Click Here to Watch the August 28, 2009 State of the City Address

Let’s put our hands together for former Westland resident Steven Thomas and his one- of- a- kind rendition of “America the beautiful”…… Steven lives in Texas now and fortunately for us, we were able to convince Steven to come back and visit his family and to bring along his Saxophone too…Who knows what Northwest charges you to bring a sax on board now days??

Distinguished members of the Westland City Council, Westland Board and Commission members, elected and appointed Officials, members of the Westland business community, friends and colleagues, respected guests, the citizens of Westland and most importantly – Mother Nature – Thank you – all of you - for joining us this evening and welcome to the beautiful North Brothers Ford…..

First… I would like to take this opportunity to thank the owners of North Brother’s Ford, Doug and Tom North, and their extremely professional staff for their graciousness in hosting tonight’s event and for opening up their beautiful establishment to the Westland community tonight… For those of us in attendance tonight we were treated earlier to a fabulous preview of the exciting new 2010 Ford vehicle lineup….What was your favorite? The new Taurus SHO? The 40mpg Fusion? Or the economical new Fiesta? Now.. for North Brothers to agree to host this event, I had to promise them that someone here would buy one of these great looking newly redesigned 2010 Ford Mustangs…so who’s it going to be?????

Next…I would like to thank Westland’s own 2008 Miss Michigan, Ashlee Baracy, for serving as our Mistress of Ceremonies here tonight….2008 was an incredible year for Ashlee and we are all very proud of her accomplishments and the poise that she has shown representing, not only Westland, but all of Michigan, as she traveled across the country as she competed for Miss America. Ashlee graduated from the University of Michigan in 2007 and is working on her masters degree at Eastern Michigan University. Ashlee also is working as the Coordinator of Breast cancer Special Programs for the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute and I am proud to announce tonight that she will be featured later this year in an exciting new City of Westland Marketing campaign designed to attract homeowners, shoppers and diners to our all American city. Let’s give her a big hand….

Tonight all of us had the honor of witnessing the Westland Police Department’s Honor Guard in their inaugural presentation of the colors. Did they do a great job or what?...Let’s give them a big hand too…..

Tonight was another first for my son Luke, as this was his first public performance of “the pledge of allegiance”…how about a hand for Luke! …I have to keep a lock on my ties around this kid!...He is joined here tonight by his two sisters.. The Wild girls… Lily and Payton… Lily is 4 and Payton is 2. All three are veterans of the 4th of July parade, but this is their first “state of the city”.

And, of course my beautiful wife Sherri….She is here tonight and she is always there for me and our family. She is a great wife, a great mother, a great friend and she makes a pretty good first lady too….Sherri, honestly…. thanks for all you do and thanks for always being there for me and especially… for writing this speech for me…..Just kidding!

I would also like to recognize my dad, he’s here tonight and he has been in attendance at every one of my State of the City Addresses. I want to thank him for giving me the opportunity to start a career in business at a young age and for always being there for our family. I strive every day to bring my father’s example of; integrity, a strong work ethic and the willingness to help others to work each day in the Mayor’s office….Dad; tonight I might need you to help me out. I think I’m going to need you to buy that new Mustang I mentioned earlier!

Ladies and gentlemen it is with great honor that I present to you the 2009 City of Westland State of the City address……

Westland is – like many of you –my hometown. This is the place where I was born. My parents lived on Alpena Court in the Norwayne subdivision . My wife Sherri was raised on Walton St; near City Hall…We like many, are raising our family here and most of us here tonight depend on the City of Westland in one way or another.

Whether it is as a resident who might depend on the city to provide a vibrant clean safe community with 17 parks and world class schools in which to raise a family or a progressive city that offers first class public safety, comprehensive senior programming, convenient recycling opportunities or an exceptional quality of life in your retirement years.

Many in the audience here tonight, may not live in Westland but are longtime dedicated employees of our All American City that depend on the city for a way of making a living and paying their mortgages, their car payments and those ever rising college tuition bills.

To residents and city employees alike I stand before you tonight as the 8th Mayor of our great city and report that the state of our city is still strong….Our city is 43 years old this year, and continues to grow and continues to attract new businesses and residents alike. Our city continues to be a leader in Western Wayne County and will continue to lead in quality schools, public safety, economic development, senior resources and environmental consciousness.

