State of the City
| State of the City |
 |
 |
|
I am proud of how our city staff handled the crisis with professionalism and integrity and persevered to continue to run a city through it all. My sincere thanks go out to our city manager Clay Phillips and to our Community Information Officer Sharon Logan for how they performed under tremendous pressure and stress and emotion. There was no textbook either of them studied on how to operate under the circumstances, but their performance was exemplary. I am proud too of how our city council took the high road and did not criticize their mayor or publically discuss the challenges they experienced with her. They did not succumb and contribute to the drama and sensationalism the media thrived on. Mayor Pro-Tem Bob Mahalik was thrust into the role of interim mayor, and he and council were resilient and did an outstanding job in continuing to focus on the business of the city. I am proud too of our citizens for how they too took the high road. While no one agreed with what Jayne did, our citizens chose to not judge her, but instead to comfort one another and grieve for her and her precious daughter. Our faith was strong. I am proud of the quality of character of one of our local business owners too who anonymously donated money to the city to reimburse for the monies Jayne had spent. Her motives were pure, and she was only interested in helping the community move forward and heal. What a remarkable and selfless act of kindness that was. Finally I am proud of Jayne’s very close friends who were absolute rock stars in helping her family deal with this crisis and her property and finances. While these ladies were extremely distraught over the loss of their dear friend and were coping with their own grief, pain and anger, they put all that aside to help the family in the aftermath. I have spoken extensively today of this tragedy, not the horrors of what occurred, but to talk about the positive that came from it. I have so much pride in how we triumphed over tragedy. The regional and national media didn’t report on the good that our staff and council did, and didn’t report the good heart of so many citizens and friends, but I want to acknowledge them all. This is our Coppell and we are a community! I mentioned earlier the city council. I am proud to lead this city government, but I could not do it without the brilliance, expertise, and dedicated service of our 7 city council members. Billy Faught, Karen Hunt, Bob Mahalik, Marsha Tunnell, Brianna Hinojosa-Flores, Marvin Franklin, and Tim Brancheau are phenomenal individuals and public servants. I am proud to serve with them. First, this year the Parks and Recreation Department became one of only 97 park and recreation systems nationally accredited by the Commission for Accreditation of Park and Recreation Agencies (CAPRA). We are only one of six cities in the state of Texas to receive this distinguished honor. My congratulations for a great job go out to Brad Reid and his staff! While it is common to talk about “going green”, we in Coppell walk the walk and talk the talk. In 2010, the Service Center was recognized by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality as a GOLD Member of Clean Texas. “Going Green” has been the practice and the norm for decades here. We’re working in and with the community to make Coppell a more sustainable, green community. ecoCoppell has been a city-wide effort, from the community and schools to the businesses and municipality. Projects and programs have been established through careful budget planning and the pursuit of alternative funding. As a result, the City of Coppell has conservatively identified an estimated $1 million in savings over the last eight years. We’re doing it because it is the right thing to do. We are sharing many of our programs with the public providing education and information on environmental issues and actions that can be taken on an individual and daily basis lessening the impact on our environment. Adding to our list of honors, the Finance Department captured several awards this past year including the Government Finance Officers Association’s Certificate of Achievement for Financial Planning. This award is the highest recognition in governmental accounting and financial reporting. This is the twenty-first year Coppell has been recognized. In 2010, the Coppell Police Department was recognized for the nineteenth year in a row by the National Night Out Foundation for the outstanding work our department does in this community awareness program. In 2010, the department’s National Night Out efforts placed third in the nation and first in Texas. Keep Coppell Beautiful continues its award winning ways with a second place finish in the 2011 Governor’s Community Achievement Award. It recognizes communities that involve citizens, businesses, schools, local government and youth who keep their city, county or region beautiful. Keep America Beautiful honored Keep Coppell Beautiful as a second place winner in its annual National Affiliate Awards for programs that prevent litter, beautify and improve community environments and reduce waste. More than 2,000 volunteers donate thousands of hours of their time to the community. Because of their efforts more than 20,000 pounds of litter was removed from Coppell’s parks, trails and streets; as well as diverting 21 tons of electronics from the landfill. And a very deserving individual award was bestowed upon Coppell City Manager Clay Phillips. He was recognized as the University of North Texas 2011 Outstanding Alumnus in the Masters of Public Administration program. This award recognized Clay for his stellar accomplishments and leadership skills. We are very proud of Clay, and we appreciate him tremendously. As an example, our fire department recently provided valuable assistance to the Possum Kingdom area during their fire disaster. Four crews of firefighters spent 20 consecutive days aiding that area of the