February 12, 2003 Members of the City Council. Citizens of Detroit. Good evening.
A
little more than one year ago, I took the oath of office as Detroit’s
60th mayor. I came to this office with a commitment to change – a
commitment to challenge the status quo. I believe that Detroit and
Detroiters deserve the best – that the old attitude that something less
than the best is “good enough for Detroit” is just not acceptable.
In
the 410 days since I became Mayor I have assembled an outstanding team
to help drive the change Detroit needs. It’s a team that mixes the
energy, enthusiasm and vision of youth with the experience and
knowledge of people who have enjoyed great success in other arenas and
now are using their expertise to serve the people of Detroit.
Thirty-five years ago this spring Senator Robert F. Kennedy ran for President with a vision of America’s potential.
“Some men see things as they are,” he said, “and ask, Why? I dream of things that never were and ask, Why not?”
That
is the Kilpatrick team attitude as we work to rebuild Detroit. We see
the unlimited potential of this great city. And we ask, Why not?
Because
we refuse to accept the status quo … because we refuse to accept limits
on what is possible … because we see Detroit’s true potential … we have
made tremendous progress in our first year.
Last year at this
time we faced a budget deficit totaling $169 million. We eliminated
that deficit and ended the fiscal year last June 30 in the black. We
did it without layoffs and without taking drastic steps such as selling
off City assets like the old DeHoCo site.
Our Chief Financial
Officer, Sean Werdlow, played a key role in eliminating the deficit,
including implementing the most successful tax amnesty plan in city
history. We collected $20 million in delinquent property taxes for the
city and another $10 million for the schools. Sean helped again when
he found an additional $20 million in deposits from the sale of
city-owned land that had been accumulating ignored and unclaimed in an
account for the previous eight years.
Other departments did
their part as well. For instance, the Law Department, under the
direction of Corporation Counsel Ruth Carter, reduced the amount the
city paid out in legal settlements last year by more than $5 million
compared to 2001. And she did it while spending $1.5 million less for
outside lawyers.
Last year at this time the City’s computer
system, the Detroit Resource Management System, better known as
“Dreams,” seemed like a hopeless mess with $120 million down the drain.
In June 2002, a task force was assembled under the direction of my CFO,
Sean Werdlow, and my CIO, Dave Rayford. Tonight, I’m pleased to report
that DRMS will be fully operational in July 2003.
Last year at
this time, the Graimark neighborhood redevelopment project on the east
side was dead in the water, with $38 million spent, not one shovel in
the ground, no commitments for a planned commercial strip and a
developer who had walked away.
Tonight we have renegotiated the
development agreements for what is now known as Jefferson Village. We
will see work begin this spring on the first of more than 300 market
rate homes. And construction is already underway on what will be the
largest Farmer Jack supermarket in the state of Michigan.
Last
year at this time the city owed our three casinos $150 million as the
result of a failed riverfront casino plan. There were no agreements to
build permanent casinos. Tonight, that $150 million debt is gone and
we have agreements with the casinos to build permanent facilities once
some new issues now in the federal courts are resolved.
We'll
also get an additional $51 million for the General Fund next year, plus
an additional $12 million annually for public safety.
In
addition, the riverfront land originally purchased for casinos is a key
part of a vision to jump-start a massive reinvestment on the east
riverfront.
In December my blue ribbon East Riverfront Study
committee – headed by Derrick Miller, my Chief Administrative Officer,
and Matt Cullen of General Motors -- unveiled a redevelopment strategy
for the East Riverfront. Their report featured commitments for more
than $500 million in public, private and foundation funds to jump-start
a massive reinvestment unequaled in scope in U.S. history.
Construction already has begun on the first state park ever to be
located in an urban area.
Last year I made a commitment in my State of the City message that Detroit would become a center of fuel cell research.