With that said… Westland is not immune from the economic challenges that face our entire state and most of the country. Westland, like most communities will face an extended period of lower revenues while our expenses will continue to climb. Westland has, and in all likelihood will continue, to be faced with less state shared revenue coming back to the city from Lansing, as state revenues continue to decline.

What makes Westland different from a lot of communities is that we understand this and we have already started to make the changes necessary to weather this economic downturn and will continue to make the structural changes necessary to bring our employee costs into line with our current revenues. Unfortunately, we will have to make significant changes in the benefits offered to our current and future employees, much like the changes that our residents are being faced with in their workplaces, and work to keep our pension costs under control. No one did anything wrong, this is just the reality that all City’s and Counties and States are facing… When property taxes go down… there is just less money coming in. The City’s that will thrive or in some cases survive, in the future are the ones that understand this and work to educate their employees and make those changes now. We have met with our unions and have shared our 5 year financial projections and I believe that by working together we will be able to bring our employee costs in line with our current revenues much like the big three has had to do in the automotive industry.

With a strong working relationship with the Westland City Council, under the Leadership of Council President Jim Godbout and Council President pro-tem Cheryl Graundstat we have worked collectively to begin to right size our work force, cross train our employees and through a cost saving combination of contracting work outside the city, and bringing several contracted jobs back into the city, we have balanced the budget, saved jobs and worked hard to maintain a budget surplus.

Over the past two budgets the city has eliminated 28 full time positions, mostly by attrition and several part time and seasonal positions as well, while keeping layoffs to a minimum. We will continue to work hard to bring our employee costs in line with current revenues and do everything we can to protect the long term financial sustainability of our great city for all of our residents and work hard to maintain vital services and protect the jobs of our dedicated employees as well.

Earlier I mentioned our Westland City Council. Folks, we are very blessed here in Westland to have the dedicated professionals who represent the citizens of Westland on the City Council. This extraordinary group of individuals works hard for you every day. Will the members of the Westland city council please stand up? Let’s give them a big round of applause.

Later this year three remarkable individuals will be finishing up their work on city council and moving on to other challenges in their lives. Each has left their mark on the city in their own way… Council President Pro-tem Cheryl Graundstat came on to city council the same year that I did, back in 2001 with several concerns that she wanted to have an active role in addressing. She was very concerned over the Cooper School Project. She was just a little concerned about the former incinerator that the city was part of and she had a strong passion for bringing a successful curbside recycling program to Westland. That and she has said that she wanted her daughters to be” proud of her”... She will leave office later this year having helped accomplish all of those goals and I know her daughters and her husband Ron are very proud of her. And I am too…..

Councilman Pickering will be leaving a long career of public service as well later this year after serving 18 years on city council and 4 years as Mayor from 1982 to 1986. Mr. Pickering couldn’t be here tonight, but let’s give him a round of applause for his many contributions to the City of Westland, as well….

Councilman Stottlemeyer will also be stepping down from his spot on City Council after serving for Nine years and after having served 25 years as a member of the Westland Fire Dept. Earlier this week Bob and his wife Betty celebrated their 53yr wedding anniversary…Let’s give Bob…and Betty.. a big round of applause too.

I have to tell you, that when we first talked about having a state of the city address at one of our local car dealerships I was faced with the challenge of how do you decide which one of the two dealerships in town do you ask first. We are very blessed in our town to have two of the finest dealerships in the United States right here on Ford Rd, in downtown Westland… North Brothers Ford which has been at this site on Ford rd since 1967 and employs 73 employees and Red Holman GMC which has been an institution in our town for 53 years… 53 years…That’s 10yrs longer than Westland has been a city! Red Holman is owned by Dan Martin and Larry Malinowski and they are represented here tonight by their General Manager Mark Kowalski, who does an incredible job for them… Red Holman employs 83 employees here in Westland and it now appears, that the Buick line will soon be added to their GMC lineup as well. Both dealerships are multimillion dollar establishments and both have made considerable reinvestments in their properties and our community in the last few years. Between the two dealerships they have invested close to 6 million dollars updating their new car show rooms, used car lots and modernizing their service departments and body shops. Let’s give both of these incredible businesses a hand!.....

