MAYOR ADRIAN M. FENTY – Getting
the Job Done: 2008 State of the District Address
Washington Seniors Senior Wellness Center (Ward Seven)
REMARKS AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY
Introduction
Let me start by thanking Erma Simon for that wonderful introduction. I
understand Ms. Simon’s been coming to Washington Seniors for 23 years
– and she’s a native Washingtonian and federal government retiree. Can
we give her a round of applause?
Mr. Chairman, members of the Council, Washington Seniors, and my fellow
District residents, good afternoon.
There has never been a better time to live or work in the District of
Columbia. The population is growing, and the economy is robust. We are in
the midst of our city’s twelfth consecutive balanced budget, and our
bond ratings have never been higher – A-pluses at all three agencies. So
the District of Columbia is strong, but we have much work ahead of us.
Since I took office nearly 15 months ago, I’ve traveled across the
District of Columbia every day, listening to you tell me about your vision
for the present and future of this great city. What I hear again and again
is that what matters most is that your government is getting things done.
You’re holding me accountable on important issues of education, public
safety, jobs, healthcare, affordable housing and economic development.
Well, we listened to you, we rolled up our sleeves and, we got to work.
Education
As I think everyone knows by now, I made education the centerpiece of
my administration. It is my belief that the key to our future as a
healthier city, as a competitive city, and as a dynamic and thriving city—is
the education of our children. There is nothing more important than that.
So, on June 12 of last year, after 6 months of planning, consultation
with District residents, and working with our partners on the Council and
the leadership in Congress, the District of Columbia Public Schools came
under mayoral authority. For the first time ever, we now know where the
buck stops when it comes to realizing the aspirations of our children.
My first hire was a Chancellor whose brand of experience, talent, and
management acumen was unprecedented in DCPS history. In just 9 months,
Michelle Rhee has already taken dramatic steps toward restoring a
world-class public schools system.
We hired 425 new teachers and 20 new principals for the new school
year. With a new tracking system, 97% of textbooks made it to the right
classrooms on the first day. We also scanned and filed nearly 5 million
confidential personnel documents that were piled in boxes and strewn
across the floor when we found them.
In barely two months’ time, my Deputy Mayor for Education Victor
Reinoso and my school facilities chief Allen Lew rehabilitated hundreds of
classrooms with public and private investment in almost half the schools.
We built six new athletic fields and bought new uniforms for every high
school sports team. The private companies that donated their resources to
this process had sought to do so for years, but couldn’t find a way into
the system. Now that they have, we will continue leveraging these
public-private partnerships into the future.
We’ve instituted a new culture of accountability at the DCPS central
administration. With a new management team at the helm and new personnel
rules in place, we will make sure every single DCPS employee is focused on
the one thing that matters: educating our children.
To fulfill that main mission, we’re making major changes to help
students succeed.
We launched a Saturday Scholars program at 47 sites, and asked 7,500
students from 91 schools to take part. The 14-week program will help
third- through sixth-graders improve their reading and math skills.
And we want to reward what’s working. So we’ve teamed up with the
federal government to offer cash bonuses to staff at schools where test
scores increase by 20% or more in a single year. This year, Barnard, Noyes
and Tyler Elementary Schools were the first awardees. Everyone from the
custodian to the principal received between $2,000 and $10,000.
We installed 6,374 computers in DCPS schools in a six-week period.
The Office of Nutrition Services served more than 1.5 million meals to
nearly 30,000 students at 400 sites last summer.
We created an Office of the Ombudsman and named Tonya Kinlow to this
critical post. It’s her job to investigate your concerns about the
public schools, public charter schools, and the University of the District
of Columbia.
We continue our aggressive push to get our graduating seniors into
college and to make sure they thrive when they get there. Last September,
the Mayor’s College Fair set a record with 4,000 young people in
attendance. And we successfully lobbied Congress to continue the DC
Tuition Assistance Program, which gives up to $10,000 a year to graduating
District high school seniors who go on to college.
We’re continuing to work with nonprofits like the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation to double the number of Class of 2010 students graduating
from college – and triple the number for the Class of 2013.
Public Safety
With the help of Police Chief Cathy Lanier and Fire/EMS Chief Dennis
Rubin, we’re getting the job done in the area of public safety.
The Metropolitan Police Department dispatched almost 700,000 units to
calls in the past year. And our Fire and Emergency Medical Services
Department went out 165,000 times in the same period.
We’ve added 299 police officers to our force, for a total of nearly
4,000, and have taken sworn officers from behind desks and put them on the
streets where they belong.
Policing involves lights and sirens, but it also involves prevention
and community relations. So Chief Lanier created Operation Full Stride,
which puts officers out on foot beats so they can see and hear what’s
happening in our communities. They get to know you, the people they’re
sworn to protect and serve. Since October, our officers have put in nearly
33,000 8-hour shifts on foot, bicycles, Segways and scooters.
