*Fellow Councilmembers, City staff, distinguished guests, fellow citizens ? thank you for joining me today.

*As I read the daily headlines and watch the evening newscasts about the turmoil and conflict in our world, I can?t help but to feel grateful to live in, what I believe to be, the greatest city in the United States.

*We have much to be grateful for ? we have accomplished much together and we have much still to accomplish.

*We take but a moment today to pat ourselves on the back for a year of great strides and accomplishments, knowing that our greatest achievements lie ahead.

*I am proud to report to you today that Dallas is a city on the move?

*A city that is working better and smarter everyday?

*A city that is on the brink of its finest hour.

*There are those who will tell you that Dallas is at a ?tipping point? ? a period teetering on the edge of a downward, spiraling  slope ? barely afloat.

*But I say, we are not at a tipping point, rather WE ARE AT A TURNING POINT!

*The road ahead leads us to a new beginning, a reawakening?A REINASSANCE.

*Like every American city, we have suffered from tough economic times ? stagnant tax revenues and skyrocketing costs ? but we have kept city services intact and thanks to hustle, creativity and sheer force of will by THIS city council, city staff and the helping hand of local businesses and private citizens, WE can boast vast IMPROVEMENTS in many things we do: from redesigning the Trinity River Project to executing a plan of action to build our working families affordable homes.

*Thank you to councilmembers like Mitchell Rasansky for good fiscal standards and responsibility. But we are dreamers too.

*The road ahead leads us back to the emerald city I saw as a young woman visiting Dallas for the first time.

*************************

*First, I want to thank my 14 colleagues on the Dallas City Council for their hard work over the last year.

*I have said it many times recently, but I will say it again ? this is the smartest, most focused, most energetic city council I have ever seen. And I have been a full-time observer of Dallas City Hall since I began covering it as a journalist in 1987 ? 17 years ago.

*I am proud and pleased about the camaraderie and teamwork I see everyday between the members of this body.

*We have our philosophical differences, our heat of the moment disagreements ? but that?s democracy ? and each one of us sitting here is committed to making Dallas a better city and I see it everyday.

*Next year, when I stand before you again we will be saying goodbye to four veteran city councilmembers: Mr. John Loza, Ms. Veletta Lill, Ms. Lois Finkelman and Ms. Sandy Greyson.

With their departure, we will lose collectively more than 20 years of strong experience at Dallas City Hall. I am not looking forward to that.

*I also want to thank, and congratulate, our Interim City Manager Mary Suhm.

*We are excited and grateful to be working with someone of Mary?s caliber and enthusiasm to lead our city during this interim period.

*At the same time, we have a unique opportunity to shape our city?s future as we embark on a search for our new city manager.

*A blue-ribbon panel, lead by Erle Nye, Chairman of the Board of TXU, and consisting of a diverse and distinguished group of private sector citizens, and fellow councilmembers Dr. Elba Garcia, Don Hill and Lois Finkelman, is working to find the very best search firm to help us find the very best city manager in the country.

*This council will have its first meeting with the panel next Monday and will vote to hire a search firm at that meeting to begin work during the council?s July recess.

***********************

*This very focused and forward-thinking council did something unprecedented recently ? we identified our top five proprieties for City Hall for the next five years?they are, in the order of importance:

1) Economic Development
2) Staff accountability
3) Neighborhood quality of life
4) Public Safety, and
5) The Trinity River Project

******************************

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

*It should be no surprise to anyone that economic development is the NUMBER ONE priority in the city of Dallas. These two words encompass many things ? and they mean different things to different people and councilmembers:

*To Bill Blaydes, it?s getting the luster and vibrancy back in the neighborhood shopping centers of Lake Highlands in NW Dallas.

*To Leo Chaney, it?s starting from scratch - taking a completely abandoned neighborhood retail corridor on Bexar Street in South Dallas and rebuilding it brick-by-brick so as to knit that neighborhood back together.

*To Don Hill and Steve Salazar, it?s creating an environment that lures two-income families, middle-class professionals, and new homebuyers BACK to Oak Cliff and West Dallas instead of our suburbs to the south.

*Kudos to my colleague James Fantroy for his tireless efforts to form and shape the new South Dallas campus of the University of North Texas, and to make Dallas Executive Airport an attractive alternative to the airports in Addison or McKinney ? next week, in fact, we break ground on a new terminal and air traffic control tower at Dallas Executive.