I met Doug North on the Westland Downtown Development Authority years ago and Tom North years ago in the the Westland Rotary, when I was first starting my political career here in Westland, so I put the lean on them first and that brings us here tonight.. Folks, all across America car dealerships are closing up and having to walk away from communities because of the economic challenges being faced by the auto industry. Communities are being left with large vacated parcels of land, usually in proximity to their downtowns or busiest thoroughfares. Cities are being faced with large drop-offs in the local tax base, due to these closings… We are so very fortunate, that both North Brothers Ford and Red Holman GMC are stable, well managed facilities that have a bright future here in Westland… It is very important, and I can’t state this enough… it is very important that we as a community, support these two dealerships as they both play an integral role in the vibrant Westland business community. My choice of this somewhat unusual site for the state of the city address was to emphasize the city’s commitment to these dealerships and to encourage Westland residents to join the city in support of these dealerships now and in the future, during these unprecedented times in the auto industry. The Black and White patrol cars that you see here tonight were purchased from North Brothers Ford last year and the Impressive new Westland SWAT vehicle that is on display tonight was purchased from Red Holman GMC last year as well.

While we are here tonight, I would be remiss if I did not mention the recent investment of Ford Motor Company in the Michigan Assembly Plant in the nearby City of Wayne. Ford Motor Company has made a $550 million dollar commitment to re-tool that plant and while it is currently producing the new Ford Focus it will also eventually build the battery-electric version of the Focus in 2011 for a 2012 release and will support over 3,000 jobs. This investment will have a huge impact on Westland and the surrounding communities as a great number of our residents work in this plant and a great deal of our industrial base works to supply this plant and several others in the state.

Earlier… I spoke of Westland’s role as a leader in economic development in Western Wayne County. In a down market, when the attention of our state has been on the companies that have left Michigan, Westland continues to be a prime destination for new businesses and an attractive market for reinvestment in current businesses.

I am proud to announce tonight that in the last year, 105 new businesses have opened in the City of Westland… creating approximately 500 new jobs and $27 million dollars in commercial construction improvements.

Verizon recently invested over 16 million dollars to expand their switching station here in Westland and also recently opened a 3,300 sq. ft. retail store at Westland Shopping Center, launching their new corporate interactive design.

The Kroger Company, which is represented here tonight by Associate manager Staci Goddel, stepped up to the plate a few years ago and purchased two soon to be vacant Farmer Jack sites in town, even though they already had two stores in Westland. Kroger recently invested $5.8 million dollars into their Ford Rd site across from City hall, in the form of a sizable expansion, and a complete interior renovation which includes a new walk up pharmacy concept… Kroger also has announced that they will be making a 2.8 million dollar complete interior renovation of the Cherry Hill and Merriman store and a 3.3 million dollar complete interior renovation of the Warren and Middlebelt location with work slated to begin in January 2010. The Cherry Hill and Merriman location will also receive a new $700,000 fuel center and Kroger will also build a $1.2 Million dollar fuel center at the Ford Rd location which will incorporate the Westland DDA streetscape design improvements, pending City Council approval… All in all, close to 14 million dollars worth of reinvestment by Kroger at a time when other businesses are turning their backs on the State of Michigan… Kroger employs 508 employees at their 4 Westland locations. Let’s give our friends from Kroger a big round of applause…..

Meijer is currently in the process of finishing a $7 million dollar reinvestment in their property that employs 322 employees, located on the corner of Warren and Newburgh rds… Jeff Miller from Meijer is with us tonight and he reports that the project is coming along nicely and Meijer customers will soon be enjoying a complete interior and exterior renovation that will include the addition of a drive thru pharmacy and improvements to their fueling station as well.

Buffalo Wild Wings, where I personally recommend the Hot Barbeque Wings with a tall Blue Moon, recently put the finishing touches on a $450,000 interior and exterior renovation of their very popular business that employs 52 employees. Chadd Apap, District Manager of Buffalo Wild Wings is here tonight. Let’s give both Jeff and Chadd a round of applause for their company’s investments as well.

Westland, with its 86,000 residents and busy thoroughfares has always been a regional draw for retailers, but the last year also saw Westland capture two high tech facilities as well. 2009 saw Jim Braddock and Dave Burnett’s startup company NanoSec open their doors in Westland. Nanosec is a technology spin-off of Wayne State University and manufactures nanocomposites that are used to improve the physical properties of plastics and rubber. The technology has applications in food packaging; it helps keep food fresher longer, pharmaceutical packaging, automotive fuel tanks and medical materials. Jim and Dave are here with us tonight and could have started NanoSec in any number of communities but saw the benefits of being centrally located right here in Westland… Gentlemen will you please stand and let’s give them a big round of applause and wish them a very successful future here in the all American city…..

With the next two businesses, the City of Westland had some serious competition for their investment dollars and the large number of jobs that they would create… Cintas Corporation, which has long had a strong presence in our city, chose Westland over the city of Cleveland for the creation of their new “Clean Room” facility. This was a new concept, in an emerging market, for their company, and Cintas invested over $6 million dollars renovating an existing warehouse in proximity to their Westland Plant on Webb Drive. This project created 55 new jobs and Cintas and the City of Westland partnered in a very successful job fair to hire local residents. Lastly, I don’t think any new business in Westland has created the buzz and anticipation more so than John Matar and Fred Rafou’s new Sonic that is being built on the site of a long vacated Denny’s on Wayne and Cowan Rds. Westland’s economic Development team of Lori Fodale, Bruce Thompson and Roger Shiflett along with the support of the Westland City Council and the Wayne County Turbo program helped keep this project in Westland. John and Fred wasted no time in demolishing the old Denny’s Site and look to have their new Sonic waitresses serving cheeseburgers and shakes while on roller skates in the next 60 days. They are here with us tonight, let’s give them a big Westland welcome too………

While the last year was a very successful year from an economic development standpoint, I believe it is safe to say our greatest achievement came in the area of environmental consciousness. I am talking about the cornerstone project of Westland Mission Green… our phenomenal launch of our single stream curbside recycling program, which many are already calling, the finest in the state.

Just a few short months ago, the city delivered brand new, bright blue 96 gallon rolling recycling containers to almost 28,000 homes in phase one of our ambitious program. By offering single stream recycling where residents in Westland, for the first time, would be able to mix all of their recyclables; paper, plastic, tin cans, cardboard and a host of other materials into the same container and the city would pick it up biweekly at the curb. We knew for residents to buy into the program it had to be easy…so we made it easy…We knew for residents to buy into the program they might need some incentive… so we gave them an incredible incentive. We partnered up with recycle bank, the leading national recycling rewards company and residents have the opportunity to collect Recycle bank reward points by participating in the program. Residents now have the ability to redeem their recycle bank reward points for gift cards and discounts at local businesses and national chains.

Was it successful? Did our residents buy into the program? Let me tell you….In the first month alone, 99% of the households that were part of phase one participated… 99%... Out of 28,000 recycling carts that were delivered with tiny computer chips that are scanned by the recycle truck to determine recycle bank points; only 321 of them were not used. Incredible. The city of Westland residents recycled one million pounds of material in the first 21 days of the program. The City of Westland had averaged about 90 tons of recyclables a month at our drop off recycling center on Marquette Rd… In the first month of the program, picking recyclables up at the curb, we recycled 550 tons. Incredible. The City of Westland recycled almost a third of its trash in the first month that would have otherwise gone to the landfill.

The successful recycling program also has an added benefit besides helping to save the environment; it is helping to save our local economy. The average household that participates in the recycling program can expect to earn up to $500 dollars a year in gift cards and discounts through the recycle bank program. If you multiply that by the 28,000 homes that were part of the rollout you are talking about the possibility of injecting over 15 million dollars back into our local economy as the rewards are redeemed throughout the community. We have discovered how to turn our trash into cash and have created our own economic stimulus package for Westland homes and businesses.

Saving the environment, saving money at the landfill, putting money back into households and injecting it back into the local economy, just by sorting our trash before we put it to the curb… it doesn’t get any better than that. …Phase 2 of the program will focus on the multifamily apartments and condominiums and phase 3 will consist of Westland businesses. The planning of phase two has already begun. This program was lead start to finish by Department of Public Service Director Kevin Buford and he really deserves a big hand for the grand slam of the year!