We’ve learned that we can’t simply arrest and incarcerate our way
out of the deeply-rooted social problems that lead to crime in our
neighborhoods. In our new Focused Improvement Areas, we’re bringing our
human services agencies together with law enforcement to increase
employment opportunities, engage young people, and improve the appearance
of these neighborhoods.
This year, we’re also rolling out 800 “smart patrol vehicles.”
These are police patrol cars with computers in them, which give officers
access to local and national criminal databases and let them do their
administrative reports online in the field. This will mean more police out
on the streets more often, faster investigations, and faster arrests.
MPD’s new Gun Recovery Unit took nearly 2,300 firearms off the
streets last year, and this year we’re on track to take 2,500 guns out
of our neighborhoods. We had 636 guns turned in during amnesty events and
we’re starting a GunStat program to follow gun cases through the
criminal justice system. Working with our colleagues in local and federal
law enforcement, and in the courts and supervision agencies, we’ll be
able to develop strategies to keep guns out of the District and have
charges and sentences that stick. We can capitalize on one of our greatest
successes of 2007, a 70% homicide case closure rate, which was higher than
the national average.
When gunshots do happen, we need to know where and when – and we need
to know it quickly. It’s always helpful when residents call 911. But we
also have a scientific way to isolate the source of gunshots using
ShotSpotter technology. It’s already in use in several neighborhoods and
in 2008 alone, ShotSpotter has detected 382 gunshots. This year, we will
expand it to new areas in parts of the First, Third and Fifth Police
Districts.
We’re implementing the recommendations of our Task Force on Emergency
Medical Services. The end result will be a department that responds to
calls with fast, compassionate and competent care. Through its new Street
Calls program, Fire and EMS will work to connect repeat callers to 911
with appropriate preventive, non-emergency assistance, while reducing the
number of inappropriate 911 calls for medical assistance. This will leave
staff and equipment free when emergencies do happen. The department is
also developing a world-class workforce to serve you better – by
bringing in new cadets from our high schools in a new partnership with
DCPS.
In the last 12 months, FEMS has had 12 fire safety awareness events
across the District and installed more than 2,300 smoke detectors in the
homes of residents. As you know, this department risks life and limb every
day to ensure our safety. The bravery and commitment of our firefighters
and EMS workers is awe inspiring. >From the fires at Eastern Market,
Georgetown Library, and the tire warehouse on K Street, and most recently,
the 5-alarm fire in Mt. Pleasant early yesterday, they provide comfort and
care to our neighbors during the most difficult of times.
We have more plans to keep you informed during emergencies. We’re
developing an outdoor mass notification system so we can let the public
know anytime an evacuation needs to happen. We have ward-specific
evacuation and emergency guides coming to a library, police station and
fire house near you.
Healthcare and Human Services
Over the past year, our Administration has made tremendous progress in
improving the health and wellbeing of all District residents. We’re
working hard to get the job done in healthcare and human services.
Access to quality healthcare should not depend on where you live. So we
finalized the sale of Greater Southeast Community Hospital in a
public-private partnership that will improve the facility and keep it open
for patients east of the Anacostia River.
Last year, in addition to operating Senior Wellness Centers like this
one, the DC Office on Aging served more than 52,000 seniors at least once
and served more than a million meals. We took almost 80,000 trips to the
doctor, the grocery store and other places around the District.
After the deaths of four young girls from Southeast whom we all came to
know under tragic circumstances, we took steps to shine a light on areas
where we need to work even harder.
We immediately laid out a timeline of all contacts the family had with
the District Government. We took action to hold our workers accountable
and immediately implemented a series of systematic reforms to our child
welfare agency. We’re going to review cases more closely, do a better
job of documenting calls into the system, and close no case until every
child is accounted and cared for.
We’re working to combat the spread of HIV and AIDS. East of the
Anacostia River, where infection rates are highest, we’re partnering
with nonprofit health and community organizations to strengthen education
and prevention efforts. We’ve given away 1.1 million condoms in the last
year, and we have 125,000 more on the way.
We know that one in five new HIV/AIDS cases comes from the sharing of
infected needles among drug users. Needle exchange has worked in other
cities for years – cutting new infections in half in the target
population in Chicago — and it’s worked in the District on a smaller
scale. Now that Congress has lifted its decade-old ban on using local tax
dollars to fund needle exchanges, we’re able to dedicate $650,000 to
this program.
We’ve developed our first-ever Childhood Health Action Plan. We’re
going to improve children’s health in the areas of obesity, asthma,
substance abuse, lead poisoning, well-child visits, infant mortality, oral
health, and HIV/AIDS. And we’re excited to see the plan implemented by
our new Department of Health Director, Dr. Pierre Vigilance.