*Kudos also to Dr. Maxine Thornton-Reese who has taken to heart our ambitious new mission of creating 30,000 new houses and apartments for our working families.  Since we adopted 28 of the 34 recommendations made to us by the Affordable Housing Task Force, Dr. Reese has helped launch six new home developments in Oak Cliff and Pleasant Grove ? homes ranging from $70,000 to $250,000, which is the perfect recipe for creating strong neighborhoods by bringing people of all income levels together.

*We want jobs.
*We want great retail north and south of the river.
*We want good strong neighborhoods.
*We want to be FIRST on the list of the cleanest, safest, most beautiful cities to live in ? NOT noticeably absent from the list.
*Beyond the individual district dreams of councilmembers, economic development is creating an overall cocktail of vibrancy that makes people from all over the globe want to be here with us.

It begins with a robust, dynamic, 24/7 downtown ? that Emerald City that I keep harkening back to in my mid-70s memories?a downtown both shiny and green - that green neon that is our trademark skyline, and the parks that will soon replace parking lots.

*We are slowly but surely revitalizing the central core.

*I want to thank the Inside the Loop Committee of downtown stakeholders, chaired by Robert Decherd, for teaming with us this past year to make the Downtown Parks Master Plan a reality and for being a dedicated, long-term, planning partner with us for downtown development.

*We are on the move. During the past year, TIF funding has been approved, construction has begun or construction was completed on ten different projects in our downtown resulting in over $150 million in private investment in our central business district.

*The City Council has approved an additional $2.2 million for economic development that will help Assistant City Manager Ryan Evans and DOUBLE OUR STAFF and provide new resources to compete in the current economic environment.

*As of now, our residential population downtown is around 3,000 -- there will be 5,000 people living downtown by 2006. We need to see that number double in the short-term. We will get there.

*To get there faster we have begun spending $20 million approved in the bond program for streets improvements, traffic signals, street lights and sidewalk improvements in our central business district?repaving jobs have already taken place on Main & Commerce, thanks to a partnership with Dallas County.

*We are cooperating with the North Central Texas Council of Governments, DART and Dallas County to conduct a comprehensive traffic study for the CBD, scheduled to be done by the end of 2004. I thank you Sandy Greyson for chairing that effort.

*Dramatic developments are taking place this year in the Arts District, and will make Dallas the envy of the national arts community.

*Currently underway is the private solicitation of $275 million for the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts - the largest initiative to build cultural facilities in the history of Dallas, and the Southwestern United States. More than half the money has been raised, and city taxpayers contributed only $18 million of that total in last year?s 2003 Bond Package.

*The Center will be comprised of five venues, anchored by the 22-hundred-seat Winspear Opera House and the 700-seat Wyly Theatre.

*Construction begins on the Center?s underground parking garage in mid-2005, construction on the venues begins in 2006 and the Center will be completed concurrently in 2009.

*This year, the City of Dallas completed and opened the striking $10 million Latino Cultural Center?

*And, our city?s cultural hero, Ray Nasher opened the $70 million Nasher Sculpture Center in October.

*Nancy Hamon donated $10 million of her own money to turn the sagging Booker T. Washington School for the Performing Arts into an architectural jewel that will complement its incredible reputation for spawning internationally recognized superstars like Norah Jones and Erykah Badu.

*Economic development means other things, too. Good schools. We must attract families to live in our city and attract companies looking for a skilled workforce.

---------------

*We continue to search for innovative ways to partner and support our area school districts, most importantly Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Dr. Mike Moses and our DISD school board, led by Dr. Lois Parrot, who is here with us today. This fall we open the new Arcadia Park Elementary School and Public Library, one of several joint city-DISD construction projects.

*Economic development also means reaching out to those who need assistance the most.

*The ?Mayor?s Back to School Fair? is expected to provide school supplies, vaccinations, haircuts and dental exams to 20-thousand children who attend public schools.

*The Mayor?s Summer Reading Program will entice at least 12,000 school-age children to spend their hot summer days with their noses in books, not trouble.

*We did something else unprecedented this year:  we tackled the issue of jobs. Two years ago, we lost more jobs than any other urban area in America except Silicon Valley.

*Our Jobs Task Force, led by Trammell Crow Chairman Emeritus Don Williams and the Boston Consulting Group, which did its work pro bono, analyzed our losses recently and from work sessions with the top CEOs in the Dallas area came up with recommendations to put people back to work. Just two weeks ago, the new city Strike Team ? 10 top CEOs and civic leaders ? met with The 7-11 Corporation to give them the single message we will give to each and every company in our city: We appreciate you, we count on you, we want you to stay in Dallas, you belong here and we will not let you go.

