Mayor Cole's Previous 'State of the City' Addresses:  2005    2004    2003

Fourth Annual State of the City Address

Delivered by the Honorable Mayor Brad Cole
Carbondale Chamber of Commerce Luncheon
November 14, 2006; 12:00 Noon
Carbondale City Hall / Civic Center

Thank you very much for having me here today.  It was an innovative idea three years ago to have such an event, of which this is now the fourth, and I think the attendance indicates that it has been well-received.  The opportunity to address a crowd of this size and composition is very rewarding and it has become more than I expected it would when I first suggested we begin the State of the City presentation.  Since then, to say the least, we have shared some interesting times. 

I will be among many to note that the first State of the City Address was a bit challenging.  It put forth some thoughts and ideas that went against the conventional wisdom of how this city government worked.  It was aggressive and it was partly controversial.  More so than anything, though, it was necessary and it proved to be successful.

The second State of the City Address was heavy with outlines for infrastructure improvements, both physical and virtual, and it continued the theme of pushing the status quo.  It was also a time to recognize the numerous accomplishments that had been shown in fairly short order.

Last year, in my third State of the City Address, I submitted a daring policy agenda that included expansive growth of the city's corporate limits and organized a campaign to improve our collective appearance as a community.  I almost couldn't contain my enthusiasm because of the deep-rooted feelings and beliefs that I had, just knowing what we could do if we came together to tackle some of our issues.  And we did.

Now, here we are today.  I welcome all of you to this event and I thank the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce for again facilitating the occasion.  The partnership that the City of Carbondale has with the Chamber of Commerce is important and it gets more and more important everyday, as we work to attract business and as we work to retain business.  I referenced an often-used quote in my position paper when I ran for Mayor of Carbondale in 2003; that quote was, "business goes where it's wanted and it stays where it's appreciated."  It's simple and it's true.  Hopefully, those of you who are in business understand that we do appreciate you and we're working everyday to make doing business in Carbondale easier and better… not just for you, but for the people you serve, your customers.  And what I try to remind people around here is, those people are our customers, too.

Other relationships that are important are those with neighboring communities.  I want to pause and recognize my fellow mayors who are here today.  They are dedicated to promoting southern Illinois as a region and we have worked hard together to focus on the whole, not just the one.  I had the honor of serving as President of the Southern Illinois Mayors' Association this past year; it was an honor, indeed.  During all of our meetings and our commiserations, we have become trusted friends.  To each of them, I give my personal thanks.  And to their communities, I say what I have said many times before, Carbondale is here to be your partner.

I also want to take just a moment to thank the many people who help arrange meetings of this sort.  I often work in the evenings or on weekends, getting caught-up on reading and doing whatever needs to be done to stay ahead, and because of that I have been able to know many of our custodians and event workers.  They are the ones who put out the tables and make sure the microphones and video cameras work properly, and I thank them.  Speaking of video cameras, I want to acknowledge that this speech is being recorded and is also being broadcast live on CityVision16, our government access cable television channel.  A digital recording of these remarks will also be available through the City's web site and the complete written text is posted on my personal web site, www.teambrad.com. 

By the way, a portion of your lunch fee today has been collected to establish a Mayoral Scholarship that will be given to a deserving student at Carbondale Community High School who will continue toward higher education at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.  Considering what we collected both last year and this year, we will soon be awarding two scholarships, each in the amount of $1,000.  That's money that will make a big difference in someone's future and I thank you for being part of it.

I also wish to pause and note the passing of former Mayor Helen Westberg this year.  Mayor Westberg was a pioneering force in this community and she is missed.  Just last month I helped plant a tree in her honor at the Carbondale Community High School campus, with the assistance of her son and several high school students.  The tree will be there as a reminder to all of us in public service, a reminder of someone who led by example.

Finally, at least in the category of recognizing people, I want to thank my assistant, Faith Johnson.  She does a wonderful job and I have been very fortunate to have her watching my back when others were taking aim at it.  She and I understand each other, which might not be an easy task for either of us.  The last four years have given new meaning to something I already knew, which is that things go a lot better when you have Faith on your side.

Ladies and Gentlemen, your community - indeed, the State of the City of Carbondale - is well.  We have much to be thankful for.  We also have much that we must be aware of and attend to.  This job, that I applied for and was hired to complete, is an important one.  It is a job that requires attention to detail, vision for broad goals and objectives, concern for individuals and organizations, and focus toward results.  And if those things are being met, then the result is that the community prospers and people's lives are positively affected.  That is what keeps us in good condition.

Everyday we are making progress.  I'll have to admit, when I first arrived and began this mission, some of the movement we were making, at least in my observation, was in reverse.  But, today, we are moving forward, we're progressing and we're doing it with clear and recognizable goals that can be quantified and that can be achieved. 

Exactly, what does that mean?  In my mind, that means that we are providing for the basic health, safety and welfare of our residents.  We are providing opportunities for business to grow and expand, to make a profit and offer a service.  We are providing "a place called home" to families.  We are providing the public goods that are necessary for today's society; things like quality roads and safe drinking water, things like superior fire and police protection; things like an open, inviting public library; things like arts and entertainment; the things that people need and want.  And we are doing these things with fewer employees, for fewer dollars and we're doing it better than ever before… and I still think we can keep improving.

Our annual budget this current fiscal year is as healthy as it has ever been, with a total budget of more than $42 million in income.  The fund balance is well-cushioned and our priorities are being met.  All of this and we haven't collected one penny - not one single penny - from property taxes for general government purposes since I was sworn in as Mayor.  That is something I am proud of and it is something that you should be happy for, too.  It proves that we can do more with less and it should signal to other taxing bodies that they can take a look at their property taxes and provide real and meaningful tax relief to the citizens of this community and this county.  The day of annual increases in your property tax bill should be over and it's everyone's responsibility to make it an issue at the ballot box.  We put our money, which is actually your money, where our collective mouth is and others can do the same thing if they'll just get serious about it.

Getting serious about tax payer money means that things have to be prioritized; that then means that some things gain while others don't.  But if we grow the pie, instead of just cutting it up, we can actually increase our opportunities within existing resources.  The reality is that everyone always wants more for less, but you just can't keep-up that pace for very long.  Look at the federal government, they're broke; and so is the state government.  When my budget doesn't balance at home, I have to make choices… I can't just keep spending and spending and write checks without anything to back them up.  But that's what our state and federal leaders are doing and, frankly, it's a shame.  It's a shame because the general public doesn't seem to mind.  Like I said a minute ago, they want more and more and more.  Well, we just don't play that game here in Carbondale.  Our budgets balance and, if they don't, then we make tough decisions.  We work to make the pie bigger.  We either raise revenues or we decrease expenditures.  We will have some of those decisions to make in the coming months and people should be prepared for it, because our expenses keep going up and up, and more people come to the City for financial assistance.  So, be ready for that discussion as we begin work on our upcoming budget cycle.  I don't say that as much as a warning, but more as a matter of fact and reality.

Now, let's get back to what we're doing today and how it is having a positive impact on the community.  Let me share with you our record.

During the past three and a-half years, we have accomplished much.  Notice that I say "we," because it has taken a lot of people to get these things done:

We have torn down old buildings that were nothing more than eyesores and blights on the community.  They're gone and that's good.

We have redeveloped the downtown area with a new bank, a new grocery store, new retailers, improved landscapes and so on.  And there's more to come.

We have fixed the sidewalks and bikeways to better accommodate pedestrians and non-vehicular traffic. 

We successfully fought-off the Census Bureau when they attempted to undercount us in a way that would have cost us millions of dollars. 

We are in the middle of a long process to obtain outside funding to build a new joint-use police station for both SIU and City police departments. 

We have repaired or replaced countless water and sewer lines, some to spur development and others to meet health and safety needs of residents. 

We have welcomed the addition of a new hotel and restaurants in the Reed Station Crossing area, an area that will see further development with an office building and professional complex that is beginning construction as we speak.

We are implementing a free, Wi-Fi wireless Internet network in the downtown business area; and we were awarded a state grant to help fund its start-up.

We installed benches at some of the Saluki Express bus stops, so people don't have to stand for extended periods while they wait for a ride.  What a novel idea with such a simple and inexpensive solution.

We have resurfaced mile after mile of our oil and chip roadways throughout the neighborhoods and we'll finish the rest next spring.  This also put people to work, people in the trades that otherwise would have been facing one of the worst road construction seasons in recent history.

We have re-written chapter after chapter of the City Code to make it easier for people to understand and better for us to administer. 

As I have already noted, we have kept the City's portion of your property tax bill at zero.  Zero.  And I intend to keep it there, too.

We have increased the programs and services offered at the public library. 

We have developed new green spaces, such as Friendship Plaza, and we have invested in community art and arts education.  For our efforts, we were awarded the coveted President's Award from the Illinois Arts Alliance this year, the only community in Illinois to receive the annual honor.

We have proudly served in our role as the Capital of southern Illinois. 

We designed a community marketing program around the "Haven't You Heard…" theme that has been widely successful. 

We have given out tens-of-thousands of t-shirts to new and year-round residents as a way of saying thanks for choosing Carbondale as a place to live.  If you don't already have one of the shirts, they're available outside the room as you leave; please take one.

We have improved our customer service at City Hall by no longer closing offices during the lunch hour.  Businesses don't close to their customers at noon and now we don't, either.

We have invested in public property for the public good, and we're working with groups like the African American Museum of Southern Illinois to restore and better utilize historic buildings. 

We adopted a home ownership and home building incentive program that, upon completion, will have resulted in our assistance with more than 175 homes being built in the last three years… where we had been seeing only a dozen or so houses being built per year before that.  Our goal was 200 homes in three years; we're almost there, even though no one believed it could happen when I first said that we could do it.

We have streamlined some of our boards and commissions, allowing them to work more efficiently and eliminating duplication in their efforts. 

We re-organized our tourism goals and we're empowering that mechanism to get people to come to Carbondale, so they can visit, shop at our stores, stay overnight, eat at our restaurants and use our recreational facilities.  We're looking at return on investment and they're maximizing it for every dollar we spend.

We have focused on running a professional, efficient City government at our City Council meetings.  We seek input on issues and we get the work done. 

We internalized the economic development operation and we're seeing results every day.  We still work closely with the Carbondale Business Development Corporation, just in a different format, and I thank them for their continued support.

As a result of our efforts to grow the economy and create jobs, we have kept unemployment low, in fact ours is the lowest in the area.  The latest state numbers show Carbondale's unemployment rate at a remarkably low 3.7% in September 2006.

We have recognized the need for new transportation alternatives, which is why we started Bike 2 Work Day and why I think we should look into using hybrid vehicles in the City fleet.  We also use bicycles now in some of our neighborhood inspection routes and on some police patrols.

We have annexed hundreds and hundreds of acres of new territory into the corporate limits, including university property, including commercial ground on our eastern boundaries and including residential property on our northern and western boundaries.  We annexed The Crossings Mobile Home Park, bringing that into the city - finally - and helping in our efforts to clean-up some of the criminal activity that has been occurring around our immediate borders.  This also relieved some pressure that was on the Jackson County Sheriff's Department to patrol the area, showing our commitment to working together with other government agencies.

We changed the attitudes of some people and we have been working together with business, with the university, with other communities, with ourselves - instead of against them or against our own best interests.  We still need to do more to cultivate an entrepreneurial style and approach to things, but we're getting there.

We have highlighted the historical significance of Woodlawn Cemetery and invested in making our annual Memorial Day Ceremony at that location the best in the region.  We will continue with some of our renovations at the cemetery to include special decorations on upcoming holidays, decorations that will further the prominence and dignity of the grounds.

We began a practice of delivering welcome packets to new home owners in Carbondale.  I have asked the realtors to let me know when someone buys a home in the community, someone that came from outside the area, and then I drop by or send them a welcome packet with information and greetings from the City.  Not all of the realtors share their information with me, although the invitation is still open to all of them, but for those that have, it has proven to be quite fulfilling.  I enjoy visiting with our newest residents and letting them know that they are part of a caring community.

We have rekindled or re-inspired our Sister City relationships.  I have visited all three of the communities that we partner with and we are working to develop more than just educational or business exchanges in the future, we want to promote each other and we want to capitalize on how these partnerships can benefit everyone.

This is one I'm most proud of: We conducted a community-wide clean-up program that put nearly one hundred high school and college students to work in the summer; it gave them something to do, they earned their own money, they worked hard to clean-up neighborhoods that desperately needed attention, they learned work skills and how to build interpersonal relationships with others; they became invested in the community. 

All-in-all, what does this mean? 

