Text of Mayor Charles Washington's Remarks to the City Council, during the 2015 Reorganization Meeting
I would like to thank everyone for coming to share this day with City Council and me as we reorganize for a new year.
Every reorganization gives way to creation of new partnerships and strengthening of ties between our City Council and those whom we have been elected to govern. Ties that grows stronger when we are unified to face the challenges of being a productive and thriving community. It has been the ties of this Council and the community at large that has brought us through 2014 still inspired to be the greatest city to call home.
During the course of the past year we as a community have faced some difficult times. We've endured senseless acts of violence, a blow to our economic stability and attempts to negatively define our community and the good people who reside here. Although there were sporadic, but significant challenges that we faced, the one thing that has remained constant through our crisis was the community's unified effort to overcome the challenges that threatened the success of our City and the pride of our residents.
Today we have more agencies and concerned citizens working together with this governing body to move our City forward then I can ever recall. The goals we have set for our community continue to be met. The goal to remove structural eyesores and breeding grounds for crime continues to be met by Salem's Main Street program through the use of NRTC funding. We have been able to work together to remove properties that should have been demolished years ago. In the same distressed areas that have seen homes fall we are now working to build the area with investors to redevelop the salvageable properties with the intent of homeownership. This is vital as it shows we not only have a focus on downtown but on our side streets creating opportunity to increase our tax base.
Henry Ford said coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success. We have had success working together to combat our challenges by uniting some of the most skilled agencies in their profession to offer hope and
opportunity to the residents of our community. The Mayor's Taskforce has united agencies such as United Way of Salem County, Salem County Prosecutors Office, Salem City Police Dept, Salem Ministerium Mid-Atlantic, Salem City Chapter of NAACP and Salem County Health Department.
These agencies have come together to address Economic Development Education &
Youth Development, Public Safety and create positive community action. This collaboration has given a platform to have open and transparent dialogue with the residents of this community to address our concerns publicly. Together we have been able to provide 56 jobs to residents of the City from August Through December by way of this partnership. We have been able to take our unemployed citizens and provide transportation for them to work at multiple sites in Pureland. These are residents who went from receiving a very small income or none at all, to being able to provide for their families - residents who are now less likely to commit a crime, and more likely to support local business.
We have advanced access to resources and recreation for residents of the City with new programs through the United Way/Campbell Center merger. We have added more outside agency resources to secure the safety of our streets and residents well-being through our partnership with the Prosecutors office and our Police dept. We have had continued support from the NAACP, Health Dept and prayers from our local clergy through the ministerium.
While we have grown in the area of collaborative efforts we have felt the growing pains of a re-emerging economy on our nation, state, county, and city. We have seen local businesses close, and the biggest ratable in the city terminate operations. I am still encouraged because crisis gives way to opportunity. AND - I encourage you, as Mayor of this great city, to believe that we will persevere through these storms. It is my goal, along with City Council to find solutions that will allow us to not only clean up our
community - but build up our community. One of my major concerns is finding a way to maintain a reasonable tax rate for the citizens of this community with a shrinking tax base and declining residency. I'm confident this Council and I will continue to meet this challenge as we have for the past three years. We have adopted budgets comparable to those passed by previous administrations with the assistance of hundreds of thousands of dollars from the state to support their budgets.
This Council hasn't received State Aid in three years but still produces a fiscally sound budget and continues to maintain operations that are needed for this community. Another concern is having the resources to provide public safety to our residents and ensure a productive quality of life for our citizens. Economic decline has a direct correlation with crime. Under this administration we hired an officer in 2011& 2013; through fiscal responsibility we will hire two new officers in 2015 to enhance our Police Department and to protect and serve our community.
Despite the challenges we face opportunity always avails its self for the chance to recreate and redefine. The greatest strength of any man or community is the acknowledgement of days past and the acceptance that a new day must begin. Our new day and path forward starts with a unified Council along with the assistance of the Department of Community Affairs Local Planning Services. This State Agency will help us redefine who we want to be as a community. If the bottling industry is a dying market we need to have an understanding of how we want our community to be utilized by the new millennium industries that are seeking a home.