*OUR CITY IS DOING EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO HELP CREATE JOBS.

*And that includes jobs for our homeless population. To have true success in economic development, we must find a long term solution for the people with no jobs, no place to live, and no hope.

*Dallas now has a homeless population in excess of 56-hundred people?many of those are children.

*This year, again with public and private partnerships, we developed a ?10 Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness? which the Council will ratify today.

*We must now implement the 10 year plan and in the few months ahead determine the location of a central assistance facility to aid our homeless population.

*This facility will be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week where individuals can shower or lock-up their belongings, find emergency beds, find the right non-profit organization that can help them -- it will be a central location where those who have the heart and means to provide food for the hungry can congregate and do what they do best.

*We will determine how to build it and run this year! We will soon appoint a Dallas Homeless Czar to oversee this ambitious effort. And I would be remiss not to thank Councilwoman Lois Finkelman for her countless hours of work as Chairwoman of the Health, Environment and Human Services Committee trying to solve this serious Dallas problem.

***************************

Our second priority: STAFF ACCOUNTABILITY

*While budget cuts have certainly impacted how we deliver basic city services to our citizens, quite a few of us were on the city council back when we had a surplus at the end of the year ? not a shortfall.

*But if you recall, even then, in the most robust of times, we still had chronic problems with code enforcement, animal control and housing. It?s not always a matter of money. It?s also a matter of performance.

*It was a watershed event two weeks ago when 24 Code Enforcement Inspectors were let go for lying about how much work they were doing?38 others have been suspended or received reprimands.

*I want to applaud Code Compliance Director Kathy Davis, who came to us 18 months ago and listened to the frustrations of citizens, councilmembers, and staff and did something I had not seen before in this building ? she developed detailed, clear performance standards for her employees and when the results weren?t good enough, she did something about it.

*The city council has made it clear that we want this level of accountability throughout the organization, which is why staff accountability is among this council?s top priorities.

*We want to reward our good employees ? and in an organization with 13-thousand of them, there are plenty of GREAT employees who work here, and not the private sector, because they believe in public service. They believe, with all their heart, that by doing the public?s bidding, they can make their city a truly wonderful place to live and work.

*But we also want those who don?t perform to be identified and held responsible.

*We know our civilian employees have not received a pay raise for the past three years, and I hope this council will act on the recommendation of the City Manager to create a merit pool in this coming year?s budget to reward our hardest-working employees with up to 4 percent salary raises.

*The taxpayers of Dallas expect accountability and the very best from City Hall and we will continue to expect and demand the very best from not only our employees, but those of us sitting at this horseshoe.

**************************

Priority No. 3: NEIGHBORHOOD QUALITY OF LIFE

*I?ve said it before ? many times ? and I will say it again: It?s the little things that make a big difference in people?s lives.

*And this council in particular understands that.  Most importantly, it is doing something about it.

*We implemented a ?zero tolerance? policy for bulky trash violators in order to protect and improve the appearance of neighborhoods and improve the efficiency of both bulk trash collection and the code violations process.

*With zero tolerance, we have cut inspections by 50% and improved the cleanliness of our neighborhoods.

*We have increased animal impoundments by 24% in the past year. And we break ground, finally, on our large, new animal shelter in September.

*Don?t tell us we don?t care about potholes.

*Since I have been mayor, we have filled 50,000 of them. We?ll do 22,000 this year -- up 2,000 over last year. And we put $268 million in the 2003 bond program for street improvements, new streets, sidewalks and alleys ? more street money than was in the 1995 and 1998 bond programs combined.

*Last month we launched the official beginning of the first phase of those improvements: $60 million in 500 lane miles of road to be resurfaced?we started with Ross Avenue, the poster child for potholes.

*An estimated 85.8% of our city streets will be in satisfactory condition by 2010 at the current levels of bond funding and general fund spending ? 8 years ago we only expected to be  at a 75% satisfactory level by 2010.

*Our Water Department is expediting its efforts to replace aging pipelines that are over 50 years old?we awarded a $116 million project for maintenance and upgrades and $97-million in water and wastewater system expansion projects during 2003.

*In the area of affordable housing, our Housing Department continues to become more efficient and make improvements ? this past year, Southern Dallas saw an unprecedented occurrence ? more residential building permits issued south of the river than north of it.

*By the end of this year, our three year total for the number of single-family homes developed or slated for development for homebuyers in the Southern Sector will exceed 7-thousand.

