May 14, 2009
Dear Members of the Village Family,
I would like to begin by thanking all of you for the support you provided during the recent election. The success of the referendum is due to the efforts, great and small, that you put forth. Your involvement sent a message o the residents of the village that this election was especially important. I feel the need to thank you for that and I do, but I know that you did what you did because you are who you are: good people whose life work involves service to others.
I am honored to have been given the opportunity to serve the Village as Mayor. Like all of you, I am a public servant. The job is different from what I have experienced in the past, but I am working to make the transition, for myself and for all of you, as smooth as possible. Bumps in the road are inevitable but they can serve a positive function by helping to intensify our focus on the task.
Difference of opinion is what makes America work. Coming together to identify and follow the correct path makes America strong. I hope you will get to know me as one who is willing to listen to the opinions of others, especially when they don't match my own. I don't claim to be the source of all good ideas. I can't even come close to matching the power of all of you to do that. What I need to do is to provide the filter through which all of the good (and bad) ideas must past. That filter is made primarily from the goals that I have established for my administration. It is important, then, that I communicate those goals to you.
Our overriding goal will be to enhance the quality of life for the residents of Midlothian. At this point in time, we are faced with challenges to overcome on our way to achieving that. We must establish more specific goals so we can meet these challenges:
Our first goal must be to stablize our financial condition.
The second goal is related to the first: we must rebuild our business community so that we can generate a strong and reliable sales tax base while enhancing the quality of life for our residents. This second goal can be broken down into three categories: 1) we have to "stop the bleeding" by working to retain the valued businesses that are here now; 2) we need to attract new businesses to close the gap created by the loss of key businesses; 3) and we need to work aggressively to get into a position to develop our Village Center when the economy rebounds.
Third, we must ensure the support of our residents by keeping them well informed and by responding to their concerns with empathy, fairness and respect.
Our fourth goal will be to reduce the fear of crime in our community by creating ways for thepublic to become more informed and more involved in the policing of our neighborhoods.
Finally, we must continue to work to enhance quality of life in new, low-cost ways.
The Village Board has already acted to begin to stabilize our financial condition. My first Board meeting as Mayor was an emergency meeting called to authorize work on another bond. We are borrowing more money--approximately $2.6 million. The difference between what is happening now and what would have occurred if we had not passed the referendum is that we now have an anticipated revenue stream that can be dedicated to paying the money back. Without that, we would have been out of options. We would have been forced to carry out the drastic custs that were predicted during the campaign. As it is right now, however, nothing else has changed. We are still spending more than we are taking in. The biggest challenge that we are facing is that our financial problems aren't caused by extravagant spending. As you all know, we have made many spending cuts already. Our staffing, in all departments, can be described as minimal. Our problem is on the income side of the ledger. Historically low property tax, and the recent loss of a large portion of our sales tax income have combined to cause the immediate crisis. Redevelopment of our business community will eventually help to ease the burden and get us back on to a stronger footing, but the national economy is not going to make things any easier for us. The taxpayers have helped us, but we need to help ourselves, too. We need to tighten our belts-again.
I have established a Finance Committee made up of Trustees Karen Kreis, Allen Moskal and Don Killelea along with the Village Treasurer, Denise Borne. This group has set an aggressive meeting schedule. The committee has met once each week since the new administration was sworn-in. They are researching ways that we can save money. They will present reports regularly at Village Board meetings. They will identify the sacrifices we will make in the short term so that we can be successful in the long term.
During the campaign to pass the referendum, residents were provided with opportunities to learn and ask questions. A question that was asked over and over again was about the sacrifices being made by our employees. Many people in our community have experienced job loss or or significant reductions in their income. There is a strong feeling in the community that they should not be asked to pay for added comfort of the Village's employees. Many of them called for a reduction in the level of full-time employees and an increase in part-time employees. The success of the referendum provded us with the message that the people are willing to pay to continue the professionalism that has been established over the years, but we must realize that we have not been given license to spend as we have in the past. We must make the reductions.
It is the nature of these sacrifices that will be the source of our newest challenges. We will strive to make the sacrifices as painless or "behind-the-scenes" as possible, but it must be known that some of the sacrifices will not be painless or behind-the-scenese. These must be carried out in a fair manner so that no segment of our community or our work force is called to bear a disproportionate share of the burden.
I believe that you, the employees of the village, are the best people to tell us how to save money. All ides will be studied.
I am confident that we can weather this crisis successfully by working together. We have already conducted a very successful Clean-up Day without the need for significant overtime in the Public Works Department, relying on volunteers and cooperation with the Park District. We found a way to do that and we will find the ways to accomplish all of our goals.
Mayor Terrence M. Stephens
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