Upon our shoulders rests the needs and aspirations of all the residents of our City.  Churchill once said, “If we open a quarrel between the present and the past, we shall be in danger of losing the future. “  Today, our concerns must be with that future, for our City is changing.  The old era is ending.  The old ways will not do.

Miami is at a crossroads in its history.  A great City must now prove itself all over again or face the prospect of continued decay.  Are we equal to this challenge?  The answer lies in our willingness to choose the public interest over private comfort; greatness over decline; the fresh air of progress over the stale atmosphere of complacency; determined dedication over creeping mediocrity.  No longer will the City be the means to another’s end.

We shall be equal to this test.  We will prevail in this struggle.

Pericles once said to the Athenians, “We do not imitate, for we are a model to others.”  The same is true of Miami for we embody the new face of America.  Our own test will likely be an indication of the future success of the American city.

There exists to day an unprecedented level of interest in our City.  We are on the verge of greatness.  However, if we are to achieve our full potential, underlying barriers must be addressed.  For otherwise, we will merely become a city symbolic of that old Chinese proverb which states, “There is a great deal of noise on the stairs, but none comes into the room.”  The opportunity costs associated with such failure are unacceptable.

In life, when one finds oneself at a place where roads diverge, one must look inward before one forges forward along a path.  In meeting this challenge, we too as a City must look within.  It is of paramount importance that our main goal be getting our own house in order.  Those of us who have the honor of serving the public must first restore their confidence in our City.  This is how we begin to restore the confidence in City Hall and its stewards.

Meeting the long postponed needs of our citizens requires political stability.  During the last 4 months, we have witnessed an unprecendented level of cooperation and professionalism between the Mayor’s office and the Commission, between the City’s elected officials and the administration, and among our employees and our citizenry.

Wall Street, who has raised our credit rating twice during the last 4 months, has recognized this political stability. This political stability has been a factor in the renewed interest by the companies and individuals alike who for the first time in decades are ready to call Miami home.  Our long-term fiscal and social health depends on it.

But political stability is not enough.  We must also achieve operational stability.  During the past 30 years, our City has been plagued by severe operational deficiencies.  While much has been accomplished, we continue to lack adequate financial controls for accurate and timely financial reporting.  As such, I have made some strategic additions to my staff in an effort to directly involve the Office of the Mayor in the budgetary process and align existing resources with the priorities of my office and the Commission.

The time has come to review our entire structure and the delivery of all City services.  No more business as usual.  We will develop performance standards in order to hold ourselves accountable to the public.  We will implement activity-based accounting in order to measure the real costs of providing services. 

And we will not develop these plans to trim bureaucratic bloat, eliminate waste and increase productivity in a vacuum.  We will incorporate our employees, through the creation of a city-wide, labor-management council, in this process.

We must focus on making the necessary long-term investments in our information technology infrastructure.  A study of our current and future I.T. needs is reaching completion.

Strengthening the City’s fiscal condition will also require investments in the creation of a financial analysis group that can work on fiscal projections associated with significant projects and planning.

Ensuring the City’s fiscal health will also require a reassessment of the City’s current approach in many areas.

I will ask the Commission to review our Fiscal Integrity Ordinance which dictates the current utilization of year-end surpluses.  Over the last few years, the City has built-up a significant reserve that now represents almost a quarter of our current operating budget.  Special revenue funds, such as Parks & Recreation and Conferences and Conventions, run surpluses that are placed in reserve rather than utilized to meet many dire capital needs in those very areas.  I recommend that we adopt the necessary amendments to our City’s Financial Integrity Ordinance to allow us to capture a portion of these surpluses for needed capital and strategic uses.

Risk Management is another area that merits immediate attention.  As Commissioner Sanchez has noted on a number of occasions, our current workers compensation system is in a shambles and bleeds the City of scarce financial and human resources.  This area is currently under review and all options will be considered, including the out-sourcing of this function.

Achieving and maintaining political and operational stability will help create the environment for real and sustainable growth in our City.  And we will enjoy long-term economic growth if we focus our attention, first and foremost, on our neighborhoods.  Our neighborhoods are the foundation of our City’s future fiscal health.

During my campaign, I promised to make neighborhood investment a priority.  For the last several decades, our City has prioritized the development of our inner core at the expense of our City’s neighborhoods.  Focusing on neighborhoods, however, is more than merely focusing on places, it is also about investing in people.

Increased quality of life is a function of investment in both people and places.  The evidence of our past neglect is evident in our City’s poverty rate.  Despite the spectacular economic growth of the past decade, Miami – and the majority of Miamians – did not share in this unprecedented prosperity.  “Moving on up” for Miami’s residents, meant moving from 4^th to 1^st on the poverty list, instead of from the outhouse to the penthouse.