It means that I kept my word to you when I said that I knew - I just knew - that we could get these things done.  That's what I said to you four years ago when I announced my bid for Mayor of the City of Carbondale.  It was on November 13, 2002 that I announced my candidacy and released my position paper.  I thought I knew what the problems were as they faced us then, and I put together a plan to address those problems.  With the help of many people, I kept my promises and I'm very proud of that.

But, in someone else's famous words, people will probably ask, "what have you done for us lately?"  Well, let me come back to that.

Let me first tell you, straight-up, that this job has not always been fun.  Perhaps that comes as a surprise to you, perhaps not.

In hind-sight, getting elected was the easy part… and most people remember that it wasn't really all too easy.  Therein rests the frustration.  I just don't understand sometimes why we have to fight against ourselves for no reason.  I wasn't raised that way when I grew up in the small town of Macon, Illinois.  And that's really not the way I try to conduct myself here in Carbondale, where I have had the good fortune of living for the past seventeen-plus years.

We should all be on the same side of the ball, supporting whoever has the ball, pointing toward the same goal, and being happy when we score.  In bureaucracies - not in a democracy, but in a bureaucracy - that isn't always what happens.  And, frankly, that isn't always what happens here in city government. 

I have learned a lot in the last few years.  I think I have grown while in this position, at least I hope so.  I have been built up and, at times, torn down.  I have given 100% of everything I can as a full-time mayor.  Overall, it has been an experience that I would not trade and one for which I am thankful to the community for having been given the honor. 

Have I rubbed some people the wrong way?  Probably.  Have I done it intentionally or with ill-will towards them?  No.  Sometimes, believe it or not, I'm just a little misunderstood.

Why does that happen?  It happens because I want to see results right now, I can't stand in-efficiency and I get irritated easily because I am impatient. 

Some people say that I am a perfectionist… okay, maybe.  I will freely admit that I prefer perfection, or at least the pursuit of it, over settling for mediocrity.  I am the kind of person who makes decisions and then moves on with them.  If they don't work or if they were the wrong decisions, then let's change them and keep trying to get the work done.  Too many times people are afraid to make decisions or they think we need to take a public opinion poll to gauge what to do.  I'm not like that and I think people want leaders to lead; they want people who can highlight a path forward so they can follow.  That's what I have tried to do, and I think that's what this job requires of any serious contender.

Now, back to the question of "what have you done for us lately?" 

Since that has been the point to events like this in the past, to outline where we're going in the year ahead, let me explain to you what it is that we are doing for you now and what we're planning for the remainder of this year.

One week from today, I will present to the City Council an ordinance that provides for stricter enforcement of truants in our school systems.  The new city ordinance will enforce existing laws better and will also make it a local violation for a student who chooses to disregard their obligation to go to school.  This will be an effort at the end of the road, one last attempt to get the kids straightened out, and if the parents won't make sure their kids are going to school, then they'll get a ticket, too.  We'll let them both tell a judge why they're allowing their future to be wasted on bad decisions.

Speaking of the future of our youth, I'm calling on the school districts in and around the community to work with me on identifying issues that need to be addressed with student retention and academic progress.  No Child Left Behind is more than a mandate from the federal government.  It is a warning siren to every person in this country that we have to keep improving our schools, and the siren is getting louder and louder.  We have to be willing and able to sit down and discuss the good and the bad.  And there are both in our schools.  Now is not the time to stiffen our backs and buffer against people who have concerns or criticisms.  Now is the time that we must - we absolutely must - work together to dispel misunderstandings, to highlight successes, to find solutions and to require an unequivocal degree of success from every child that receives a public education.  The schools are not within my realm of oversight as a mayor, but they are as a citizen and a taxpayer just like they are to everyone else I serve and represent.  I will admit that I don't know how, but we are going to tackle these issues and we're going to do it together, in the light of day and with the true goal of leaving no child behind.

I am also reconstituting what was formerly known as the Gang Task Force.  By year's end, I will name a group of community leaders, business owners, pastors, public safety personnel, young people and others to form the Intervention Task Force.  With a name like that, one wonders what exactly we'll be intervening in.  Well, the idea is to identify problem areas in town that pertain mostly to youth and young people.  We'll focus on issues that come out of the schools or that we see on the streets and in the neighborhoods.  We'll work with school officials, clergy, law enforcement representatives, community volunteers, parents and anyone and everyone who wants to make this a better, safer community.  We'll track gang patterns and warning signs, we'll keep our eyes on graffiti and groups hanging out on neighborhood corners, watching out for signals of trouble and idleness that could lead to real problems.  We just need to do a little more to stay centered on making this community act like a family and addressing concerns with common sense answers and solutions.  It will take us a while to get this rolling, but when we consider the issues other towns face with terrible, random acts of severe violence, I think this will serve us well in heading-off some of those similar problems.

Staying on the topic of youth, I want us to take a look at incorporating a down-sized version of this summer's Community Clean-Up Program into our budget every year. 

During the program this summer, as I already stated, we hired about 100 young people from throughout the community.  We gave them jobs and made them report to work everyday, show up on time, dress neatly, get along with each other in small groups, accomplish designated tasks, and we also taught them leadership skills and instilled a sense of pride in them for their community.  This was a great success and it was a small, a very small, investment in the future of Carbondale. 

The initial program was budgeted at about $250,000 and took-on a grand presence.  I think we can sustain an annual clean-up program that employs around 35 to 40 young people and we can do it for about $100,000 each summer.  Again, this is just a small investment in the community that can pay significant dividends in the work that gets done and in the young people that are empowered by it.  As such, I'll ask the City Council to formally approve this program as an on-going part of our services to the people of Carbondale.  The funds are there in the budget if we make it a priority, and I'm committed to make it happen.  Those kids this summer made us proud, they showed us - the adults - what they could do if we gave them a chance, and I want them and their friends and their parents and everyone to know that I'm on their side.  This program was not a flash in the pan, it was a good idea and I'm exciting to move it forward again.

Switching gears, within the next few weeks we will also convene a new group to assist with addressing prominent neighborhood concerns in the general downtown area of the community, mostly along the Poplar Street entrance to campus.  I hope the group will be a joint University and City task force.  To directly quote Chancellor Walter Wendler, this task force would be "a dynamic partnership between the university and the city, a relationship that will have a very positive and fundamental impact on both the community and the campus, and create the kind of neighborhood for which a college community such as Carbondale should be known.  We have the determination to work through this and in so doing look forward in a powerful and productive way.  Together we can meet our aspirations for a city-university marriage that will be a national model."

The task force is going to represent all sorts of interests in the community.  It will address ways to clean-up neighborhoods, to better weave together the community with the campus, to promote pride in home ownership and maintenance of properties, to create a sense of safety and security in our historic district (also known as the Arbor District), and to look at re-converting rental property into owner-occupied homes.  It will be a conduit for ideas and action to target problems head-on and to solve them with the best interests of the community and campus in mind. 

Chancellor Wendler had been fully supportive of this effort.  He and I were to co-chair the task force, giving it credibility and signifying its high importance to both organizations.  Dr. Wendler was invested in this concept and I can't thank him enough for his role in working together with the community, working with me directly, and for his willingness to roll-up his sleeves on this and other critical issues.  I will now call on incoming Interim Chancellor John Dunn to represent the campus and to see that this important effort gets underway.

When we look at Carbondale we see many different demographics.  We have young people growing up, we have traditional and non-traditional college students seeking higher education, we have professionals and working families trying to do their part, and we have retirees.  One of those social segments that I want to focus on more is the retirement-aged citizen.  These are people that have worked hard and decided to retire in our community, whether they are from here or not.  They have so much to offer and so much that goes unnoticed.  I want to change that.

Working with the Carbondale Convention and Tourism Bureau, we're going to focus on making Carbondale a destination for retirement living.  We have the arts and entertainment, we have the university, we have the medical and professional services people need, we have the temperate climate, the recreational opportunities and the great outdoors, we have everything for the average retiree to make this their home and we're going to start showcasing it.  We'll be putting together plans to shape some new housing areas around what retirees want and need.  We'll be marketing existing resources and our already-built or planned assisted living centers and retirement-related resources.  We're going to do the obvious things first and we even have a few things up our sleeves to make a real splash… those things will be developed and unveiled once we have all of the players on board, which I hope will be within the coming year.  So stay tuned for more.

Well, ladies and gentleman, that's where we are right now. 

Our community is pointed in the right direction and we're making forward progress.  I feel good about the things we have accomplished together and I am equally satisfied that I have kept my word to the residents of this community when I put forward the original plan to get us here today.

And now I guess the only thing left that hasn't been addressed is the question that I get asked a dozen times or more every day, "what are you going to do, are you going to run for mayor again?"

Deciding the answer to that question was a difficult decision to reach, not for reasons you might think but because this is a big commitment.  It is a job that I have dedicated myself to full-time, in a position that I have poured 100% of myself into for the last three and a-half years.  The decision is difficult because I think the Office of Mayor deserves respect and attention, and I think the general public agrees with me. 

This decision also comes at the end of a year that, quite frankly, has been a busy and uncomfortable year for me.  I have had a lot going on.  Most significantly, as maybe only some of you know, my dad passed away this year.  It was a sobering realization of some things and it has caused me to reflect a lot on my own life.  My dad was a good man, he was a good father who raised his kids with care and concern, he was married to my mom for nearly forty years.  He wasn't ever on the front page of the paper and he didn't really care much for politics or government.  He raised me like his father raised him, to be my own person and to work hard for whatever I wanted to achieve, to do so on my own merits and to finish what I start.  For that, I thank him and I miss him.

So, I have made my decision.  I'm going to finish what I started four years ago.  I intend to stay your mayor and today, right now, I am officially announcing my candidacy for re-election as Mayor of the City of Carbondale.

I am willing to commit the next several years of my life to this job, to this community and to getting the work done.  I'm not going to leave it up to someone else to do the job that the mayor should be doing.  I'll be at my desk everyday; I'll take the responsibility when things don't go right, and I'll continue to share the credit when they do. 

This isn't a part-time job, although the pay makes you think it is.  Carbondale is a real city and it deserves real leadership, leadership with ideas and goals and the willingness to get down to the bare knuckles and burn the midnight oil to see that the job gets completed the right way.

This means that it's also four more years of scrutiny and being in the public eye.  Sure there are probably some perks to being known around town as the mayor, but I'm still looking for our five-star restaurant so I can get seated without waiting in line. 

In a small town like this, it has been challenging to refute or ignore the rumor mill and whisper campaigns.  Some of the things people say are funny, some are ridiculous and some are hurtful.  Just to give you an example of the ridiculous, I am yet to figure out why people think I color my hair grey.  Trust me, it's all natural and I'm just glad to even have hair as much as I've tried pulling it out at times.  I won't get into any of the hurtful comments that are made deliberately, the ones made only behind people's backs, because there's no reason to dwell on them and we have more important work to do than waste time on that.  My campaign will focus on issues and it won't sink to low levels in personal attacks or gossip.  From this onset, I wish everyone luck who seeks election, because I only want what is best for the community, whether it is me or someone else in these shoes.

You might ask why I decided to run again.  Because it's important to keep going, now is not the time to sit back and let the days pass by.  Look at what we have accomplished together.  Consider the laundry list of things I stated earlier.  Understand that it takes effort and this little engine is just starting to push itself up and over the hill.  I admit to getting frustrated and I think that frustration is what finally made up my mind for me.  If I get frustrated, and I'm the mayor, then just think what the average citizens feel when they confront the bureaucracy.  I want to change that and I truly want to make a difference here.  So, we're going to finish what we started.

My dad liked to listen to old/classic country music and so do I.  Johnny Cash was the main favorite, but I think Jerry Reed's lyrics in "The Bandit" are more on target for us right now: "we've got a long way to go and a short time to get there."

I say, let's get there together.  I've already mentioned some of the things we're going to push this coming year and I'm prepared to tell you what I think we need to focus on during my second term.  I have ideas and I'm not afraid to put them on paper and stand by my record.  That's the minimum that any serious candidate should do.

As you leave today, please pick-up a copy of my comprehensive position paper to take home and read.  In the packet is my plan for the next four years and it supplements my original position paper and each of my State of the City Addresses.  It is another outline of where we're headed and it's a tool to maintain accountability, something I believe in strongly.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm excited about what I see in front of us as a community.  I hope you'll join me in this effort as we continue to make Carbondale a great place to live, learn, work, play and do business.  Together, we can do it.

Thank you and best wishes.

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Annual State of the City Address 2005

Carbondale Chamber of Commerce Luncheon
November 8, 2005; 12:00 Noon
Carbondale City Hall / Civic Center

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to this yearly opportunity for me to present to the community, and particularly to the business community, an overview of the year gone past and an outlook for the year ahead, as part of this Third Annual State of the City Address.