We already know we have a hard working blue collar community that desires to provide a respectable way of life for their families. Now we need to identify what the emerging industries are that we have the infrastructure to support. We have vacant manufacturing buildings, we have a functioning railway and access to water way and we certainly have the workforce. The Department of Community Affairs has the resources to help us identify these new markets and industries seeking to make homes in hard working communities like Salem City.
In the book of Romans in the 5th Chapter it tells us that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed.
The trials we face today will take a patient but persistent approach to overcome; knowing that it took time for us to get here and it will take even more time for us to be removed. Through the patience we've displayed during this past year we've gained experience in banding together, lifting one another up, beating back negative perceptions and creating positive stories that really speak to who we are as a community.
The experience we've gained through unity has created a sense of hope for our community. A hope that at times seems difficult to see but at all times is believed in our hearts. A hope that keeps us moving forward in the face of our odds. A hope that keeps us working toward the goals of seeing our beloved city reemerge as one of the best places to live in the County and state. A hope that inspires our children to come back to Salem after receiving a higher education to buy homes, raise their families and continue to build our community through the spirit of volunteerism. A hope that can't be extinguished because a few people try to tarnish our image and destroy the community pride so many have given countless hours, days and years to build.
We are here today because the hope I speak of continues to unite us beyond our differences, beyond our race and beyond social status. Because of this hope we should not be ashamed to say we live in Salem, do business in Salem and still believe Salem has not reached the pinnacle of her Greatness. This coming year I challenge us to remain united and let our hope be the guide for the decisions we make and not let the perception of what we see prevent us from thinking bigger than our current state. For hope that is seen is not hope at all. In 2015 Let us conduct business and ourselves with the vison of where we want to be; and with the hope that a unified movement will build the momentum to bring us beyond merely hoping into the fruition of reality.
Thank you; God Bless you & God Bless the City of Salem
Every reorganization gives way to creation of new partnerships and strengthening of ties between our City Council and those whom we have been elected to govern. Ties that grows stronger when we are unified to face the challenges of being a productive and thriving community. It has been the ties of this Council and the community at large that has brought us through 2014 still inspired to be the greatest city to call home.
During the course of the past year we as a community have faced some difficult times. We've endured senseless acts of violence, a blow to our economic stability and attempts to negatively define our community and the good people who reside here. Although there were sporadic, but significant challenges that we faced, the one thing that has remained constant through our crisis was the community's unified effort to overcome the challenges that threatened the success of our City and the pride of our residents.
Today we have more agencies and concerned citizens working together with this governing body to move our City forward then I can ever recall. The goals we have set for our community continue to be met. The goal to remove structural eyesores and breeding grounds for crime continues to be met by Salem's Main Street program through the use of NRTC funding. We have been able to work together to remove properties that should have been demolished years ago. In the same distressed areas that have seen homes fall we are now working to build the area with investors to redevelop the salvageable properties with the intent of homeownership. This is vital as it shows we not only have a focus on downtown but on our side streets creating opportunity to increase our tax base.
Henry Ford said coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success. We have had success working together to combat our challenges by uniting some of the most skilled agencies in their profession to offer hope and
opportunity to the residents of our community. The Mayor's Taskforce has united agencies such as United Way of Salem County, Salem County Prosecutors Office, Salem City Police Dept, Salem Ministerium Mid-Atlantic, Salem City Chapter of NAACP and Salem County Health Department.
These agencies have come together to address Economic Development Education &
Youth Development, Public Safety and create positive community action. This collaboration has given a platform to have open and transparent dialogue with the residents of this community to address our concerns publicly. Together we have been able to provide 56 jobs to residents of the City from August Through December by way of this partnership. We have been able to take our unemployed citizens and provide transportation for them to work at multiple sites in Pureland. These are residents who went from receiving a very small income or none at all, to being able to provide for their families - residents who are now less likely to commit a crime, and more likely to support local business.