In
December we broke ground for the $56 million NextEnergy center at Wayne
State University, which will focus on the development of alternative
energy sources to fuel cars and trucks. This center assures that we
will play as critical a role in the development and use of the fuel
cell as we did in the development and use of the internal combustion
engine.
Last year more than 22,000 pay adjustments to which city
employees were entitled had not been processed and paid. Some
employees had been owed money by the city for years. Tonight, we have
cut that number to less than 5,000.
So you see, we’ve made a lot of progress since I last reported to you.
We’ve
had some setbacks, as well. We took office with no contracts in effect
with our City labor unions. After a year of negotiations led by my
Chief of Staff Christine Beatty and Labor Relations Director Roger
Cheek, we have made progress, but we still have no agreements. We
continue to negotiate in good faith, though the Detroit Police Officers
Association has elected to force us into arbitration.
I
appreciate the willingness of all of our employee unions to hang in
there with us at the bargaining table at this very difficult economic
time. I am making a commitment tonight to the city unions. Let’s come
back to the table next week and get these agreements done in the next
30 days.
You also may remember our original goal of
demolishing 5,000 abandoned buildings last year. We came far short of
that, with not quite 2,000 demolished when we ran out of money. We
continue to look for ways to accelerate our progress in demolition.
But
I’m not here to concentrate on the past. I want to talk to you about
Detroit’s future and some initiatives we are undertaking across a broad
range of city departments to make it a bright future.
Before I
do that, however, I want to pause a moment and ask you to join me in
reflecting on two dedicated public servants who we lost in the past
year.
First, Councilwoman Brenda Scott. Councilwoman Scott’s
very untimely death last Labor Day was a tremendous loss for all who
care about Detroit. Councilwoman Scott loved Detroit. She was
dedicated to building this city. We miss her energy and commitment. I
want tonight to acknowledge that loss.
I also want to pay
tribute tonight to the memory of Police Officer Scott Stewart. Officer
Stewart was killed last August 11th when he was shot from behind while
making an arrest. Officer Stewart had been offered the chance to go
home early that night to start his vacation. He declined to do that
out of a sense of duty to his partners. His death reminded us once
again of the way the brave men and women of the Detroit Police
Department put their lives on the line for us every day.
I ask
you all to please join me in silent tribute to the memory of these two
dedicated public servants who were taken from us much too soon –
Councilwoman Brenda Scott and Police Officer Scott Stewart.
(Pause)
Thank you.
This
is not an easy time for local governments anywhere in the United
States. The weakened national economy has thrown the federal
government back into a huge deficit and created sharply accelerating
financial crises for states and cities throughout this nation. Many
face drastic cuts in services and layoffs on a scale not seen since
World War II.
Our own State government faces a deficit of well
over a billion dollars. It is clear after my meeting with Governor
Granholm last Wednesday that we face additional cuts in revenue sharing
funds on top of those we already have been hit with.
But I
pledge to you tonight we will live within our means. We will deliver a
balanced budget. And we will continue at the same time to upgrade the
services we deliver to the people of Detroit.
During the past year we launched a top-to-bottom evaluation of city government with an attitude of “no more business as usual.”
We
have made a number of innovations this year to try to improve our
services to our citizens. One of my favorites is the new constituent
relations operation I have set up in my office. In the past year we
have helped thousands of Detroiters who called for assistance in
cutting through the City bureaucracy.
For instance, we helped Mr. Eugene Jones secure two new street lights near his home on Annott Street.
We
helped Odell Jackson have an abandoned and vandalized dump truck towed
from near her church, First Baptist Institutional Church, on Asbury
Park.
And we helped Dolores Sanchez secure the replacement of
the sidewalk and a flower box in front of her business after Water
Department personnel had damaged them while fixing a water main break.
Mr. Jones, Miss Jackson and Miss Sanchez, I’m glad we could help.
I’m
proud of what this administration has accomplished in our first year in
office. But tonight I’m even prouder of the future I see unfolding
before us in Detroit.