Thank you and welcome to the members of the City Council who are here today.

This is the third such event of this kind and I appreciate the reception it has received from each of you and from the city as a whole.  I continue to hold this forum in conjunction with a meeting of the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce as a way of publicly showing support for the business community and as a way to seek further cooperation from each of you in this partnership that we are supposed to have, and that we desperately need, in order to grow this community and build for the future. 

It seems that too often there is a push-pull relationship that works counter productively against ourselves.  When we push you pull, or when you pull we push, and nobody takes the time to look and see that we are all facing the same direction.  This is, perhaps, the most frustrating part of the job of being your mayor and I would sincerely hope that everyone takes just a minute to think about the direction you or whoever is sitting next to you is aiming.  Are you pushing or pulling, and are you facing the same direction - which, by the way, is forward - are you facing the same direction as the rest of us?  This is a question that we must also ask ourselves at City Hall, so don't think the burden is all on your shoulders as business owners or operators or as general citizens of Carbondale.

By the way, as part of the luncheon fee that you paid today for those who are eating, we have raised almost $1,000 toward a new mayoral scholarship for a student graduating from Carbondale Community High School and who will attend Southern Illinois University.  A one time event like this is able to raise enough money to help pay for part of someone's beginning expenses in college.  Everyone deserves a round of applause for that and to show how much a little bit from everyone can make a big difference.  So, thank you.

Like last year, I want to take just another moment to let everyone know that this discussion is being broadcast live on City Vision channel 16, the City's government access cable television channel, and it is being recorded for rebroadcast at other times within the next few weeks.  A digital audio recording of my remarks will also be available on-line, through the City's official website, and the written text is now posted on my personal web site, www.teambrad.com. 

I want to thank all of the staff and technicians that have helped with this process today and also those that help throughout the year with all of our public meetings, most of which happen after regular business hours.  I also want to thank my assistant, Faith Johnson, for her support throughout the year.  I have been extremely fortunate and have been blessed with quality and loyal assistants in all of the posts I have served, from my days on campus to the years in the Governor's Office and now at City Hall, and Faith is no exception... she's with the program and she does a great job.

Standing here for a third time is an honor.  It is an honor that also comes with great responsibility and with many obligations.  As part of my college fraternity experience, I learned that to accept the advantages of an office, you must fulfill its obligations.  I take those simple words very seriously and even more seriously attempt to make good on the obligations that have followed with every advantage I have ever received.  Today is no different and, in fact, today is what that statement is all about.  It is about standing in front of the people that I report to, standing in front of this great community, and reporting on the acts and actions of my administration and your city government.  It is about being upfront and honest with people, it is about acknowledging bad decisions and moving-on past them, it is about setting the record straight against those that would rather criticize and constantly complain, it is about celebrating successes and searching for more, it is about planning and setting a course with vision to where we want to be next, it is about hard work and positive effort.

Similar to my address last year, I can confidently begin this afternoon's comments by stating that much of what was unveiled a year ago as policy initiatives has been accomplished and is being continued.  We have been goal oriented and we are focused on achievable marks that can be identified and maintained.  We're getting it done.

Last year we talked about cleaning up some of our contracts with outside organizations; that has been done.  We talked about righting the financial ship of the public library; action was taken by both the library board of trustees and the City Council to approve my plan and the long-term course is set for that to be done.  We talked about focusing our dollars and cents in areas that make the most return on our investment; that is being done.  We talked about the pending development of Carbondale's new downtown; just a short time but several new businesses later, we can all see that this is being done, as well.  And, literally, on and on with numerous similar examples. 

We talked about working with other communities and other mayors to rebuild a unified southern Illinois.  I'm proud to welcome my good friends Mayor Ron Williams from Murphysboro and Mayor Vic Ritter from Herrin, who have both taken the time to join us today.  I want to thank them for joining me in a setting like this and for sending a message that is loud and clear - southern Illinois stands together.  Something good for one community is something good for every community.  Of course it didn't hurt that I offered to pay for their lunch.

And as I have said repeatedly, "as goes Southern Illinois University, so goes Carbondale."  Today it is a pleasure to welcome Acting President Duane Stucky and Chancellor Walter V. Wendler.  Both of these gentlemen, but particularly Chancellor Wendler because of his immediate connection with the Carbondale campus, have a daily impact on the lives of everyone in Carbondale and most people throughout the region.  With President Walker's "Vision 20/20" plan and Chancellor Wendler's comprehensive "Southern at 150" program, many great things are underway at the university.  And there has been a lot of good news in the last few days with a major ($10 million) private gift to the system, with new excitement surrounding the "Saluki Way" concept and with the "Opportunity through Excellence" campaign at the SIU Foundation. 

There are some issues we are currently working on between the two organizations and at some point, like in any relationship, there is likely to be an impasse, but it is incumbent upon all of us to not forget how lucky we are to have this campus in our backyard, as an integral part and component of the City of Carbondale. 

We also need to give credit where the credit is due when speaking about the good fortunes afforded us because of the campus - the credit is due to the students.  Without the student body there is no university, and without the university there is no Carbondale as we know it today.  We have had some tough times in the past, with silliness and juvenile behavior associated with times like Halloween of the past, but that is now behind us.  There will no doubt be a call to re-visit the issue of our Halloween management techniques and we may very well do that, but we will only do it with the best interests of the community and the campus in mind.  We have to be able to balance the plus and minus sides of the student equation and we will.

I know we are all in this together and I thank both of you for joining us this afternoon, just as I thank the students who make your jobs, and ours, possible.

I said a minute ago that we have been goal oriented and we are focused on achievable marks that can be identified and maintained.  And we are.  One way to measure those goals and to monitor our progress towards them is to look at the numbers.  When I took office in May 2003, we had seen the completion of a fiscal year that registered $24 million in new construction and building permits within the city limits.  The next year, as I reported last year, there was a fifty-five percent increase in that number.  I boasted that in the first year of this administration's retooled efforts, we had $37 million in new construction and building permits issued.  Some people thought that was a high mark that we would not be able to match.  Well, we did.

In the just completed fiscal year, we nailed that mark again.  $37 million in new private investment within the city limits.  That's two years in a row and that does not include the new building projects that have just been started or are now completed on campus.  That's sustained development and that's what we will measure ourselves against in the future.  The benchmark has been set high, and we are meeting it now and we will continue to meet or surpass it... every year that I'm here.

The first program that I introduced as mayor was an innovative incentive program to encourage new home building.  The thought was that we could start to bring people back to Carbondale, people that were otherwise looking to build new homes just on the edges of town or in our suburbs (like Herrin and Murphysboro).  We set a very high goal of 200 new homes within three years.  So far, we are about half-way to that goal, with 94 homes started as of today, and we are still moving toward the 200 magic number.  In fact, when we used to see ten or twenty new homes being built each year, we now see several dozen.  Last year we built 40 new single-family homes and 83 multi-family units, which include duplexes and other larger buildings.  This year we already have 39 new single-family homes built or under construction and another 20 multi-family units.  This means that we have turned the corner on the road to making Carbondale the place to live again.

Sure, there was skepticism and there were people who didn't think it would work, but it has.  Unfortunately, as is often the case, those that benefit the most from this success are starting to take the program for granted and are sliding back into the old bad attitudes and negativism that almost suffocated us before.  We don't read or hear the positive comments that should be talked about everyday with this program.  We do often read and hear the naysayers... but not today.  Today is not their day.  Today is our day.

And because today is our day, I'm going to illustrate this new home construction success one more time, in a slightly different way.  And this is done to talk about the future, not about the past or anyone or anything before me.  But the numbers I gave are clear: in the first six months of this current fiscal year, we have built as many new single-family homes within the City of Carbondale as were built here for the combined two years before I took the oath of office.  Six months versus two years - now that is exciting stuff and we still have room to grow!

But enough about those numbers.  Let's look at some other issues.

Last year I spoke about our success with transforming the former Carbondale Business Development Corporation (CBDC) and folding it directly into the city's operation.  That worked and was a good decision, albeit it difficult at the time.  I mentioned that we were also looking at the Carbondale Convention and Tourism Bureau and asking them to redefine their scope and their objectives as we put greater emphasis on sporting activities and conference/convention events.  That has worked thus far and I have asked them to go one step further and reconstitute their board of directors into a leaner, more efficient group.  It appears that they are not willing to take that step forward with me right now, but I hope they understand how serious I am about it and how this will benefit the entire region in the long term if changes are implemented.  This now comes back to the notion of who is pushing and who is pulling.

Administratively, we have spent a large amount of time cleaning up our own rule book.  We have looked at the long and short of our city codes and we have revised, updated and replaced several sections that were either outdated, unnecessary or just didn't make sense.  With about 1,500 pages of codes we still have more to look through, but the changes were made as part of a process and with considerable input from the community when appropriate and we will continue to do so as time allows.

Our financial picture is perhaps the best it has ever been.  Our interest expense on long-term debt is only about two-percent of our overall budget.  Our General Fund fund balance today sits at a very healthy $7 million, which is up nearly $450,000 from last year's audited report.  We have been able to maintain that positive cash flow and reserve from diligent efforts to stay ahead of bond refinancing benefits and keeping our expense growth under control through solid management practices.  We have also done this without any property tax being collected for city government purposes.  It is easily forgotten so I need to remind you that we eliminated the city's portion of your property taxes and we have been able to stay fiscally sound and meet all of our needs without going back to the working family and taking more out of their monthly mortgage payment or tax bill. 

Our Human Relations Commission has been engaged in programs for improving relationships among individuals and groups in the community.  The Commission has invested itself deeply in the study circles program under the title of "Carbondale Conversations for Community Action."  Last year's theme was "Building Strong Neighborhoods" and this year's focus is "Community and Police Working Together."  The recommendations that come out of these meetings and conversations will eventually make their way to the City Council if necessary for definitive, formal action.  I should thank Dr. Sam Goldman, the chair of the Commission, and Mrs. Lana Bardo, the volunteer coordinator, and the other volunteers for their hours of effort and hard work.

We have also been looking internally at other issues that we should address.  Issues like annexation and growth management.  What does that mean?  Well, it means we need to look at the overall picture of the area and find out how we best fit into the map.  It means we can no longer look over, around, or beside the former Carbondale Mobile Home Park (now called The Crossings) on our northern boundaries and pretend it isn't or shouldn't be part of our realm of responsibility.  We should get serious about reality.

I have asked the staff to make a comprehensive report and recommendation that can be acted on within the early stages of next year to officially and finally annex that property.  What does that mean for the community?  Maybe not a whole lot at once, but it does mean that we will take control of an area that has seen high crime rates and needs better, heavier, more direct supervision than can be provided by the county government.  This is a step up to the plate, a way for the City of Carbondale to ease the burden on other law enforcement jurisdictions and a way to fix a Gerrymandered mess that serves no purpose.  I look forward to the report and to bringing this issue to the City Council for their support and approval in the coming months.  And we will likely be addressing other issues of annexation in the near future, too.

I know the safety and security of The Crossings has been an issue that is discussed as part of the sheriff's efforts to increase funding for county-wide law enforcement.  While the matter of an increase in sales tax to fund additional hires and expenses within the sheriff's department is an entirely different topic and one that will be and should be resolved by the voters of the county, our effort to relieve some of the burden that currently exists by annexing The Crossings is yet another step in the right direction toward mutual aid and cooperation.

While we're kind of on the topic of the county government, I want to thank those from the county board who are here today.  Their presence shows an equal commitment to this community, not just because I say we are the Capital of Southern Illinois but because Carbondale is and will stay the central factor to all of Jackson County's well-being.

Along those lines, in a recent discussion with one county board member, I shared details of a trip to a nearby, but out-of-state, community.  A few of us got in the car and drove south to meet with people who are not too much different from ourselves, but that have a different attitude and approach to development than we do.  In looking back at the trip, which was just one of many more that will be taken as an individual myself or as a group of us from the city, I come to the same conclusion each time... we have to do some things differently and it will cost us more money to do so. 

Looking at things differently goes back to one of the comments I made earlier about people's attitudes.  Eventually those attitudes will either get in line or fall by the side, either is fine with me.  But the money part is something that we have to recognize, plan for and commit to, and I'm talking real money, not piddling a few thousand dollars here and there and expecting great results.

As such, I will present to the City Council in our next budget proposal expanding our support of the Jackson County Business Development Corporation (JCBDC).  We doubled our funding to JCBDC last year from $5,000 annually to $10,000, and we need to double it again.  In fact, we should probably just add another zero on the end of the original $10,000 number and get on with getting serious.  But we're not quite there yet and too big of a jump too soon or without a more-clear direction and broader cooperation will not render the results we need.  But this is another first-step and we can do it and we should do it.  Others entities can and should do it, too, but that's not for me to decide.  This extra money will be reallocated to JCBDC from our current allotment to the tourism bureau.

