It is a valuable tradition to mark the New Year by reflecting on the year past and looking ahead to the next.
What a year it has been:
- We instituted a ground-breaking public “Report Card” that aligns our performance measurement to the General Plan’s ambitious strategic visions;
- In the second year of our Three Year Budget Plan we eliminated the structural deficit and made progress on many of our key priorities;
- We went to the community and won 62% of the vote for P6, but fell short of the necessary 2/3rds to meet our public safety needs for the next decade;
- We gained widespread attention for our smart growth efforts, including replacing the obsolete Residential Growth Management Program, but found ourselves challenged by a number of high profile projects and plans all clamoring for attention;
- We received a $1 million grant from the State for “rehabbing” the historic Olivas Adobe, won the Award of Excellence for Outstanding Planning from the regional chapter of the APA for our 2005 General Plan, and Officer “Tank” Sears was pinned with the Governor’s Medal of Valor for his heroism at La Conchita.
We don’t know what 2007 will bring. But we do know what we plan to accomplish over the next year and it is an ambitious agenda. In his upcoming State of the City address, Mayor Morehouse will be emphasizing “ the three E’s” of “sustainability” – economy, environment and equity. Congruent with those themes, we will be:
- Implementing smart growth and our General Plan with community plans for Downtown, Wells-Saticoy and the Westside and corridor plans for Victoria and Main/Thompson;
- Pushing forward on a Mobility Plan for fresh approaches to transportation options, a Green Initiative to inventory and benchmark best environmental practices, a Park Strategy to guide investment in maintaining and enhancing our parks and continuing our re-investment in our streets, water and wastewater systems and other critical infrastructure;
- Emphasizing accountability by continuing our shift to a budget linked to our strategic visions and performance measures;
- Seeking alternative ways to adequately fund public safety;
- Building stronger civic engagement and implementing “My Ventura Access” to improve and track customer service and response.
It is important also to reflect on the broader themes that look beyond the new year. This year marked our 140th year of providing service to this community. Back in 1866, San Buenaventura was a hamlet of just 350 souls. Today, city government serves a community more than one hundred times that size with a broad range of vital services. Taking the long view beyond 2007, our General Plan envisions enhancements that, over the next two decades, Ventura will become a national model of sustainability.
Together as a community, we build our future, one day and one year at a time. Best wishes for a great 2007!
