Marion State of the City 2008
Thank you for coming today. I am Paul Rehn, Mayor of the Great City of Marion, Iowa. Before I go any farther I want to thank the League of Women Voters and the Rotary Club for sponsoring this meeting and I want to thank Dave Hockett for creating and presenting the power point slides being shown on the screen.
Since I’ve only been Mayor for 28 days, I’m going to start by giving some information about myself.
A native of Lima, Ohio, I joined the air force after high school and served on active duty for 4 years. After marrying my wife, Ann, and moving back to Lima, our first child was born and I went to work for a local company. After three years, I began looking for greener pastures, so to speak, and accepted a job at Collins Radio. In 1969 I moved my young family to Marion and we’ve made our home here ever since. Except for an involuntary 8 month period in the early 1970's, I spent my working career at what is now known as Rockwell Collins and retired in 2000, with just short of 31 years of service.
My retirement was short lived, however, since I volunteered and was selected for a Council position in March 2000. I then was re-elected twice and additionally served as Mayor Pro tem from 2004 thru 2007. And, of course, I was elected Mayor last November.
My history of community service goes back much farther than that, however. In the early 1970's I served on the Planning and Zoning Commission and am proud to have been a paid-on-call member of the Marion Fire Department from 1976 thru 2005.
Through this entire period we chose to live in Marion. Two of our three children were born here. All three were educated here and all of us have benefitted greatly from this place. We have truly put down roots and I am proud to proclaim Marion as my home.
And now for The State of the City.
When we moved to Marion in 1969, the population was close to 18,000. Now its estimated to be just over 31,000. We’ve gone from a small town to a mid-size city. And we’ve arrived at this point without many of the problems affecting other communities. This is a direct result of the hard work of past governments, residents, school boards, businesses etc. I thank them all and pledge to continue to work to advance economic growth and economic re-development, further encourage cooperation between government agencies, investigate and incorporate new techniques and technologies for greater efficiencies and maintain and expand the many aspects of the broad area we call quality of life.
Marion continues to be a growing and well-managed city. Under our former City Manager Jeff Schott and now under the guidance of City Manager Lon Pluckhahn we are maintaining our Aa2 bond rating, one of the best in the state for cities of our size. We have held the growth of taxes to an average of .67% per year over the last six years with an actual decrease of 2.2% in 2007. At this point I want to remind everyone that city taxes are only a part of the overall tax bills we receive. The city portion is approximately 35% and the school’s portion is about 46%. I’m proud to say that all city departments have handled our continuing growth without cutting services. And, rest assured that the City Budget of $37,636,000 is well managed and always balanced or better than planned by the end of the year.
Now I’m going to recognize the city departments and list just some of the things we get for our tax dollars and other funds the city takes in.
Two major highway improvements happened last year with the signalization of the intersections of highways 151 and 13 and highway 100/Secrest Road and highway 13. Another accomplishment of the Engineering Department was the implementation of the GIS or Geographic Information System. This system uses GPS or Global Positioning System and other data to form a detailed, comprehensive data base for use all city departments. Upcoming major projects include the 29th Avenue extension and the McGowan Blvd. re-construction.
The Fire Department finished its fiscal year with a record 2,473 calls within the city. The average response time, from station departure was 2 minutes, 24 seconds. The national standard is a maximum of 4 minutes. The Department also received its fourth Federal Assistance to Firefighter’s grant. Of special note is that the ISO (Insurance Services Office) conducted a survey last summer of the Fire Department and its capabilities. Last done in 1995, the updated survey is expected to at least maintain our current insurance rating and has the possibility of an improvement. We are eagerly awaiting this result.
The Building Inspection Department remained busy keeping up with all the construction activity around
town. They also took over the inspection of rental housing units from the Fire Department and are working toward the pro-active approach to nuisance enforcement as directed by Council. Our inspectors also increased enforcement of erosion control at home construction sites and the department expanded intergovernmental cooperation with building inspection 28E agreements between the city of Marion and the cities of Robins and Alburnett. 28E refers to the section of state code that allows such agreements to be enacted.
Our Library continues to be a very busy place with 332,162 visitors and a record number of items check out last year. This was further confirmed by a metro area survey reporting that 99% of library users rated our Library as extremely valuable.