Our children and seniors have borne the brunt of this neglect.  In our City, 2 out of every 5 children live in poverty.  1 out of every 3 senior citizens lives in poverty.

Much of this is driven by the very low educational attainment of our City’s residents.  More than 2 out of every 5 Miamians lack a high school diploma, with more than 50% of those non-graduates having failed to complete the 9^th grade.  Given these facts, it is no surprise that our unemployment rate is twice the national average.

In response to these challenges, our neighborhood agenda will focus on continued crime reduction; the delivery of better sanitation services; improvements to existing parks and public spaces; improved neighborhood infrastructure; delivery of quality, affordable housing; a focus on education; increasing the skill sets of our City’s workforce; and devising solutions to neighborhood traffic concerns.

In recent years, we have made notable advances in our fight against crime.  Homicides are at their lowest levels in 30 years.  Tourist robberies, burglaries, robberies, and auto thefts all have decreased.

Despite our success, the scourge of drug-related crimes still plague some of our neighborhoods.  In many of the hardest hit communities, 80% of all crime is drug-related.  The impact of drugs extend far beyond crime, it affects the health of families and communities.  Our goal must be to live in a drug-free City.

Fighting this battle will require our police department to more fully integrate community-policing strategies.  Fighting crime means not only targeting criminals, but also all of the accompanying conditions that create an environment that allows them to flourish.  Tolerating low levels of disorder results in increased disorder and major offenses follow.

As such, I have asked the City Manager to work with our Police Chief to strengthen and expand our neighborhood Problem-Solving Teams.  These teams will be tasked with fighting all aspects of crime ranging from the apprehension of criminals to the enforcement of existing laws against minor crimes.

Recent successes point to the need to enhance these teams.  Examples of their success abound. In East Little Havana, Officer Reyes who converted a drug-stricken area under a bridge and turned it into a mini-park; or in Allapattah, where Officer Clayton is helping to bring a BMX bicycle park for neighborhood children; Sgt. Diaz in the West Grove who has been instrumental in helping to shut down numerous crack houses; and Officer Foster who has made it his mission to demolish unsafe structures that breed crime and drug use.

These initiatives attack crime at its core by not simply finding a remedy, but applying a long-term solution.

However, for Problem-Solving Teams to be effective, our police department must have the confidence of the community it serves.  I will work pro-actively with our newly created Civilian Investigative Panel to review our policies and procedures.  We will continue to pursue our request to the U.S. Justice Department for an independent patterns and practices review.  I have also recommended to the City Manager that all future police shootings be investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement rather than Internal Affairs.

Our fight against crime is greatly benefited by a concerted effort to improve the cleanliness of our neighborhoods.  One need not go very far beyond the walls of this hall to find a lot strewn with litter.  Our goal must be to live in the cleanest city in America.

The Clean-Up Miami Campaign is my administration’s response to this issue.  The campaign takes a holistic approach to approach to addressing the problem of litter, graffiti, and illegal dumping in the City of Miami.  As part of the plan, City staff will be called upon to perform clean-up and heightened code enforcement activities.  We will dedicate 72 full-time employees to the task of lot clearing, litter, and graffiti clean-up.  We have deployed ___ street sweepers who are conducting daily and nightly sweeps of our major thoroughfares.  NET staff, in conjunction with law enforcement, will focus on code enforcement and community outreach.  Community-based organizations will be called upon to mobilize citizen volunteers for clean-up activities and conduct education outreach activities.

We have identified 88 illegal dumping sites within the City.  We will immediately be increasing our surveillance efforts.  As of this moment, those individuals who engage in illegal dumping are put on notice – you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Non-compliance with our code has resulted in overrun and uncovered dumpsters at commercial and multi-unit residential buildings.  This will no longer be tolerated.  Existing laws will be vigorously enforced.

Our weekly bulk trash collection methods has encouraged residents to contribute to the City’s unsightly appearance by placing garbage curbside prior to scheduled pick-up dates. This will no longer be tolerated.  Enforcement efforts will be intensified.

Crime and litter strategies must be accompanied with a strategy to improve the quality of neighborhood recreational venues.  Our goal will be to develop a nationally recognized park system.

Achieving this goal will require the expansion of our current 18 partnerships with the YMCA, the Boy’s and Girl’s Club, Dade County Public Schools, and other community-based organizations.  It will require our continuing efforts to include computer rooms and tutoring  in our major parks.  And it will require the long overdue development of a Parks Master Plan, which we have recently initiated.

