Spokane – A City of Promise
Downtown Rotary Speech
Mayor Dennis Hession
July 20, 2006

No longer is Spokane the City with potential waiting to be discovered. Spokane is the City of Promise. This active assertion is a bold statement by this institution and its citizens that we are engaged in a plan for growth and development which this community has not experienced since the beginning of the last century and which promises significant change and prosperity for our citizens.

As your Mayor, it is my job to help Spokane fulfill its promise. It is my vision:

• To protect and enhance our community assets.
• To provide the opportunity for a better life for each of our citizens.
• To enhance prosperity.

And my promise to each of you is to leave Spokane a better place for our children and our children's children.

My priorities to help make this promise a reality are simple:

• To grow Spokane's economy and create jobs.
• To keep our community healthy and safe.
• To provide outstanding, affordable service to our citizens and secure the City's financial stability.

Let's take a look at each of these priorities.

Grow Spokane's economy and create jobs.

I am pleased to announce to you today that I have appointed staff to implement a plan for the industrial development of the former Playfair site purchased by the City in 2004 as a location of a future water reclamation storage facility of the City. We already have a company currently located outside the City that is interested in relocating its operations to the site, and we are preparing a proposal to market the site to other interested parties. This also fits with the East Central neighborhood plan and will provide jobs and revenue for the City.

We were pleased to participate this week in the announcement in the formation of the partnership between Black Rock Development and Cypress Equities, an affiliate of The Staubach Co., of Dallas, in the first phase build-out of Kendall Yards. This joint venture is exciting and will expedite the first phase of Kendall Yards and attract other investment.

Kendall Yards exemplifies my economic growth vision for Spokane as it creates an opportunity for investment within our borders, which create jobs and bring us revenues. This is unquestionably the single most significant project in the history of Spokane that will completely change forever the landscape of the City. With the University District, it forms the bookends of the Downtown and will be the impetus for greater growth.

Understanding the sheer magnitude of the Kendall Yards project, we began an effort to expedite this project, including appointing special, interdisciplinary teams – led by John Pilcher who heads our Economic Development Department -- from planning, building, public works, finance and legal, assigning a traffic engineer to work with Kendall Yards' traffic engineers, and when appropriate I declared the project technically complete so it could move forward to hearing.

Spokane is the capital city of the Inland Northwest and with that recognition comes the responsibility to exercise leadership in the region over issues of regional significance including transportation, economic development and human services. On behalf of the City I embrace this responsibility.

One aspect of that responsibility is promoting job growth, increasing median incomes, and growing businesses—contributing to our community's and region's overall success. These are two examples of the fruit our efforts have born.

Spokane is a dynamic community and the core of the region's economy. At the City of Spokane, we understand that nearly everything we do has an impact on the economy. Solid Policing, quick Fire response, an excellent transportation system, responsible garbage pickup and recycling, clean water, and proper wastewater processing.

All these services are important underpinnings that allow a community to grow and prosper in an intelligent way.

At the heart of our City is the our Downtown, which is reenergized and growth. Recently, we have seen:

• A substantially enhanced residential character with condominium and apartments proliferating.
• New dining and shopping opportunities.
• Return of many financial institutions creating our active financial district which the City has not seen for half a century.
• New downtown hotels and the convention center having been dedicated this week, coupled with attractive new entertainment venues are creating a full-day activity level.

We are moving forward with plans to extend Riverside Avenue at the University District and last week announced the selection of a contractor to assist with brownfields assessment and cleanup, paving the way for redevelopment, which by the way is already occurring on and around the District's boundaries, as promised.

But the exciting growth doesn't stop at the borders of downtown. Our neighborhood centers—as envisioned by the centers and corridors emphasis of our Comprehensive Plan—also are being to thrive. Last weekend's Perry Street Fair really gave residents the opportunity to see the richness of commerce that's occurring there. We're also seeing new growth in the Garland District, in Hillyard, and around Holy Family Hospital—among others.

A vivid representation of the strength of the economy are our building permit applications. In 2005, the City set an all-time record for building permits in the amount of $406 million, which was $100 million over the 2004 level. Now in 2006, for the first six months, we are already $10 million ahead of last year's record.

Our City is also updating technology and regulations—from the permitting system coming on line at the end of the year and a new site selector program to the Comp Plan and residential development regulations—to further facilitate growth.

The new permitting system, for sure, will save money and employee time, but more importantly, it will save time and money for our customers—homeowners, architects, builders and developers. Of the 70,000 permits we process annually, we conservatively estimate that at least 6,000 of those could be processed entirely on line. The time and money savings for our customers at that rate would total at least a $0.5 million annually.

And complying with the mandates of the state Growth Management Act, we are growing our boundaries. We've initiated three and completed two annexations to the City. Why annex? State law is clear that cities provide urban services while counties provide more rural services, and the City should grow around dense urban areas on its borders where there are clear benefits from City services.

I traveled to Phoenix with community leaders to learn about the proposed Institute for Systems Medicine, and I spoke with our Congressional delegation to solicit their support to extend GigaPop from Seattle to Spokane, providing a reliable, cost-effective, high speed optical network connecting Spokane to the world.

We stood shoulder-to-shoulder with this community through the Base Realignment process and secured Fairchild's future here, and we are continuing to work to grow its mission.

I just had a call from U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, who sits on the Senate Transportation & Housing Appropriations Subcommittee. She informs me that she was able to include $2 million for our Post Street Bridge renovation and $300,000 for the East Central Community Center expansion in the Senate spending bill. On the House side, Rep. McMorris was able to get $500,000 for the North Spokane Corridor in the House spending bill. This City-Federal partnership is critically important to continuing to move Spokane forward.

