Office of the Mayor - Archived Speeches
2002 League of Cities President's Report
Mayor Elaine Scruggs
Aug. 27, 2002
Thank you Mayor Rimsza, and thank you City of Phoenix, for hosting this 2002 League of Arizona Cities and Towns annual conference.
As we gather this week to attend workshops, meetings, and special events created to better prepare us to serve our citizens, we do so amid the magnificence and beauty of the Arizona Biltmore, one of the truly historic treasures of our great state.
Just think about all of the people who have gathered in these same rooms we will be using, and who have helped to shape our state and our national history, from presidents and foreign dignitaries to famous artists and celebrities.
But now it is our time. It is our history in the making.
This year our league proudly celebrates its 65th year of legislative advocacy and service to Arizona cities and towns. And, again, it’s amazing to think of all of the people who have worked tirelessly over the past 65 years to bring our league to where it stands today: a well-respected and powerful voice of cities and towns at the state legislature.
Many people have worked vigorously over the years to shape today’s league. We are fortunate to have several of these folks joining us at various times during our conference. Our guests include former league presidents:
- Hugh Guinn - former mayor of Casa Grande
- Max Klass - former mayor of Glendale
- Harry Mitchell - former mayor of Tempe
- Abe Rochlin - former mayor of Nogales
- Gary Scaramazzo - former mayor of Page
- Mark Schnepf - former mayor of Queen Creek
- Ben Williams - former mayor of Douglas
Also joining us this year is Jack de Bolske who served as executive director of the League of Arizona Cities and Towns from 1957-1997. Jack’s 40-year tenure as executive director is the second longest in the history of all state leagues throughout our nation.
As you see these folks at our meetings and events, please take a moment to say hello and thank them for all of their dedicated service and for paving the way for us to be so successful in the year 2002.
I would like to take a special moment now to recognize my predecessor, Gerry Whipple, former mayor of Show Low, for his dedicated service to the league over the past 9 years. I have learned from Gerry's guidance and benefited from his friendship. And I pledge to continue with the same commitment he demonstrated to the spirit of partnership among all cities and towns and the state legislature.
I consider it a tremendous honor to serve as president of our league, and I promise to work as hard as Gerry and all of my predecessors to keep our league strong and responsive to the needs of all 87 cities and towns.
The theme of our conference this year is strengthening our communities through dynamic leadership.
Webster’s Dictionary defines the word “dynamic” as - an underlying cause of change or growth. This change or growth is further defined as involving productive activity, which is forceful and marked by energy.
Productive change is that which achieves a predetermined vision. A dynamic leader, then, is one who empowers people to achieve a common vision in a community.
But, clearly it is not just one person who makes a community vision a reality. Rather it is all of the people who work day in and day out that make a community a great place in which to live, work, go to school and play.
These people are our police, our firefighters, our librarians, our road crews, our trash collectors, our planners and our building inspectors, and many, many more.
These are also our community volunteers, our little league coaches, our teachers, our school board members, our PTA moms and dads, our meals on wheels drivers, our Red Cross workers, and many, many more.
These folks may balk at being called heroes, but that is what they are. They are our local heroes. It takes each and every one of these folks to make our cities and towns strong.
Recently a devastating scenario put some of our dynamic leaders and local heroes to the ultimate test. Arizona’s largest wildfire attacked Pinetop-Lakeside and Show Low and several more of our White Mountain communities.
Firefighters from across the state and country descended on the area. After evacuating more than 25,000 people, these heroes contained the more than 450,000-acre Rodeo-Chediski fire and rescued more dreams than were lost. We will remain eternally grateful to each and every one of them.
With us this morning is Jim Paxon, Fire Information Officer for the U.S. Forest Service, and his wife, Debbie. Jim will you please stand?
Jim has just completed his work battling a wildfire in Oregon where nearly 500,000 total acres are burning. Thank you, Jim, for accepting our invitation to be with us this week.
Tomorrow we will hear Jim’s story and how we can work to prevent such disasters in the future. We are incredibly grateful to you, Jim, for your dedication to your vital profession, and for your unique blend of seriousness, humor and calm that helped all of us to get through a horrifying event.
Through it all many of us were sitting on the edge of our seats, wishing that we could do more to help our fellow communities whose suffering and pain we could feel so acutely. And many did do more.
Eager, Globe, Holbrook, Payson, Snowflake, Springerville, St. John’s, Taylor, and Winslow assisted Show Low in its critical wildfire evacuation effort. These cities and towns provided shelter for weeks to displaced men, women, and children.
Countless agencies throughout the state, and there are just too many to mention, provided overwhelming support throughout the unprecedented fire suppression effort. Today, we thank you.
And Show Low and Pinetop-Lakeside would like me to remind everyone here this morning that they are indeed open for business and welcome all to visit.
Yes, the months since we gathered in Yuma last October, have certainly brought challenges. But there have been successes too for the League of Arizona Cities and Towns.
We introduced new training topics and continued to improve on those that we have come to rely on. Last month we held our second public records dialogue to another sell-out crowd. More than 150 municipal employees, and media representatives, from around the state engaged in a joint discussion on public records requests.
We worked with the Valley of the Sun chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists for the first time, and many media representatives in attendance expressed an interest in establishing a continuing dialogue.
We also held the fifth annual newly elected officials training in conjunction with Arizona State University. If you are a recently elected official and haven't attended this program yet, please give it some serious consideration. It continues to be extremely popular and widely acclaimed by those who have participated in previous classes.
This past year we increased our service to members through such initiatives as an e-Government program to save cities and towns money on purchases, and to better connect our citizens to local government via the Internet. Representatives of the e-Government Project will be available in the lobby throughout the conference.
Strong Cities and Towns Week, our first weeklong local government event ever, drew participation from more than half of you, our members. From Apache Junction to Wilcox, we issued proclamations and held community-wide events to encourage our citizens to learn more about the services and programs that local government has to offer.
Mayor Boles led a city services parade in Winslow. Mayor Vick held a poster and photography contest in Bullhead City. In Tucson, city employees created a city services coloring book.
And I would like to brag a little about the city of Glendale management and staff who hosted a city appreciation day in our downtown Murphy Park. How enthusiastic they were about telling visitors about 80 different city functions and services.
More than 25 daily and weekly newspapers covered our events around the state, and we caught the attention of radio and cable stations alike. Not bad for our very first year!
Our second inaugural event this year was Cities and Towns Day at the capitol. This exciting outreach effort drew more than 200 local elected officials and staff to recognize the importance of municipal services, which are paid for with state shared revenues.
Vital city and town service vehicles from snowplows to ambulances lined the street adjacent to the capitol. This event was also a great opportunity to thank our friends at the legislature, and we look forward to another successful event in 2003.
We all know that this was an extremely difficult year for our state legislature. Our league staff worked long, long hours with our legislative supporters to defeat attempts to impose unfunded mandates and preempt local authority.
But the big story was the staggering two-year $1.8 billion budget deficit that our legislators had to resolve. Nothing was exempt from the cuts, including us.
While we have never been willing to accept any reduction in shared revenue, this year a concession was necessary. After several discussions, legislative leadership offered a 2/10 of one percent reduction for all municipalities for two years.
In 2003 alone we will experience a projected total loss of approximately $5.8 million. But, under the provisions of the compromise, state shared revenue will automatically revert back to the full voter-approved 15% in fiscal year 2005.
Considering the circumstances, this was a compromise that substantially protected our vital state shared revenue.
However, we may not have reached the end of this long tunnel after all. Recently, the governor's office announced that another special session may be called if the state’s 2003 budget deficit plunges any further.
We must remain vigilant and work cooperatively with our governor and our legislators in the best interest of our local communities.
And, further, we must be informed voters in the upcoming elections. In just two weeks we have a primary election where candidates for statewide offices will be selected. Do you know where the candidates for governor and those for office in your legislative district stand on the issues most important to municipalities? Do you know if they understand what state shared revenues mean to each and every one of us?
If you haven’t already done so, please consider inviting candidates to an open house or other local event to get to know them better and to help them get to know more about your community and the challenges you face.
Perhaps what is most unsettling about some legislators’ attitudes toward municipal financing is that they think we have vaults where we stack unneeded dollars. Some legislators believe that we provide services and programs that are not really necessary or demanded.
Perhaps the tragic events we have experienced beginning with September 11, 2001 can serve as a way to demonstrate the depth and breadth of our citizens’ needs.
Just think of the prevention and intervention efforts each of you had to come up with the money for because of September 11th and because of this year’s wildfires, even though both events took place far from your communities.
For example, since September 11, Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport has spent $12 million in security related costs and so far has only been reimbursed $3.2 million from the federal government.
Phoenix’s water department has spent more than $5.5 million in water security costs, mostly for additional security guards.
Tucson’s fire department has spent nearly $250,000 on emergency preparedness equipment and training since September 11. Its water department has spent $1.1 million for extra guards and equipment.
And this money will continue to be spent to protect our cities and towns from threats of terrorism.
And, as you can imagine, our White Mountain communities are still compiling the numbers from the massive wildfire suppression effort.
We must get these types of messages out where they will do us some good. Every action we took to mitigate these unexpected disasters took dollars away from some other service or program our citizens do expect.
Our league continues to work to creatively get our strong cities make a strong state message out to different audiences. In just a moment, we will show the league’s first strong cities video. We believe this video will help to explain the importance of what we do, and also the importance of our partnerships with our friends at the legislature.
In closing, I would like to challenge each of us to do three things.
First, let’s all exemplify the word “dynamic” in all of our endeavors.
Second, let’s all continue to thank, support and recognize our local heroes.
And third, just as we work to better our individual communities, let’s work with fellow elected and appointed officials around the state, with a similar amount of focus and energy.
In doing so, together, our cities and towns will be strong and so will Arizona.
It is our fervent hope that the programs planned for you at this year’s annual conference will offer extra help, new ideas, optimism, and energy that will nudge all of us to carry out those three action items.
As I said at the beginning of my talk, it is our time. It is our history in the making.
Thank you very much. |