state. I am proud our fire department has the leadership, the willingness, the expertise, and the ability to assist those in need in our state. Awards don’t come for that extra work, but it does not go unnoticed. My thanks are extended to Chief Kevin Richardson and the entire fire department. Also, the Motorcycle Police Rodeo competition was hosted by the Coppell Police Department again. This year more than 30 police agencies from across Texas and Oklahoma competed and the department raised $14,000 benefiting the non-profit organization Concerns of Police Survivors, an agency that provides resources for surviving families and co-workers of law enforcement officers lost in the line of duty. What a great contribution this extra effort is making. Additionally, city employees formed a Relay for Life team, hosting many great community activities to raise funds for the cause, donating not only their money, but their time, as well. The Police and Fire Departments played a charity basketball game called Guns and Hoses to benefit Relay for Life, and employees throughout city departments hosted fund raising events and participated in the relay. In total, the City employee team raised more than $ 7,000 for Relay For Life. I want to extend my thanks to all the city staff members making a difference for cancer research. Are you seeing a pattern here of how proud I am of this city? Our city staff also organizes the Make a Child Smile Christmas gift donation program. For the 18th straight year the initiative of our staff provided Christmas gifts to local children. This year, 297 Coppell children benefited through our community’s generosity. My heartfelt thanks are extended to all our staff members who show these various types of discretionary effort. Parks and Recreation helps to define this community, and they bring out the best in people and volunteers. The 4th of July parade, the Christmas parade, and Oak Fest headline the activities of the year, but there are so many more ongoing events every month. The Parks and Recreation Department is always hosting some sort of community-wide special event with great themes and activities that foster the hometown community feel we want and seek. These events contribute to enjoyment of our citizens and foster a sense of community. Earlier I mentioned Police Chief Tristan. After a nationwide search for a new Police Chief, the City of Coppell selected Mac Tristan as the new chief to lead the Coppell Police Department. Chief Tristan is a 29-year veteran of police work, working as an Assistant Chief of Police for the last 16 years with the City of Carrollton. We are very fortunate to have found such a quality chief, and I know that he is going to be a valuable asset to our community. I want to now highlight several key operational facts about our city in the past year. We have a very good and very popular library in Coppell. During 2010, the William T. Cozby Public Library logged more than 291,000 visitors to this public building, circulating more than 622,000 pieces of material. The library introduced a new online catalog to accommodate our virtual visitors providing new services via the World Wide Web. This new catalog has advanced search capabilities, is easier to use, and accommodates the changes in technology. During 2010, 29,590 eBooks were downloaded through the Coppell Library. Approximately 2,300 audio books were downloaded. And, more than 420,000 electronic articles were retrieved through the e-branch. We expect these numbers to grow as more and more virtual visitors utilize the new catalog system from work, home and their mobile devices. This year we also named a new library director. We are proud to have Vicki Chiavetta at the helm. Vicki has been with the City for two years. When our former library director decided to retire, Vicki was the perfect fit. Police and Fire implemented a new, state of the art Computer Aided Dispatch system that will better allocate and track police and fire calls which in turn will provide better service to the citizens of Coppell. Dispatch received 17,923 calls for service last year. The new CAD system, an $860,000 project, was paid for partially from funds confiscated from crimes. The police department officially joined the cities of Addison, Farmers Branch, and Carrollton to form the Metrocrest Cities Police Consortium where all cities share resources including personnel and equipment on a regular basis. The Consortium serves as a force multiplier for all four cities when faced with an emergency situation and can be utilized in day-to-day police operations. Our venture into the realm of social media has resulted in an increase in our communication efforts. Daily hits to the website from Facebook and Twitter are helping us pass along critical messages to the community. The world is changing and we are adapting to the community’s needs and practices. And now I move my comments to our streets and infrastructure activities. We sometimes take for granted our quality roads and infrastructure and do not always recognize what goes into providing what we have here in Coppell. The Engineering Department reconstructed the intersection at Sandy Lake and Denton Tap Roads replacing the brick pavers within the intersection with stamped concrete pavement. This new look and safer intersection will also be applied to Belt Line and Beltline/Denton Tap and eventually MacArthur and Belt Line. Reconstruction of the Belt Line and Beltline/Denton Tap intersection begins June 6, while the MacArthur, Belt Line intersection is scheduled for the summer of 2012. Bethel Road from Denton Tap west was also reconstructed last year. This project included the demolition and reconstruction of the old bridge over Grapevine Creek. The new bridge is now above the 100-year floodplain elevation and provides sidewalks for pedestrians. Sidewalks along Denton Tap from SH 121 southward to the DART rail line are complete increasing pedestrian mobility through town. I take