As we look at spending real money to attract business development, has anyone noticed the small things around town that didn't cost much money but have had a large impact?  How about the green spaces that replaced brown fields and old tattered buildings?  How about our nice little Friendship Plaza, that I am so proud of and happy with?  How about the flower boxes and planters that now adorn the major intersections and have done so much for improving the line of sight and driving view of our corridors?  How about all of that?  Personally, I love it and we can and will do more of it.

Specifically, we are working right now with the owner of the Selmier Peerless property just across the street from city hall and within the next six months, that building will be gone.  Not painted, not have a new roof, not have new landscaping around it, but it will be gone.  And in six months after that, no one will hardly remember what a terrible eyesore it was and how it only mirrored the old dairy building across the street from it as another eyesore.  Cleaning up our central core and our downtown is a job we can no longer put off, and I hope you join me in carrying this banner and promoting the excitement that it breeds.

I had hoped today to be able to announce a new tenant for the former K-Mart shopping center, but the work on that site has been complicated within the last few weeks and final negotiations between the prospect and the property owner have fallen apart.  We will keep working on that and I know we'll have something to report soon, hopefully sooner rather than later, but these deals take a lot of time to get done right and we are being careful to make the right move for what we need in new retail space, instead of just taking the first thing that comes along.  In the end, I think it will work out and I know everyone will be happy. 

Even with changes like the exit of K-Mart from our economic scene, Carbondale is still able to support the lowest unemployment numbers in the region, helping to keep Jackson County's numbers equally low (last month at 4.3%) and generally a full point below the state average.  But this is something we have to keep an eye on, and we will.

Earlier I mentioned that we have been fortunate to come together as a region, as a group of area municipalities to work on common goals and to support each other.  I want to take this opportunity to thank my fellow mayors for entrusting in me the leadership this year of the Southern Illinois Mayors Association.  SIMA, as we call it, is taking a much more active role in advocating for small towns and communities that would otherwise be unable to have a voice in Springfield, which is where the state capitol used to be, or in Chicago or Washington, DC.  The mayors association is made-up of great men and women, like those who I mentioned are here today, who work hard in their communities and come together to work hard for our region, and I am humbled to be their president this year. 

Likewise, it was a great honor to be asked to serve on the board of directors for the statewide Illinois Municipal League.  As a first-term mayor, this is virtually unheard of and it is a sign that southern Illinois is getting the respect it deserves.  It is also a sign that Carbondale is a place that the rest of the state can look toward for progressive ideas and for solid leadership in many ways.

And so from the local level with the Southern Illinois Mayors Association, to the state level with the Illinois Municipal League, I want to step one foot further to the national and international level.  Some of you may know that I was elected to serve as a member of the board of directors for Sister Cities International last summer.  On a board with international representation for an organization that is this year celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, I am the only elected official to have been chosen by the general membership to serve in this capacity.  It is a real honor, obviously.  And it comes from what I hold as a true commitment to fostering our relationships overseas.

If people think the world is getting bigger or nations and their citizens are becoming less connected around the globe, they are clearly wrong.  It is just the opposite.  We are in a world now that knows few boundaries, certainly very few boundaries when it comes to the exchange of ideas and information and technology.  Today is our opportunity to resolve tomorrow's conflicts by coming together in dialogue and discussion between cultures and societies.  Just look around Carbondale and you will find our own local version of the United Nations, with so many different countries represented in either the campus community, in the professional fields or as long-term residents or short-term visitors.  This is what makes us special and unique and this is what we should spend a little time focusing on for the future.

Just three weeks ago I hosted a group of German military youth information officers for an evening in Carbondale.  Basically, we had every German military recruiter at one place at the same time, but in southern Illinois instead of Germany.  These are young men who will be responsible for recruiting and maintaining the military force of an entire nation for the next decade, and they spent several hours learning about small town government and meeting small town officials to get a better view and opinion of America.  I told them that the real America is not Hollywood or New York City, or what they see on television or read in the tabloids.  I told them that the real America can be seen right here in Carbondale, with people from all walks of life, people raising families and working jobs and getting an education.  And for that night, that is exactly what they saw and that is how they will now think of America, at least in some small degree.

This exchange was made possible because of a personal relationship that I have through the German Bundeswehr, but this is exactly the type of thing that Sister Cities International does on a daily basis and our support of their programs is critical to make sure that other nations and other people see the real America.  This is why I took the city's first trip to Shimla, India last year, a forgotten Sister City of ours, and this is why I will also make trips to our other Sister Cities in Nakajo (now call Tainai), Japan and to rekindle the other forgotten relationship in Tainan City, Taiwan.  These outbound exchanges haven't happened in over a dozen years and it is almost shameful, but we are focused on them now and we will rebuild and nurture our relationships through active citizen diplomacy.

Back home a little bit, it is worth noting that in two days I will join the staff and volunteers of the Boys and Girls Club of Carbondale as they receive the Governor's Home Town Award at a ceremony in Springfield.  There will be another event this Saturday morning at the club's location on Springer Street, when the award will be presented locally.  And isn't this a fitting tribute to the hard work and efforts that were put in by so many people to make the idea move from concept to reality?  Carbondale and the Boys and Girls Club deserve the recognition of a Governor's Home Town Award, and I'll be pleased to stand with the others to receive it on behalf of the entire community.

Some of the things we do, like establishing a boys and girls club program or like cleaning up the streetscapes and walkways around town, have direct impact on the general feel of the community.  One of the things I have noticed since working in this building everyday is that it, too, is in need of an up-lift to its general feel.  This is a great facility and it serves our purposes well, and it is a little hard to believe that we have been housed here now for just more than nine years, but we have.  So, anyway, as I roam the halls of this facility, I have to say that, to no fault of anyone in particular, it seems to be a rather sterile environment.  The building is functional and we have many artistic displays and events and activities that happen here in the civic center portion of the building, but there is little to brighten up the city hall side.  The institutional gray paint sure doesn't help brighten anyone's day if they have to come here to pay a bill or argue a parking ticket or anything else that's less than cheerful.  So, we should do something about it.

The first thing we will do is spruce-up the joint.  By paying attention to the detail around the building we can stay ahead of maintenance issues that will soon sneak up on us in a building that will start to have creeks and groans.  And we will add some customer service friendliness to the atmosphere, too, starting in our water and parking office.  This year we used that office as the point position for distributing nearly 10,000 free t-shirts to new and long-term residents.  This is the office that sees the most daily traffic of any office in the building and we need to make it friendlier... not the people, because they do a fine and friendly job already, but the surroundings.  I have challenged the city manager and his staff to be creative, and to be creative in a way that adds color to the entire building and says "welcome" to anyone and everyone that walks through our doors at the City of Carbondale. 

The Walt Disney Company has a world-renowned reputation for keeping its properties and buildings clean and near-spotless from wear and tear, making all of their visitors think about the good things and never once to think about a piece of trash on the lawn or finger prints on the door glass or chipped paint on the stairwell handrail.  We're obviously not the Walt Disney Company, although we have some fairly unique and comical characters around here, maybe myself included, but we can adopt that same attitude about making our impression on people the best it can possible be.  Each of you can do the same at your place of business, too.

And upstairs at City Hall, along the second floor hallway that seems more like the Green Mile than the path to senior administrative offices, we're going to really throw some color around.  I've talked briefly with a representative of Carbondale Community Arts and the Carbondale Elementary School District and we're going to let the children of the community do the decorating.  I have seen in other cities where this has worked, so I know it can, and I know we can do it better here.  We'll incorporate into the lessen plans next year in the elementary schools an art project that will give a ceramic tile to every youngster to paint and decorate as they wish (but within reason, of course), and then we'll take those tiles and line the hallway walls.  This will all be under the supervision of their classroom teachers and in conjunction with a local artist to coordinate, and it will inject some life into our boring second floor.  What better way to welcome people and visitors to the Mayor's Office than by the handy work and art of our young people?  And what better way to make the children feel a part of their city government than by putting their work on the wall, permanently, for everyone to see and enjoy?  This will be good for us, it will be a partnership with the schools and with local artists, and it will fun for the kids.

With the success of the "Carbondale is a place called home" tee-shirts this year, of which I said we handed out nearly 10,000 during the first few weeks of August and September, we will look to do that again.  We had a great deal of generous support for that project and I hope we will be able to expand it just a little more... maybe next year we'll be able to do 15,000 shirts.  But the issue isn't printing shirts for people, the issue is making people - our residents and citizens - making them feel good about their community.  The issue is truly about making Carbondale a place called home.  Just seeing random people wearing those shirts around town, which I see almost every day, makes me feel good about getting that message across to folks and I think it makes them feel good that they are appreciated as a part of the overall community.  No other community that I know of has done this before, anywhere, but some have now started to copy our efforts and it's a marketing effort and a community outreach strategy that I am glad to have us lead.

The point to the shirts and our "Haven't You Heard..." campaign in general is much like our overall approach has been to economic development, except these activities are more in the realm of social or community development in the sense of building community pride and spirit.  I wrote in my campaign position paper a borrowed phrase that I often cite, "business goes where it is wanted and it stays where it is appreciated."  The same is true of people and we recognize that fact and we want Carbondale residents and visitors to know that they are both wanted and appreciated.

That is a fairly good representation of where we have been and where we are.  Now let's look at where we are going as we face forward.

We are moving forward with some enhanced oversight of the clean-up of the former Kopper's wood treating facility in the northeast quadrant of town.  I have personally toured the site and am comfortable with the remediation work that is taking place by the current owners, but we are going to stay on top of the issue and we are putting resources behind that effort.  Within the next 90 days, I will call a Special City Council meeting for the express purpose of bringing in the clean-up officials and the regulatory agencies and having a formal presentation before the public at-large to explain the process and to answer some of the questions that need airing.  In this we must remember, though, that we are dealing with the clean-up of the site, which has public health concerns and long-term development issues.  We are not in a position to deal with what happened 25 or 50 years ago when the plant was operating and may have produced risks for the employees.  There are only some things we can address, and the other concerns from the past must be addressed individually through medical and legal experts, or other civil procedures.

You should all know that we are also preparing for the future in the worst way, meaning that we are preparing for the worst things to happen.  We have been lucky over the years to not face the tornados and other massive natural disasters that some other cities have suffered around us.  In observance of what we all witnessed with recent hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma, we are doing a better job now of stockpiling resources that will allow us to respond to a potential natural disaster if or when one ever strikes.  We have held mock disaster exercises to simulate our responses and we are training all of our first responders and senior staff in the National Incident Management System (NIMS), which is the disaster management method that has proven to work and be effective.  We are reviewing our disaster plans, we are studying them and we are getting ourselves in the best position possible to be able to react without second thoughts or second guessing what to do next to protect our citizens and our community.  This will require the expenditure of additional funds, but dollars spent today will help save lives tomorrow.

We will continue to focus on creating a more-connected, more technologically-advanced community.  We have been working on this for a year now, sadly taking more time than I had originally expected, but we are moving toward creating a wireless hot zone in the downtown for easier, free access to wireless Internet.  I have seen what other, larger cities are doing and we are right behind them.  But we want to make sure that what we do is the right thing, and it doesn't harm private enterprises, so we're taking the precautionary time now instead of rushing ahead and realizing a problem later that is too far along to fix later.

On a more bricks-and-mortar plane, I can say that we are about to pull the trigger on finally constructing permanent bathroom facilities and concession buildings at the Super Block recreational complex.  These are long overdue and we are moving to get them completed by the start of the spring 2006 playing seasons.  Cooperation with the school districts and with Carbondale Junior Sports and Carbondale Soccer has been terrific, and we will move forward with the park district to make sure they will be able to maintain the finished products as part of our overall agreement with them to manage the site.

Carbondale has been successful in recently completing the long-awaited New Era Road reconstruction project that now opens up our growing western corridor to new housing starts and potential commercial development.  Just like our east side has grown over the last ten years, I can see the west side growing even more.  When we opened that finished roadway a few weeks ago, we were also fortunate to be able to announce a new right-in, right-out addition to Illinois Route 13 that will connect that busy road into and out of the developing Reed Station Crossing area on our east side.  The investment that will be made by the federal and local governments in that project is but a small compliment to the private investment that everyone can see is taking off like wild fire.  I want to pause and thank Charlie Brown and Associates, and Trace Brown in particular, for taking the risks involved with those projects and for helping to make Carbondale a better community.

Our comprehensive road resurfacing program is now underway, as well.  We have completed the first test area for the new asphalt resurfacing that will eliminate all of our oil and chip streets, and it proved to work well with little problems.  Next year we will roll-out the full program as we move around the community to finally get rid of the gravel roads that belong out in the country, not in the middle of our city.

