Mayor Nancy R. Rotering Delivered the State of the City at the January 22, 2018 City Council Meeting
Published January 24, 2018
As the New Year begins, my wish is that we continue to use our collective passions to work together, crafting a vision that plans for decades to come. My City Council colleagues and I work alongside City staff, government partners, residents, and businesses focusing on issues that matter to all of us. Together, we strive daily to strengthen our community.
In 2017, we achieved many milestones. In addition to enhancing our overall quality of life, we focused on maintaining the City’s on-going fiscal sustainability, invested in hundreds of infrastructure improvements (doubling our investment in our roads), and kept our community safe. We worked tirelessly as we advanced business development, increased communications, supported human services, environmental sustainability initiatives, and cultural arts plans.
Over the course of about seven months, we hold neighborhood meetings and public budget workshops. With your input, City staff, my Council colleagues and I work as a team to create our budget – our most important policy statement. We are fiscally responsible with your dollars and plan for the coming year as well as the future with an eye on potential challenges and opportunities.
I am proud to say that we approved a balanced operating budget for the seventh year in a row and with healthy reserves; our financial house is in order. This fiscal stability is despite very real challenges from our state government via mandates and unsustainable and unpredictable policy decisions. Highland Park’s fiscal strength was again re-affirmed by Moody’s with our continued Aaa bond rating, a rating now held by only a handful of Illinois cities.
Recognizing that collaboration and synergies benefit the public and improve efficiencies, we met regularly with government partners, local clergy, and multiple citizen advisory task forces and community groups. Members of the City Council serve as liaisons to each of our sister governments. Conversations resulted in partnerships on a multitude of initiatives that benefited our daily life, achieved synergies, and provided representative government at its best.
The City continued to partner with sister governments on key projects. Working with the Park District of Highland Park, we helped them move to achieve an objective in their Green Print plans with the sale of Highland Park Country Club Golf Course. With the City’s assistance, North Shore School District 112 successfully completed the addition of a road at Edgewood Middle School to achieve much needed public safety. Additionally, sister governments worked together to promote a culture of inclusivity and supported human and social services including food security, housing, and mental health care.
Partnerships with our business community continue to support our strong local economy, create new jobs and reduce property tax burdens on residents. Our development process has been streamlined, bringing new market-driven housing to our downtown, and in-fill development throughout neighborhoods. The long awaited sale of the Highland Park Movie Theater was completed and will bring an exciting development to help revitalize the east end of Central Avenue in Downtown Highland Park. In addition, after an extensive public process, we look forward to an updated Ravinia Festival with the addition of a new Experience Center.
As we dive into 2018, we remain deeply committed to meeting the needs of our community now and in the future. On the horizon, we are planning for the future of our Public Library, Ravinia Fire Station, Senior Center, the celebration of our sesquicentennial/HP150, welcoming a new police chief and more. It is our job to keep our finger on the pulse of our community. We invite you to work with us, and thank you for being our partners and our neighbors.