*That number for the previous three years in the Southern Sector totaled only 18-hundred.

*We will not rest until every vacant lot in residential neighborhoods in West Dallas and South Dallas is given a shiny new house, and every tract of vacant land in Oak Cliff and Pleasant Grove is filled with upscale housing and retail, corporate campuses, or shiny new industrials parks.

*The Council has identified six NIP areas, or neighborhood improvement project areas, where we will focus our housing efforts.

*My Dallas Faith Communities Coalition, in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity, has launched an initiative to raise $5 million and commit 100,000 volunteer hours to help three Dallas neighborhoods build 100 affordable homes on infill lots over the next two years.

*I am pleased to report that in less than 3 months, the coalition has reached half its goal having raised $2 ? million.

*With leadership of Assistant City Manager Jill Jordan, our City staff and the Faith Communities Coalition, we will also continue the work in relocating families in the Cadillac Heights neighborhood ? a truly monumental effort.

*****************
Priority No. 4 - PUBLIC SAFETY:

*In the area of public safety, first and foremost, let me welcome our new Police Chief, David Kunkle, as he officially begins his duties this week and will take his oath of office tomorrow.

*I have great faith in the abilities and record of Chief Kunkle and my first impressions of him are both good ones:

1) He is tightly wound ? my kind of guy?

2) And he appears to be all about fairness, competence and performance.

*I have EVERY confidence that he will help this city accomplish one of our top priorities?what we all want ? LESS CRIME!

*As you know, one year ago, we were told Dallas had the highest crime rate per capita in the country.

*That is simply NOT acceptable.

*The most basic service our citizens have a right to expect from City Hall is public safety.

*The only silver lining in 2003 was that 85% of the crime logged in Dallas was non-violent.

*But no crime is good crime!

*Chief Kunkle can expect strong support from the council and the council?s top two public safety officials, Dr. Elba Garcia and Gary Griffith, Chair & Vice-Chair of the Council?s Public Safety Committee.

*Last August Dr. Garcia, Mr. Griffith and I began conducting weekly crime meetings with the police department?s top brass, the city manager, the director of code compliance and the city attorney in an attempt to collectively combat this problem.

*As a result of those meetings, the city council has adopted several citywide crime programs:

*A tough apartment initiative that cracks down on slumlords

*A shopping cart ordinance, which police officers asked the council to pass as an additional crime-fighting tool.

*A mandatory ?lock, take & hide? signage program in the parking lots of large retailers and apartment complexes to help reduce the number of auto thefts and car-related burglaries.

*The use of police sky towers in shopping mall parking lots.

*A crackdown on panhandling with the city?s one year old solicitation ordinance, which by the way, I believe needs more work.

*Thankfully, good police work, the good stewardship of Interim Police Chief Randy Hampton, and the council?s desire to strengthen our ordinances to help our police offices do their jobs, has had good results.

*Violent crime, that?s rape, murder, robbery & aggravated assaults, are down 9.6% from this time last year.

*Non violent crime is down 5.8%...

*And our city?s overall crime rate is down 6.4% from this time last year.

*This is progress and we have done several other significant things to help:

*We commissioned a police efficiency study, and we see the results in August in time to help us allocate resources for the next fiscal year.

*Already, next year?s proposed budget would put 129 new officers on the street, on top of the 125 new officers we typically add each year.

*With the proposed budget we will finish our commitment to do 3 annual 5% pay raises for our police officers and firefighters.

*We raised $80-thousand from the private sector to begin training and recruiting two full academy classes of Dallas Police Reserve Officers.

*We moved our police officers into the new $50 million Jack Evans Police Headquarters ? completed within budget and on schedule.

*In a good nod to improving our air quality, we are converting 175 police squad cards to Compressed Natural Gas, increasing the City?s total of CNG vehicles to almost 12-hundred.

*We have also been appropriately aggressive with Ford Motor Company, which manufactures the Crown Victoria, because we want our officers safe in their vehicles. Thank you to Madeleine Johnson for her efforts to that end.

*We continue to boast a diverse police and fire department.

*The Fire Department this year graduated five diverse classes totaling 75 members?37.3% were minority and women.

*We are also underway with the design of four new replacements fire stations, one new fire station and one new police station from the 2003 bond program.

******************************

TRINITY

*There will be no greater public works project in Dallas? history than the Trinity River Project.

*When we are finished, the park, wetlands and double lakes will be roughly three times the size of New York City?s Central Park.

