Ezra J. Temko

Newark City Council unanimously adopted a resolution in support of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and actively working to ensure we are a “cool city.”  Newark is now a signatory to the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, found below.

U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement
(As endorsed by the 73rd Annual U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting, Chicago, 2005)

A. We urge the federal government and state governments to enact policies and programs to meet or beat the target of reducing global warming pollution levels to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012, including efforts to: reduce the United States’ dependence on fossil fuels and accelerate the development of clean, economical energy resources and fuel-efficient technologies such as conservation, methane recovery for energy generation, waste to energy, wind and solar energy, fuel cells, efficient motor vehicles, and biofuels;

B. We urge the U.S. Congress to pass bipartisan greenhouse gas reduction legislation that 1) includes clear timetables and emissions limits and 2) a flexible, market-based system of tradable allowances among emitting industries; and

C. We will strive to meet or exceed Kyoto Protocol targets for reducing global warming pollution by taking actions in our own operations and communities such as:

1. Inventory global warming emissions in City operations and in the community, set reduction targets and create an action plan.

2. Adopt and enforce land-use policies that reduce sprawl, preserve open space, and create compact, walkable urban communities;

3. Promote transportation options such as bicycle trails, commute trip reduction programs, incentives for car pooling and public transit;

4. Increase the use of clean, alternative energy by, for example, investing in “green tags”, advocating for the development of renewable energy resources, recovering landfill methane for energy production, and supporting the use of waste to energy technology;

5. Make energy efficiency a priority through building code improvements, retrofitting city facilities with energy efficient lighting and urging employees to conserve energy and save money;

6. Purchase only Energy Star equipment and appliances for City use;

7. Practice and promote sustainable building practices using the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED program or a similar system;

8. Increase the average fuel efficiency of municipal fleet vehicles; reduce the number of vehicles; launch an employee education program including anti-idling messages; convert diesel vehicles to bio-diesel;

9. Evaluate opportunities to increase pump efficiency in water and wastewater systems; recover wastewater treatment methane for energy production;

10. Increase recycling rates in City operations and in the community;

11. Maintain healthy urban forests; promote tree planting to increase shading and to absorb CO2; and

12. Help educate the public, schools, other jurisdictions, professional associations, business and industry about reducing global warming pollution.

Council will discuss an ordinance to eliminate free parking on Sundays starting at 1 pm.

This would generate $68,000 of revenue for the city and the 1pm start is to still allow free parking for those going to downtown houses of worship on Sunday mornings.

Visit http://cityofnewarkde.us/DocumentView.aspx?DID=1481 for more information and be sure to let me know your thoughts.

On February 8, council unanimously voted for the 136 Elkton Road project.
This is a District 5 project where the Eagle Diner, Papa Johns, Happy Garden, Christina School District’s Networks program, and The English Language Institute Annex currently reside.  The project is part of the continued redevelopment efforts in our downtown.  The project will take approximately 8 months to build and will likely start somewhere between Spring 2011 and 2012.  The owners’ intention is to retain the current commercial/restaurant tenants if possible.

This is a summary/synopsis of the proposed 2010 budget.  It includes:
1) The goals/necessary steps our 2010 budget must accomplish
2) What makes that difficult
3) How the city has cut spending
4) How the 2010 budget raises revenue

There will be a public hearing on Monday, 11/23/09, at 7:30pm in city hall.
To read the entire proposed budget, go to http://cityofnewarkde.us/index.aspx?NID=616 

1) The budget must:
1.  Cover the city’s expenses for 2010.  The city has a $31.2 million operating budget and $4.1 milion in city expenses for our capital improvements program.  The proposed revenue budget is $2.1 million larger than last year’s budget to ensure the city’s expenses are covered.
2.  Move Newark in a positive direction towards increasing our cash reserve.  Ideally we would have $25-30 million in our cash reserve.  In 2005 the city had $21 million; as of October 2009 we had $12.6 million

