January 29, 2013
Pawtucket's State of the City Address transcript available
State of the City Address
Mayor Donald R. Grebien
Given before the Northern R.I. Chamber of Commerce
At the Pawtucket Credit Union, Tuesday, January 29, 2013
It has been some time since I addressed the Northern Rhode Island Chamber; so let me begin by thanking you for inviting me back again to speak.
I’d also like to thank PCU for hosting this and each of you for attending.
Time has lapsed since the last State of the City address to the Chamber and business community, I hope you will be patient if my remarks straddle some of the last two years since the start of my administration, as well as discussing the direction my administration continues to move the City of Pawtucket.
I’m sure there will be no surprise to anyone that the major issue still facing the city today is to get solidly back on the path of fiscal solvency toward a stable financial future.
We have taken many steps down that path and must continue to do so.
Or as Abraham Lincoln once said, “I am a slow walker, but I never walk backwards.”
When we came into office my administration confronted a nearly $13 million current year deficit with six months left in the fiscal year as well as a $12 million STRUCTURAL deficit.
Thanks to the hard work of a lot of dedicated individuals, and the cooperation of the City Council and School Committee, we were able to get that deficit down to zero.
To achieve this in such a short amount of time several actions were required:
- A reduction of more than 50 jobs, implementation of copays on medical insurance and a freeze on all purchases. These decisions as you all know are among the most difficult and emotional any chief executive can face.
- It required sticking to the five-year deficit reduction plan we had submitted to state Revenue officials, or else risk bankruptcy or other form of state oversight.
- Like any private business must do, we set goals then worked hard to reach them. We applied best practices as well as implementing metrics to assure and measure the necessary results.
Cutting expenses has taken many forms and many tough choices:
- Outsourcing the operation of the underperforming city transfer station is saving $750,000 a year, with prospects for enhanced revenues.
- Renegotiations with our health provider have saved $600,000 a year while maintaining quality coverage for our employees.
- We are looking at privatizing our trash pick up services. If implemented, this change will allow the city a reduction in spending and offsets of purchases, which will total over $4 million over 5 years.
I’m excited to share with you that with all of the hard work, my administration’s first budget (FY12) ended with a $2.6 million operational surplus. This operational surplus will be put back into our reserves, the same reserves we had to borrow against the previous year.
The current fiscal year, as my Finance Director Joanna L’Heureux continues to reassure me, is headed to another positive year-end.
One of the ongoing challenges we are faced with are the negotiations underway with all five of the city unions. We are working with our employee unions to reach fair agreements with the concessions needed to be affordable for our taxpayers.
Even while doing more with less, we continue to provide the level of services our residents and businesses deserve and expect.
I need to be honest and share with you that as we move the city forward with a reduced workforce, we struggle with minimal technology and higher stress levels, and we’ve hit a few obstacles along the way.
But we will continue to reinvest in our employees and try to provide the proper tools for them to succeed.
To do that in the most efficient way, our department heads recently underwent the kind of “Lean Office” training that has long been common in the business world, which was conducted by Leslie Taito from the state Office of Management and Budget.
This being Pawtucket, we also know how to have a good time and pay attention to the quality of life issues that make our city a great place to live, work and raise a family:
- This year will mark our 15th annual Pawtucket Arts Festival, now more volunteer-driven and privately supported than ever.
- We helped promote the new Cherry Blossom Festival and road race and brought back Octoberfest under private sponsorship.
- Pumpkins in the Park, Winter Wonderland, the new Dog Park, Paddleboats and numerous other activities continue to make Slater Park a great attraction, or just a great place to take a stroll.
Speaking of Slater Park, we have also learned crisis can lead to opportunity and renewal.
The devastating fire that destroyed the children’s summer camp facilities has sparked an outpouring of community support. Ambitious goals are being set by Recreation Director John Blais for a new pavilion so youngsters will never again lose a day of play to rain. It’s called Project Renew, and you will soon be hearing more about fundraising events being organized to make it happen.
Inside City Hall:
- We are revamping our technology infrastructure to better serve the public and promote greater transparency, including the first update to the city website almost since it was launched.
- For the business community, we are working on ways to file permit applications and other paperwork online to smooth the flow and lighten the load of paperwork. We have been working with the state to finally connect online with them.
- Our forward-thinking and business-like approach has also included a new online reporting system, the first of its kind in the state, allowing the public to assist our Police Department in addressing crime on a daily basis and in real time.