In spite of the economic conditions we face, Detroit is still building. Detroit is still moving forward.
Compuware
has begun to move into its new world headquarters on the site of the
old Hudson’s Building. By June it will have completed the movement of
more than 3,000 employees downtown.
As Compuware moves in,
construction will begin in April of Campus Martius Park – a privately
funded 1.6 acre park in the middle of downtown that will become
Detroit’s new town square.
At the same time, EDS is preparing to bring 1,500 employees down to the Renaissance Center.
Clearly, we are redefining ourselves in a major way as a center for high tech companies that are thriving in the new economy.
We
also have a number of new hotels firmly committed to downtown. A new
Hilton Garden Inn is under construction in Harmony Park. Another group
is investing in the old Howard Johnson hotel on Washington Boulevard.
All
three casinos will have 400-room hotels as part of their permanent
casinos. The city also is working with established developers and the
Growth Corporation to renovate and reopen the Book Cadillac and Pick
Fort Shelby hotels with a combination of hotel rooms and condominiums.
A task force under the direction of Chief Development Officer Walt Watkins is examining ways to expand Cobo Center.
When
Cobo was last expanded in the late 1980s, it was one of the largest
convention centers in the United States—the third largest to be exact.
Today, we have slipped well down in the pack. We’re at number 12 and
falling.
I am committed to expanding Cobo Center and will have a plan to do that ready by the beginning of next year.
Expanding
Cobo is important not just for Detroit but also for this entire
region. The activities that Cobo plays host to fill hotels and
restaurants in Oakland, Macomb and Wayne Counties as well as Detroit.
So the entire region has a stake in assuring that this facility stays
competitive.
In the neighborhoods, more than 2,500 new housing
units are in the pipeline from Cadieux on the east side to Brightmoor
on the west. They range from subsidized apartments renting for less
than $300 a month to market rate single-family homes costing more than
$250,000.
We also anticipate significant progress in the coming
year in redeveloping three of the city’s public housing projects –
Parkside, Jeffries and Herman Gardens. Federal Funds originally were
approved to redevelop all three locations in 1995 and 1996 under the
federal government’s Hope VI (six) program. But after receiving
approval of grants for all three projects, the City was unable at that
time to get its act together.
Now, we have gotten our act
together. Construction began of the new Jeffries last week, with the
first units scheduled to be ready early in March. We hope to begin
construction at Herman Gardens this summer. When all three projects
are completed, we will have more than 2,000 brand new housing units
with mixed income residents creating a real sense of community.
On
the far east side, we have issued a request for qualifications for
developers for a 1,200-acre tract which has been on the drawing board
for several years. We’ve taken it off the drawing board and will soon
pick a half dozen or so of the 15 developers and builders who responded
to the RFQ to construct several thousand additional housing units.
While
we have worked to generate new jobs for Detroiters, we’re making
significant progress modernizing city departments. You’re going to see
some of the results of our progress this year.
For instance, our
Parks and Recreation Department is committed to cutting the grass in
all of our parks this summer on a 10-day rotation. That’s much more
frequent than anyone can remember. Specific crews are being assigned
to each park for the entire summer, so each employee will know at the
beginning of the season which parks he or she are responsible for.
The
Department of Water and Sewerage, under the guidance of Director Victor
Mercado, has begun a thorough reorganization. Victor came to Detroit
with a proven record of successful water service management. I am
confident he’ll make the department more effective and more efficient
as it serves this city and this region. We’ll be announcing more
details of that in the coming weeks.
And on Belle Isle we are
moving forward with the proposed Belle Isle Nature Zoo, which is a part
of the Belle Isle Master Plan. The nature zoo will provide a year
round, safe, modern educational attraction for Detroit’s school
children featuring nature trails and Michigan wildlife such moose,
bear, wolves, cougars and osprey.
No department is more critical to the success of the city than our Police Department.
