THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 14, 1995 TAG: 9504120129
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Long : 245 lines
(Editor's note: Mayor Gloria O. Webb spoke at a Portsmouth on the Move Breakfast at 7:45 a.m. Monday at the Holiday Inn - Portsmouth Waterfront. The event was sponsored by Hoechst-Celanese and the Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce.)
Over the past year our city has experienced some significant successes; most of these successes are familiar to you, but are certainly worthy of repeating here this morning. Of course there are major challenges that we face as a city, many of them thrust upon us by circumstances beyond our control. In addition, I see some exciting opportunities that lie ahead.
. . .Last year I shared with you my deep concern over the impact of unfunded mandates. As we all know, last November's elections dramatically altered Washington's political landscape. Because of the hard work and unrelenting pressure from mayors across this nation, Congress has passed the Unfunded Mandates Bill.
It awaits the president's signature. Although this bill prohibits any new federal mandates, it is silent in eliminating the costly mandates that our city is presently required to meet. The costs of maintaining these existing mandates continues to siphon off precious local dollars that we could otherwise use to expedite the economic rebirth of our city. I remind you that last year alone, the city spent $17.5 million to meet federal and state mandates.
A greater portion of Portsmouth real property is exempt from taxation which adversely affects our city. There is little restriction for untaxable land. For example, our city is paid 2 cents on the dollar for over $2.9 billion worth of property occupied by the federal government. It is unfair that other cities are paid as much as 65 to 75 cents per dollar. All we receive annually is $1.7 million. If the land within our city owned by the federal government was privately owned, it would generate a whopping $45.5 million per year in taxes. If we were receiving our fair share in taxes from Washington, our real estate taxes could be cut in half.
We all breathed a sigh of relief when this year's BRAC commission released its hit list, and the Norfolk Naval Shipyard was once again spared. But now is not the time to relax. We must remain committed in our support of NNSY. We all know our shipyard is the finest facility of its class anywhere in the world. But politically this fight is not over. In all probability more BRAC hearings lie ahead, and anything could happen. I remember last time how another locality lobbied hard for their facility, and we almost lost our shipyard. We are fighting base closures on a regional level, which I feel gives us more strength!
There are other federal and state decisions that should concern all of us. The general assembly enacted a welfare reform demonstration project. In addition, the House of Representatives passed a welfare reform bill. I agree that the welfare system needs to be reformed as it keeps too many families locked in a cycle of despair and dependency. Should such action be finalized, we need to be prepared for the repercussions. It will have an unprecedented impact on communities such as Portsmouth where 60 percent of our youngsters receive free or reduced lunches. Twenty-two percent of our citizens receive food stamps, 19.4 percent of our population is at or below the poverty level, and 100 percent of our public housing stock is subsidized by the federal government. I am sure we will be calling upon the business community to produce jobs for a larger number of our people currently on welfare.
We can anticipate dramatic reductions in other areas of federal funding. The proposed recessions bill being discussed in Washington will affect reduction of programs in education, housing, job training, crime and drug control, human services and funding for the arts.
On the positive side, I am proud to share with you the news that our city has made significant financial improvements over the past 12 months thanks to City Manager (V. Wayne) Orton and his staff. The city manager presented the 1995-1996 budget to City Council on March 28. I am certain that it is very clear just how tenuous our city's financial picture has been over the past few years. Bold and difficult actions have been taken over the past years to reposition our city into a more efficient organization. We have downsized, rightsized, reinvented, rethought and restructured city government to improve the city's financial structure. Twenty-seven of 57 budgetary cost centers show reductions of 5 percent or more. Our tight-fisted control over expenditures is further evidenced by the CIP we approved in February. At the recommendation of the municipal finance commission, City Council reduced the self-imposed debt limit from $10 million to $ 7,735,000. Our economic challenges still remain; however, I assure you that the city is doing everything possible to end this fiscal year in the black.
We intend to continue to minimize our expenditures to better manage our debt. I am very encouraged by the fact that our net bonded debt ratio per capita is lower than the per capita rates of Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk and Suffolk. We fully intend to remain conservative in regard to our bonded debt ratio.