We will continue to work with partners such as the Chamber and Avista to seek appropriate levels of construction funding for the North Spokane Corridor freeway – long overdue in my opinion – while also envisioning an international gateway approach to transportation and distribution with Spokane as its hub in air, rail, and road, and perhaps facilitated by the establishment of a Port District which every major community in our state currently enjoys.

Bottom line: These projects and initiatives represent new jobs, new economic opportunities. We must make sure that Spokane—our region's heart—is financially healthy and stable. That is what will help our Spokane of the future.

Keep Our Community Healthy & Safe

Our greatest asset, second only to the quality citizens that make up this great community, is the quality of life we enjoy in Spokane. That quality of life includes our citizens being healthy and feeling safe, breathing clear air, drinking clean water and being able to freely move about in the community.

Clearly, our citizens have repeatedly told us that public safety is priority one, and when citizens need help, our Police and Fire Departments will respond.

That's why we expanded police presence in the downtown this summer, tightened oversight of our ambulance contractor, and spent much of last week learning about our four candidates for the position of police chief in a very community oriented and transparent process. Today, I am proud to announce Anne Kirkpatrick to the position of Spokane Police Chief.

From our new Police Chief, I will demand strong leadership and great integrity. I told her I expect her to:

• Identify the strengths and weaknesses within the Spokane Police Department and to make changes accordingly.
• Manage a difficult budget and lead strategic planning.
• Work with minority stakeholders, volunteers, and neighborhood resources, maintaining the excellent Community Oriented Policing System that we have in Spokane.
• Provide leadership on the development and deployment of new technology.

And when actions by our public safety entities call into question the integrity of the institution and create concern among our citizens, I determined an external review was absolutely required. This review will look at the Police's handling of the Otto Zehm and firefighter cases, while also looking at important issues including training and communications. I believe in the fine men and women who make up the Police Department, but we will work to find answers that citizens need—and demand—of us.

As a community, we also have a strong commitment to preserving our natural environment. As Spokane has embraced our slogan of Near Nature, Near Perfect, we have rediscovered some of the things that make people want to live here—including the Spokane River, the easy access to outdoor activities, and the abundance of parks.

It is our charge—our privilege to continue to operate the City responsibly with respect to our clean water and air and to promote "smart growth" to protect the quality of life for all of us.

Last week, the City and a variety of partners agreed to a plan to improve dissolved oxygen in the Spokane River by significantly reducing phosphorus discharges. This plan also works jointly with a ban on phosphorus in automatic dishwasher soap that we worked together on with our partners at Spokane County and state legislators. And in April, we launched a public participation phase of the City's water stewardship plan which begins to educate the public about this wonderful, but limited resource.

But that's not all. In partnership with the state Department of Ecology and STA, we are also retrofitting diesel vehicles in the City's fleet to improve Spokane's air quality, and in August we are hosting a public meeting to gauge community interest in Spokane's seeking of state and federal support to complete the Fish Lake Trail.

Provide Outstanding, Affordable Service to our Citizens and
Secure the City's Financial Stability

As we work for a better, more prosperous future for Spokane, we must continue to do what we do very well. It is my objective to provide "best in class" service. A good attitude, consistency in our standards, and team work are very important.

Since the first of the year, we've:

• Resolved the impasse at Albi Stadium, working Spokane Public Schools and the Mead School District to ensure the continuation of high school football at Albi; I will soon announce the participants in a process to determine the future of the entire Albi complex.
• Hired key managers, including new City Attorney Jim Craven, new Human Services Director Jerrie Allard, and new Risk Manager Pam Schroeder and promoted Gene Jakubczak to the position of Director of Fleet Services; these are great additions to the City team;
• Expanded hours at Spokane Public Library, allowing small branches to be open 5 days a week, and
• Launched on-line job applications.

At the same time, we recognize that citizens demand value for their dollar. The need for affordability requires us to live within our means and come up with a solution for our budget—which continues to see expenditure growing faster than revenues.

Our current robust economy is clearly one way to ease budget challenges, but not the only way. We are also working with our employees to reduce the strain of increasing benefit costs on the City budget.

That's why we've called for proposals for an efficiency and effectiveness study and initiated preparation for both the 2007 and 2008 City budgets with an eye to thinking ahead to solutions for an anticipated shortfall in 2008. We're also collaborating with the State Auditor's Office to come up with other recommendations.

I also have asked five community experts to assist me in evaluating the organizational structure of the City, and we should know those recommendation by summer's end.

Conclusion

It's not difficult to imagine where we can be in 5 or 10 years. But it will take a commitment and hard work—from all of us.

I am reminded of my children when they were small. Janie and I saw the potential of what could be in those bright eyes, but it took commitment and hard work to get them through sibling fights, paper mache projects, and perpetual back talking to today.

I can still see a young Peter 20 years ago jammed in the middle car set of three in the back seat of our 1972 Volvo. It was the Fourth of July and 117 degrees in Redding, Calif., where we were.

This year, he became a doctor.

That hot, sweaty kid in the back of the Volvo made his dream becoming a doctor achievable, so are our dreams for this community. We are strong, we are committed, we are up to challenge.

During his 1968 presidential campaign, Robert F. Kennedy said, "There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why… I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?"

Together, we can go for the "why not." I know you will join me in making this vision a reality by enhancing our community assets, providing opportunities for better lives for each of our citizens, and enhancing prosperity.

This is our future; it holds such tremendous promise — let's reach for it together.