Under the outstanding leadership of Chief Jerry Oliver, our Police
Department chose not to accept the tide of rising crime that is seen
across this country today.
Our overall crime went down in this
city last year. Where other cities were experiencing sharp rises in
their murder rate, our murder rate remained flat.
The numbers
are particularly dramatic for the last two months of 2002 and January
of this year. In the wake of the most successful Angel’s Night
mobilization in Detroit history, for November and December, homicides
were down 35 percent, rapes were down 21 percent, larcenies were down
almost 19 percent and all other major crime categories also showed a
decrease.
I want to pay a special tribute tonight to the men and
women of the Detroit Police Department who, like Officer Scott Stewart,
put their lives on the line for us every day of the week. To the men
and women who work the street, to the men and women in the morality
units, to those patrolling in scout cars, to those who risk their lives
kicking in doors on drug busts, I say, “Thank you.” “Thank you.”
“Thank you.”
On behalf of the people of Detroit, “We thank you.”
As
part of our commitment to do what we can for the men and women of the
Detroit Police Department, we are going to build a brand new state of
the art police headquarters filled with the latest technology. We will
break ground on the new police headquarters this year.
In
addition, we will break ground for two new precincts. A new First
Precinct will be built on the near east side in the Lafayette Park
area, perhaps along the riverfront. A second new precinct, combining
the old 3rd and 4th Precincts will be built at the edge of the old west
side and the tip of southwest Detroit.
These will be brand new state of the art facilities without prisoner lockups.
Instead,
we are entering into an historic partnership with Wayne County Sheriff
Warren Evans in which he is going to free up 200 beds in the county
jail to enable us to get away from having our own lock-ups in the
precincts. The sheriff is with us tonight and I want to thank him for
working with us on this initiative.
We also are moving to
modernize our emergency services communications. Chief Information
Officer Dave Rayford is coordinating an effort to upgrade radio
communications for police, fire and EMS by converting them all to
cellular communication on a different frequency, 800 megahertz, that
will enable them to talk to one another no matter where in the city
they are.
Down the road, it will make possible the transmission
of data to and from scout cars. I think we owe it to them to develop
this system and put it into service.
The Police Department also
is developing a PC-based case management system to allow tracking of
cases from the moment they come into the department to their final
disposition in court.
While we do all we can do to assure the
latest technology is available, at the same time we are committed to
working with the citizens of Detroit and re-establishing contact with
community relations groups in each precinct.
We also will
continue the unprecedented partnership established last year between
city, state and federal law enforcement officials as part of Project
Safe Neighborhoods.
As a follow-up to that partnership, we
convened more than 60 organizations representing community, social and
educational interests along with students, former gang members and
concerned citizens.
Their collaboration led to the creation
of “Take the Hype Out of Violence,” a campaign to mobilize all segments
of the community to make known the realities of guns, violent behavior,
negative influences and poor decisions. We will continue to develop
and implement the program this year.
I also am appointing a
youth advisory committee that will meet with me from time to time to
advise me on issues related to young people.
Part of our focus
this year will involve expanding and refining programs that we
successfully began last year. One of these programs, Motor City
Makeover, was a successful 10-week, volunteer-based comprehensive clean
up campaign that touched every corner of Detroit.
Nearly 12,000
tons of debris was collected as a part of the clean up effort, the
equivalent of more than 450,000 Courville containers – those big
containers we Detroiters put our trash in for weekly pickup. This
year’s Motor City Makeover effort will build upon last year’s by
focusing on furthering the City’s overall effort in beautification and
maintaining a cleaner landscape.
Our most ambitious program
was Mayor’s Time, which was successfully launched on September 28th at
Cobo Center. More than 15,000 parents and children attended Detroit’s
first ever citywide after-school fair.
More than 300
after-school programs and providers have committed to partnering with
Mayor’s Time to increase after-school participation in Detroit. Some
7,000 children were signed up for after-school programs as a result of
the September 28th kickoff.
I have two exciting announcements tonight related to Mayor’s Time.
First,
I am pleased to announce that the Youth Connection, which has provided
significant administrative support to the creation of Mayor’s Time,
will become a new 501(c)(3) organization named Mayor’s Time.
The
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has committed $3.8 million over the next
three years to make it a reality. We will seek $2.5 million in
matching funds from private, corporate and philanthropic resources to
assist in this effort. One of our great challenges in creating an
ongoing after-school network in Detroit has been securing a solid
funding base and this grant is a tremendous step toward that goal.
Second,
we have received word from Intel that they will partner with the City
of Detroit to create four computer clubhouses in Detroit. It is the
first time Intel has partnered with a municipality and the first time
they have set up four centers in one city. The clubhouses, which have
from 17 to 19 computers apiece, are not formal learning centers, but
rather are places where kids can work on projects they want to work on
and become involved with technology.
Two of the centers will
be established at Boys and Girls Clubs, one on Collingwood – where I
went as a kid – and the other on Holden. The other two will be at the
Northwest Activities Center and Latino Family Services.
This
support for Detroit kids from these two nationally respected sources –
the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Intel – is a tremendous vote of
confidence for what we are doing in Detroit.
When we talk about
children, we must also talk about our school system. Since 1999 this
community has been involved in an ongoing debate about education. Much
of that debate has revolved around the issue of governance.
It
is time for us to move that debate forward to a position where we are
totally focused on what type of education and what quality of education
our children are receiving.
If our children are going to receive a globally competitive education, we must move now.
Under
the existing state law, the Mayor appoints six of the seven members of
the Detroit Board of Education. The Governor appoints the seventh.
I
come to this issue with the perspective of an educator. As many of you
know, before I entered politics I taught in Detroit’s Marcus Garvey
Academy.
I learned that in the end, quality education is all
about what happens when a teacher closes the door at 8:00 in the
morning. It’s about what each individual teacher is delivering to his
or her students. That’s the relationship we need to enhance.
There
are thousands of dedicated, excellent teachers in the Detroit Public
Schools. They deserve our gratitude and thanks for their dedication to
our children. We want to partner with them to improve their
relationship with the administration.
Tonight I am announcing
a series of policy changes for the Detroit Board of Education, and I am
announcing five board members. They represent many parts of our
community -- parents, educators, the business community, community
activists and the community at large. I will name a sixth member in
the near future.
In making this announcement, I want to thank
the existing board for their years of service. They have worked long
and hard on behalf of our children and we thank them. They have served
us well.
Changes I am putting in place tonight include:
- A residency requirement for all board members. All five are residents of Detroit.
- Any contract of $250,000 or more will come before the
board. The board is about to issue the last $400 million in bonds that
Detroiters assessed themselves to improve our schools. There should be
public oversight of how the money is being spent.
- Increased integration between the city and the school
system in partnering to build communities, not just building new houses
or new schools in a vacuum.
- I’ve directed the board to take a look at the issue of parent involvement and develop recommendations to improve it.
- I’ve also directed the board to advocate for the
development of improved in-service training for teachers. In a recent
New Detroit study of Detroit’s public school teachers, the teachers
said their training in college did not prepare them to teach in an
urban school district. That needs to change. New Detroit is working
to make this happen with Michigan schools of education, which train 97
percent of our teachers. The board needs to support New Detroit’s
efforts.
- I’ve
received a commitment from all five
board members that they are not interested in running for political
office. They have agreed to serve because they are interested in kids
and in education. Period.
- I’ve
talked to each board member about creating partnerships with the
clergy, parents, the business community, faith-based organizations,
non-profit organizations, law enforcement and the general
community. And…
- I’ve directed the new board
members to adopt a minimum qualifications policy and a strong ethics
policy for the board members, explicitly stating, among other things,
the number of hours they will devote to board work each week.