Although Portsmouth's crime rate remains one of the highest in the Commonwealth, that rate decreased this year by 5 percent. That is not good enough, and we are committed to changing that statistic. Our police department is today at 100 percent of its full complement of 229 officers. You are seeing more blue and white cars on our streets than at any time in the past two years. Mr. Orton has recommended a real estate tax increase of 4 cents in the 1995-96 budget. Those funds will be dedicated to hiring 21 additional police officers who will be assigned to community-oriented policing. These officers will work directly with our citizens to improve the safety of their neighborhoods. I need to take time this morning to thank our very active and hard-working crime prevention steering committee who have helped organize 56 neighborhood watch programs and three neighborhood patrols. Ultimately, if we are going to make significant progress toward reducing crime, it is going to be because of volunteers like these! We have relocated the detective bureau to rented quarters in Bristol Square and hope this year to move the rest of the police department to Midtown, showing the city's commitment to revitalization of that area of the city.
In the area of economic development, the past year has been one of good fortune. I am very excited about the adoption of Vision 2005.
The Vision 2005 plan is an ambitious road map for our city's economic growth over the next 10 years. I am grateful to you, the many business and civic representatives, who stepped forward to help us shape this vision. It has received overwhelming public support. I am convinced that the implementation of this plan will jump-start an economic revitalization that will carry us well into the 21st century. We will continue to call upon many of you here this morning to serve on advisory task forces to carry the components of the plan to success. Private sector support and investment are critical to the Vision 2005 completion.
There has been more economic development activity in our city in the past three months than in the past three years in spite of our fiscal constraints. In December, we opened the doors to the new Children's Museum of Virginia. Put simply, we have been overwhelmed by its success!. . .Since the grand opening, barely four months ago, more than 60,000 people have passed through the museum's doors. We are proud of this important city asset, and I wish to thank many of you here this morning for your generous donations.
In particular, I want to again publicly express our deepest gratitude to A.J. (Junie) Lancaster. Words alone can never adequately thank Mr. Lancaster for selecting our museum to house his model train and toy collection valued at over $1.5 million. Those of you who are not yet on the museum's donor list will get a chance to contribute later this year when we begin our fund-raising efforts for Phase 2 of the Children's Museum. . . .Private sector sponsorships and personal memberships can provide much appreciated funding, but your visits to our museums are equally important.
Last February, the city announced that Direct Marketing Enterprises (DME) was relocating its New York-based operations to Portsmouth. DME is one of the nation's leading direct-mail marketing operations. We should be grateful for the joint effort of our economic development and the Virginia Department of Commerce. The results of these combined efforts are a new 230,000-square-foot facility and 300-plus new jobs here in Portsmouth.
You will see continued growth in single-family residential, particularly in the Churchland area. Bishops Green is being built out, and eventually new residential units will be on our tax rolls. RiverPointe Development is proceeding and has been awarded the ``Community of the Year'' award by the Tidewater Builders Association. There you will find the finest waterfront lots anywhere in Hampton Roads yet to be developed east of the Churchland Bridge.
The TCC Visual Arts Center is open and providing classes to approximately 1,000 students each day - students from throughout the Hampton Roads area. It is wonderful to me to see young people in our downtown and the the parking lots full. This is a great example of adaptive re-use of an old building and is an attractive addition to our historical corner of High and Court streets.
This past year, City Council adopted measurable one-year and five-year goals that will be re-evaluated on a quarterly basis. It shows the value of spending time away from the city in a retreat setting where elected officials can focus on the future. Each council member has been assigned the responsibility of at least one goal and guiding it to completion.
We continue to search for ways to encourage citizen involvement. For the first time, we have an effective, professional department of marketing and communications. We are making better use of our government access (cable) channels. You will soon see quarterly publications providing our citizens updated information, schedules of important events and fun happenings. We will be doing citizen surveys to accurately measure your concerns and interests. The results of these surveys will enable us to better establish spending priorities and assist us in making informed decisions.