Dr. Vigilance will bring new energy and focus to a vital District
Government agency. Across your government and all of its agencies, our
staff is getting the job done.
Infrastructure and Environment
They’re getting the job done in our Department of Transportation.
This week, we just re-dedicated the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge and
a new look for South Capitol Street. Not only did DDOT’s employees get
the job done, they did it on budget and a week ahead of schedule.
DDOT has also started construction on the Anacostia Riverfront Trail
and finished the Canal Road, Florida Avenue and LeDroit Park streetscape
projects. We’re seeing the installation of 788 state-of-the-art,
weather-resistant bus shelters all over the District.
In the past year, DDOT has filled 225,000 potholes, paved more than 6
miles of roadway and added 5 miles of bike lanes. We increased the
ridership on the DC Circulator bus by 400,000 passengers, with additional
routes being added. And we planted more than 4,500 new trees.
Our Department of Motor Vehicles has processed more than 116,000 driver’s
licenses; 209,000 vehicle registrations and 211,000 inspections.
Based on extensive input from thousands of you, we’re changing the
taxi-riding experience. In just a few weeks, you’ll have an
electronically displayed fare and a receipt every time you ride in a
District taxicab. I believe the new time-and-distance meters will make
taxi rides a much more attractive transit option, and will enable the
hardworking drivers to continue to make a living.
Our Department of Parks and Recreation has been busy this year. It
opened two new community centers in Trinidad and Columbia Heights, and
fully renovated Banneker Recreation Center. We also opened three new parks
and playgrounds and two new athletic facilities – including the first
soccer field in the District with artificial turf.
And I’m proud to say we’re on our way to becoming one of the nation’s
greenest cities. This starts with the government itself. In the last year,
we’ve collected nearly 1,200 tons of recycling from District government
buildings – and nearly 25,000 tons from homes in the District and we’ve
placed recycling bins in all Parks and Recreation facilities. We’ve
added green roofs to two District Government buildings and are looking for
places to add more. I’ve convened the Mayor’s Green Team to look for
ways to lower the ecological cost of doing government work. We’ve also
partnered with our neighbors in Maryland and Virginia to work on real
solutions to a clean up the Anacostia River and Chesapeake Bay.
Jobs, Affordable Housing, Economic Development
And as we’re working hard to be a green city, we’re also continuing
responsible economic development.
We are about two weeks away from welcoming 41,222 baseball fans to the
most environmentally-friendly sports facility ever — at our brand new
Nationals Park on the Anacostia River. We also brought the wrecking ball
to Waterside Mall in Ward Six and have begun more neighborhood-friendly
development there.
I’m excited to report that in Camp Simms in Ward 8, Giant Food has
opened its doors as the first new grocery store east of the Anacostia
River in 10 years. The store employs more than 200 District residents, 98
percent of whom are from Ward Eight.
We have the largest public-private development project the District
government has ever taken on, Poplar Point, which will inject
approximately $2.5 billion east of the river. We’ve called for new
offices, housing and retail. And to put our words into action, we have
announced plans to move our Department of Housing and Community
Development to Martin Luther King Avenue in Historic Anacostia, and our
Department of Employment Services to Minnesota Avenue and Benning Road
here in Ward Seven.
The Council passed the legislation for our Park Morton New Community.
And during the next several weeks, we will kick off the first phases of
development for the Barry Farms/Park Chester/Wade Road New Community and
the Lincoln Heights/Richardson Dwellings New Community.
We are bringing Radio One back to its ancestral home in the District of
Columbia, and we are keeping National Public Radio here in the city where
it began 40 years ago.
We’ve begun to set plans in motion for other large-scale projects
such as The Yards, the Old Convention Center and the McMillan Reservoir.
And we broke ground on the H Street/Benning Road project, which will bring
a great look to a great corridor and send streetcars down H Street for the
first time in decades. And of course just last week, we opened the city’s
first Target store as part of the DCUSA shopping center in Ward One.
But economic development cannot be all about large-scale projects. It
must reach every neighborhood, and it must protect small businesses. That’s
why we’ve started a neighborhood tax increment financing program. We
allocated up to $95 million for storefront facades, upgrades and utilities
for our great commercial corridors like Georgia Avenue, Nannie Helen
Burroughs and Martin Luther King Ave.
We’ve developed aggressive plans to create new jobs with a green
economy in the District of Columbia. Businesses and government are going
to need experts and trained workers as they continue to reduce their
impact on the environment. I have appointed a Green Collar Jobs Advisory
Council to work with the business community, nonprofits and all of our
great high schools, colleges and universities to get the next generation
of skilled employees trained and ready to go. We’re talking about
everything from engineers and architects to green building contractors,
lead paint abatement technicians and brownfields cleanup crews. Those jobs
should go to District residents, and they will.