Within the next 2 months, we will open 2 new parks that will serve as models for our future park development, including our plans for the development of a park in Little Haiti.  Commissioner Teele’s and Winton’s demonstrated commitment to parks has made Hadley and Virrick Parks the jewels of our parks system.  Both of these parks will be a source of pride for the communities they serve.

Historically, the City of Miami has not taken a systematic approach to funding and completing the maintenance of its infrastructure – streets, sidewalks, storm sewers, and city-owned facilities.  For example, for the first time in years, we hired a firm to conduct an assessment of our City’s streets.  Of the 660 miles of City roads, more than half were rated in either poor or critical condition.  The cost of the needed improvements is estimated at $440 million.  Currently, the City only allocates $4 million annually for this purpose.  Not adjusting for inflation, it would take us 110 years just to redo those streets.

This lack of planning and foresight is typical of the City’s past attitude towards the maintenance of its infrastructure.  This must and will change.

Under my administration, the City will develop a long-term plan for infrastructure maintenance needs that will address current problems and seek to mitigate future problems by funding and completing regularly scheduled maintenance.

We will look to tap a variety of funding sources to address current and future needs.  One critical element to the development of a funding plan is maximizing our existing tax base.  This City can no longer be expected to be the repository of all governmental facilities - be they federal, state, and county - without compensation for assuming that burden.  This is a $47 million burden our citizens can no longer afford to bear alone.

In the past, the City was the first to demonstrate its faith in the concept of regional government.  As evidence of its commitments, it relinquished control of many of its revenue generating assets – airport, seaport, and water and sewer utilities – to the County.  In return, today we receive no payments in lieu of taxes from our County, as many other comparable cities do throughout the state, and our water and sewer infrastructure is among the oldest in the County.

We will attempt to reduce costs by entering into long-term agreements with private sector firms for infrastructure maintenance and repairs that include warranty agreements.  Future surpluses will be predominantly dedicated to capital improvements.

Addressing our neighborhood infrastructure needs will attract private sector investment.  As St. Peter said, “A house cannot be built on sand.” The City’s past record with respect to housing production has been anything but stellar.  

Investments in our infrastructure will eliminate one of the most significant barriers to housing development within the City.

Beyond removing barriers to private investment, our City will make strategic investments in areas where markets lay dormant.  An example of such investment strategy is the Homeownership Zone program.  Each of these initiatives is intended to transform inner-city neighborhoods into viable communities with quality of life standards that meet the expectation of our citizens.  These are cooperative efforts between public, quasi-public, and private entities focused on maximizing the capabilities of each sector. 

The goal of all of these housing initiatives, of course, is to reverse the current neighborhood dynamic by making more of our residents vested stakeholders in the future of our City.  Miami needs engaged, vested residents not disengaged, absentee landlords if it hopes to forge a vibrant future.

Becoming a stakeholder, though, requires individuals to develop the necessary skills and resources to become homeowners.  Attracting new residents and helping our existing residents become homeowners requires a targeted approach.   Engaging residents in a structured savings and financial literacy program leveraging the power of the Earned-Income Tax Credit is one such strategy on the road to helping individuals create wealth.

Addressing the current skill gap also requires a focus on education and workforce development strategies.  I have begun the process of cultivating a stronger partnership with our school system.  This City will assist where it can to help improve the reading and math skills of our lowest performing children. We will work with the school system and other partners to provide quality, after-school programs that combine recreational activities with structured remedial programs.

We have also begun the process of bringing educators and parents together to identify ways that our City can be of assistance to its schools.  In the coming months, we will continue convene roundtable discussions with educators and identify solutions that we can begin to implement in the short-term.

There are many ills that have come upon us during the last several decades.  These ills will not go away in days, weeks, or months.  BUT THEY WILL GO AWAY.  I do not believe in a fate that will fall upon us no matter what we do.  I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing.

From our early settlers to our most recent arrivals, Miami is a city that has come to be defined by our ability to survive adversity and by the strength of our entrepreneurial and pioneering spirit.  For too long we have focused on the cosmetic – our weather, our location – and forgotten to focus on our most valuable resource – our people.  THOSE DAYS ARE OVER.

We need to look past the artificial or perceived differences and think of ourselves as Miamians.  Let us ALL share in the productive work of this new beginning.  Let us ALL share in the bounty of this revived city.  It is time we realized that we are not doomed to inevitable decline.  It is time we realized that we are too great a City, too great a people to limit ourselves to small dreams.

During the past 140 days, I have been at the task of constructing a new administration.  It has been a long and deliberate process.  Some have counseled great speed.  Others have counseled more expedited tests.  But, I have been guided by the standard John Winthrop set before his shipmates on the flagship Arbella some 400 years ago as they too faced the task of building a new government on a perilous frontier: