State of the City Address

By Mayor Dannel P. Malloy

July 1, 2002

“Let me begin by saying that I have never seen Mr. Giordano look so good in a suit before. Thank you for the formal introduction; it is very much appreciated. I also want to acknowledge the presence of my wife, Cathy, who joins us, along with a number of administration leaders. I am very much thankful for them and for the good work that they do.

“I have been doing this for a while, and frequently what I have done is read through a list of accomplishments that we have jointly shared over the past year. I will touch on some of those accomplishments, but I really need to begin by saying that the past year clearly has been defined by two occurrences – the attacks of 9/11 in New York, Washington and Pittsburgh – and also of a recession that has hit governments harder as a sector than just about any other sector in the US economy.

“I want to begin by saying that we took the early recessionary signs that we led last spring very seriously. By the time the fiscal year had begun a year ago July 1, we had imposed a freeze of sorts on the filling of positions. Only emergency positions required to be filled on the city’s side would be filled. That went to a very hard freeze on employment once the 9/11 attacks took place and we realized how devastating those attacks would be on the US economy combined with the recession. We also took a number of other steps, shortly following the 9/11 attacks to prepare this city economically for that environment.

“As you well know, we asked time and time again of our city departments to cut their expenditure levels, and I have to say that they responded quite amazingly by freezing positions, freezing non-salary expenditures, to the point where we were able to save in excess of $4.5 million in budgeted expenditures and shift $5.5 million in total expenditures out of what would have probably meant a city deficit. A month or so ago we thought we would be in a position to avoid a deficit on the city’s part. Your fellow city employees and workers did a fantastic job in accommodating those changes.

“I would also say that our budget deliberations leading up to the announcement of our budget on March 9, 2002, also took into account those economic difficulties. I will also say now, publicly, also take into account what we project to be at least one or two additional years of tough economic times on the governmental side.

“So, let me highlight what we have jointly accomplished, i.e., this Board, the Board of Finance and the City. We have eliminated 92 full-time funded positions on the City’s part. That brings to a total of approximately 150 positions fewer on the City side than on the day I took office some six and a half years ago. We did that by causing efficiencies to take place; we did it in a humane fashion by offering early retirement programs to city workers. We did that by putting on the freeze which I previously referenced so that we would not be in a position of having to lay off workers that we just hired. I am very proud of how city employees have responded. I have to say to you, however, that I am worried that that quick a drop off – 92 positions in a single year – might lead to the diminution of city services. That is one reason why starting tomorrow, I will be touring all of the city’s neighborhoods in a repetitive fashion over the coming months to make sure that we are living up with our agreements with our citizens to maintain the quality of their neighborhoods. Each of you will be contacted as that tour involves your neighborhood. I know Linda and Bobby, I think, are going to join me as we tour the South End tomorrow. We will be including all of the neighborhoods, both the Lower and Upper Cove will be following very shortly. So, I want to reiterate that we have taken the recession, and we have taken the difficulties, particularly as they are impressed upon government very seriously. We have responded, I believe, in an appropriate fashion and in a fashion that should not cause us to notice too great a diminution of value, too great a diminution of services. The only downside of that, is having taken all of those steps and being prepared to operate Stamford’s government in this current fiscal year on less money than we operated on in the past fiscal year, still led to a tax increase, which I find unacceptable.

“Having said that, however, if one averages the tax increases over the last seven years and does the math, you will find that we have in fact beaten, over that past seven year period, the cost of living or inflation index – over the total period of time. We are – that is you, the Board of Finance and myself – keeping what I think is a very important doctrine in mind to treat our citizens fairly when it comes to taxation, and I am hopeful that we can do that in the future.