- A consultant analysis of our Fire Department has given us options for making operations more efficient while assuring public safety.
In the neighborhoods:
We have held numerous meetings in every district of the city to hear our residents’ concerns, answer their questions and listen to their ideas, which are often more creative than you could ever anticipate, or typically hear back at the office.
We have also taken our modern business approach beyond the usual city operations to include the School Department, to examine where overlapping functions can be streamlined.
In fact, over the next month you will learn that the city and school department will have consolidated the IT departments, implementing best practices to assure department efficiencies.
Beyond the city’s borders, we continue to make progress toward shared services with other communities so that common tasks can be performed more efficiently and at less cost.
Pawtucket, East Providence and Central Falls went out for a shared service bid for the Sanitation pick up. This is the shared direction we need to move towards.
A detailed study of our large pension liabilities, graciously performed at no cost to the city by former State Auditor General Ernie Almonte, has given us numerous options and guidelines for tackling the city’s long-term structural deficit obligations.
We know those problems have been neglected far too long and are too complex to be solved in a day. With the support of our state leaders, the PEW foundation and the many employees who have a stake in the game, I’m confident we will get there.
True and sustained prosperity, however, requires investing in the future:
- That’s why we will again advocate for the restoration of the historic tax credits that, until their suspension by the state, brought tens of millions of dollars in investment and new life to Pawtucket’s old mills and helped spawn our Creative Economy, and the artists, artisans, design professionals and others nurtured in those revived spaces.
- I will be working with our City Council and General Assembly delegation to get that legislation passed, and some legislative leaders are already indicating their support.
- Speaking of legislation that invests in the future, I will continue to advocate at the state level for acceleration of the “fair formula” for school funding, so our children can receive the kind of education they need to compete on a fair basis with students from every other community in the state.
- This year Pawtucket received an additional one million dollars in school aid for our children, who are truly the future of our city.
Investing in the future is also why we continue to partner with business-oriented organizations like the Northern R.I. Chamber, which has long been our forceful ally at the General Assembly, along with the Pawtucket Foundation.
The Foundation, if you were fortunate enough to catch the giant maps recently displayed at the Visitor Center, funded a River Corridor marketing study pointing the way to how our riverfront can once again become a vital source of the city’s economic progress.
It has not been an easy task turning things around in our city and it has taken the cooperation, commitment and skilled hands of many hard-working people to do so. I firmly believe we are now headed in the right direction.
Certainly many signs are now pointing that way, and to renewed faith by investors in a better economic future for our city:
- Last year Blackstone Valley Community Health Care opened the doors on its new $6.7 million medical facility, the largest investment in our downtown in many years.
- A company called Tunstall/AMAC is bringing 250 medical call center jobs to a converted mill it is also buying on Freight Street.
- Two new craft beer entrepreneurs, Foolproof Brewing and Bucket Brewery, are getting their products out and helping to put on a new regional Brewfest event next month.
- Hope Artiste Village is now finalizing plans to build the scores of residential units long planned there.
- A favorable end to protracted litigation over the former car dealership property along Division Street will now allow us to seek redevelopment proposals for that landmark waterfront site.
- Infrastructure improvements including a long over due pavement management program.
- Traffic pattern changes are reopening our downtown.
- Bond rating agencies have upgraded the credit outlook for Pawtucket.
- Other projects are in the works that are equally ambitious and which we are working to guide to fruition.
- In the coming weeks and months you will be hearing much more about the Pawtucket Culinary Arts Initiative, which will create new jobs, greater awareness of healthy foods and nutrition education, and bring a unique modern brand to our city.
Two other bridges to the future we can look forward to soon stepping across are the Conant Street Bridge, closed for more than 20 years, and the Pawtucket River Bridge 550 project, both due for completion this year.
Both spans, once reopened, will improve access to and from our city, and make us more attractive for businesses looking for cost-effective locations between two major metro areas, while helping the businesses already here.
Many of these things I have spoken of today will require continued cooperation on many levels, and the city is very fortunate to have partners like the Chamber to bring them about.
They will also take energy and persistence to achieve.
But as Benjamin Franklin said, and I wholeheartedly agree, “Energy and persistence conquer all things.”
So it is all within our grasp. Working together, we can bring about a better and brighter future for our city.
I want to personally thank John Gregory and Paul Oullette for their leadership at the Chamber as well as the support they have given the City of Pawtucket, and assure you that my administration will continue to work hard on YOUR behalf. Better days are ahead.
Thank you.