

We made tremendous progress last year! Think about it…last year Monrovia not only funded a new Library, but actually began construction! -- something this community has dreamed of and worked for – for more than a decade.

A new Monrovia Public Library is actually being built, right now, just a block from here. Our dream is coming true!

And when it’s done in 2009, we will have a Library that will meet both today’s and tomorrow’s needs – a larger and more sustainable Library, with new and better services – a better Library, now and for the next generations.

I want to particularly thank tonight the members of the Library Board and the Yes on Measure L Committee who made this new Library possible: Board Chair Gail LaBau and members Charlotte Schamadan – who was also Chair of the Yes on L Committee – Kathy Knudsen, Amit Sen and Louise Robertson.

And some of the Yes on L workers who are with us tonight: Hal Leavens, John Watson, Brenda Trainor, Jan Singer, Pat Myers and Bruce Carter.

In any other community, in any other year, what we accomplished with the new library might seem enough. That alone would make 2007 an exceptional year.

But it turns out it was just one more thing that happened last year – just one more part of the foundation that was put in place.

All last year, we tackled important questions related to our future growth – questions about density and traffic and our quality of life – and we held public meetings and took more than five years of reports and public input and put them into what will soon be a new General Plan for the community.

We put new neighborhood protection and neighborhood improvement programs into place.

We established new opportunities for our youth.

We opened up new corridors of access to City Hall and all of its services.

And we did it all in a financially sound way.

I am pleased to report to you tonight that the City of  Monrovia begins 2008 with its budget balanced, its vision on track and its services not only intact, but adapting and expanding.

Over the past year we successfully shored up our financial footings while at the same time expanding services and introducing new and innovative programs. We progressed – steadily and deliberately and successfully – within our means and within our budget.

With each budget cycle, the City Council revisits its list of important priorities. Let me assure you that Fiscal Responsibility and Public Safety have been and remain on the top of that list.

They will throughout 2008 as well.

Fiscal Responsibility is what makes all of the community’s goals both possible and sustainable. Public Safety, in the same way, assures our quality of life. I can assure you that Public Safety will not suffer in Monrovia as the result of a financial squeeze. Public Safety is just too important.

We are now about halfway through the current Fiscal Year and just a quarter of the way through the two-year budget that we adopted last July.

That conservative budgeting plan is already proving its worth as we, yet again, face an uncertain state and national economy.

In recent weeks we have made appropriate and fiscally conservative adjustments to the budget, based on the latest financial information and forecasts, and we begin the new year in very good shape.

Let me assure you tonight, too, that the Council and Staff are planning well in advance for whatever hits might be coming our way.

This afternoon, Governor Schwarzenegger delivered his State of the State address. He said what we already knew, that Sacramento is facing  a $14 billion budget deficit. That Governor says the wolf is back.

It’s long past time that the State put its financial house in order, but until it does, we expect the Governor and Legislature to again raid our revenue to solve their problem. If they do, we’ve already identified various levels of financial responses that we can make.

If it happens, it could slow us down. But it won’t stop us. And it won’t threaten our safety.

We’re ready for it.

The same is true of the economy as a whole. Our current budget anticipates a 2% growth in overall revenue in the current fiscal year, a conservative and attainable goal.

The budget also predicts some limited property tax growth in 2008, even in the current real estate market.

In 2006-2007, assessed property valuations in Los Angeles County increased by approximately 10%, with another 8% growth anticipated in the current fiscal year. Monrovia’s budget, though, projects a slowdown to 5% growth in 2008-2009 – what we believe to be a realistic expectation.

Sales tax is Monrovia’s second greatest revenue generator. We anticipate that sales tax will flatten out now after several years of 2% to 5% growth. With both auto sales and housing construction stalled for at least the short term, we’re expecting only minimal growth for the next two years.

All that being said – our budget is balanced and we have enough resources to cover all of our anticipated expenses through these uncertain times. And that includes the 70% of the budget that is devoted to Public Safety.

We also have a General Fund reserve of $4½ million to cover what we might not have anticipated – and that reserve is increasing.

If the economy allows it, we will be putting away another $400,000 every year for the foreseeable future, meaning that soon the City’s General Fund reserves should be around $5.3 million, or 20% of our budgeted appropriations.

And on top of that, another $400,000 is being set aside annually in a Capital Improvement Fund to help maintain and improve Monrovia’s public facilities, such as  the Historical Museum and City Hall, both of which are going to be repaired and improved as soon as finances allow.