“Having said all of that, there are good signs in our economy. Stamford’s economy is strong, and you should take solace in that fact. Unemployment numbers are extremely low, and certainly lower than the statewide and national averages. We have had great governmental initiatives to support small as well as large business. We have developed loan pools for small businesses in this community; we will be announcing those loans in the coming weeks. We have been able to attract corporations to Stamford: Moore Business Systems, last summer, took 46,000 sq. ft.; Citibank expanded its presence in Stamford by 145,000 sq. ft.; Elements Re relocated to 10,000 sq. ft. and brought fifty new employees; Stamford Redmond, a manufacturing of food packaging equipment, located in 9,000 sq. ft. These are just some of the highlights. Turners & Harrison relocated from Westchester County bringing 115 employees and occupying over 40,000 sq. ft.; Abbey National Bank opened a treasury services division and there have been a number of other major moves in Stamford that have allowed us to keep our vacancy rate relatively low. For those of us who have served as long as I have remember the days when we saw 26% vacancy rate in the midst of the last recession; we have nothing nearly approaching that, and I believe we will see our rates drop in the coming year.

“I also want to say that commercial remains and retail remains a very important part of what we are trying to do in the City of Stamford. I have worked tirelessly on behalf of developers looking at additional hotel space to be brought to this City and additional retail opportunities. Most of the time I spent has been in discussions about completing redevelopment, particularly on Broad Street and the possibility of bringing a Target Store, which I believe is desperately wanted by the citizens of Stamford. We have gotten to the point where our Zoning Board has agreed, with respect to that building being built, and as we stand here now, the only thing that stands between us and a Target Store anchoring or re-anchoring our retail development in downtown Stamford is the developer of the adjoining commercial building. If the courts can move expeditiously in resolving that matter, and I believe it will be resolved in our favor, we could deliver to our citizens a new anchor for retail development in downtown Stamford and we will continue to work very hard on this matter.

“A few years ago and including last year we probably would have agreed that housing was one of our biggest issues, and it clearly is one of our biggest issues in Stamford. But this year we can report more progress having been made on affordable housing than in any time in our service, and my service goes back to the 1980s. So, let me give you some of the numbers: Park Square West Phase I was completed with 143 apartments, including 29 affordable units; Avalon at Grey Rock constructed 306 apartments, including 38 affordable apartments, 29 of which are occupied by city employees; Archstone Construction at Bedford Street, with the completion of 160 units, a substantial commitment having been paid already, into a housing development fund for affordable units; Avalon Harbor construction is nearly complete on Phase I of their 223 units on Southfield Avenue, and if you haven’t had a chance, go to the other side of the Harbor and look at the boardwalk system which is being assembled as part of that development, which will eventually tie that entire side of the Harbor together once we are able to build around one additional property.

“I want to tell you publicly that we continue to have discussions concerning the hole in the ground with the owner of the premises, and the potential construction of a substantial number of housing units. I believe that progress can be made with the owner of that site with the construction of a large number of units, including a large number of affordable units could progress in the next year to eighteen months.

“I also want to tell you that I am very proud of the inclusionary zoning regulations that have been adopted to promote affordable housing in this city. I am very proud that we were able to successfully argue in Washington for the additional 150 new Section 8 vouchers that have come to our city to help us with affordable housing issues. I am very proud of the Housing Development Task Force Report and the Summit that was held in 2001, and the eventual adoption of that report as the framework under which we pursue additional affordable housing in this City.

“In sum, Stamford is doing more for affordable housing than any other city in the State, and we should be proud of our efforts, and I am proud of our efforts.

“I also want to talk to you about another area of tremendous pride. Crime. You should be aware by now that crime actually fell once again in 2001 in the City of Stamford. We are one of the very safest cities in America to live. But, there are some interesting statistics that I would like to share with you.

“When it comes to your chance of being a victim of a crime in a major city in Connecticut (there are five cities with a population of 100,000 or more), you are 2.2 more times likely to be a victim of a crime in Bridgeport; 3 times more likely to be a victim of a crime in New Haven; 3.4 times more likely to be a victim of a crime in Hartford; and 2.4 times more likely to be a victim in Waterbury. More telling than that is your chances of being a victim of a serious crime. To pick one of them out, you are 6.7 times more likely to be a victim of a serious crime in New Haven than you are in the City of Stamford. A truly amazing statistic. And one final statistics I would like to share with you is even on property crime, you are somewhere between 200 and 300 percent more likely to be a victim of a property crime in those other jurisdictions than you are in Stamford.

“What does this all add up to? It adds up to a safety rating, which has been commented on in the national press, which was one of the reasons we were highlighted by a number of magazines, including Lady’s Home Journal, as one of the five very best places to live in America. But, let me tell you this statistic: We are the second safest city in America east of California. Only Amerstown, New York is safer. And, we are the 11^th safest city in America, even though our population grew and more cities were added to the definition of cities – places with a population of 100,000 or more. We have done all of that in a relatively affordable fashion in this City. On a percentage basis, we are spending roughly the same portions of our budget, and dividing that budget roughly the same as the communities which we substantially beat on the safety factors and crime factors. So I am very proud of this police department, I continue to work with this police department.

“But I also want to point out to you and relate back to the discussion of the budget, that all city departments have been asked to do more with less, and the police department is also expected to do that in the coming year.

“I want to tell you that we had another banner year in winning state and federal awards. Tony Iton, who is with us, has led that effort on behalf of the Health Department and has done some wonderful things, including what I think is an absolutely masterful project. We are seeking to use GIS mapping to learn about asthma as it is present in our community and relate factors such as age of housing and substances that are in that type of housing and how that relates to juvenile asthma. That is just one of the things that Tony has done, he has done so many other things I am so very proud of, including an insurance program where we have signed up well over a thousand students for insurance that they would have not otherwise signed up for – the Husky Program. But, as you probably know, many children in this country don’t sign up for this federal program because their parents don’t have the wherewithal, they don’t have the language abilities, or they may not have consistent addresses to do that. Tony and his department and the Board of Education have designed a program where they have gone out and used the data that we gather at schools, sat down with parents and kids, and well over 1,000 additional children are signed up on that program. We did that with a private grant of $200,000.

“I could go down a list of grants for open space, inclusion of additional open space, additional dollars for our police department, our SRO program, our grants department on the city side is doing an absolutely fabulous job, and you should be very proud of their efforts.

“On the Office of Operations side, I also continue to be very proud of what we have accomplished. We are paving more streets and more miles of streets than in the past. We are building more sidewalks. We have undertaken the largest capital project in the history of the City of Stamford – the renovation of our water pollution control facility. We have an absolutely tremendous number of projects being overseen by our engineering department. These are projects that will guarantee a high quality of life for the future of Stamford. The days of under-investing in our future, and the days of our properly investing in the future of our City are upon us.

“One interesting statistic. In the six years prior to my becoming mayor, the total appropriated dollars for the school system for building of schools, maintenance of schools was $23 million. Since I came into office and proposed budgets which you have adopted, we have now appropriated in a similar six year period, $143 million to rebuild our school system. That is just one sign of the appropriate level of investment that this city is undertaking, but also many other projects which you are aware of such as Grove Street widening, Spring Street signalization projects, rebuilding of many of our buildings, including five roofing projects underway on Board of Education buildings this very summer. In several of these cases, it includes the removal of asbestos. We are doing the right thing also for our community centers, having invested $2 million in recent years on rebuilding those community centers. We have done upgrades in this building and restacked this building to make it more user friendly. We have resurfaced Bell and the Government Center platforms. We have just done the things that the citizens have asked us to do.

“And let me make an invitation to Bobby and Linda’s neighborhood to all of you, because I am so very proud of what we have accomplished in the park. If you have not yet been down to see the Park, as it is under redevelopment, I invite you to go see, and you will be very proud of our investment in an urban park, which I think will be the envy of all other cities in the State of Connecticut. Certainly this is one of the largest park projects we have undertaken in our city’s history. I invite you to go take a look.