The city of Westland will soon be tackling another progressive project as well. Westland will soon begin an aggressive neighborhood stabilization program in the Norwayne Subdivision. The housing in Norwayne was built by the federal government over 60 years ago as temporary housing for employees at the Willow Run Bomber plant and has turned into mostly subpar rental units consisting of quadplexes, duplexes and several series of row houses. While this area has started to see some new housing starts in the last few years it is hampered by more vacant blighted parcels than any other area in the city. Westland will soon begin to utilize over 2 million dollars in Federal money to begin purchasing and demolishing the worst of the structures. Programs have also been put in place to offer construction grants to developers and homeowners to refurbish blighted homes in this area and a home buyer assistance program has been started to encourage home ownership. The City will also partner with Habitat for Humanity and several other non-profits to build new homes in this area and refurbish blighted parcels. This program is a continuation of the efforts of this administration to continue the revitalization of this neighborhood and is being headed up by our Community Development Director Mrs. Joanne Inglis. The City of Westland has looked the other way on this area of town for too long. We can and we will…bring clean safe neighborhoods to the Norwayne area of Westland.

Earlier I mentioned that the city of Westland would begin a new marketing program to market the city to potential homebuyers. Well if you are looking to purchase a home in Westland and you have kids or grandchildren I only ask that you take them to Tatten Park behind City Hall. What is happening in that park is a kid’s dream come true. Last year saw the community build of the 5th largest play structure in the country…Play planet….Play planet is a 30,000 sq ft. spaced themed structure that is one of a kind. I guarantee you haven’t seen anything like it. Right next to the Play Planet and soon to be open is the exciting new H20 Zone, a totally unique spray ground that will feature an 18ft helicopter shooting water out of its propellers while sitting atop a lagoon full of friendly crocodiles. Beware the of the massive silly serpent with steam coming from his nostrils as you wait to cool off from a large overhead bucket of water that dumps over children and adults every few minutes. Both of these projects have been funded by the Westland Downtown Development Authority and there is no charge to use either facility. Parks and recreation Director Bob Kosowski has hit a few grand slams of his own with the creation and overseeing the building of these too incredible additions to the city’s park network and I would like to thank both State Senator Glenn Anderson, who is working hard in Lansing tonight and State Representative Richard Leblanc, who is here with us tonight, for their recent help securing timely state inspections to keep the H20 Zone project on schedule…With the emergence of Play Planet and the H20 Zone and with the help of Wayne County Executive Bob Ficano and Assistant C.E.O Alan Helmcamp, who is here with us tonight, the county and city is moving closer to gaining approval from the State of Michigan on phase 1 of the Central City Park remediation plan that will bring incredible new soccer fields, outdoor pavilions for a possible Farmers market, a new walking path and new concession stand with family friendly bathrooms it is going to be a HECK of a time to be a kid in the all American city!!

Communication has always been a key foundation of my service as Mayor. And tonight I am pleased to announce a partnership with Nixle to provide a new means of communication with resident s using today’s latest technology. Westland residents will now have the ability to receive real time information from the City with regards to public safety alerts, local traffic or public service issues specific to a resident’s neighborhood. Or request updates from city departments delivered via email or text messaged directly to your cell phone. The service is free and residents have the ability to customize the information that they would like to receive. Westland residents can visit the city’s website and click on the link to Nixle, located on the home page, and begin receiving updates immediately.

As I close tonight, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for allowing me the honor, the privilege and the responsibility to serve as your Mayor. I love our city, I love having 86,000 bosses… I take the job very serious and I love coming to work each day because we live in a city that has pride, we have tradition and we live in a city that has the ability and potential to just keep getting better.

We talked about a lot of great things tonight and I have to be honest, the successes that I mentioned tonight would not have been possible without the dedicated staff that I am blessed to work with each and every day. They are a team of true professionals and they work hard for me and I am very proud of each of them. If my staff would stand up and let’s give them a big round of applause…

And right behind them are the great employees of our City. They are the ones that are providing superior service every day to the residents of Westland and they are working harder every day to find ways to deliver better customer service… Would the employees of Wesltand stand up and let’s give them a big hand too.

Ladies and gentlemen thank you for coming here tonight, we thank North Brothers Ford, and for those of you that will be watching on WLND or the City Website we thank you as well. Good night and God bless

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