We’ve already fixed, improved and expanded Fire Station No. 1 on Lemon Avenue and the City Yard on Mountain. The Fire Station was done in 2007 and the City Yard is nearly complete now. Both projects are coming in on time and on budget.

We retiled the Community Center, too, and completed the Old Town streetscape improvements. We rebuilt or replaced three pumps at the municipal water wells. We put in nearly 3,000 feet of new water pipes under our streets and began operating a brand new water treatment plant to assure both the quality and availability of our drinking water.

With Fiscal Responsibility as a top priority – and continued, managed growth in a diversified local economy – Monrovia has the momentum this year to make it through the current economic uncertainties.

It doesn’t always have to cost huge amounts of money to make things better.

Last year, to make it easier and faster for Monrovians to get what they need from City Hall without leaving their homes or offices – and following up on a vision of Council Member Garcia – we started a 24-Hour City Hall online, with information, applications, forms, surveys and video all available on the City’s website 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

There are new services being added all the time on that site that you could only get in the past by making a  trip to City Hall – like signing up for water service, or applying for a yard sale permit.

Hundreds of Monrovians went online to use those services last year. There were more than 200,000 visits to the City’s website in 2007. We expect 300,000 this year.

And for those who still have to make a trip to City Hall to conduct business, we’ve made that more available, too. Last fall, at the urging of Councilmember Tom Adams, we opened City Hall on a Saturday to give people another option during their busy week. We’ll do that again this spring.

Monrovia’s City Hall is already open for service 55 hours each week. This extra Saturday every now and then is just one way we can make our service just a little better…and it doesn’t cost all that much to do it.

As we said here last year, change happens…it is inevitable – but Monrovia works hard to anticipate change, plan for it and shape it to fit our community.

We did a lot of planning and shaping in 2007. And things got better.

You can expect a lot more in 2008.

When the Colorado Commons mixed-use development opens in Old Town in just a few more weeks, it’s going to seem to some folks that it all happened really quickly.

That’s not the case. That new neighborhood of 62 homes and four  businesses  took just 18 months to construct, but 15 years and dozens of neighborhood meetings to plan.

Monrovia spends a lot of time planning and a lot of effort getting things right.

For five years now we’ve been actively working on a new vision for protecting our traditional residential neighborhoods while still providing new and more urbanized homes in appropriate, sustainable corridors.

Colorado Commons is part of that. The new Urban Housing Group development that could begin construction at Myrtle and Olive by next summer will be another. And you’ve certainly heard us talk for years now about the Station Square transit village.

From the Urban Land Institute studies done in 2003 through the Land Use, Traffic Circulation and Environmental Impact studies we finished in 2007, our entire community has worked hard for years on the issues of growth and the impacts that come with it.

Those studies – and the hundreds of public interviews and comments and the hours of deliberations that went into them – will form the foundations for shaping Monrovia’s future development:

Development that enhances rather than threatens Monrovia’s charm;

Development that seeks to solve, rather than worsen, traffic congestion;

Development that is appropriately placed and environmentally sensitive and that brings with it new and better opportunities.

The City Council will be taking a last look at that revised General Plan next Tuesday night and considering its adoption. We’ll take more public comments and we’ll deliberate and we will work hard to be sure that this plan is not just a blueprint for more buildings, but a is another tool for making this an even better community.

In 2007, The City issued more than 2,000 building permits with an all-time-high assessed value of just under $50 million. That meant a lot of building. It also meant a lot of new homes and new jobs – new investments and new opportunities.

Old Town’s infrastructure and streetscape were significantly improved in a major rehabilitation project that ended last year, and new parking was provided for shoppers, diners and guests of our Old Town.

We reinvested heavily in our residential and commercial neighborhoods and it seemed sometimes like Monrovia was one big construction site.

It will again this year, too. As we said: “Progress in Monrovia is never measured in buildings. It has never been about buildings.”

What is going on today in the Monrovista neighborhood is a great example of this.

Monrovista has long been a neighborhood that needed help – it is in a high crime area and has suffered from blight and neglect and some bad zoning decisions made a lot of years ago.

Last year, through the Redevelopment Agency, we put 14 new homes into that neighborhood, of which three are affordable units. In 2008, we’ll add another 20 homes, with four set aside as affordable.

But we also infused Monrovista and the neighborhoods surrounding it with new resources of every type through our Monrovia Area Partnership program, or MAP.

Through MAP, the residents of that neighborhood received more than 50 grants for repairing their homes, fixing leaking roofs, installing energy-efficient windows and replacing fencing. Residents learned about code requirements and got re-involved with their neighbors through street parties and volunteer programs.

