Condition of the City

On February 25, 2009, Mayor Kay Halloran and Mayor Pro Tem Brian Fagan delivered the annual “Condition of the City” report during the regularly scheduled City Council Meeting.  Here is a copy of the slide presentation that was shown during this report and used as the outline for the speeches.

The Annual Condition of the City Presentation: A Tale of Two Cities

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA – February 26, 2009 – Mayor Kay Halloran and Mayor Pro Tem Brian Fagan presented the annual Condition of the City address at a regularly scheduled City Council Meeting last night, Wednesday, February 25, 2009.  They are scheduled to present the address again during the League of Woman Voters State of the City Luncheon at noon on Friday, February 27, 2009 at the Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Hotel Center.

The presentation outlined a tale of two cities: first, the City with a budget of $352 million dollars that serves 120,000 residents, 70,000 of whom were not directly impacted by the flood of 2008, and second, the other city with an estimated $2.5 billion dollar need, where the lives of more than 60,000 residents were severely disrupted and permanently altered by the 2008 flood. The Mayor addressed the progress and condition of the first - the on-going services of the City of Cedar Rapids. The Mayor Pro Tem then spoke about the condition and progress of the City of Cedar Rapids as it recovers, reinvests and rebuilds from the historic flood of 2008.

Mayor Halloran highlighted strategic process improvement efforts undertaken by the City Council and staff during the past year, to include an increased emphasis on public participation and input. “The results of these efforts have improved efficiencies,” said the Mayor, who used the example of an Alliant Energy facilitated LEAN event. A LEAN event is an evaluation and feedback process that streamlines and improves efficiencies. According to Mayor Halloran, “This particular LEAN event helped the city trim the building permit process down from ten weeks to three weeks, saving the city countless staff hours and thousands of tax dollars.”

Mayor Halloran continued to explain how the City’s Key Financial Strategies have helped guide the cities capital investments to lower the long-term operational costs of running the city. The Mayor explained that current City staff levels are lower than the peak in 2001. “Even with a moderate 10 percent increase in staff levels since 1993, the staff now services a 35 percent increase in the total square mileage of Cedar Rapids,” she said.

In her forecast, Mayor Halloran acknowledged there will still be some tough financial times and decisions ahead. She then used sharp words as she described the City’s continued dependence on property taxes, saying, “Cedar Rapids and other communities in Iowa are shackled by very draconian state revenue policies.”  The Mayor made an impassioned plea for the state legislature and governor to provide more diverse revenue options to fund City budgets.

Mayor Pro Tem Brian Fagan’s half of the presentation echoed the mayor’s statement that the City is “still open for business and continues to provide an extraordinary level of civic services under very extraordinary conditions, despite the urgent need for flood recovery funding in the billions.”

Mr. Fagan’s presentation included lists of flood statistics, immediate emergency response efforts, housing flood statistics and needs, and business flood statistics and needs. Then he listed six goals for flood recovery and the foundational elements from which the recovery plans have been built: economic recovery of housing and business; health and human services; flood management and protection and public facility replacement.

The Mayor Pro Tem detailed the City’s recovery of water and waste water treatment facilities and services, and used this as “one example of the heroic efforts of city staff, our strategic partners, community volunteers and civic leaders to save our city from unfathomable devastation which would have crippled Cedar Rapids and cost us millions upon millions of dollars in damages and loss.”

After Mr. Fagan walked the audience through a projected timeline for recovery, he then outlined the needs for our community to proceed in recovery. He emphasized the need for increased public participation in neighborhood planning and community feedback events to include all residents and the business community.  “We have to work together and help each other as a community to rebuild our City,” said Mr. Fagan.

Right before his concluding remarks, Mayor Pro Tem Fagan provided figures showing more than $52 million have been allocated to Cedar Rapids for housing recovery and almost $25 million have been allocated to Cedar Rapids for business recovery. “But our City’s continued financial needs exceed $1.7 billion dollars,” said Mr. Fagan.

He concluded the two-part Condition of the City address by saying, “Out of devastation can come opportunity. If the community actively participates in the process, we can join together, persevere and make Cedar Rapids a stronger, healthier and more sustainable community for generations to come.” Then the Mayor Pro Tem challenged citizens to work together to become a model city and the best example for successful disaster recovery in America.

Copies of the Condition of the City slide presentation are available for download on www.cedar-rapids.org and www.corridorrecovery.org. Hardcopies of the slide presentation are also available upon request at City Hall by calling (319) 286-5080.