We have advanced access to resources and recreation for residents of the City with new programs through the United Way/Campbell Center merger. We have added more outside agency resources to secure the safety of our streets and residents well-being through our partnership with the Prosecutors office and our Police dept. We have had continued support from the NAACP, Health Dept and prayers from our local clergy through the ministerium.
While we have grown in the area of collaborative efforts we have felt the growing pains of a re-emerging economy on our nation, state, county, and city. We have seen local businesses close, and the biggest ratable in the city terminate operations. I am still encouraged because crisis gives way to opportunity. AND - I encourage you, as Mayor of this great city, to believe that we will persevere through these storms. It is my goal, along with City Council to find solutions that will allow us to not only clean up our
community - but build up our community. One of my major concerns is finding a way to maintain a reasonable tax rate for the citizens of this community with a shrinking tax base and declining residency. I'm confident this Council and I will continue to meet this challenge as we have for the past three years. We have adopted budgets comparable to those passed by previous administrations with the assistance of hundreds of thousands of dollars from the state to support their budgets.
This Council hasn't received State Aid in three years but still produces a fiscally sound budget and continues to maintain operations that are needed for this community. Another concern is having the resources to provide public safety to our residents and ensure a productive quality of life for our citizens. Economic decline has a direct correlation with crime. Under this administration we hired an officer in 2011& 2013; through fiscal responsibility we will hire two new officers in 2015 to enhance our Police Department and to protect and serve our community.
Despite the challenges we face opportunity always avails its self for the chance to recreate and redefine. The greatest strength of any man or community is the acknowledgement of days past and the acceptance that a new day must begin. Our new day and path forward starts with a unified Council along with the assistance of the Department of Community Affairs Local Planning Services. This State Agency will help us redefine who we want to be as a community. If the bottling industry is a dying market we need to have an understanding of how we want our community to be utilized by the new millennium industries that are seeking a home.
We already know we have a hard working blue collar community that desires to provide a respectable way of life for their families. Now we need to identify what the emerging industries are that we have the infrastructure to support. We have vacant manufacturing buildings, we have a functioning railway and access to water way and we certainly have the workforce. The Department of Community Affairs has the resources to help us identify these new markets and industries seeking to make homes in hard working communities like Salem City.
In the book of Romans in the 5th Chapter it tells us that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed.
The trials we face today will take a patient but persistent approach to overcome; knowing that it took time for us to get here and it will take even more time for us to be removed. Through the patience we've displayed during this past year we've gained experience in banding together, lifting one another up, beating back negative perceptions and creating positive stories that really speak to who we are as a community.
The experience we've gained through unity has created a sense of hope for our community. A hope that at times seems difficult to see but at all times is believed in our hearts. A hope that keeps us moving forward in the face of our odds. A hope that keeps us working toward the goals of seeing our beloved city reemerge as one of the best places to live in the County and state. A hope that inspires our children to come back to Salem after receiving a higher education to buy homes, raise their families and continue to build our community through the spirit of volunteerism. A hope that can't be extinguished because a few people try to tarnish our image and destroy the community pride so many have given countless hours, days and years to build.
We are here today because the hope I speak of continues to unite us beyond our differences, beyond our race and beyond social status. Because of this hope we should not be ashamed to say we live in Salem, do business in Salem and still believe Salem has not reached the pinnacle of her Greatness. This coming year I challenge us to remain united and let our hope be the guide for the decisions we make and not let the perception of what we see prevent us from thinking bigger than our current state. For hope that is seen is not hope at all. In 2015 Let us conduct business and ourselves with the vison of where we want to be; and with the hope that a unified movement will build the momentum to bring us beyond merely hoping into the fruition of reality.
Thank you; God Bless you & God Bless the City of Salem