We also completed the purchase of the former Attucks School building and we are finalizing the paperwork to officially hand it over to the Southern Illinois Achievers group for their work to create the first permanent location for an African American Museum of Southern Illinois.  And we continue to work on the dream of mine to build a new multi-use, multi-jurisdictional public safety center on the grounds of the former Lincoln Middle School.  The final approvals are on their way from the necessary regulatory agencies that are involved at the state level and now all we need to do is come up with about $10 million to make it all happen.  But what's $10 million among friends?  We'll get it done, maybe not this year, but it will get done; mark my words.

With the economic and commercial development picture improving and with our downtown clean-up well underway, with our financial house in order and with our eye on making Carbondale a place called home... we have to look next to the neighborhoods.

Earlier this year we acted as a City Council to adopt some new policies meant to protect the rights of both landlords and tenants.  This action came out of efforts from the Human Relations Commission.  We have instituted a system whereby we can better monitor single-family housing districts in our zoning jurisdiction and we can keep residential neighborhoods feeling like the calm, quiet residential family neighborhoods they were intended to be instead of them seeming like Grand Central Station.  Be clear, though, in understanding that this is not a student versus non-student issue.  This is about keeping and preserving the integrity of neighborhoods, where children safely play in their front yards and seniors can feel comfortable walking their pet at night and the traffic doesn't rip down the street unchecked.  Our residential neighborhoods, the R-1 zoning districts, are at the heart of this or any community and they will be actively and aggressively protected under our new enforcement program.  And I fully believe that enforcement is the issue; we have the laws and ordinances on the books and they will be put into action without the need to re-invent the wheel with new rules.

But what do we do to clean-up the residential neighborhoods like we have started to do with our commercial areas?  This is a question that I have asked myself since before I became mayor, even before I was on the City Council.  I don't mind telling you that this is a tough one; it's just not an easy issue to resolve.  But I think we can resolve it and I think we have a way to try.

As you drive around Carbondale, or probably any of the other communities around southern Illinois, you see lots of people that take pride in where they live but maybe they just don't have enough resources to get rid of the old lawn mower or rusted-out charcoal grill in the back yard or enough time to trim or remove the tangled brush along their fence row, or maybe they're sick or too elderly to be able to get out and do things around the house anymore.  One thing left in the yard leads to another and before you know it the property looks like Sanford and Son live there.  This is true to some extent in all neighborhoods, in all sections of town.  We have to fix that.

Like everything else in today's world, there has to be a compelling reason for someone to want to tackle the problems they have.  There need to be incentives.  The options need to be easy and affordable.  People need help.  And some of the people that need help also need a job or more financial resources; in kind of a cyclical pattern the problems perpetuate each other.

So the idea here is that as we focus on retaining the composure of single-family residential neighborhoods in our active zoning enforcement, we will also create a program that cleans up the city.  We'll do this in three parts.  First, when the spring weather rolls out next year, we will begin to actively cite troubled property through our existing building and neighborhood codes and we will work with property owners to get their volunteer permission for us to take control of obvious problems.  Second, as a summer work program for youth, we can hire 100 high school and college students to comb the town one street and one house at a time, clearing out brush, picking up trash, removing junk and hauling off abandoned equipment or cars or whatever.  Third, we will come back in with another round of enforcement that sets a new standard by which the property owners will have to maintain and we will work to demolish falling-down, abandoned and hazardous homes that are no longer occupied or are corrupting the neighborhoods as drug houses or gathering points for other illegal activity.  We will double, and then re-double if we need to, our housing demolition program to get rid of these old, pathetic remnants of houses.  They have to just go away and when they do it will open up the area for new development and the neighborhoods will start to breathe fresh air again.  And if we can't get the property owners to work with us, we'll work around them.  The safety of the community has to come first.

This is a massive, city-wide effort to sweep the community clean and to do it over the course of one summer with the help of kids who need summer jobs and for the benefit of everyone who wants a nicer place to call home.

We do a little part of this every year when we have the spring pick-up for household items and we get a lot hauled in, but a lot of that is from inside the house and this is focusing on outside the house.  How much nicer would it be to drive through the neighborhood streets of Carbondale and not see the house that you wonder how it's still standing, or think there's a junk yard operating and it's really just someone's front or back yard.  This program is not brain surgery, but it could have the impact of a major face lift for the community.

It will take time and it will take energy to coordinate, there will be some short term inconveniences for people, but there will be long term benefit, too.  And what better way to clean-up things than by putting young people to work.  Today's youth need work to earn money so they can spend it downtown or, hopefully, save it for college, but they also need work to establish a work ethic and to learn the value of an honest day's work for an honest day's pay.  Too many kids are sitting inside with video games at home while their parents are outside raking leaves and cutting the lawn; this will reverse that and bring some reality back to the idea of breaking a sweat and learning responsibility and also taking pride in their home town.

Some 70 years later we are reinventing the Civilian Conservation Corps as a local creation with a specific task and with a limited timeline, a one-time shot in the arm to the community.  This is no small endeavor; I realize that and I also know it will be costly.  We look at putting money back into the community through our annual Community Investment Program, and this can be a part of that.  A million dollar road or a half-million dollar sewer line is nothing new to us, and barely raises an eyebrow, so why should a quarter-million dollar clean-up be any different?  And this money will go to young people, people who need work, and it will turn around in the community and be worth every nickel and every dime.  In fact, if it works right, we'll be paid back dollars on the dimes as we have a cleaner, more welcoming community.  The new welcome signs are out, but we haven't swept off the sidewalk and porch yet to let people know they can come in; this will do that.

I have said all along that in order for us to attract new businesses and new residents and new students to Carbondale, we have to get our proverbial house in order.  Literally and figuratively, that is exactly what this new program will do.  We need a nip here and a tuck there, we need it on a broad scale in order to make it noticeable, and we need leadership to make it happen.  This is what I will ask of the City Council as we present next year's budget plan that includes a minimum of $250,000 for our own community-wide version of an extreme home makeover.

That's it.  No real surprises, no real controversial ideas or issues, just the routine of doing the people's business.  This is where we have been and this is where I think we are going.  There is much more, of course, too much for just one lunch hour. 

To borrow a phrase from one of Jimmy Buffet's songs, "that's my window on the world," and hopefully you join me in seeing that the window is open, open for opportunity, "Opportunity through Excellence" and opportunity through hard work and positive efforts.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is clear that the State of the City is quite healthy, it is fairly prosperous, it is growing, it is open for business, it is seeking support at the same time that it is giving support, the State of the City is as full of potential as the trees are now filled with fall colors.

When I applied for this job and was hired 30 months ago, I don't really know what people expected.  Quite sincerely, two and a-half years ago, I'm not sure what I expected.  Today I think we have joined together as a community, with friends from other communities and with solid leadership on campus, and we can say that we are getting the job done.  In some ways different and in some ways the same, but we are doing the work that needs to be done and I am personally quite proud of our accomplishments.

Thank you again for being here this afternoon and for fulfilling your part in making Carbondale a place called home.

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Annual State of the City Address 2004

Carbondale Chamber of Commerce Luncheon
November 16, 2004; 12:00 Noon
Carbondale City Hall / Civic Center

Thank you again for the opportunity to speak to the members of the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce as I put forth my plan and the initiatives that will guide the direction of the City of Carbondale during the next year.

As many of you know, last year was the first year that the Mayor shared such a comprehensive plan with the Chamber membership.  In doing so then and now, one of my goals is to validate and expand the significance of the Chamber of Commerce, and specifically the business community, in the affairs of our city government.  Your presence here today shows a commitment to community and a concern for shared governance, and it should equally be our commitment to assist in the maintenance of a sound and steady economic environment for you.

Again, like last year, this event is being broadcast live on CityVision 16, the City's  government access cable television channel, and it is being recorded for rebroadcast at other times within the next few weeks.  I wish to thank the staff who is assisting with that at this time.

It has now been nineteen months, ladies and gentlemen, since I was sworn in as Mayor of this great city -- the City of Carbondale -- the Capital of Southern Illinois.

And since that time we have undertaken -- as a city council, as individuals, as neighborhoods, and as a community -- we have undertaken several key initiatives to set this place in motion for the direct benefit of everyone involved.  We have established and put forth efforts to spur housing development, to attract and retain business ventures, to streamline municipal affairs, to generate additional revenues, to share more information with the public, and to ease the burden on the people who make these things happen. 

Our successes have been many and they have been noticeable. Simply put, we're getting it done.

It has been a team effort to brainstorm and to think with as much forward-thought as possible to accomplish the goals ahead of us.  The team has included members of the City Council and various staff employees.  For those who have been and are interested in being a part of this team, the doors have been open and the idea exchange has been fluid.  For the others bound in bureaucracy and stubbornness, time will eventually catch up and change will be inevitable.  In the meanwhile, good things are happening; because we're getting them done.

When I talk about that team approach, much of the heavy thinking comes down to whoever occupies the two corner offices upstairs.  It just so happens that I have one of them, and the city manager has the other. 

It pleases me to report that Mr. Doherty, our city manager, has endorsed every initiative and idea that has been raised, and he has worked diligently with staff to fulfill expectations.  Because of that effort and the positive spirit of cooperation between the corner offices, the City Council will soon be extending to Mr. Doherty a new employment contract to cover the next three-year period.  I have faith and confidence in his abilities and, like I said, together we're getting it done.

Much of what was unveiled as policy initiatives at this occasion last year has been accomplished and is being continued.  One important aspect of the new management style that was discussed last year is the goal to pull back or outright eliminate the city's financial subsidy to groups and organizations that should otherwise operate independently. 

We saw this specifically with the complete phase-out of the city's subsidy to Carbondale Business Development Corporation (CBDC), which resulted in the establishment of an in-house economic development manager.  Jeremy Hayes, who holds that position, has been working feverishly to combine our economic development data into a more adaptable and applicable format, he has been coordinating our efforts in the tax increment financing district, and he has been spearheading numerous special projects.  He is doing a great job and we can all see the proof as we walk, ride or drive through Carbondale. 

The transition from CBDC to City Hall has been smooth and is paying dividends.  The cost-benefit ratio is now strongly on the benefit side, maybe more than ever before, as we are making each penny earn more for the citizens of Carbondale.  Our efforts next year will be kept moving and we will increase our outreach, but we will do it within the existing funding level set last year.

We will seek to extend the current Enterprise Zone designation that allows significant incentives to new development within the existing and expandable boundaries.  Since its creation in Carbondale, this tool has allowed the community to nearly double its equalized assessed valuation.  This is a benefit to the city, the county and the region, and it balances the deferral of some certain taxes for new construction with the advantage of tax relief later for all property owners.

Another subsidy that was proposed for reduction was Carbondale Main Street.  We have acted to reduce our subsidy in portions equal to one-fourth over each year for a four-year period, until we reach a point where the subsidy will be eliminated.  This has not, contrary to some opinions, meant an elimination of our support of the activities of Carbondale Main Street.  Just to the opposite, I have repeatedly suggested that the subsidy should have always been more in the form of a true contract for services, whereby the City only receives the services that we desire and can afford.  At the same time, it allows Main Street to sustain full independence, an important step in the maturation of any private organization.

I want to take this time to thank Carbondale Main Street for their support of our efforts to open the Station Carbondale railroad exhibit at the Old Railroad Passenger Depot across the street from us.  When CBDC moved out of its office space, I asked that we dedicate the remaining portion of the building to honor the railroad history of this community.  With the hard work of Main Street and Station Carbondale volunteers, the exhibit is open and the City of Carbondale is underwriting the expense of the space.  I hope everyone takes the time to stop by and learn a little about this rich history.

This year we also continue to pull our own purse strings tighter, as we focus on the mission of municipal governance.  Keeping with that effort, I will propose several additional restrictions in our fiscal year 2006 budget that will represent reductions in other city subsidies.

First, the Carbondale Public Library has been operating over the last several years with a financial loss.  The City has subsidized that loss in order to offset increasing other funding sources or decreasing services at the library.  But the time has come for the library to fully support itself, without our subsidy, and so I have encouraged the Library Board of Trustees to seek an increase in their tax levy equal to the necessary funds to cover their entire budget.  This will result in immediate savings of $85,000 to the City of Carbondale. 

At the same time, I am imposing a requirement upon the appointed trustees to begin reserving funds equal to $20,000 annually to cover future expenses.  This reserve account will be kept in tact, in full, for a minimum of five years in order to build the cash reserve to a respectable level.  This matter will be discussed with the public at tonight's Truth in Taxation hearing, held during the regular City Council meeting.