The Monrovia Reads van that brings literacy training to our neighborhoods has expanded its services this year and now Monrovia Reads and Plays brings not only reading but recreation to the children in our MAP neighborhoods.

Things got better for the folks in that neighborhood last year.

Folks like Jorge Gamez, who was going to sell his home and leave Monrovia, but was able to fix it up instead through the home improvement grant program and is going to stay in the community.

Folks like the residents who didn’t want a grant, but who got active with their neighbors and who were instrumental in helping us rid their neighborhood of some notorious drug dealers.

Folks like Paul Ramirez, who not only fixed up his home, but took the volunteering part of the program to heart and is now a literacy tutor at the Library. Paul is now teaching English to three Monrovians who are working to become American citizens.

These are the MAP success stories we celebrate tonight. These folks are living proof that investing in neighborhoods is an investment in people.

Several of them are here tonight and I want to introduce them. Joining us tonight are: Rosmary Calderon

Joe and Luz Diaz, Jorge Gamez, Verlie Garcia, Tanya King, Paul Ramirez.

These folks can tell you first hand the lesson that the Youth Commissioners are learning – that we’re all learning – that just a little bit of involvement, and little bit of help, every now and then, can make this an even better place than it already is.

Things got better last year for another group of Monrovians as well.

We saw a great opportunity last year to work with the Schools and the Chamber of Commerce to give our young people a real life lesson in the importance of finishing their education and going on to college.

The City, Schools and Chamber, working very closely with the YMCA, put together in just a few short months one of the best and most successful programs we’ve found in recent years.

The Youth Employment Service – which we call YES – provided part-time jobs to nearly 30 high school students this past summer, working with the City staff in a variety of departments. It paired the students up with mentors and gave them good paychecks for good work – in almost every case, it was their first paycheck.

From what we heard back from the interns and their parents when that program ended, it had a tremendous impact on their lives. These are young people who now know what it’s going to take to succeed in good, well-paid careers. And they’re motivated to get the educations they’re going to need to move into those careers.

Not only that, but we’ve been able to find part-time work for some of those students right now:

Destiny Quinn and Shayne Hecox were so good at what they did, are now working in our Community Services Department.

Kevin Kerbabian earned a part-time job in our Community Development Department.

Corina Moncada now has a job with LA Works.

And Edgar Rodriquez took his experience here and used it to get a part-time spot with a private engineering firm, giving him a head-start on a career path to electrical engineering.

Every one of the students in the YES program told us they plan to go to college. They now understand what it takes and what the rewards can be.

Several of them are here with us tonight, along with their parents. I invite you to talk to them at the reception later on. I think you’ll see what I mean about them. With us tonight are: Ashleigh Golden, Christina Miyadi, Suely Gonzales, Corina Moncada, Shayne Hecox, Destinee Quinn, Nyesha Jackson, Kevin Kerbabian, Edgar Rodriguez, Adam Romero, and Bianca Torres.

The YES program this past summer gave these folks a real boost. Next summer, we’ll do it again with another group of young Monrovians.

We’ll help build good, solid foundations for them, too.

These are the kind of programs that grow out of our cooperative partnerships. They’re the kind of things that won Monrovia it’s All America City Award. We don’t do them because of awards. We do them to make our community that much better.

We broke some new ground in public safety last year, and put down some new foundations, too.

The men and women of Monrovia’s Police and Fire Departments came to our aid more than 28,000 times last year – that’s more than 75 times a day, every day. But they also spent a great deal of time preparing our community to meet emergencies.

The primary focus in 2007 was on emergency preparedness, and it will be again in 2008.

Last year, our Fire Department conducted more than 1,200 hours of training for the community’s Neighborhood and Business Emergency Action Teams, teaching them both fire safety and emergency preparedness. School kids and senior citizens also got a lot of training and attention.

But the department also began a new and intense program to create Certified Emergency Response Teams, taking public preparation to whole new levels.

Our Fire Department is creating teams of individuals – residents and business people – who will act as a reserve arm for our first responders in major emergencies.

Our community’s response to the CERT program has been absolutely overwhelming. The first class of 25 filled up within 48 hours and we had to schedule additional classes throughout 2008.

Participants in the CERT program live in just about every neighborhood in the city – they are a diverse group of people with diverse skills.

People like Merle Johnson, who for years worked with the Red Cross and probably knows more about running an evacuation shelter than anyone in town.

People like Joseph Mercado, who is retired from the gas company and brings a wealth of experience with utilities to the CERT team.