The Parks and Recreation Department experienced another year of continuous growth in recreation programming. Four new baseball/softball diamonds were opened last year at Lowe Park and were immediately and continuously used. A two acre pond was developed at Lowe Park as part of a storm water retention project with a local developer. It has been stocked with fish and should be available for fishing late this fall or in 2009.
Marion remains in the enviable position of continuing to be the safest city above 10,000 population in the state of Iowa. Our Police Department is to be commended for their actions and continuing this record. The department also has implemented an ICAC or Internet Crimes against Children program and has already made one arrest. Our drug dog, Yuri, is rapidly approaching retirement. To assure that Marion is not without a drug dog, plans are in progress to train a replacement this year. Marion’s plan to have an officer trained in immigration matters is on hold pending information on training from the federal immigration and customs enforcement agency. When trained, this officer will only work on a part-time basis as needed should immigration matters arise in the city of Marion.
The Public Services Department completed its all-time largest summer work program. Department personnel also re configured existing curbside garbage/recycling routes and added an additional route without increasing personnel or equipment. Also, an additional plowing and sanding route was created by equipping an existing truck with a sander and snow blade to allow earlier completion of snow removal without needing additional personnel.
Technically, the Marion Water Department is a separate legal entity, managed by the Marion Water Board and not under the control of the City Council. But few understand this and for all practical purposes there is no difference. So I feel its appropriate to mention that they are keeping up with our steady growth of an average of 420 new accounts per year over the last 10 years. They also commissioned a comprehensive review of the water system showing a future need for an additional well and have begun planning accordingly.
This leaves the Planning and Development Department which has had a very busy year also. In addition to regular duties of reviewing plats and planning and zoning issues, they continue to monitor our Brownfield grants and our Housing re-habilitation program. Updating our Comprehensive Plan and our Zoning Ordinance are also major undertakings for this department. If this wasn’t enough, another major project is the plan for redevelopment of the central corridor. After initial public input, two concepts were developed by our consultant and we are now actively seeking additional public input. Hopefully these concepts, deliberately included in the power point slides on the screen, will pique your interest enough to go to the city’s web site and check them out. And while you’re there, please complete the survey and then come to the upcoming public comment sessions. This is a very important project which will have a major and long lasting effect on Marion’s future.
Before I go further I would like to comment on the intensity of this winter’s weather. The amounts of ice and snow and the extreme temperatures have been hard on our snow plow drivers and trash collection personnel but they faithfully pursued their duties and I commend them for it. But they are not the only ones dealing with the harsh conditions. The police department maintains regular patrols. The water department deals with water main breaks. The fire department continues emergency responses and the engineering and building inspection departments continue with their normal duties. All maintained regular services in spite of the extreme conditions and I suggest a round of applause to thank all our employees for their devotion to duty.
As I said earlier, Marion is a growing and well managed city. However, we are not without challenges. One of the biggest challenges for Marion, and all local governments, is the state’s annual Assessment Limitations Order or Rollback. This annually changing order, usually downward, means that residential property can only be taxed at 44.0803% of its assessed value for FY 08/09, as opposed to 45.55% for FY 07/08. Commercial property will be assessed at 99.7312% and industrial property at 100%. Since Marion’s tax base is heavily residential, it’s a constant challenge which can only be met by growth. Fortunately, we are continuing to grow but it will take $20 million dollars of new assessed growth to recover the lost assessed valuation needed to maintain current service levels. This is a serious and complex issue that deserves much more time than I can give it here. It is a problem that our Legislators must address in the revising the Iowa Tax Code.
Another challenging area will be the issue of Brownfields, which, in Marion, are areas containing contaminated soil. We know there are areas of the former railroad right of way which are contaminated and we have been very successful in obtaining federal grants for testing and identifying contaminated sites. Further testing and remediation activities will be coordinated with potential uses identified by our central corridor redevelopment plan.
Within the last two years we have reconfigured and expanded our Public Service facilities, relocated our Parks and Recreation Department and senior activities to the new Lowe Park Art and Environment Center and built and occupied our new City Hall. Now we must start addressing some additional building issues. Our very successful Library is already full and will need to be expanded. Our Police Department building is old and will need to be re-modeled or replaced. And our continued northerly growth will likely require an eventual addition of a third fire station. All of these will be major capital projects.
Marion is a well-managed and fiscally sound progressive city. I’m proud of our City and proud to be your Mayor. We have some challenges and some very exciting times ahead and I’m looking forward to being involved as Marion goes forward into the 21st century.
Thank you for your attention and coming today.