“I want to tell you that we have done all of those things, as I have said, with tax dollars for the needed services our citizens require first and foremost on our minds. I also want to say a few words about what I know are some difficulties that the Board of Education is facing, and an issue that is on your agenda tonight. I fully support the steps that I anticipate you will take to help the Board of Education re-align its budget for the last fiscal year and set up the debt service account, which they have promised to do. I think it is highly appropriate that we take that step; I think it is a demonstration to the markets and bonding authorities that we take budgeting in Stamford very seriously. But, I do somewhat bemoan what has come out of the recent debate about budgets and deficits at the Board of Education, so I want to share with you some of the things that we have jointly, with the Board of Education, accomplished in the City of Stamford when it comes to education.

“A national Ladies’ Home Journal survey ranked Stamford’s public schools the number 2 in the nation for city schools, and that is out of 200 school systems they reviewed. Our recent CMT scores showed an improvement over the year before and reflected a larger portion of students who achieved above state goals than ever before. Students who have been in Stamford schools since kindergarten achieve higher on CMTs in all areas tested – math, reading and writing – than students who have not been in our school system since kindergarten. This is a very real issue for us when it comes to testing. We need to understand what periods of time those children have been with us to appropriately make judgments about the success of an urban school system. In math, the proportion of Stamford students scoring above the state goals on CMT’s in grades 4, 6 and 8 increased from 34% in 1993 to 48% in 2001. In writing, the proportions changed from 34% in 1993 to 48% in 2001. Students in the top ten percent of their classes had average SAT scores 17 points above the state average, and 59 points above the national average for similar students in America. Advanced Placement courses are offered in 14 subjects; approximately 10% of our high school students take advanced placement courses. Approximately 80% of Stamford’s graduating seniors took SATs ranking us one of the highest in the nation, and certainly one of the highest cities in the nation. Approximately 80% of our high school graduates pursue post secondary education, and early admissions this past year reflected Harvard, Tufts, Hamilton, Case-Western Reserve, Upenn, Oberlin, Brown, Boston College, George Washington. We continue to produce a healthy and competitive number of national merit finalists, semi-finalists and commended students. Stamford public schools produce and have produced more presidential scholars than any other school system in the State of Connecticut. Our students produce a national recognized publication, the yearbook at Stamford High and a newspaper at Westhill High School. The professional staff ranks near the top of the statewide in the Connecticut Celebration of Excellent Award Winners. A science teachers at Rippowam Middle Magnet School was recently awarded as a white house award recipient for the work that teacher is doing in teaching of science at that school.

“I also want to put some things in a longer term perspective before I address some other issues. Education budgets have been steadily increasing for years in the City of Stamford. In 1994-95, the Board of Education budget from the City was $107 million. For 2002-03, it was $163 million. That is an increase of 52% in that period of time. Even beyond inflation, the increase during this period is dramatic – a 26% rise between 1994-95 and 2002-03. Even considering the increase in the number of students, the gains in school spending are significant. Since 1994-95 enrollment has gone up by over 13%. Spending for each student has gone up 34% during the period. So that is an 11% increase after adjusting for inflation. In other words, the City of Stamford has spent more because we have more students; we have spent more because costs have gone up over time, and in addition we have increased spending even further to reflect our growing commitment to our children in Stamford.

“I want you to also understand that education takes up a growing share of city resources. In 2002-03 the Board of Education will spend – directly, this is not charged back expenses – 51% of all city resources. Only ten years ago, the Board of Education spent only 41% of total city expenditures, and back when I began my service to this City, the Board of Education budget actually reflected 39% of all city expenditures. More spending on schools is translated into more teachers and more staff. Between 1994-95 and the 03-04, the Stamford Public Schools have added 221 teachers, an increase of 20%. 129 new teachers have been added to Stamford faculty since 1999-2000. That is an 11% increase over 3 years. Because the number of teachers has risen faster than the number of students, the ratio of students to teachers has gone down. This means that students have smaller classes and more attention from teachers in the Stamford Public School System. Improving the ratio of students to teachers has been a long term priority, but we now have 11.7 students per faculty member in the City of Stamford, one of the lowest rates in the State.