2) It is difficult to meet these budget needs because:
1.  Realty transfer taxes are down considerably, over $1 million/year.  Transfer taxes are projected to be $0.8 million in 2009 compared to a budget of $1.9 million.  Actual transfer taxes in 2008 were $2.8 million including about $0.9 million from the transfer of the Chrysler site.
2. The reservoir lawsuit settlement directly cost $3.6 million and insurance costs increased about $200,000 in the first renewal after the reservoir settlement.
3.  The Chrysler site is being sold to the University of Delaware, meaning the city will no longer get that $280,000 of annual property tax revenue.
4.  In 2005, there was substantial electric utility revenue loss.  Electric margins were $9.1 million less than budgeted in 2005 and $3.5 million less than budgeted in 2006.
5.  Retiree health care costs increase $300,000 in 2010.
6.  Pension expense increases $300,000 due in part to poor investment performance in 2008.
7.  Health care costs are up about $100,000.
8.  The city conducted a resident survey to determine value of services.  The vast majority of services in the survey were rated as very important by 50% or more of respondents, limiting options for service reductions.
3) The city has worked to maintain and reduce costs by:
1.  Cutting 8 FTE (full-time equivalent) positions (savings:  $650,000)
2.  Making changes to health plan benefits (savings:  $260,000- costs are rising $100,000 instead of $360,000)
3.  Material and supplies cost containment (savings:  $74,00)
4.  Eliminating the print version of the city newsletter (savings: $21,000)
5.  Eliminating the trolley subsidy (savings: $7,000)
6.  Eliminating expenditures from the capital improvements program (2009 savings: $700,00)
7.  Postponing expenditures from the 2009 capital improvements program to 2010 (2009 savings of $1.3 million)

4) The $2 million+ shortfall is made up for in the 2010 budget through:
1.  A sewer rate increase (Revenue: $1,000,000)
Impact on homeowner:  $50/year average
Due to infrastructure costs and lower demand, without a sewer rate increase the city would lose money on its sewer utility in 2010.  The city has a target operating margin for its sewer utility of 20%.  With this sewer increase, the operating margin would be 16%.

2.  A 9 cent property tax increase (Revenue:  $700,000)
Impact on typical homeowner:  $89/year for single-family detached, $50/year for single-family townhomes
Property tax is the most stable source of funding the city has and is the city’s primary tool to raise revenue for its general fund.  Even with this increase, the city would still be collecting 20% less in taxes (property and realty transfer tax) in 2010 than previously.
Is Newark still a good deal with a 9 cent property tax increase?
With the tax rate increase, Newark’s tax rate would be 64.58 cents per $100 of assessed value.  This is below that of Wilmington, New Castle, Elsmere, and Newport.  The tax rate for the county is 70.18 cents per $100 of assessed value, and the city provides many services to its citizens that residents in the county must privately contract and pay for (i.e. refuse collection, snow removal, leaf collection).
3.  Developing a stormwater utility fee (Revenue: $350,000)
Impact on homeowner: $17-31/year, depending on zoning/minimum lot size
A stormwater utility fee will reduce reliance on the property tax for funding stormwater related expenditures and gather these funds in a more equitable fashion.

4.  Charging apartment complexes for dumpster collection (Revenue: $350,000)
Some apartment complexes may pass these fees on, but not all apartment complexes use the city for dupmster collection at present; some use and pay private contractors.

Many Newarkers are concerned about litter in our community.  Whether concerned for reasons of pride and beautification, ecological concerns, or sense of place, it is definitely an issue that is worth addressing.

One of the principle rules of litter prevention is not having litter in the first place.  People are more likely to have a message that it is “okay” to litter if they already see litter on the ground.  This is similar to when people are more likely to keep their home and yard in better/worse condition when they see the current state of the rest of their neighborhood.

One way that Newark gets litter off the ground, which serves both to clean up our community and deter future litter, is through our annual Spring Community Clean Up.  This clean up is one Saturday morning each Spring from 9am to 11pm.  There are usually about 100 volunteers, from concerned residents and UD students to families and neighborhood groups to high school students and community organization members.  This past Spring volunteers collected 1,210 pounds of trash/debris!

After being contacted by a constituent about littering in our community, I conversed with the city manager and Parks & Recreation Department director and suggested that we should have an additional community cleanup each year.  Last time I was out with the Graduate Student Senate the volunteers there even expressed interest in doing this more than once a year.  After looking into this proposal, the city decided to offer a Fall community cleanup this November.

It will be on Saturday, November 14, from 9am to 11pm.  Interested community members should meet outside city hall.

In my last two e-newsletters, I’ve detailed roberries at the local Rite Aid on New London Road.  I wanted to let you know that our Newark police, who have an above average record in closing crimes, have made arrests for these robberies.  A Newark detective along with a member of the state police arrested the two Rite Aid robbers.

The agenda for the August 10 council meeting includes:

2) The second reading and public hearing on a proposal to increase retail water rates by 35% effective October 1.  Click here to read more about this proposal.