This year I will also propose to the City Council that we modify our funding to the Carbondale Convention and Tourism Bureau.  Last year I directed that the Bureau focus its attention on attracting conference and convention travelers, and the board of directors whole-heartedly accepted the challenge.  This is a long-term goal for them and with the assistance of desperately awaited new hotel space in the community, this goal will eventually be met.

When I spoke with the tourism board last year, we also agreed to establish and support the Carbondale Sports Commission.  This group is tailored to drawing-in sporting tournaments and events from around the state and region.  One of the most successful events along these lines thus far has been the IHSA state girls golf tournament that we hosted for the second time this last month.  The credit goes to Vicky King and Diane Daugherty for their personal involvement in making this event happen, and this is a perfect example of the programs that the Sports Commission is and should be supporting. 

With the continuation of our direct support for this IHSA event, we will see even more statewide competitions heading south to Carbondale, breaking the strangle hold that central and northern Illinois have had on these events for decades.  We will dedicate specific resources to the Carbondale Sports Commission in order to get it done.  For the Convention and Tourism Bureau in general, a ten-percent reduction in funding will be proposed to offset this new direction, resulting in a shift of approximately $30,000.

These fiscal efforts make sense for us as a unit of government and they make sense for the community at large.

Making sense of things for the region is also important to us. 

Carbondale continues to lead an effort among mayors of neighboring communities to support each other and to come together when necessary for common purposes.  An example of this is highlighted in our visionary steps with the medical malpractice crisis, and attempting to resolve the matter and shed new light on it from a local, municipal level.  There is still much work that needs to be done on this issue, but we were ahead of the curve and we helped raise the awareness and will continue to do so.

Thanks go to those other mayors who have embraced this outreach effort, mayors from Flora to Metropolis, from Murphysboro to Harrisburg, from Mount Vernon to Marion, from Salem to Centralia.

I am pleased to have been invited to speak to area chambers of commerce, other city councils and community organizations throughout the past year.  These occasions have taken me to DuQuoin, Murphysboro, Marion, Anna and many others communities.  This spirit of cooperation is positive for all of us and it's exciting.  I believe that we have a calling that reaches beyond our own city limits, and in answering that call Carbondale benefits more and more, day by day.

So, we will continue also to put our money where our mouth is and support regional efforts toward economic development.  Our commitment to Jackson County Business Development Corporation should grow and I will propose doubling our support financially next year.  I encourage the County Board and other entities to follow suit and make this necessary investment in the future for all Jackson County residents.

We should do this because economic development is more than a catch phrase to toss out in a speech among business leaders.  Economic development is critical for the vitality of a community and, in our case, extremely critical for the vitality of Jackson County.

Focusing back on Carbondale, it doesn't take a person much time to see that things are happening in the central city district.

The explosion of new construction within the City's first tax increment financing redevelopment area is energizing.  In less than a year we have seen private capital investment exceeding five million dollars into an area that had barely seen five thousand dollars of investment in the last decade.  And more is on the way.

The same is happening in places outside the TIF district. 

Just look at the new Kohl's Department store, or the Great Outdoors, or Ward Chrysler, or Brehm Preparatory School, or Houlihan's Restaurant, or the relocation of Goody's Clothing Store, or the soon-to-be opened Alongi's Restaurant both at University Mall, or Brentwood Commons' transformation into the new Cornerstone Place, or Packlite.  And let's not forget about the new Student Health Programs complex, the Morris Library expansion and the new housing structures being built on campus.  We saw the before and after photos of many of these projects in the slide presentation that played during lunch.

One thing is clear -- Carbondale has always put people to work.  But the evidence for that is stronger today and will keep improving as we move forward.

In real dollars, you may be surprised to learn that building permits were issued for more than $37 million in new construction during fiscal year 2004.  That represents a fifty-five percent increase over the previous year.  I'll say that again.  During my first year as mayor, we saw a fifty-five percent increase in new construction building permits within the City of Carbondale.

This year, for our city's fiscal year 2005, we already have more than $20 million in new construction building permits issued, which means we are right on track to meet and exceed that high mark again.

Opening the doors to progress and growth downtown has also opened the eyes and ears of residents and visitors, who now talk frequently about the great things happening in Carbondale and about the positive atmosphere that is taking hold.  Haven't you heard?

Well, if you haven't heard, I would say that you haven't been paying attention. 

Because Haven't You Heard is our new community-wide advertising slogan that is being used by the City, the school districts, the park district, and several community organizations to help promote their programs and services.  This ad slogan has a catch to it and entices people to want to know more about their community -- our community -- and what new things are happening every day.

As I have shared some of the new things happening within economic development and some of the issues facing us financially, I want to also share some of the efforts we have taken to streamline local government.  I realize that we cannot simply ask others to take a deep look at themselves unless we do the same -- and we have.

As an organization, we continue to make reductions and reassignments in staffing levels that better meets our needs.  This has resulted in a decrease in our full time equivalent employee number.  What I'm saying is, that we are doing more and more, and we're doing it with fewer people.  Because of that, I thank the city staff who have made changes in their routines, and who have welcomed new challenges.  As we look ahead over the next year to other personnel shifts, we may see further re-alignments and changes that will be designed to keep services up, but keep costs down.

As an organization, we are also striving to communicate better with our constituencies.  You may have noticed that the Carbondale Communique now includes a Spanish-language article.  This was implemented in order to better welcome our non-English speaking residents into the community and to provide them with helpful information to ease the transition.  Some people disagreed with this, but I think it is good for us and we will continue to spread the word about Carbondale, whether those words are in English, Spanish or any other language.

If you would allow me for a moment, I would like to step back in time and share some insight that could be helpful.

Two years ago exactly, I released this report -- my position paper for my candidacy for mayor.  I wrote every word myself, and thoughtfully put forth a plan to lead this community during a four-year term as mayor.  I released it the same day I announced my candidacy and I shared it with anyone who wanted a copy. 

After I was elected, I had several people ask me what steps I intended to take or in what direction I was headed.  I simply pointed to this plan and said, "It's all here in print; no surprises."  The booklet sits on my desk, in plain view everyday for review and consideration in almost every decision I make.  This is the plan we follow, and we're getting it done.

For instance, the plan reads that we "will recruit new investment and build a revitalized economy that diversifies its interest to include more than just a few centerpiece industries."  That is happening.

The plan reads that "the Chamber of Commerce will become a part of that process at every step and turn, building a true partnership with the local businesses."  As you can see today, that is happening.

The plan reads that "the first person to welcome new investors in Carbondale will be the mayor."  That is happening.

The plan reads that "for those entities funded primarily with city resources, clear objectives must be set in order for annual goals to be measured by specific outcomes."  That, too, is happening.

And, even though it came as a surprise to some when the topic was raised last year, this plan also calls for attention to the Eurma C. Hayes Childcare Program.  To quote, "Dedication to the city's youth through child care is an easy rallying point; the difficult part is securing a stable budget and funding sources that reduce an over-reliance on city subsidies."  As you know, I assembled a review panel that brought back specific, detailed, and thoughtful recommendations about exactly how to do that.  And after a great deal of public discussion, several meetings before the City Council and a fair amount of grief given to the Mayor from all sides of the matter, we set our course for an outcome at the Center that had never quite been achieved before.  Today our numbers are up, the facility has seen much-needed infrastructure improvements, new staff is on-board, and the future looks good.  Just another example of getting it done.

The plan reads that "there must be a new emphasis on cleaning-up and rebuilding much of the city's inner business district."  Haven't you heard? that's happening.

The plan calls for Carbondale to "continue to expand and upgrade its water and sewer systems."  To the credit of our hard working staff, the $11.6 million upgrade of our Southeast Waste Water Treatment Plant is nearly ninety-percent complete and will be fully completed by February 2005.

The plan rallies the City to "work diligently to ensure that financial opportunities are available for those who need support with a first time home purchase."  Through our innovative housing development program, adopted by the City Council last fall, we are seeing new home construction begin to pick-up and meet the national trend of sustained growth.

I recounted these things for you as a matter of fact, and to show an often-cynical press and public that campaign promises can be kept, especially when they are made with sincerity and purpose.  And, in fact, those promises are being kept right here in Carbondale.

Because of that, I am very excited to announce several new initiatives that can also be found in that plan -- new initiatives that I will present to the City Council for action in the coming weeks and months.

First, I am proposing a complete revision of Title Two of the Carbondale Revised Code.  While not necessarily a hot topic to highlight, this section of our code deals with the regulation of alcohol and it desperately needs updating. 

The re-write will include centralizing some duties of the liquor commission, modifying fee schedules and other technical corrections to meet state law.  It will also create a new classification for liquor licenses in Carbondale, a vineyard license.  This license will be designed to support the development of wineries and vineyards on the outskirts of Carbondale, fitting nicely into the surrounding agricultural landscape of the area, and it will promote an aspect of agri-business and agri-tourism that is ballooning in Illinois and across the country.

Further, in an effort that I am most proud of, I am proposing to place an emphasis on healthier living.  I do not believe in mandating intrusive restrictions on business, but I do believe in providing incentives and the voluntary mechanism for business to capitalize on their own.  The new code will reflect an opportunity for all restaurant and tavern liquor licensees to voluntarily commit to providing a smoke-free environment.

If a restaurant or bar will go entirely smoke-free -- again, on purely a voluntary basis -- then I say the benefit to the community is measurable and we will waive the liquor license fee for that establishment. 

The benefit to the licensee will be a few thousand dollars a year, the benefit to the employees will be dramatically improved working conditions, and the benefit to the patrons will be a healthier, more comfortable social atmosphere. 

Now, I realize that not all establishments will want to take this offer, and that's fine for now, but public pressure and the fresh air of better business will hopefully prevail.  Wouldn't it be nice to go for dinner and a drink after work, without coming home with the smell of an ashtray?

Secondly, the best way to put this is that Carbondale is becoming a prettier and more comfortable place to live.  We have been tearing down eyesores and making way for new development, making way for progress.  We will combine that effort with some amenities that will go a long way with the little things. 

Little things like installing benches at many of the Saluki Express pick-up locations in heavy traffic areas.  What is a bus stop without a bench for someone to sit on while waiting for a ride?

Speaking of benches, we are responding to requests from the neighborhood association in the historic town square area to place picnic-style tables next to the train depot pavilion to accommodate those folks who want to enjoy an outdoor lunch hour or sit and visit in the heart of the old downtown.

Little things like planters and flower boxes along the main traffic corridor.  The cost isn't high, but the statement that we care about our community and want to be proud of how it looks will speak volumes.

Little things like pocket parks.  One is under construction now and nearly complete at the Mill Street underpass intersection and another is planned just across the railroad tracks on the corner of Walnut and Washington streets, on the southernmost piece of the old New Era Dairy site.

Another little thing that is more internally related than externally is our annual CIP process.  The CIP is what is known as our Capital Improvement Plan.  This document puts forth a five-year plan, and in some cases longer than five years, of how to address certain major capital improvements for the city.  As I said, it is only a little thing, but our CIP is now going to be known as our Community Investment Program.  This simple change in terminology will allow us to more noticeably focus on what the dollars are actually going toward investment in the community.  Just another little thing to position our thoughts and our actions toward making Carbondale a better place to live.

Third, I am pleased to announce that we are about to enter a phase of significant improvement to our basic public infrastructure -- our roadways.

The much-awaited New Era Road reconstruction project is underway and has a very aggressive preliminary schedule that will see project completion by October 2005, just one year from now.  What a relief this will be to the residents and others who travel this major artery every day.

Another relief for all residents of Carbondale will be the resurfacing of all city streets with bituminous pavement, bidding farewell once and for all to the oil and chip street surfacing program.

I am sending a comprehensive street resurfacing proposal to the City Council for immediate adoption.  This proposal will include resurfacing approximately 36 miles of oil and chip roadway, all that we have in the city limits.

It will also include four other significant public works projects: the resurfacing of Reed Station Road, from Illinois Route 13 south to Old 13/Walnut Street; the leveling and resurfacing of Reed Station Road, from Illinois Route 13 north to the entrance of Reed Station Crossing; widening and resurfacing Wall Street, from Park Street to Pleasant Hill Road; and, the complete reconstruction of Schwartz Street, rebuilding the road with curb and gutter, new surface and wider passage. 

In all, this is nearly $7 million of investment in public infrastructure, and we are behind the times in addressing the needs. 

To pay for this we will use a combination of existing funds and new resources. 

Approximately $6 million of the price tag will be bonded and paid off over ten years.  The life expectancy of these improved roads will reach twenty years-plus, in comparison to the five-year optimal life of oil and chip surfaces.  This means the long-term benefit will support the mid-term obligation and expense to getting this done.  It will also mean, however, an additional penny at the gas pump.  But again, the long-term benefit requires concession and will be worth every one of those pennies.