“It is not just teachers. The ratio of teachers’ aides: at one time we had 100 students per teacher aide. That number is down in the 2002-03 budget to 57 students per teachers’ aide. We are putting tremendous resources into our school system.

“That is why we have to be careful about terms that we apply to the budgets, like ‘cutting the board of education’ or ‘eliminating teachers.’ In many cases what has been cut is a requested increase, as you well know. And still, a very large increase is funded. And, in many cases, positions that have been cut, in fact, are not filled. But, the message that sometimes gets out to the public is that we are not making or honoring our commitment to our Board of Education, and that is the wrong message, and I call upon our press and parents alike to get the right message out – that Stamford is spending more on its schools because it understands that its future is tied to its schools.

“On the other hand, that does not excuse lapses, nor does it excuse inefficiencies. So, I will try to engage the Board of Education in coming weeks into a discussion about further cooperation with the City on the administration of the school system. We have model programs such as what we have done on the capital side and the maintenance side of the Board of Education. We have one of the very few combined IT departments in the country, where the Board of Education and the City share the IT function. But the time has now come that we share other functions, and clearly we could bring the administration of both the city side of government and the Board of Education more closely together, so that we could work on budgetary issues together, finance issues together – so that we could understand one another’s insurance needs, employment needs, grant needs.

“So I am hopeful that the Board of Education will be open in the coming weeks and months to a discussion about how we bring our forms of government more closely together with the goal of having more dollars to spend on teachers and children in the school system, and less money spent on the administration of that system. That should be our goal, that’s how we have to push it down to the classroom and to our students.

“I also believe that the time has come for the Board of Education to understand that there are limits to our capacity to finance additional capital projects. I can estimate standing before you that we will have approximately $18 million, after reimbursements, or $15 million prior to reimbursements to spend on our capital building program for our school system for, I think, each of the next ten years. That is approximately $180 million to take care of all of our capital needs over that period of time. I call upon the Board of Education to spend that money with us wisely, to enter into broad and deep discussions. But, we now need to enter into a very firm building program and expense program that will address our needs over the next ten years.

“One of those needs, I believe, is to address additional needs at our two high schools. So, today and in the coming weeks, I will propose to the Board of Education that they look at both of these schools to increase their capacity, to modernize their media centers, and in Stamford High’s case to build an 8,000 sq. ft. addition to its cafeteria to accommodate the potential additional students that might be coming to the Stamford School System. This could be fit into this $180 million, ten-year program, and would allow us to not have to worry about whether other alternative programs take sufficient numbers of students out of our conventional high schools and into other programs. So, I will be discussing that with the Board of Education, the superintendent and any others, but it is time that we can look one another in the face and say we are in a position to guarantee all of our students will have an appropriate space in one of our buildings. I believe I have the plan to do that, and I will discuss that with the system.

“I also believe that we need five- and ten-year plans on all other major capital improvements to be made on the Stamford school system side, and I stand ready to work with them to do that.

“In sum, let me say, that although this has been a difficult year, and although it has been a trying year for many, I believe that this City has risen to the occasion. We have trimmed our sails where appropriate, that we have stayed the course where appropriate, that we are investing where needed, that we are honoring our commitments to our fellow citizens, and we are not dishonoring our commitments to those citizens that will come after us. The reality is that because of your service and the service of others to the City of Stamford, we are today better prepared for the future and will continue to be better prepared for the future than at any time in our past.

“In closing I want to say to you, as I always do, that I find public service the most rewarding, next to my marriage, the most rewarding thing I do in my life, and I hope that you are as challenged and excited about the future as I am. It is a great pleasure to work with you, Mr. President, with the Majority Leader and the Minority Leader of this body and with all other city officials as we come together to understand our collective needs and to address them.

“Thank you very much and God bless you.”