At the July 27 meeting:

+Council adopted a resolution honoring Steve Dentel for his years of service as chair of the Conservation Advisory Commission. To read the resolution, click on the following link:  http://cityofnewarkde.us/DocumentView.aspx?DID=1263

Council,

I have placed on the agenda for our May 25 council meeting a conversation regarding building leadership.  This was one of four areas that the civic health study I completed identified as needing improvement; it received the lowest ratings of the fourteen areas of civic health I investigated.  Regarding the statement, “Overall, Newark is doing very well as it relates to building leadership.  This is a strong asset for the city, as opposed to needing immediate attention,” one member of council agreed, three neither agreed nor disagreed, and three disagreed.  University administrators answered, “I do not know” to most of the building leadership questions.  Building leadership was the only component that random citizens, on average, ranked as below a “Neither agree nor disagree.”

Building leadership is a vital part of a community’s ability to solve problems.  It encompasses having programs to develop and encourage emerging leaders.  It encompasses having leadership trainings that provide avenues for immediate applications of newly learned skills.  It encompasses having programs to develop new leaders that reflect the diversity of the community.

I would ask you to think about whether you think Newark could improve in its capacity to build community leadership.  I am interested in having a discussion about specific ways in which we could improve in this area.  In my research I came across three programs that deal directly with leadership building.  These include youth councils, neighborhood leadership institutes, and citizen academies.  If council agrees that these may be useful tools for our community, then these are programs I would like us to have staff look into further.  If you have other ideas on Tuesday to address this issue that we could discuss, I would like to do that as well.
There are four resources for you to take a look at prior to Monday’s meeting.

The first is an attachment.  It is an excerpt from my civic health paper and identifies both findings about the state of building leadership in Newark as well as a brief overview of youth councils, neighborhood leadership institutes, and citizen academies.  See Building Leadership Temko.pdf

The second is the National League of Cities website on youth councils.  There are a number of resources for more information on this page.  If the link does not work for you, you can copy and past the following URL into your browser:  http://www.nlc.org/IYEF/youthdevelopment/youth_participation/resources.aspx

The third is an attachment.  It is an academic article on citizen academies.  The article overviews citizen academies and provides three case studies of existing programs.  See citizen academies.pdf

The fourth is a list of links to the “About Us” page on various Neighborhood Leadership Institute programs.  This will give you more of a flavor for the intent, purpose, and scope of NLIs.
Pasadena, CA: http://www.ci.pasadena.ca.us/humanservices/Neighborhood_connections_PNLI.asp
Charlotte, NC - http://www.charmeck.org/Departments/Neighborhood+Dev/Sustain+Neighborhoods/Community+University/Home.htm
Los Angeles, CA - http://www.lacity.org/council/cd13/c13ne1ab.htm
Dayton, OH - http://www.cityofdayton.org/departments/pcd/cp/Pages/NLI.aspx
Chattanooga, TN - http://www.chattanooga.gov/Neighborhood_Services/86_4027.htm
Newport News, VA - http://www.nngov.com/children-youth-families/NLI
Houston, TX - http://www.houstontx.gov/planning/ComPlanning/ldrship.htm
Gwinnett County, NC (non-profit based) - http://www.gnli.org/Default.aspx?tabid=139
(Virginia) Danville-Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce - http://www.dpuway.org/nli/about.php
Cleveland, OH (non-profit based, grew out of a city&CDBG-funded Schools as Neighborhood Resources program) - http://www.neighborhoodleadership.org/programs/nlc

Thanks for your time in considering this.  Leadership development is both a long-term investment in improving the civic infrastructure of our community and improving our capacity to address opportunities and challenges as well as something that can show immediate positive results.

Best,
Ezra

Click on the following two links to download the associated files.

Building Leadership Temko

Citizen Academies

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
FOR THE 2009 “UDon’t Need It?” STUDENT MOVE OUT PROGRAM

The GOAL of this program is to reduce the amount of reusable items that are needlessly added to the landfill each May during the University of Delaware student move out period.  Additionally, the program will collect reusable items and get them into the hands of those who need them through our outreach to charitable organizations.

Here’s where you come in….

We need volunteers to staff the “UDon’t Need It?”
site on Paper Mill Road at the location of the former Curtis Paper Mill.

Volunteers are needed daily from 10a.m. to 3p.m. Friday, May 22nd - Saturday, June 6th , 2009.  Full day volunteers only- please!
We will begin to sell surplus items on Monday June 1st and a final sale will take place on Saturday, June 6, 2009.

Volunteer Duties:
Sorting home goods, loading/unloading furniture, directing & assisting with placement of items, assisting with organization of collected items
Closed toe shoes are required!

If you, or an organization you are affiliated with would like to volunteer please contact the City of Newark at 302-366-7020 or complete the volunteer application form available at http://cityofnewarkde.us/index.aspx?NID=558

You can email a completed application to chouck@newark.de.us or fax it to C. Houck at 366-7160.
Thanks in advance for considering this invitation!