Let's remember that we are also doing this under the policy of maintaining a zero level of property tax being collected for city government purposes.  We have been able to offset expenditures and increase revenues without going back to the property owner with higher property taxes.  Your recent tax statement proves that the City of Carbondale is doing its part to keep property taxes low, but when necessary we do ask for everyone to contribute their share toward the common good. 

This infrastructure improvement plan epitomizes the common good.  It will put skilled laborers to work at a critical time when work is needed.  It will improve the quality of life in Carbondale and I ask the community get behind it and to support it fully.

Shifting gears a little, I think it would be fair to say that most people know of Carbondale's sister-city relationship with the city of Nakajo, Japan. 

This association was forged when the university established its international campus exchange in 1988.  It has been a relationship that annually brings visitors from Japan to Carbondale, and students from here to there, even as recently as two months ago when I met with an official delegation of teachers from Nakajo in my office at City Hall.

What most people don't know, including just about everyone I asked around here, is that we also have a sister-city relationship pre-dating our Nakajo agreement. 

Through some research and with the help of staff at the Sister Cities International office in Washington, DC, I was able to find documentation that shows a relationship with the City of Shimla, India, dating back to July 1971.

Unfortunately, this relationship has been left unattended for the better part of the last twenty years, at least until now.

It may seem odd that there is a sister-city relationship between a community in southern Illinois and a community in northern India, but it really shouldn't surprise anyone.  We have a wonderful and active India Association of Southern Illinois that works to promote positive involvement throughout the region.  I have been able to meet many of the people involved with this group, and I have enjoyed participating in their annual Independence Day celebrations and other events.  This is a group of people committed to their families, committed to their professions, committed to their communities, committed to the traditions of India, and -- equally important to them and us -- committed to being good citizens of the United States of America.

I have spoken with the leadership of the India Association and with their help, some quick planning and a little luck in beating the rainy season, I plan to reinitiate our sister-city relationship with Shimla, India.  We will do so with an official delegation and mission to Shimla, under the banner of the Office of the Mayor, and we will do so through a public-private partnership to offset expenses.

We are living in a global environment, an economy and society without geographic boundaries, and reaching out to establish friendships and associations will enhance our presence in the world.  This effort should also include assistance from Southern Illinois University, in order to promote the opportunities they have available for international students seeking a higher education in America.

Finally, at the conclusion of this speech we will have one more announcement to unveil; that being a new and improved city web site. 

The City of Carbondale's web site has been totally overhauled and has an exciting new look to it.

In addition to the new look, there are or will be several new options.  One option is to access my personal web site, co-located at www.teambrad.com.  On that site you can easily obtain a copy of my original campaign position paper that was noted earlier and you will also be able to immediately access a complete copy of my remarks as presented here today.  Other information and updates are regularly posted to that site for your information.

Carbondale's citizens will also soon have the option of accessing on-line bill payment for city debts such as traffic tickets and water bills. 

In conjunction with services provided through the Illinois State Treasurer, on-line payments can be made twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, regardless of holidays, bad weather or anything else that might get in the way of making that payment on time and avoiding a late charge.  This service will be fully operational within the next thirty days, as we are only awaiting the final contract back in order to initiate this service.

I encourage everyone to log-on to the city's web site, www.ci.carbondale.il.us, and navigate your way through city government; you'll be able to download forms and information in the comfort of your home or workplace instead of having to come down to City Hall.  And please let us know your thoughts and suggestions; as we strive to provide more services and more convenience to you, our customers.

Further along these lines, based on some prodding by local Internet experts and providers, we will be exploring the possibility of making Carbondale a wireless access community.  I will join a group of people visiting other communities this week, to meet with their leaders to find out how we can best provide the most up-to-date wireless computer Internet access throughout the entire community.  This is another area of public infrastructure, albeit a new age area of infrastructure, that we will hopefully be addressing in broad form in the near future.  Right now, we are looking into our options and the best way to do that is to see how it was done correctly in other cities. 

Our goal is to lead the way in southern Illinois for technology and access to information.  And while we don't have an interstate highway running through town, it is clear that the information super highway is right under our feet.

Friends, this past half-hour or so has provided a detailed snapshot of where your city and its government are headed. 

The state of this city is healthy, indeed.  We are well because we have said it must be so. 

And, we are getting it done.  Confidence in ourselves and confidence in our future is mandatory.

I pledge to continue to be aggressive in promoting the full potential and capacity of Carbondale as the regional center of commerce, trade, wellness, recreation, education, opportunity and resources.  We are the Capital of Southern Illinois and we are finally acting like it.

As I said at the beginning of my remarks today, we have established and put forth efforts to spur housing development, to attract and retain business ventures, to streamline municipal affairs, to generate additional revenues, to share more information with the public, and to ease the burden on the people who make these things happen.

And we are getting it done.

President George W. Bush was asked what advice he could give to young people in public service and he said, "Whatever short comings you have, people will notice them.  Whatever strengths you have, you're going to need them."

I hope that my strengths overcome my shortcomings and, by the grace of God and with your indulgence, forgiveness for any mistakes along the way will be afforded.  We can work together to make this community the best it can be, and now is the time make it happen.

To the members and guests of the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce, to the Members of the City Council, and to others who may be watching at home, I thank you for the privilege of serving in the position of Mayor of the City of Carbondale.  I take this responsibility with all seriousness and with humility. 

I appreciate the support and encouragement that has been offered thus far and I look forward to completing my term in office with your additional help and advice.

Thank you again and good afternoon.

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Annual State of the City Address 2003

Carbondale Chamber of Commerce Luncheon
November 18, 2003; 12:00 noon
Carbondale City Hall / Civic Center

Thank you, Debbie, for the introduction and for allowing me to address the officers, members and guests of the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce this afternoon.

Before I get started into the main text of my comments, let me first say that this is a new occasion for numerous reasons. First, it is a slight shift from previous years in that the mayor is presenting the State of the City address to the community; whereas, in the past it has been a task performed by the city manager at a city council meeting. Second, I am using this venue as a means to show solid and new found support for the business community in Carbondale. By speaking about issues important to the City, in front of an audience mostly comprised of Chamber of Commerce members and business leaders, I hope my presence will resonate throughout the region as a sign of commitment to business and heeding the call for greater interaction between the public and private sectors. Third, and perhaps most importantly, this is among the first chances for me to personally outline the territory my administration has covered in its initial six months in office, while also putting forth a clear vision and direction for the coming year. And, so, I thank each of you for taking time to be here and for your thoughtful consideration of what I am about to do and say.

By the way, this event is being broadcast live on CityVision 16, the City's government access cable channel, and will be replayed at other times in the next few days and weeks.

Ladies and gentlemen, it was 198 days ago that I was sworn-in as the 35th Mayor of the City of Carbondale, Illinois. If you were in this room that night, you will recall what a remarkable time it was for the community. In a matter of minutes, we saw the city council expanded from its previous membership of five, to its current collection of seven representatives. And we witnessed, for the first time in sixteen years, the ascension of a new, young mayor.

I draw particular attention to those two adjectives - new and young - on purpose. Almost everywhere I go, those are the two words most often used to introduce me. There are certainly other adjectives used to describe me, but those are usually left for after I speak or at least after I've left the room.

So why should I emphasize those same words, new and young? Because I think they are important to consider as pre-text to any further remarks. But don't just consider those words alone; consider their common antonyms and synonyms. Antonyms such as old, outdated, unoriginal, and worn-out. Contrasted by synonyms such as fresh, innovative, novel, and unprecedented.

People often ask me if I get tired of hearing that I'm the "new, young" mayor. Well, not considering what the alternatives are, certainly not. In fact, above and beyond the honor of having been elected to begin with, I count myself as being extremely fortunate to be classified as innovative and novel. And, indeed, that is precisely what I am trying to be as your mayor and it is what my comments today are based upon.

As I have already mentioned briefly, I chose this luncheon as the premier opportunity for me to express my thoughts and to explain my vision for the city government and for the community in general. Some people wondered why I would use the Chamber of Commerce's monthly meeting as the venue; to them I have asked, why wouldn't I use this as my sounding board?

In any community, large or small, the Chamber of Commerce should and must play an important role in facilitating discussions of public interest. Because it is the public - the patrons, shoppers, advertisers, buyers and sellers - that the business community must be kept in touch with for the sake and livelihood of their operation. So, if there is only one message that comes across clearly today, know that it is my firm intention as mayor to support the businesses of Carbondale and to assist both the employers and employees in any way possible.

Having said that, I want to further recognize and thank the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce for the work it has done with its own "new, young" program this year, the Leadership Carbondale program. As it wraps up the first year of sessions at a graduation ceremony next month and begins to plan for another class of participants, I challenge the board of directors and planning committee to take the program just one step further down the road, or, more figuratively, down several roads. Leadership Carbondale should become Leadership Southern Illinois.

Before anyone gets too antsy, just sit still because this theme is going to be repeated several times in the next twenty minutes.

 The idea of creating a leadership program for Carbondale was terrific, and there is no valid reason why it shouldn't be expanded and offered to other leaders throughout the area. Where better than in a comprehensive leadership program is there an opportunity to meet with contemporaries from across county lines? Now, I realize that there could be some logistical issues to resolve and probably a little more time to take in making arrangements, and it may even take until the following year's class to make it happen, but it must happen. Remember this is a "new, young" program, which means it is also innovative and unprecedented. You can do it, and if you choose to, you will have the full support of the City of Carbondale along the way.

Staying on topic with that regional theme, let me say unequivocally that the time for regionalism and a more true spirit and effort of cooperation has passed the stage of rhetoric and is resting on the anticipation of real results. It has been talked about for too long without the actions necessary to follow-up. Today, I am putting an end to merely talking the talk. Today, we begin to walk the walk.

 As such, I call upon this community to take its rightful place in the region seriously and without hesitation. Carbondale is the capital of southern Illinois, and we are going to start acting like it.

Ten days ago I convened a first-ever meeting of a group that I refer to as the Five Horsemen. This group includes Mayor Ron Williams of Murphysboro, Mayor Bill Mausey of Carterville, Mayor Vic Ritter of Herrin, Mayor Bob Butler of Marion, and myself. We basically represent everyone from Murphysboro to Marion.

Reminiscent of Knute Rockne's great Four Horsemen, who worked together to make the impossible a reality on the football playing field, the five of us have an equally daunting task ahead. But we are combined in our efforts and we intend only to look forward, never stopping to dote on the parochialism of the past.

We are friends, we are professionals in our field, and we were elected to lead our communities toward working together for the greater benefit of the entire southern Illinois region. We can do this because we can unselfishly realize that what is good for one community is also good for the others. Likewise, when something negative impacts one of us, it also has a negative impact on our neighbors.

To that end, I offer a particular extension of support to our most immediate sister city - Murphysboro. They have been hit with more than their fair share of bad news lately, with plant closings and job losses. Our two communities have more to gain from each other than people realize, and I stand ready to help them in any way possible. One such example of how Murphysboro and Carbondale will soon grow together even more is with the recently announced planning grant for SIU's Transportation Education Center. This TEC project will have a lasting and significant impact on the university and the two neighboring communities.

Someone once said that, "they only made so much land," and with the development and growth that has taken place and is planned for the near future, the stretch of land between our two cities is becoming closer and closer.

Bottom line: we'll leave the rivalries to the sporting fields and gymnasiums where they belong. This will hopefully be true of all the communities I mentioned - Murphysboro, Carterville, Herrin, Marion and Carbondale. I will also reach out to the US Route 51 communities, to our north and to the south. Next month I will meet with Union County business and community leaders in Anna-Jonesboro. This effort will be duplicated in Perry County, as well, starting first with my friend Mayor John Rednour of DuQuoin.

You'll be hearing more from all of us just after the holidays. The new year should be very exciting for southern Illinois - a region that is starting to work together as a team.

Now, getting back to some in-house issues, let me again say that I am focused on results over rhetoric. If you haven't figured that out by now, it's time to start - because Carbondale is on the move.

During the last fiscal year, nearly $24 million in building permits were issued within the city limits, and more than 37 acres of land was annexed.

Our commercial activity continues to grow and set the pace for the region. In particular, our eastern-most retail corridor has seen significant growth. The Hampton Inn was joined by the Golden Corral Restaurant, and will soon be joined by two more hotels and a full service restaurant. University Mall saw the opening of Wet Seal, Aeropostale, Hollister, Bed Bath & Beyond, Village Crafts by Michael's, and the new ShowPlace 8 movie theatre. The South Highway 51 Business District also saw new construction growth with a Huck's Convenient Store and McDonald's restaurant. Multiple renovations of existing local businesses and commercial property also helped change the face of the community; this included Motel 6, Hunan Restaurant, G&S Furniture and many others.