great pride in our engineering efforts and infrastructure maintenance. Director Ken Griffin and the Engineering Department do a great job. Their endeavors bring to mind one of my favorite expressions “Keeping peddling as the only way you can coast is downhill.” That’s what it’s all about. We have to move forward and work hard for the future. While sometimes traffic may be disrupted, where would we be as a community if we did not focus on and stay ahead of roadway improvements? And now I’d like to address what’s coming up in Coppell. I am excited to tell you the Coppell Fire Department will conduct its first Citizen’s Fire Academy class this year. Like the Citizens Police Academy does for our police operations, the Coppell Fire Academy will afford participants the opportunity to learn the tactics and strategies involved in firefighting and rescue operations through both classroom sessions and hands-on exercises. Classes begin May 26. The Finance Department will introduce a new financial operating system this summer, replacing the current system put in place in 1995. The new system will provide more flexibility in reporting financial information, allow opportunities to streamline processes, eliminate many manual processes, allowing Finance to become virtually paperless and provide all City departments with greater flexibility in monitoring their individual departmental budgets. This isn’t a facet our citizens see in their daily lives, but it is an important part of operations and planning as strong financial processes and controls are important. We are a fiscally strong community. These are tough economic times for all, and we strive to be good stewards of the taxpayer dollars. We seek to control spending, but we have to also be visionaries for the future. We continue to manage the fiscal affairs of the City in a fashion that provides funding for current needs while ensuring adequate reserves are in place for the future. This strategy not only meets service demand expectations today, but it also safeguards against the need to make service delivery cuts during economically depressed times like the past two years. While other communities have been forced to resort to making drastic cuts in services, we have been able to withstand the storm and maintain the services and programs that make Coppell the community of choice that it is for all of us. The City’s Finance Department has begun installation of radio reads for meter reading. This technology enables the city to accurately read your water meter at the touch of a button, reducing staff time and energy costs associated with city employees driving to every meter to record usage. This new technology will guarantee accurate meter reads, provide leak detection software, require less man hours needed to perform monthly reads, and eliminate the need to physically obtain readings from dangerous locations or customers’ private property. And of extreme interest to our community is Kid Country. Thousands and thousands of little feet and hands have crawled over Kid Country since it was built in 1992. Nineteen years later, the play structure has surpassed its useful lifespan. Through the effort of thousands of Coppell volunteers, Kid Country was a true community effort from the beginning planning stages, through fund raising and eventually construction. Today, the play structures are showing critical signs of deterioration, many of the original elements have been removed, and the park needs to be replaced. The Coppell Parks and Recreation Board has tasked several individuals to help spearhead a community effort through the same process successfully used to build Kid Country in 1992. The Parks and Recreation Board and departmental staff members will be reaching out to this community once again to ask for assistance. Volunteers will be raising the $430,000 needed to fund the cost of materials, as well as providing the labor needed to construct the playground. Nothing will happen to the current structure until all funds have been fully raised and construction is ready to begin. The goal is to begin construction in the spring of 2012. The company that helped design and build the first Kid Country, will return to Coppell to repeat the process and I am confident it will be with the same success and community spirit as the first time. Even as we speak, representatives from the builder are in the elementary schools working with our youth to design another great play area. The design ideas for the new playground will be displayed at a community unveiling this evening at eight o’clock here at the Senior and Community Center. I am very excited about rebuilding the jewel in our community. It is important in this state of the city address (and in those remarks in years to come) to provide our citizens with an update on the Northlake/Cypress Waters development. As a brief reminder, in 2008 a settlement agreement was reached where the city of Coppell would acquire 475 acres including the lake, Coppell Independent School District would acquire 122 acres, and the Billingsleys would acquire 843 acres. In 2006, our voters overwhelming approved the issuance of $26 million in debt to purchase our portion of the land. The voter approval was with the full awareness that it could result in a tax increase of 5 to 7 cents to pay for the debt. Council would not go forward with a settlement without having had this affirmation from our citizens that they wanted us to purchase that land. We did enter into the agreement to purchase the land from Luminant (the power generating arm of TXU electric) and part of the deal has been closed. The parties have not closed on all the land though as of today; and the city has spent $22 million on the portion already acquired. A transaction as complex as this has many details which have to be worked out before we have a final closing. I am hopeful final negotiations on the adjustments to the land purchase can be completed soon and we can all move forward