As Prepared for Delivery

Mayor Jerry G. Shults

State of the City 2006

League City…. A City on the Move!

A little more than seven months ago, I stood in the Council Chambers with my wife and children and took the oath to assume the job as the 7^th Mayor of League City.

I felt the citizens were voting for change and strong leadership in their Mayor, I felt they wanted to get this city moving forward again.

My goals back then were fundamental and clear:

I wanted to get a new city administrator hired and permanent senior staff on board. I was blessed to have a friend in Mike Clawson who stepped in on day one and helped us through our budget cycle until a permanent Administrator could be hired. To Mike Clawson, my heartfelt thanks for a job well done.

Chuck Pinto began as City Administrator Sept 1.  Although he has an impressive resume, I will not detail that today. Let me tell you about Chuck, when you email him a question, he answers you, but more importantly, he copies the entire Council, and Chris Peifer, his Deputy City Administrator.

I wanted to restore credibility to city government; make city council meetings shorter and more professional.

Your City Council has risen to that challenge as witnessed by all who watch Channel 16. Trust me when I tell you there is plenty of healthy debate between meetings, but for the most part, the majority of your council comes prepared.

I wanted to establish regular meetings with CCISD to begin a sincere dialogue with them about mutual strategic planning.

Dr. Mossman and I have met several times, and our LC Council & CCISD Board of Trustees have met twice as well. More importantly, Dr Mossman and I routinely speak on the phone just to stay caught up. I can honestly say that interacting with professionals of her caliber is one of the highest honors of this job.

I am proud to say that the state of the city is strong.

Our hard work, focus, and spirit of cooperation has paid off, but there’s more work to be done. Allow me to share some things that were never listed as goals, but that contribute tremendously to making LC a great place to live.

People like,

·         Bill Roll, a citizen of the Glen Cove subdivision, alerted us to a house that needed to be demolished. After years of asking, the house was demolished last month.

·         Boy Scout Michael Dillion who sent me a letter offering to help us repair Webster street

·         Deanne Voss alerted us and helped us stop illegal dumping

·         Tim Tallas for his consistent, almost relentless, efforts to police Bayou Brae’s parking issues

·         That while we debate the political issues of the day, the backbone of the City, citizens like Bill Schaefer, Mike Rissky & Freddie Polanco continue to drive to the SportsPlex and coach and support our local youth sporting programs

The privilege of being Mayor is that I have the opportunity to be everyone’s neighbor. 

I get to light the city’s Christmas tree and share with our Library Staff and our Parks Department, as well as the children and parents of LC citizens, the wonderful holiday season.

I get to witness first hand how hard our employees work every day to keep our quality of life high.

I am proud to say that the state of the city is strong.

Every mayor has a responsibility to start with the basics and build upon a strong foundation. Atlanta Mayor Franklin recently summed it up by quoting St. Francis of Assisi: “Start by doing what’s necessary, then what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”

We started seven months ago by focusing on the basics, rebuilding people’s confidence in their city government. We worked hard to keep people safe, we filled the potholes, and we made sure that when you called City Hall, you spoke with a live person.

We prioritized our spending and maintained city services while lowering the tax rate. As Councilman Barber spoke earlier, we authorized a financial audit of Big League Dreams, to see how we can improve on future capital projects.

We now have a permanent City Administrator, Deputy City Administrator, Planning Director, Director of Public Safety, and Director of Public Works.

I have appointed over 40 people to boards and commissions in the city.  We have over 30 boards and commissions and 450 members, each one invaluable to the governmental process.

I have asked citizens like John Towner, Laddie Howard, Floyd Mahanay, and Chris Samuelson to bring their years of experience in League City to serve on our boards and commissions, and they said yes. Our team is in place and ready to go to work.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Our goal is to reduce the tax burden on our residents by encouraging commercial development - the kind of development that gives our citizens choices about where to shop and where to eat without having to drive to other cities.

With the help of our County officials such as County Judge Jim Yarbrough and Commissioner Ken Clark, our economic development efforts are paying off. In the past year, the Houston Garden Center and Bill Fogle Collision Center have joined Alex Rodriguez Mercedes Benz on the IH 45 Corridor. We also look forward to a new drive - through Starbucks opening this year at highway 3 @ Main Street.