Bicentennial Industrial Park also has had some recent new additions. Venegoni Distributing and All Electric Contracting moved into new buildings, and Adams Printing is working toward that same goal in a move that will take them out of the small business incubator on campus. Similarly, Southern Recycling relocated from its aged location on Washington Street to a larger, more appropriate space in the old tesa tape building, now called the Carbondale Manufacturing Center.

I want to also take a moment to mention the work that has gone on at Brehm Preparatory School on Grand Avenue. This school is literally in a class of it's own. It is the only boarding school in the Midwest specifically designed to meet the needs of students with complex learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder issues. They provide a valuable teaching and learning environment for children and young adults from around the country, and they do so in such a quiet way that the community often takes for granted their presence and their impact. They too are in a growth phase, having just broken ground on the first of several new construction projects at their campus.

Obviously, these activities all have a direct impact on our employment numbers and workforce statistics. And as would be expected, Carbondale looks much better than our surrounding areas. The city's average unemployment rate is 3.4%, compared to Jackson County's rate of 3.7%, the State of Illinois' rate of 6.2%, and the national average of 5.8%. Mostly due to the relative stability of the university, the healthcare industry and the construction projects I just mentioned, our unemployment numbers have stayed low and our skilled, active workforce helps to support the entire region in a time when the national economy is lagging behind.

 As a municipal government, things have also changed a lot in the last year or so. Funding streams from the State of Illinois have weakened from a steady current to a thin trickle. The City of Carbondale is being faced with hundreds of thousands of dollars in decreased revenue from the state, while also being hit with out-of-the-blue taxes and fees equal again to tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars. There has been much reported lately of these taxes and fees, and they are having a drastic impact on us and on our neighboring cities and villages.

In Carbondale, we have been lucky to have enough resources available through our fund balance - what you might call our savings account - so that we have not been forced to immediately pass along the costs to our residents. Increases in sewage discharge permit taxes, other waste hauling and dumping fees and the reduction in per capita general revenue distribution from the state will, however, have a lasting effect on the City's check book… and we have to be mindful of that in our budget schedule for the impending fiscal year. What that means, then, is that those outside agencies and organizations that depend on the City for all, most or even just some of their funding need to pay particular attention as we work through the budget development process and as the city council is forced to make difficult decisions about the allocation of fewer dollars and cents.

The State of Illinois continues to impose unfunded mandates. The Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF) and police and fire pension fund contribution rates are expected to increase greatly next year. Sales tax revenues, although above levels from last year, are now lagging behind budgeted projections. The cost of supplies and materials continues to grow. Nationally, health insurance coverage is increasing at double-digit rates. All of this affects the City of Carbondale. As a result, we will be a leaner city government and we will be challenged to do the same or more, but with much, much less.

Let's not forget, also, that the City Council took a major step forward in abating its share of the property tax collection last year. In response to complaints from citizens about the unreasonably high property taxes in Jackson County, the City took the lead and returned almost seven percent of the tax bill back to the taxpayer. When was the last time you heard of a local government doing that?

Like I said, given our fiscal numbers, outside agencies and organizations need to be paying attention. Without any bias, in my perspective, some of those agencies in particular must change the way they do business in order to stay afloat.

The first agency is the Carbondale Convention and Tourism Bureau. I have met with their board of directors and I have given them the following three-point focus and charge. First and foremost, the Tourism Bureau is in the business to fill hotel rooms. They should do so by resetting their goals to attract conventions and conferences, as well as high school and intercollegiate sporting events and tournaments. This effort will be aided by the construction and development of a new full-service, convention hotel that is being planned for the east side of town. Second, the Bureau must work to increase the exposure of the community to those outside our daily scope. This can be done through the newly developed Sports Commission and through the leisure travel and overnight travel markets. Third, supplemental support should be given to assist with the initiation of local, special events. But the Bureau should not be seen as a long-term funding source of those events; it should help with the start-up and then move out of the way, as the events are able to grow and be self-supportive.

Combined with other initiatives, these three simple objectives will help meet the more general goal of making Carbondale a better community for residents, visitors and guests. The generation of tax dollars from hotels will be used to support the Tourism Bureau's ongoing operation. Increased sales and services, and the associated taxes, from the visitors and guests will support the city government and the businesses they patronize. That is a win-win situation, and the board of directors has embraced this new focus.

Another group is the Carbondale Business Development Corporation, a freestanding organization supported primarily by the City of Carbondale. Funding for CBDC during this current fiscal year is $163,000.

Frankly, we can no longer afford to get what we are getting, for what we are spending.

Accordingly, I will propose to the City Council - and I anticipate their support - that we do things differently next year.

We will withdraw from CBDC.  We will establish an in-house economic development function that will serve to meet the needs of supplying information to prospective developers and working through the minute details of preparing development packages for interested and viable contacts. City staff's time is already involved with these projects as the situation exists today, and we can no longer afford to duplicate efforts and expenses.

To help with those efforts, I will name a select, volunteer group of business and community members to serve on an mayoral advisory panel to be called upon at will, when prospects and potential developers come forward or are brought forward. This will be our sales team; it will be fluid, it will be focused, and it will be led by the mayor and staffed by the city manager.

Going back to the theme of regional cooperation, I intend to approach REDCO - the Regional Economic Development Corporation - about joining forces toward promoting the whole of southern Illinois. The term "regional' will no longer just mean Williamson County; it will soon include Jackson County, as well. And it will be the task of those Five Horsemen, who I mentioned earlier, to see that it happens in a productive and proactive manner to the mutual benefit of everyone involved.

 I realize that this has been tried before, but it is time to try it again and I ask for your support in doing so.

For the city government ourselves, we have many things on our plate that were not there six months ago.

This includes a housing construction and development incentive program that is unmatched in the region. With the help of local contractors and developers, our aggressive goal is to build two hundred new homes within the next three years. We are working now to put the finishing touches on multiple new subdivisions that should start to see dirt turning by late winter or early spring.

We are also in the midst of completing plans for a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district in the heart of the community. More than twenty-six acres of land has been identified for wholesale redevelopment, an area that is just beyond the walls of this building, stretching east from the Illinois Central railroad tracks all the way to our historic Woodlawn Cemetery. After just three months of discussion and basic negotiations, we already have more bird-in-hand projects in place for downtown Carbondale than have been developed for the last several decades combined. Specific announcements of these projects will follow their due diligence and once other necessary steps are finalized.

And we're not stopping there.

I am pleased to announce this afternoon that the City of Carbondale will soon approve the purchase of the old American Tap building, at 518 South Illinois Avenue. This building has become a recognizable eyesore and blight on the downtown scene. We will acquire the building, we will request and expect the assistance of Carbondale Main Street for razing the building and clearing the site, and we will rapidly offer it back to the business community for purchase and redevelopment. This won't be cheap, but it should have been done a long time ago and it is worth every nickel of our investment… investment in the community.

Progress is our rally call, not procrastination.

With regards to Carbondale Main Street, like with the project I just mentioned, they serve a valuable role in facilitating the development of the downtown area. Partnerships and cooperative activities between Main Street and the City have been successful and should continue to be fostered. Another example of this can be seen in the soon-to-be-developed park at the Mill Street underpass intersection. In our budget next year, I will include the funds necessary to beautify the pocket area adjacent to the former Rally's hamburger stand. Main Street's assistance in schematic drawings and planting designs will be helpful to us as we move forward with completion of that project next summer. This, too, is being done to clean up a high-traffic and extremely visible thoroughfare in the heart of the community.

However, I challenge the Main Street board of directors to set forth a plan that will wean the organization from the city payroll over the next four years. The growth of Main Street's programming efforts and the expansion of their work beyond the very basics has afforded them the opportunity to reach new revenue sources, maintain a healthy fund balance, and should - should - allow them to become self-sufficient during that time frame. I propose that our subsidy to the organization, currently in the amount of $35,000 annually, be restructured and begin to be phased-out in one-quarter increments beginning with our fiscal year 2005 budget, which starts next spring.

This move will allow for greater autonomy and for more flexibility in each of our operations - the City and Main Street - and will serve to buffer the Main Street organization from its annual trip to the city's funding well. This is progress - moving forward in a positive direction - progress that seems more natural than not for an organization that will be exceeding a dozen years old by the time the plan obtains closure.

And we seek progress for one clear reason: to make Carbondale a better place to live, work, play and learn.

As a side effort in that progressive movement, I will be advancing several initiatives in the coming months that will address long term problems that just haven't seemed to get enough attention for them to be resolved yet. The focus on this front will be to clean up the neighborhoods and to make our streets and roadways more attractive.

We must remake ourselves in a fashion that we can become the destination community for the region. We must focus on creating and sustaining a community environment that has vitality, allows for adequate employment and earning, promotes recreation and self-improvement through learning and social development, that eases the cost of living and reduces the stresses of life - all the while with one foot planted firmly on the ground and one arm reaching far into the future.

A lot of that starts right here at City Hall.

One of the first things that happened after I took my oath was a change in office hours for City Hall. Now this might not seem like much, but we had previously been closed during the lunch hour. That meant that we weren't here to help people during a time period when they often are forced to run their personal errands - on their lunch break. In a world that has more stresses every day and more obligations for people's time, we have to be accessible and we have to recognize city government as a service - a service to our customers, the citizens of Carbondale.

To exemplify that, I have committed myself to being a full-time mayor, on what I must say is far less than part time pay. I am at City Hall, or somewhere on the job, all day, everyday. I have been proactive on the issues and progressive in defining achievable goals for the community. I intend to keep doing that and I intend to fulfill my campaign pledge to be the chief salesman for this community. It has definitely created a different sense and feel around this building, with me being here and being visible to staff and visitors, and it is a change in style that has been accepted and embraced by the city manager and his direct reporting staff.

And - there has been a change in style when it comes to interaction with the community and university. My opinion is that, as mayor, I have an obligation to be accessible and highly visible. For me, that means more than just attending the old stand-by events. I have criss-crossed this community countless times in order to lend a hand at a meeting or speak to a group's gathering, even if it is just a brief comment to only a few people. I enjoy it and I will continue as best I can.

And - I have opened the door to more direct interaction with the university student population.

This is desperately important. For too long, there was something of a "disconnect" between the mayor's office and the college students. Perhaps leaning on that "new, young" thing again, I have been able to bridge the gap between city hall and the dormitories, helping to show the student body that they are supremely important in this community and that they are appreciated. Without the students at Southern Illinois University, we might as well close up shop and call it a day. If it takes seeing me around town in a casual setting or meeting the mayor on their turf, so be it. I think that's what it takes and that's what I'm going to do. Besides, I think it's kind of fun.

Our exposure has also changed toward gaining greater input at the state and national levels. During these first six months in office, I have met with political and business leaders from all walks of life and all political agendas. This includes the Speaker of the House and other members of Congress and the U.S. Senate, presidential advisors and cabinet members, statewide elected officials and legislative leaders, as well as reaching out to corporate executives that have retail outlets or branches locally.

 am using my role as Chairman of the Lower Mississippi Delta Development Center to advance efforts in the seven-state, federally designated region that includes Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana. This region has struggled for generations to change the economic climate and social disparities existing between those who have and those who have not. I am the first mayor to chair this group (and only the second Yankee/Northerner) - the same group originally chaired by then-Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas - and I am committed to making a difference both at home in Carbondale and throughout the other areas of the Delta region.

Through all of these efforts past and future, my message remains the same and like I said earlier: Carbondale is the capital of southern Illinois and we're going to start acting like it.

 I had the wonderful opportunity to be at the dedication ceremony two weekends ago for the new location of Covenant Christian School and the Neighborhood Bible Fellowship. These two entities are closely related and they recently moved into the old Winkler School building on West Freeman Street. By the way, they are doing a great job of filling a void for many, many families and children in the area.

As I took a tour through their new facility I noticed a banner in one of the classrooms, it read: "What's right is not always popular, and what's popular is not always right."

As I took the reigns of city government on May 6th of this year, I was already familiar with that phrase. But seeing it again that Sunday evening was a timely reminder for me prior to making this speech today.

Keep that same phrase in your mind as you have a chance to digest what I've said this afternoon, and know that our actions may not always be popular, but we will always strive to do what is right. It will be within that overriding context that my vision for the community will advance and, hopefully, justify your support.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are healthy, and we will maintain our viability and bolster our stamina by taking the necessary steps and using the best of our judgement in all our endeavors. We are growing, and we will advance our gains in ways that will strengthen our role as the center of regional influence. We will work together, and we will foster cooperative respect and collective pride.

That, my friends, is the state of your city.

Thank you for your attention and support, and good afternoon.