*The Great Trinity Forest, an old treasure finally accessible to all of us, will be seven times the size of Central Park?hard to fathom.

*And, enhanced levies will protect downtown Dallas and our communities on both banks of the Trinity from flooding.

*The grandeur and international impact of the project will start to be felt just 15 short months from now when we break ground on the 40-story, gleaming white, Woodall Rogers Extension, Santiago Calatrava Signature Bridge over the Trinity River ? one of three that will be built at the foot of downtown.

*It, along with the 30-story, 16-lane IH-30 bridge will be done in 2 years, by late 2007.

*Already, money is raised for the third Calatrava Bridge to replace the deteriorating I-35 Bridge.

*Dallas will not only be the only city in the United States with a vehicular bridge from Santiago Calatrava?let alone three!

*Councilmembers Ed Oakley and his Trinity River Committee and Dr. Maxine Thornton-Reese and her Governmental & Minority Affairs Committee have been instrumental in making this happen.

*I?d also like to thank our congressional delegation for their continued efforts to ensure the federal funding is in place to move this project forward and make it happen.

*And later this year, construction will begin on the first wetland cells and one of the many trails.

*I firmly believe that it will be the Trinity River Project is our ?crown jewel,? and more than anything else, puts Dallas back on the map nationally and internationally and allows us to be known for more than South Fork and the Cowboys.

*We need tourists and businesses to come here ? and the money they bring with them.

*More importantly, we need a beautiful focal point for Dallas, for North Texas, for the State of Texas.

*Dallas? Fair Park will be a featured highlight along the Trinity River Corridor and I look forward to one seamless corridor that connects downtown and Fair Park.

*Hopefully, Fair Park will be the new home of the Dallas Cowboys stadium ? FOR THE RIGHT DEAL!

************************

*That brings us to our "big" announcement.

*We know exactly where we are going. We have identified these five ambitious priorities; we have a great new Police Chief in place. We have an Interim City Manager who is already making solid, significant changes in how we operate. And we are conducting the most ambitious City Manager search in the history of our city.

*The parameters are set; the goals sharp. The council is eager. All we need are the right tools ? something we?ve been searching for, case in point our recent attempt to draft a report card for the City Manager.

*We need help. And as usual for this council, we are not afraid to ask for it. To go beyond this building and find the best and the brightest to help us set our course.

*For the past six weeks, we have been talking to McKinsey & Company, the internationally recognized management consulting firm that did our Housing Task Force work two years ago pro bono. Company officials have met with every council member and key top city staffers.

*They have listened to our dreams and our frustrations. They have reviewed our top priorities, looked at stacks of master plans; identified some of our weaknesses and strengths.

*Today, we are proud to announce as a Council that McKinsey has agreed to spend the next few months developing a new model for how to run City Hall.

*They will take our top three priorities ? Economic Development, Staff Accountability, and Neighborhood Quality of Life ? and create a Performance Management Model that we can follow to accomplish these three lofty goals.

*They will analyze our current processes ? which are badly in need up updating and sharpening ? set the targets, create the benchmarks, and give us the roadmap to accomplish what we seek.

*McKinsey will outline its work this coming Monday at a specially called City Council Meeting, which will take place from 2 to 5 p.m.

This council-led initiative will have a steering committee comprised of Mayor Pro Tem John Loza, Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill, and Councilwoman Dr. Elba Garcia.

*Chairing the steering committee will be Councilman Gary Griffith, whose analytical skills, desire for change, and quiet but intense focus will be a tremendous asset for this important undertaking.

*If we hired McKinsey to do this work ? which they do for private corporations all over the world - the fee would be $1 million. We are proud and enormously pleased to announce today that McKinsey has offered to do this work pro bono ? at no charge to the taxpayers ? as a civic contribution to a city they feel they know they can help improve.

*With McKinsey?s help, we feel confident that city government can be a place where taxpayers feel like they?re getting what they pay for; where city services are first-class, parks and libraries are top-notch and roads are smooth and well paved; a place where citizens feel safe on the streets, in their homes and neighborhoods; where people feel like their government is responsive to their needs and not bogged down in the bureaucracy of paperwork or back-room deals and closed-door meetings. It is often the well-done "basics" that most attract the new business, the tourist and the new homeowner.

*The next five years will see the making of Dallas into the most livable, vibrant and beautiful city in the nation. I am confident that our finest hour and the emerald city are nearly upon us.

*Watch us carefully. We shall not disappoint.

*Thank you.