Also on the west side of the IH 45 corridor at FM 646 are a Denny’s Restaurant, Panda Garden Restaurant and of course a UTMB facility.

Across the freeway, is Bay Colony Town Center, which will include: Chilli’s, Petco, and a 24 hr fitness center. There is also a new Amoco Federal Credit Union, JSC Federal Credit Union, and IBC Bank in bay Colony.

On the eastside, a new Kroger’s will be located on SH 96 at South Shore Blvd.

Theses project are the result of economic development pursued by our Chamber of Commerce, our Economic Development Corp, and DLC.

And of course, Jim Reinhartsen and the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership.

I could do an entire speech on the value that Jim brings to this entire Bay Area. Jim is a professionals professional. Every opportunity to work with Jim is like going back to a day in the classroom of the greatest college in the greatest state in the union, Texas A & M University.

Now that the traffic light has been installed at Wesley Drive and West Main, and the concrete barriers are being installed, two new restaurants: Las Brisas and Gringo’s will be locating in the RiverBend development, along with long time dentist, Dr. C. Lynn Davis.

Why is LC doing well? Because we have quiet citizens like John Wycoff who eagerly participate in League City development, without ever being recognized.

Because we have citizens like dentists Dr Don Allen and Dr. C. Lynn Davis who want to help LC with practical solutions to real problems, like traffic.

Dr Davis called and shared with me what I thought was a brilliant idea, and yet so simple it was beyond obvious. He ask if I would support a non political, and the key word here is non political, group of citizens, at no  expense to the city, to meet every other week and discuss practical solutions to real traffic issues.

The names he mentioned of people who would likely participate were Marge Jacobson, Steve Pratt, and Don Allen, people who are highly regarded in our community and who know how to get things done.

As I have said on more than one occasion, we should use the talent of the people of League City to benefit League City.

HURRICANE

In 2005 we had our first mandatory evacuation and had some 50,000 citizens leave their homes. In county meetings with all Mayors and County officials, it was clear that our own Denny Holt, was one of, if not THE, most well respected emergency management coordinator in the County.

I want to personally thank Denny for his support and his leadership during that critical time, when decisions truly become a matter of life and death.

League City did not have a single loss of life; there was minimal property damage and no reported looting. Council members Katie Benoit, Tad Nelson and I stayed at the police station with our police officers and firemen and rode with them during house checks.

We saw debris cleared away from the streets in record time so people could come home and start living their lives again. I have never been more proud of our public servants and of our city than during those difficult times.

I am proud to say that the state of the city is strong.

Throughout this coming year, we will be faced with many choices. As we make those choices, my goal will be to focus on the core priorities that I believe define League City’s values and character. Those include

1)  Open Government Initiative

• Improving the quality of the Channel 16 productions
• Increasing the programming on channel 16 (including more council workshops, public hearings, P & Z meetings, etc)
• Hiring a full time dedicated webmaster to oversee our city website to make it more interactive, informative, and user-friendly
• Researching the ability for us to stream city council meetings live to the web for people that do not have channel 16

2) Improving our quality of life

Charter Review 

 I am going to create a charter review committee 

this summer. I will ask each council member to

submit two names, the candidates will be

interviewed, and a committee appointed. Issues

will include single member districts, recall

provisions, and issues clarifying our charter. I hope

to have their recommendations on the ballot for

the May ’07 elections.

Economic Development

I want to clearly identify the role of our current economic development groups. I want to ensure that the Chamber, Economic Development Corp, and DLC are not duplicating efforts. I want common goals with regular communication between all groups.

We will continue targeted recruitment of likely corporate relocations, and we will continue to strive to make League City user friendly to new and existing businesses.

I want to develop a plan for main street revitalization to make Historic Main Street as beautiful as the majestic oaks that line it.

Development

I would like to see, as I stated clearly in the campaign, quality growth, with more green space, limited multi family, more commercial and less rooftops.

This is an easy statement to read, but challenging to quantify. I do understand that our corporate citizens are more concerned with knowing the rules, than with changing the rules.

Together with City Administrator Chuck Pinto and his leadership team, I plan to continue to work with Council to clearly identify and quantify these goals.

3)  Strengthening our public safety

When you ask people why they move to League City, it is an interesting, but consistent answer. Careers. They work in the area, and have a choice of where, within a fifty mile radius, to live.