To keep that economic engine going, we are also working to place our
residents in all the jobs that are being generated so we can keep our tax
dollars at home. Just this week, the Mayor’s Citywide Job Fair brought
in 21,000 participants. We had more than 150 District government, federal
government and private-sector employers taking part. In the past year, we
placed more than 600 District residents in construction jobs at the new
baseball stadium.
We’ll provide more opportunities for our young people to work this
summer. Last year, our Summer Youth Employment Program brought in nearly
13,000 summer employees. This year, I’ve made it clear that every
student who wants a summer job will have one. We just signed up our first
group of workers, and we’re adding public and private sector employers
to the program every day.
We’re adding more vocational training in the schools. The Department
of Public Works and Ballou High School are teaming up on a new program to
teach ASE certification for car repairs. This is the gold standard for
automotive technicians in the industry, and we hire ASE technicians in the
District Government too.
We’ve begun delivering above and beyond our pledge of 10,000 units of
affordable housing in four years. There are 14,300 units of affordable
housing in the pipeline right now, including 5,500 affordable units to be
preserved, and 8,800 units to be built. We’re also helping to finance
the dreams of new homeowners in the District. In the last year, we
provided 513 no-interest loans for down payments and closing costs through
our Home Purchase Assistance Program. The District Government tripled its
investment in these loans last year. We gave comprehensive housing
counseling to more than 19,000 residents in the last year as well.
We’re also making great progress in our mission to end homelessness
across the District of Columbia. Last October, we closed the notorious DC
Village shelter and moved its families to apartment-style supportive
housing.
All told, in the last year, the District moved 361 of our homeless
neighbors and 220 homeless families into transitional or permanent
supportive housing programs.
I am personally very proud of that effort — and I have heard good
feedback from many of you about the work we’ve done on these issues.
Customer Service
In fact, I’ve heard lots of feedback from across the District. I have
attended hundreds of community meetings in the last 15 months, but for
every meeting I’m unable to attend, my Office of Community Relations and
Services has gone to many more.
Last year, they attended more than 2,000 community meetings– 650 or
so of them in Wards 7 and 8. I started this office when I became Mayor, to
work on the ground in every ward, every day, with a simple mandate: Just
Fix It.
In the last year, they have held more than 315 Fix-It operations
bringing in multiple agencies to address trash clean up, abandoned
properties and many other constituent service requests.
And you can now make those requests by dialing a single number, 311. We’re
making it easier than ever to reach your government. The Mayor’s
Citywide Call Center is now a 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year operation. In
the last year, we’ve taken more than 2.5 million calls. We’re
answering 911 calls within 5 seconds — 95 percent of the time, with
non-emergency calls being answered within 30 seconds — 87 percent of the
time.
The Call Center has fielded more than 310,000 service requests –
everything from abandoned cars to yard waste collection. That’s more
than one service request every two minutes, every single hour of every
single day.
Meanwhile, when you write, we answer. The Mayor’s Correspondence Unit
has answered nearly 23,000 emails, postcards and letters.
You are our most valued customer, and we will keep getting better at
responding to your requests.
Voting Rights
Meanwhile, it’s been another year of Taxation Without Representation
in the District of Columbia, but we’ve made some real progress in
educating Congress and the rest of the country about our lack of democracy
in the District.
Last spring, thousands of you joined me on a wet and chilly afternoon
as we marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol to demand our voting
rights. Just a few weeks later, a voting rights bill that had already
passed the House made its way to the Senate floor. The bill didn’t make
it through, but we did get a majority of Senators to vote for it. While
this is the first time a civil rights bill has fallen to a filibuster
since the era of segregation, we haven’t come this close to a House vote
in decades. I’m optimistic about our chances in the new Congress.
By this time next year, we’ll have a new neighbor down the street at
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW. You know it’s my hope that we’ll make
history in this November’s election. But no matter who the new President
is, I look forward to working with him–or her–to advance the cause of
our local democracy.
Closing
In closing, let me first say that none of these accomplishments or
goals would be possible without the talents of an extraordinary group of
public servants. I want to acknowledge the dedication and efforts of the
34,000 District Government employees who work for you and for me. They’re
led by City Administrator Dan Tangherlini, Deputy Mayors Neil Albert and
Victor Reinoso, Chief of Staff Tené Dolphin, and a fantastic cabinet.
Please give them a round of applause.
All of us come to work every day because we share the same vision. We
share the vision of a world-class capital city – with voting rights in
the House and Senate, budget and legislative autonomy, freedom and
self-determination. We share the goal of setting a shining example here
for the rest of the world to follow.
Together, with one voice and a unity of purpose, we will achieve what
the generations that came before us never even dreamed possible.
We have some big plans for the District of Columbia. And with your
help, we’ll continue to get the job done.
Thank you very much. May God bless the District of Columbia.