with final closing. Thereafter the city will begin to fulfill our obligations under the settlement agreement and move forward with planning for how we will develop our portion of the property. One final comment I’d like to make on the Northlake development relates to the tax increase that occurred this year. As I mentioned before voters approved issuing $26 million in bonds for the land purchase with the understanding that a tax increase might be necessary to pay for the debt that was issued. This year the tax rate was increased 4.9 cents and the full amount of that increase was to pay for the debt service on the land. This was not an increase in taxes for city operations or any discretionary spending matter. There was certainly plenty of opposition to raising taxes in this tough economy, and council would have preferred not to, but the tax increase had been authorized for this purchase and after 5 years from the approval, this increase was necessary to pay towards the debt. The debt has to be paid for and had a tax increase not been made, there would have had to be corresponding reductions in city services and expenditures. That was not something the city council felt our citizens should absorb. Raising taxes is never easy and this was the first time it was done in Coppell since 1993, but I want our citizens to understand why council took the action they did. City leaders are continuously planning for the future. Planning Director Gary Sieb and his staff do a great job. In March of this year, City Council unanimously voted to accept a new comprehensive land use plan. In the plan, sustainable land use practices are being emphasized, revitalization efforts are being identified, new zoning concepts are being recommended, and existing plans such as the Coppell 2030 Vision, the Thoroughfare, Parks and Open Space, and Old Coppell Master Plans and others were incorporated into the document. This critical document will assist future leaders keep Coppell a community of choice. And, speaking of Old Coppell, The Old Coppell Master Plan, completed in 2002, was a project that included a large amount of public input to help reflect the community’s vision for the future Old Town Coppell. We are now moving forward with this plan. On a 10.06 acre site of land, a land owner will develop a mixed-use center that includes residential, office, restaurant and retail uses. All development will follow the design guidelines established for Old Town Coppell. The City will also develop and maintain a multipurpose pavilion, playground equipment, a water feature and ample parking to serve this development as well as other patrons in the Old Town Coppell area. This site should serve as a major gathering place for the community and create vehicle and pedestrian traffic that will benefit all merchants located in Old Town Coppell. Planning for the future is the final topic for today. This summer, the Coppell City Council will consider calling a November election asking voters to renew two sales tax initiatives; one-quarter cent for the Coppell Crime Control Prevention District and one-quarter cent for maintenance and repair of municipal streets. Voters initially adopted this sales tax in 2007, authorizing the use of sales tax dollars as a revenue source for street maintenance and development of crime prevention programs. It is unequivocal that crime control and street maintenance are vital to our community. Both of the sales tax initiatives that support these will sunset soon and Texas law requires voter re-authorization this November to continue collection. Maintenance and repair of our municipal streets is critical for an aging community. The reality is that 60% of Coppell’s streets were built before 1994. The average life span of a roadway is 25 years. We need to ensure that the comprehensive maintenance program can be continued and sustained. Slightly more than $2.5 million is collected each year through sales tax for street maintenance. To date, these sales tax dollars have already shown their worth. Three road maintenance projects have already been completed; Clear Creek Road, Dobecka Drive and Heartz Road. More are planned. The Crime Control and Prevention District was also established as a result of the 2007 sales tax initiative election. Voters authorized these dollars to fund school resource officers, community and police crime prevention programs, an enhanced radio dispatch center and a police patrol prevention program. The first check from the quarter-cent crime control prevention tax was received from the state in June 2008. Slightly more than $2.5 million is also collected annually from sales taxes for this program. These dollars have enabled the Police Department to among other things maintain its fleet of patrol vehicles. Patrol vehicles and the personnel who operate them are the most integral part of any strategic crime deterrent program. Visible presence is and always has been the mainstay of every police department in the country. The crime control prevention tax also pays salaries for 24 of 80 police department positions. After the election is called for, we will extensively communicate the importance of reauthorizing the use of these two sales tax programs for crime control and street repairs in the anticipated November election. If the fact that the tax generally isn’t borne by our citizens doesn’t catch the attention of voters, the realization that we would have to increase property taxes 10 cents to replace that sales tax revenue we’d lose if the tax is not reauthorized will hopefully drive citizens to the polls. We have a lot to be thankful for in this community. The state of this city is outstanding! We have much work yet to do. As I said earlier, we must keep peddling as the only way to coast is downhill. We are moving forward with confidence and pride. I am proud to serve as your mayor, and I thank you for joining us today. May God bless you all, and may God continue to bless Coppell!
|
.jpg)
