Read the City Manager's 2008 State of the City Address
Date: 04/25/2008
Number of Views: 393
As the new guy on the block, I’m excited and privileged to be here and, although I’ve been on the job since early December, my family just completed their move to Westerville last week. On a personal level, it’s good to have everyone here with me now, and we’re all very much looking forward to being a part of this community for many years to come.
The year 2007 brought about many Westerville city service accomplishments that serve as a tribute to the City’s past leadership. My predecessor, Dave Lindimore, and recently retired Council Chairman Chip Wetterauer combined for nearly five decades of service to this community. These two leaders, in combination with other past and present Council members, city staff, and the community at large, have helped to transform Westerville into the community that Money Magazine recognized as one of America’s Top 50 places to live. But the recognitions and awards go well beyond this.
The national recognition earned by our Parks & Recreation Department and noted by Chair Fosselman is just one example of the standard of excellence in public service that we strive to achieve in City operations.
The Ohio Attorney General’s Office recently bestowed its Distinguished Achievement Award on the Westerville Police Division for their Internet enforcement efforts, signifying the program as one of the best crime initiatives in Ohio.
For the tenth time, Westerville’s Fire Division received the Fire Life Safety Award for having no fire-related deaths in Westerville or Blendon Township. Ours was one of only eighteen fire units in all of Ohio to receive this award.
There are numerous other examples of Westerville city departmental excellence, not because of any awards received but because achieving higher levels of service is the right thing to do. For example, the City has integrated technology to greatly enhance processing of emergency 911 calls from cell phones, which now constitute about 60% of total calls for help. In the past, all Westerville cell 911 calls had to be transferred to Westerville either from the City of Columbus or a county emergency dispatching center, causing response delays.
Now, most calls are routed to and answered by Westerville dispatchers, with the caller's cell phone number and general location being provided in a similar manner to 911 calls from land line phones. If the cell call is lost, our dispatchers still know where to direct first responders making our response times faster and more precise.
Environment-friendly or “green” efforts are coming into focus more today than in the past, but Westerville’s green efforts began long ago with our Odd/Even lawn watering & curbside recycling programs. Through the years, our green efforts continue to grow, including:
· The completion of 23 miles of bike paths, which are not only recreational amenities but provide alternative and safe transportation routes;
· Greenspace preservation with 39 city parks or recreation facilities and thousands of street trees;
· Source water management policies to protect Alum Creek and its tributaries;
· The purchase of new bio-diesel vehicles for the city fleet;
· Integration of solar powered lights at school and bikeway crossings;
· Internal policies and practices that reduce city energy consumption;
· Educational efforts from various departments, like the Electric Division’s co-sponsorship of the Westerville Energy Education Program in conjunction with the Ohio Energy Project, Westerville City Schools and Otterbein College;
· Participation in the Franklin County Green Pact, signed by many community leaders in 2007; and
· Approval of Westerville’s first green building for the Liebert Corporation, set to begin construction later this Spring, which will follow national Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards for design and construction.
Chair Fosselman mentioned the City’s 150th anniversary efforts, and I salute the Celebrate Westerville volunteer committee for recognizing and commemorating our historic past. Throughout its history, Westerville leaders could be viewed as innovators. Westerville was the first village in Ohio and just the third in the United States to adopt the Council-Manager form of government, and Otterbein was one of the first colleges in America to admit women and people of color into their classrooms and onto their faculty, vitally contributing to Westerville’s abolitionist movement at a time when our community roots were just beginning.
While we celebrate our past, we must also identify challenges and opportunities to prepare us for a better tomorrow. In that vein, there are questions of sustainability which could impact our future.
On the positive side, particularly with respect to funding, our Fire fund will be able to finance fire operations two years longer than originally promised. When Westerville and Blendon Township voters approved the last fire operating levy in 2002, it was supposed to sustain fire operations through 2007. Good management, including some “outside the box” thinking, is making it possible for this levy to fund fire operations all the way through 2009.
With respect to income tax revenues and community re-investment, Westerville consistently provides a lot of bang for tax payer bucks. Because Westerville’s income tax rate is significantly lower than the predominant central Ohio rate of 2%, we’ve been doing more with less for a long time.
But budget constraints have begun impacting our ability to maintain our high service levels while at the same time addressing our infrastructure maintenance and facility needs. Services and infrastructure re-investments are inter-related budget priorities, and the time is upon us when we must make difficult community decisions about our needs and wants in these areas.
Former City Manager Dave Lindimore began openly discussing this predicament in his 2004 State of the City Address. He added that some residents wouldn't notice a change right away, but eventually a gradual decline in road conditions and other infrastructure would occur. As he predicted then, we have received more complaints about the lack of street maintenance in various neighborhoods because of the sheer number of streets and neighborhoods that are 25-40 years old and in need of some type of maintenance. I have already met with community leaders and neighborhood organizations expressing concerns to me personally about the City's re-investment in certain areas.
Besides fiscal need, another important matter is tax-payer equity. Yes, it is true that our income tax rate is 1.25%. But in fairness, we must recognize that Westerville’s effective tax rate is 2.3% for the overwhelming majority of working Westerville residents, approximately two out of every three, who live in Westerville but work in Columbus or another community with a 2% local income tax rate. These residents pay 2% to the community where they work, of which Westerville receives not even a penny.
These same Westerville residents then pay 0.3% to Westerville, because the City offers only partial credit for taxes paid elsewhere, leading to a situation where one Westerville household pays 1.25% in local income taxes while their next door neighbor may pay 2.3%.
This inequity doesn’t involve only Westerville residents. Because of our lower income tax rate, non-residents who work in Westerville pay significantly less taxes to our city than our residents who work elsewhere pay to those respective communities. If Westerville’s income tax equaled the predominant central Ohio rate of 2%, Westerville would recoup an estimated 8 million dollars more annually from these non-residents. And the reality is that those non-residents’ total tax liability will not likely change since they are already paying the difference between 1.25% and 2.0% to their city of residence. This 8 million dollars would go a long way toward catching up with those infrastructure re-investment needs I discussed earlier while equalizing the tax burden for all Westerville income earners.
How we maintain high quality services while providing sufficient capital improvement funding for the City’s future, will be a significant discussion item for City Council in the next few months. It is our intent to engage the community in a more profound dialogue as to those needs and how any proposed tax measure may impact you personally.
Despite these challenges, this is a wonderful time to be a part of the Westerville community. I look forward to meeting more of you in my newly adopted hometown and having the opportunity to hear your perspectives about what kind of future Westerville you envision. I can be contacted via the city’s website at Westerville dot org, and I welcome calls or visits from citizens wishing to bring concerns to my attention.
David A. Collinsworth