State of the City

As delivered by the Mayor, Robert "Bo" Bemmes:

It is my responsibility, as outlined in Section 733.41 of the Ohio Revised Code, to report to City Council concerning the state of our municipal corporation, and make appropriate recommendations. To fulfill this duty I offer the following.
It is an incredible honor to be here tonight as the Mayor of our great city. Every day I am humbled by the trust you have all bestowed upon me and grateful for the opportunity to give all of myself to a City that means everything to me and my family. If I had to give a State of the City Address every day I would always start by acknowledging some of our many blessings. I just cannot say enough times how thankful I am to our wonderful Churches, Businesses, Schools, Civic Groups, Youth Organizations and all the many volunteers who give so much to our city. I want to tell you all again how appreciative I am for all our dedicated and talented city employees - you're the best. I also need to give a special thank you to our Dept. Heads - Kevin Kaiser, Greg Hilling, Darrell Courtney, Susan Slavey, Dan Brooks, Rick Martin, Bud Elmlinger and again everyone who works with them to make sure our city runs smooth and as efficiently as possible.
Reading has a rich history filled with outstanding accomplishments many of which occurred in times when our city, country and world were in challenging times. In the past several years, during challenging times, we have been able to make several significant improvements despite dealing with a very tight budget. This was possible due to grants that were secured and the wisdom of placing the monies received from the restoration of 1.76 mils on Property Tax in a Special Capital Improvement Fund that can only be used for the purchase of equipment, construction of permanent improvements, acquisition of land and buildings, to improve existing structures owned by the city or for payment of interest or principal on monies borrowed. Since this fund was established six years ago we have purchased two new Police cruisers each year, pick up trucks for our service and recreation departments, dump trucks, a bobcat, a pavement grinder, snow removal equipment, a plumbers truck, streetscape improvements on Reading Road, the renovation of Voorhees Park, purchased and paved much needed city parking lots, completed improvements to City Hall, made improvements to Koenig Park and more. This fund will continue to serve us well as we need to purchase a new vac-all and accomplish much needed park improvements amongst other projects as well.
Today we stand confronting, pressing challenges in our general fund with tough decisions that need to be to be made as quickly as possible. How we respond and what we do will heavily affect our future, my hopes are that we move boldly ahead . To accomplish this we must openly and honestly discuss and debate every positive idea and possibility. We must come to an understanding as to what is best for our future and act promptly to address our needs. For over ten years now we have experienced challenges in our General Fund. In 1997 a .5% earnings tax increase was voted down and in 1998 a .25% earnings tax increase failed. An ordinance to pass the cost of garbage collection to our citizens also failed on a 4-3 vote of council in 1998. Common sense would tell anyone that we were in trouble then. To survive these tight financial times many necessary purchases and repairs were either put on hold or paid for from cash reserves. In the midst of this $4,000,000 became available to us through Electric Bonds maturing and in the last four years $2,000,000 was used to help support the General Fund. All of us know that when you are using money that you receive once in a lifetime on your day to day expenses you are eventually going to wind up with problems. When I became Mayor two years ago, my first priority was to make sure that our City Government was as lean and efficient as possible. With great support from friends who love our city, and with a unanimous vote of council, we started on day one of my administration by cutting the salaries and benefits of three of my appointees by over $90,000 per year. I will always appreciate their willingness to sacrifice, in tough financial times, and serve our city. We have since taken a full time position in the service department to a part time position with no benefits, eliminated another service department position, cut the Chief of Public Works salary by close to $20,000 per year, pay the Exterior Property Maintenance Code Enforcement Officer less in salary (and he is now writing twice as many letters to clean up properties) and the salary of our Deputy Auditor was also cut. Our Safety Service Director, from the time he started, refused having a city car (he uses his own car when he has to leave City Hall on city business). We are starting to do more of our own road repairs with our new pavement grinder. Our Police and Fire Departments have been very successful in receiving grants to secure much needed equipment for their Departments. Our economic development consultant was successful last year in securing an economic development grant, a marketing grant for our bridal district and a $91,000 grant to help solve flooding problems. Our city engineers also helped us secure a $473,000 grant to repair a major storm water drain pipe and landslide problems. Also, over $400,000 in grant money was received to pave Reading Road and $200,000 in Municipal Road Fund money was used to build new curbs on Reading Road. We have contracted out our city grass cutting and Health Department responsibilities which, combined, saves us over $70,000 per year. We also took over the management of our city pool again