One of the first things they research is the local schools district. League City is represented by 3 quality school districts, Dickinson ISD, Santa Fe ISD, and the largest district, CCISD. All are excellent ISD’s, but CCISD covers the majority of League City, and is a major drawing card for residents moving to this area.

Another factor is our high quality of life, a large part of which is made possible by a low crime rate, and a well trained police department, fire department, and EMS service.

My top goal is to continue strengthening our public safety services.

Our EMS service is in the very capable hands of Chief James Fisher, and our EMS has become an official city department. League City Volunteer EMS has always provided excellent emergency response and medical care in the area.

Becoming a city department makes it easier for them to take their high quality of care to the next level by gaining more access to city support, which will provide more effective and responsible service, quicker response time, and state of the art life saving equipment.

I think making the EMS a city department will strengthen our EMS service.

For many years, our police department has been recognized as one of the best departments in the area. Our Chief Drew Daniels and Assistant Chief Chris Reed provide consistent, strong leadership for the department.

We have officers with law degrees, MBA’s, and Master’s degrees of one kind or another. Citizen surveys consistently give our PD satisfaction ratings in the high 80’s, and we have one of the lowest crime rates for a city our size in the state.

Last year we hired 3 new police officers, and assigned detectives to the following task forces: the Galveston County Auto Crimes Task Force, the Drug Enforcement Agency Task Force, and the FBI Safe Streets Task Force to utilize the combined resources of those task forces to enhance League City’s public safety.

I am also pleased to announce that Chief Daniels and Assistant Chief Reed have decided that the League City Police Department, will seek to become an internationally accredited agency.

This rigorous process, which takes about three years, involves self assessment, independent outside review, and formal public input. Accreditation is so demanding that less than 2% of the law enforcement agencies in Texas are accredited. Our own Captain Pat Bittner, a twenty seven year veteran police commander, will head up these efforts.

We are also going to seek accreditation of our telecommunications area. Our telecommunicators not only handle emergency calls for the police department, but they also handle calls for our fire dept and EMS as well.

It is an ambitious plan but I know our public safety departments are up to the challenge.

I think seeking accreditation reflects our department’s willingness to improve the quality of service they deliver to the public and it demonstrates professional excellence to the citizens of League City. 

And our LCVFD. What can you say about an all volunteer Fire Dept., except keep up the good work.  Chief David Brandt heads up this volunteer fire department, which saves the City millions of dollars annually by remaining volunteer, and is continually ranked among the best. My hat is off to the men and women of the LCVFD.

I am proud to say that the state of the city is strong.

SENIOR CITIZENS

Why is League City strong? League City is strong because of citizens like Elaine Balderas, Bonnie Schoellkopf and Laurie Hembree. On January 27^th, these three citizens, along with several other volunteers, organized League City’s first ever Senior citizen kick off party.

Local restaurant owner, Steve Pratt of Estebans, donated enough food to feed over three hundred people without being asked. Walking around the Civic Center that evening, I knew I was witnessing something historic.

And what State of the City speech would be complete without a word about our unique League City politics.

It has been said that anyone can steer the ship when the waters are calm. For the past fourteen months, because it was a long campaign, I would like to offer a special thanks to my friends Bruce Wesley, John Stanley and Ken Landry.

I have asked for and received counsel from these non political friends often over the past months. I believe that to succeed we must elect, hire and surround ourselves with individuals of high character, high ideals and high expectations. These friends meet and exceed these standards.

Conclusion

I am proud of League City and the progress we have made together. I believe that healthy, strong cities have constructive critics. We need citizens to be thinking about their city, evaluating its progress, treasuring what’s good and improving what needs work.

I’m proud of how we’ve come through this past year and the difficult choices we’ve made. I thank the City Council for working with me for the good of our entire community.

I am humbled by the people of League City, whose faith, perseverance and values have shown why this is the greatest city in America.

League City is a better place today than it was six months ago and it will be even better six months from now. I look forward to giving you a progress report next February.

In closing let me please give special thanks to my brother Tom Shults, who is also my business partner. He handles business while I am working in League City.

I also want to thank my children Kelsey, Taylor, and Spencer for sharing their dad with the citizens of League City.

And finally, I want to thank my biggest fan, my wife Janie. Because without her, I could not even attempt this.

I am proud to say that the state of League City is indeed strong.

Thank you for sharing your time with me today and may God continue to bless League City.