The members I am appointing to the Detroit Board of Education are here
with us tonight. I want to introduce you to them at this time in
alphabetical order:
Bill
Brooks. Bill Brooks brings to the board a highly successful business
career and a passion for helping young people. He currently is
Chairman, President and CEO of United American Health Care and he is
chair of the committee redrawing boundaries for Detroit’s middle
schools. Last year he chaired the committee redrawing elementary
school boundaries. He was co-chair with the late Bill Beckham of New
Detroit’s first school reform effort.
Belda Garza. Former
state representative, Belda Garza has worked with children all her
life, including 16 years as assistant executive director with the Metro
Girl Scouts. At the same time, she has been active as a volunteer with
the Detroit Public Schools. She served as president of the LSCO at
Southwestern High School, developed a mentorship program for girls at
Western High School and chairs the district’s Hispanic Heritage Month
Committee.
Dr. Gerald Smith. Dr. Smith has been an advocate on behalf of young people in
Detroit
for more than 30 years. He is President and CEO of the Detroit Youth
Foundation, which has worked with young people in the Northern High
School area since 1990 and is now expanding its programs. Boards he
serves on include chair of the Schools of the 21st Century Annenburg
Challenge and the National Alliance of Black School Educators. Dr.
Smith has been serving as a member of the board and I am retaining him.
Michael
Tenbusch. Mike Tenbusch, an attorney and lifelong Detroiter, is the
co-founder and chief executive officer of Think Detroit, a
five-year-old non-profit organization dedicated to building character
in young people through sports and technology. More than 4,000
children aged 5 to 18 participated in Think Detroit programs last
year. Its unique mission has been featured in the New York Times and
has been funded through a partnership with General Motors.
Geneva
Williams. Geneva Williams is President and CEO of City Connect
Detroit. She has been active in the Detroit community and focused on
kids for her entire career. She was chair of the Detroit Compact, an
early education reform initiative, and serves on the board of the
Schools of the 21st Century. She has two children currently attending
Detroit Public Schools and is working on her doctorate in education at
Wayne State.
I believe that School CEO Dr. Kenneth Burnley is a
person who cares about our children and cares about moving this system
forward. I also believe our school system needs a strong relationship
with the community to get the final job done.
Dr. Burnley and the board need to work closely together to make our schools the outstanding system we all want for our children.
Finally,
I’ve directed our City Health Department to get involved with the issue
of parent involvement. Specifically, I’ve directed Health Director
Noble Maseru to explore establishing partnerships with our hospitals to
develop parent training classes and materials for every new parent in
every hospital in Detroit. The materials should include information
about parental programs and numbers to call for help with anything from
breast-feeding, to caring for a sick baby, to good nutrition, to day
care, to finding a job to any other assistance a parent might need.
We’ve
learned in recent years how critical the first three years of life are
in developing a child’s brain. Life is much, much harder for children
who don’t receive adequate nourishment and nurturing during those first
three years. I am determined that we will do all that we can to assure
that happens.
That is the state of our city tonight. We’re
making tremendous progress in many areas. We have much yet to do. And
we approach our task with energy, enthusiasm and optimism that
Detroit’s greatest days lay ahead.
Like Senator Robert Kennedy, we see tremendous potential and ask, Why not?
We see new neighborhoods with thousands of new homes and ask, Why not?
We see well-lit streets and manicured city parks and ask, Why not?
We see a balanced city budget with enhanced city services and ask, Why not?
We see new businesses with thousands of high-tech high paying jobs moving into Detroit and ask, Why not?
We see an expanded Cobo Hall that brings people and jobs to this region and ask, Why not?
We see a clean city and ask, Why not?
We see after school programs for every child who needs one and ask, Why not?
We see a revitalized school system providing a quality education to every Detroit boy and girl and ask, Why not?
We see a Board of Education that is fully engaged with the community and ask, Why not?
Our challenge is clear.
Our vision is achievable.
It’s up to us to get it done.
Thank you.