You should see increased improvements in cleaning up blight and debris. The City Council has approved significant changes in our codes as it relates to abandoned vehicles and weeds and debris. Mr. Orton has recommended in the 1995-1996 budget the employment of four new inspectors. It is our intention to get serious about derelict properties and absentee landlords. I am grateful to the many civic leagues in our city who take pride in their neighborhoods by keeping us informed of conditions. Many of our civic leagues hold annual clean-up days where massive amounts of debris are hauled away by the city. Wouldn't it be wonderful if each of our communities cared about appearance?
In the area of regionalism, one of the most exciting things I have been involved in this past year is the Urban Partnership. Six months ago, 15 urban core cities in the Commonwealth joined hands to study our futures. We have found through research done by universities throughout the state that what happens in Virginia's inner cities affects the surrounding suburbs and impedes economic growth of metropolitan areas to the detriment of the entire Commonwealth. Thriving urban centers are crucial to economic growth and to Virginia's economic competitiveness. Cities in Hampton Roads should not be competing with one another but should realize that our competition is with Raleigh, Charlotte, Jacksonville and the European market. The partnership represents an unprecedented coalition of Virginia Chamber of Commerce, local and state governments, businesses, universities, civic and community groups. We are examining the impact of urban conditions and hope to devise a range of solutions to the most critical need. The result will be a blueprint for change which will restore economic and social vitality for our cities, regions and state.
The partnership intends to be in a position to recommend changes to unhelpful state policies that hobble cities to the 1996 General Assembly. To survive, urban core cities must prevail upon the Commonwealth to enlarge each locality's ability to finance essential services. Present state policy compels cities to rely too heavily on real estate taxes for revenue. The partnership is looking at such things as revenue sharing and payroll tax. I want to thank David Tynch and Steve Lynch for representing the business community on this board.
Our General Assembly was most helpful to us this year. Restoration of the BPOL tax meant $4 million to our budget. The legislative package we submitted was approved in its entirety. We all owe them a big thanks for their efforts.
Retail sales have fallen off the chart this year. Economic development has begun an intensive initiative to bring new retailers into our city. To accomplish this, we are negotiating for commercial investment on the old Churchland High School site. We are also aggressively marketing MidCity Shopping Center and the former Woolworth building downtown.
I hope many of you took the time to read the annual report card of our public schools. It was very encouraging. Parts of the School Board strategic plan are being realized. Our fourth-grade test scores were outstanding, our drop-out rate is the lowest in the area, and more of our youngsters are taking advanced courses. We hope these gains will translate into continued high performance as these youngsters move through secondary school. I anticipate that on April 20 Portsmouth schools will bring home from Washington the highly prestigious Senate Productivity Award.
No one knows what the future holds. We know that the form and function of government has changed. Government cannot be all things to all people as it has been in the past. There is less talk today of what government's role is in assisting you, but more talk about neighborhoods taking control of their destinies rather than waiting for government to solve their problems. And we are seeing just that in Portsmouth. I am seeing increased citizen participation. Without hesitation, citizens are stepping forward to assist. Civic leagues are adopting blocks within our city with the intention of renovating homes. Churches are adopting public housing parks. Mothers have started after-school tutoring programs. Volunteers from 12 churches have formed a coalition to provide shelter for the homeless during winter months. Parents are coaching Little League and preparing the fields for play. Military representatives are building and repairing homes for the elderly and the underprivileged. We know that we have an exciting economic revitalization plan that will keep us busy for years to come if we commit ourselves to seeing it through. We know that we have one-year and five-year goals to achieve. We know that citizens expect to be safe and secure. We know that our resources are limited but services must be provided for our citizens as we stay within a balanced budget. We know that the group of negative naysayers is diminishing, and that the corps of positive thinkers with the ``we-can-do-it'' attitudes is increasing.
It is rewarding to me, as mayor, to have served you another year and to feel the energy of our neighborhoods, business community and churches. A large majority of our citizens buy into the future. Because in the final analysis it is you, the citizen, the business owner, the professional, the military representative who is going to make the difference. Tell us, your elected officials, what you want. Then tell us how we can help you to help yourself. Ultimately, our future, our image is in your hands. ILLUSTRATION: Mayor Gloria O. Webb
ON TV
The Mayor's State of the City Address airs at 9 and 11 a.m. and 3, 6
and 8 p.m. on April 12-18 on WGOV, channel 48.
by CNB