and through good management were able to cut expenses there by $40,000 in 2005. Even with all the cuts, savings, extra duties for employees etc., we still after years of revenue shortfalls simply can't keep up. Cuts from the State in monies received in the State/Local government fund, reduction in taxes received due to other communities raising their city earnings tax and the increase in unfunded mandates that cost us all have contributed to our revenue shortfalls. Now our reserves are depleted and the cost of maintaining the services our departments provide continue to outpace the revenues we bring in. When it comes to raising revenues, economic development and job creation along with keeping our present businesses here are always our top priority. We have several excellent opportunities in the areas of business expansion and new job creation that we are aggressively pursuing which will provide future revenues that will help us tremendously. That, however, does not address our current issues that require immediate attention. We will continue to work diligently to make sure the best possible developments occur and do all we can to make them a reality as quickly as possible. During a recent meeting with business leaders it was pointed out, by our top CEOs, that the excellent services we provide encourage them to stay here in Reading and consider expansion here as well. In the past two years we have been successful in attracting new jobs and businesses as Alexander and Associates, UDF, Quiznos, KT's barbecue opened their doors here and Patheon GRI, Viox, Hertz Rental Equipment, Standard Textiles and others have added jobs. I would like to thank Linda Fitzgerald, our Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and our Blue Ribbon committee for their efforts in this area. We will continue to seek all available grants and opportunities and continue to plan and ponder all possibilities concerning economic development.
The fact remains, that if we want to continue to provide the quality services we now offer, we will have to take immediate steps to raise revenues or be prepared to cut services, increase fees and put off addressing very needed park repairs and road repairs. My recommendation, that I am prepared to continue to put all of my energy into, is to move our city forward. We owe this to the incredible people who built this city, we owe it to those who call Reading home now and we owe it to those who will continue to live here in the future. The biggest obstacles that we face are those who do not know the facts and those who chose to purposely mislead by spreading information that is not true. We must be united in our efforts if we want to succeed in solving the problems that face us. I have always said that I will listen to anyone, anytime, anywhere that has any suggestions, ideas, or solutions and I will continue to do so. Our city departments are managed by leaders that I trust and admire. Our Safety Service Director, Fire Chief, Police Chief, Chief of Public Works and Recreation Director are loyal, dedicated, responsible and qualified individuals that take their jobs and roles in our city very seriously. The way they operate their departments, with the cooperation of their employees, reminds me of the typical Reading family. They do the very best they can with what they are given, they manage very tight budgets very well, and they come to work with a positive attitude determined to serve this city to the best of their abilities. Each of them, like myself, want to see our city continue to strive to be the best that we can be. I now ask this Council and all of you who love our City to join in planning and in supporting our future. I will host a Mayor's Forum on Tuesday, January 31 at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers and will continue to do this on the second Tuesday of each month - same time, same place, to get as much input from as many of you as is possible as to what are the best solutions to lead us forward.
2005 was a year of many accomplishments and a year of much discussion, debate, research and education. The Reading Road Streetscape project is nearing completion, looks great and shows everyone who enters our City that we are very much alive and willing to do all that we can to attract quality people and businesses to locate here. Petworth Ct and Westview Ct. have new curbs and were totally repaved and we completed numerous road repairs that improved our City as well. With the Code Red Alert system we are now able to communicate faster and more efficiently than ever. This will allow us to respond to emergencies and other situations that require mass notification in a matter of minutes. We must continue in 2006 to keep up with such issues as the Millcreek and flooding/storm water issues, I-75 Thru the Valley plans, redevelopment/new development projects, safety issues, paving projects and solutions to our many other areas of concern. In many ways we are very blessed as a City, the result of much hard work and sacrifice by many great people from the past and many who are still giving today. In other ways we are very challenged, our backs against a wall. The fact remains today that our future, as far as God allows it, is still in our own hands. It has taken, again, much effort to establish our strengths as a City that we all benefit from today. It would be, in my opinion, a grave mistake to go backwards or give up on our constant efforts to be the safest, cleanest, most vibrant independent City of progress that we can possibly be. I want to thank all of you for listening to me, and thank all of you for your willingness to serve our city. May God continue to bless America, the City of Reading and each and every one of you.