Parks

Today we had another groundbreaking for our parks initiative – I am so proud of how we are transforming the City with all the new parks but this one is a point of significant pride. We were at Boys’ Park (yes, I am wondering how it got that name — and, as a young girl who was visiting my office asked me when she saw the plans, “Where is the Girls’ Park?”). This park is a point of pride because like Skull Park (another name I don’t quite understand) on Highway 21, Boys’ Park marks one of the entrances to our City. As people come off Route 280 onto First Street, they are immediately greeted by what is officially designated a City park — but all that the park has been (for decades) is a dumping ground, or even a parking lot, for vehicles or worse. By the end of December, it will be a new state-of-the-art park with some very impressive features. I am excited about this one and the two others we broke ground on today. . . . really a fantastic transformation going on in Newark (we may have to work on the names of some of our parks — I have to do the research to figure out how we got a Boys’ Park and not a Girls’ Park!).

City Budget

We are already at work on the City’s 2009 budget and had a directors’ meeting at 9:00 a.m. to begin the discussion. After my 8:00 a.m. police meeting, I was in a good mood (great progress) but the Directors’ meeting provided a sobering reality — yet again, I had to ask our City directors, a group of the most dedicated public servants I know, to do even more with even less.

The team assembled in that room this morning has already accomplished singular results in our State. They have reduced the cost of government in Newark approximately 10% to 15% in the last two years and have increased revenue into the City in the same percentage (by doing everything from increasing our percentage of special tax collection –- parking taxes, etc. — to more aggressively pursuing absentee landlords with fines).

In addition to those achievements, our directors have been phenomenal in working with me to get millions of more dollars for our City in grants and philanthropic support. The above-mentioned parks are just one example of how our public/private partnerships are transforming our City — we also have received millions of dollarts in grants and donations for our prisoner re-entry programs, millions of dollars in grants and donations for our education initatives and millions of dollars in grants for public safety initiatives for everything from cameras to cash for anonymous tip lines. We also have a thriving program in City Hall in which we have executives on loan and staff members paid for by foundations (Chelsea Albucher, our Sustainability Officer, and Jeremy Johnson, our philanthropic liaison, are two of these privately funded staffers and they are now helping us get a lot of additional funding).

Despite these successes, we are still facing daunting realities and challenges. The cost of pension contributions and healthcare costs are skyrocketing — 10% to 30% increases per year during the last two years. Energy costs have almost doubled — making everything from street lights to heating recreation centers so much more costly. The biggest challenge is that, for over a decade, our City has been relying on non-recurring revenue to balance its budget -– one time revenue that just isn’t there anymore. This year we had to obtain special municipal aid from the State to balance our budget.

So this morning, I had to ask a group of professionals who have been meeting every goal I have set for them –- goals in efficiency (i.e., the Fire Department cutting millions in overtime with better personnel management), goals in innovation (i.e., the launch of 11 family success centers throughout our City), goals in performance (i.e., the Police Department’s record setting violent crime reductions), even goals in improving customer service (i.e., the launch of the our non-emergency customer service hot line — (973) 733-4311) — to cut more, cut deeper and cut everywhere. Everything is on the table.

In 2006, upon taking office, then Business Administrator, Bo Kemp, and I sat down and looked at the realities of the City’s budget crisis — we felt if we all pulled together and were herculean in our efforts, then we could achieve long-term budget stability in Newark by the end of 2011. We put together a 5-year plan to financial strength that wouldn’t unduly burden the taxpayer in Newark. We didn’t (and couldn’t) anticipate the energy crisis, an American economy in the tank and a number of the other budget disasters that were left for us (horrible losing lawsuits from the past being one example).

Now it is on Business Administrator, Michelle Thomas, my department directors and other key staff to be the leaders that our City urgently needs. This is what I said to my directors this morning: We didn’t make this crisis, but we have to be the ones to resolve it. I told them that before them is one of their greatest professional challenges that they must rise to meet. They must become masters of minutia. I understand the hardships they are facing, I understand that I am asking them to pull rabbits from hats, and I know that theirs is a labor hidden from most, their heroic labors now will not earn them TV appearances or their names in the newspaper. But I told them that I know this is not what they work for. I told them that I can’t reward them with pay bonuses, their reward will be the pride that comes from knowing that they faced one of the City’s worst financial challenges and met it with courage and genius –- that they were the group that cleaned up our City, after years and years of financial mistakes, that they were the group that brought the City to where it must be, to what our citizens deserve.

I gave props to Michelle Thomas who is leading this charge. She and this team have no choice but to succeed on the 2009 budget. I will accept nothing less. I have confidence in them and this process. After years and years of doing it the wrong way, it is time to put up or shut down. Newark will persevere, Newark will thrive, I know my team will get it right.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 15th, 2008 at 8:21 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.