People like Rena Delgado, a Realtor, and Randa Wahbe, a college professor.

People of all ages, from every walk of life, who want to help secure their neighborhoods and help their fellow Monrovians if the worst ever happens.

With us tonight from the CERT program are: Rena Delgado, Susanne Dobson, Bob Salazar and Randa Wahbe.

I am happy to say tonight that, soon, more than 400 Monrovians just like these folks will have been trained to secure their families and help their neighbors.
Both the City and our School District hold regular emergency drills, working together to assure continuity in case of a major fire, earthquake of other disaster.
 
We are reorganizing our response teams under new federal and state standards for even better coordination with regional agencies.
 
Watch for community-wide drills and new programs to involve more people this year and next as we continue to address this important concern.
 
Our firefighters themselves received more than 4,800 hours of in-service training in 2007. We added a battalion chief to the personnel roster along with three new firefighter-paramedics and eight Cadet Firefighter volunteers.
 
And, of course, the Fire Department’s headquarters station on Lemon Avenue underwent major repair and remodeling to better serve both the department and the community.


Meanwhile, the Police Department's 59 sworn officers and 37 civilian employees continued to add new services to their responsibilities last year.

The department assumed responsibility for Animal Control, a move that not only saves money, but localizes and substantially upgrades our animal services.

Domestic animal issues – from barking dogs to lost or injured pets – are all being handled now by a specially-trained and certified Animal Control Officer under Police Department supervision.

It’s a big job. In 2007 alone, our residents asked for Animal Control assistance 2,700 times. There were 2,500 dogs licensed and 500 stray animals removed from the streets last year.

And that’s important to keeping our streets safe, clean and quiet.

But more seriously, we had a upsurge in gang activity last year that spilled over from County neighborhoods – and, unfortunately, from some of our own. The Police Department’s response has been fast and effective. We are never complacent about violent crime.

Just two weeks ago the Council and City Staff met with County Supervisor Mike Antonovich and his staff. A major topic on that agenda was the DAMAGE program and other cooperative programs between Monrovia and the County Sheriff and Probation Departments to crack down on gangs and violent criminals in our area.

We work closely with both the County and the City of Duarte to keep our streets and homes safe.

The recent increase in gang activity is directly linked to the release from prison of some very hardcore people.

We are hitting back and will continue to push until the bad guys are put away and we have secured our streets.

Be assured, our streets are going to remain safe!

The Police Department also took on increased graffiti vandalism in 2007 with a bounty program.

And it’s working. Citizens are coming forward to report vandalism and point the way to identifying and stopping those who deface our town.

Again, we will continue to remain alert and proactive on all of these fronts throughout the year to assure that our citizens and our property remain safe and secure.

Back in April, the Police Department unveiled its new T3 Personal Mobility Electric Transporter – a three-wheel vehicle operating on rechargeable batteries that gives our officers greater mobility and greater visibility in Old Town and at community events like parades.

This vehicle let’s them get closer to people, too, and attracts a lot of positive attention – while getting an officer where he needs to be, when he needs to be there.

Monrovia is pro-active, too, in securing our environmental future.

Last year the City Council approved a set of 21 goals specifically designed to make our lives better over the next 30 years.

These 21 Environmental Accords lay the foundations for new policies and programs that we’ll need over the next quarter of a century.

They set goals for decreasing our energy use, our water consumption and our waste stream – all while we continue to grow. They establish new expectations for public transportation, too. And the planting of trees. And the creation of environmentally-friendly jobs.

They’re very ambitious goals. But they’re attainable.

We’ve set ambitious goals for ourselves before and reached them. We can do it again.

Let’s take just one. Can we build a new transportation system that pulls cars off the road and moves Monrovians from their homes to wherever they need to go – and back again? Can Monrovia do that?

Well, why not? It’s not as if we’ve never had trolleys running down Myrtle Avenue before.

It’s not as if we’ve never had light-rail here before.

Or train service.

The pieces are already coming into place:

Monrovia Transit, our City-operated Dial-A-Ride service, saw a 10% increase in ridership this past year.

• The new 200-vehicle Park and Ride Lot at Myrtle and Pomona Avenues was opened to the public in late 2006 has been well-used by local commuters transferring to buses.
• Our Transportation Summit and our General Plan meetings all pointed at traffic and its solutions as a primary concern of both our residents and our businesses.
• The Gold Line light rail system – which will provide a focal-point for all of our transportation alternatives in the very near future – continues to progress and is still on schedule to arrive in Monrovia in about five years.