Thank you.  Thank you all very much.

This speech is special and a little emotional. I’ve been introduced on this stage by heroes, by Governors, by Mayoral colleagues and others famous and important.

But today is far more special, because it’s my kids. 

My son, who we pushed door to door in a stroller during my first campaign for the State Assembly, is now here introducing me for THIS speech as a man, and a husband, he just finished this month his degree at Long Beach State and now looks forward to a budding, successful career of his own. 

His beautiful wife Sarah, who Lexi and I view very much as our own daughter, is with him. 

And of course my baby, my wonderful daughter Katie, finishing her third year at BIOLA and ready to make her mark on the world.

Who wouldn’t be choked up with pride to get introduced, at this special speech, by such a wonderful family?

So if you’ll indulge me a moment, this one last time before we get on with the speech, join me in thanking my family for being here today, and for allowing me to have this dream job for the last seven years.

Kyle, Katie, Sarah, my parents and sister and my great wife Alexis, please everyone, thanks for letting me enjoy today with my family as part of the program.

And beyond my immediate family, of course, there is my larger family of this community of Anaheim, and so many good friends and colleagues are here with us.  My colleagues on the City Council, Mayor Pro Tem Harry Sidhu, Councilwoman Lorri Galloway, Councilwoman Lucille Kring, and I want to ask you also to give an extra thanks and round of applause to my colleague, Councilman Bob Hernandez.  Bob has given his entire adult life to the service of this City.  For thirty-eight years as a firefighter, and like me, for the last seven years, on this City Council.  Bob joins me in entering his final year on this Council, and we should thank him for his forty-plus years of service to the City of Anaheim. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in applauding Councilman Bob Hernandez and the entire Anaheim City Council.

I would very much like to thank the other elected officials and their representatives who are here today. 

I would like all of our Anaheim city department heads to stand and I want to thank you for your great service to this community.

Now I would like you to remain standing and also ask all of the Anaheim city commissioners and employees to stand and join you.  And with that—would you all join with me in thanking our great city family for the work they do for our community. 

And I would like to now specifically acknowledge two people.

As you all know, this was a year of great transition in our city.

For the last seven years, as I have worked as your Mayor to lead this city, I had no finer partner in that effort than a truly great city manager, Dave Morgan.

When I was first elected in 2002, I sat down with Dave and reminded him of the Chinese saying, “May You Live in Interesting Times.”  And I said, “Dave, I can promise you this, we are about to have some interesting times.”

And true to his character, Dave told me, “Bring it on!”

And every step along the way these last seven years, as we laid out a vision for how Anaheim would become a true leader among cities, it was Dave who had the job of making sure our vision would become reality, and permeate this city, in every department and every program.

I can tell you with confidence that the last seven years would not have seen the success that Anaheim has had, if it were not for this shared vision, this partnership, and yes, this deep friendship that I have built with Dave Morgan.

Now at last year’s speech, we knew that Dave had some idea in the back of his mind that retirement might not be far off, and soon thereafter he indeed announced his departure. And although we had plenty of opportunity to thank him along the way, I want to share one more hearty thank you, and best wishes, from these assembled Anaheim community leaders, to Dave Morgan, for all that you did for Anaheim.

And now, I want to specifically highlight and thank Dave’s successor, Tom Wood, who knowing full well after serving for many years as Dave’s right hand man, that he had huge shoes to fill, nonetheless accepted the challenge and earned the right to be our City Manager.  And having now had seven months to work with Tom in that role, I know that he is every bit up to that challenge, and Dave can rest easy in his retirement, knowing that the city he loves is in the very able hands of our new great City Manager, Tom Wood.

And you know, I have to say something - I truly love the Anaheim State of the City event.  We have a great Chamber of Commerce here in Anaheim, led by Ben Seybold and Todd Ament, and this event that the Chamber hosts, is a reflection of that great organization.

But this event is also symbolic of this city—one could even call it symbiotic of how Anaheim has changed over the last seven years. 

From even before I was elected, when I was running for Mayor of Anaheim, I made a central theme of my campaign that we would make Anaheim a leader among cities, a beacon for new ideas, and that Anaheim would assume its deserved place as one of the driving forces in this state for innovation. 

And in all of these areas - Anaheim has grown and the growth and diversity and dynamism of our business community has been paralleled by the growth in this event. 

I hope you love this event as much as I do.  And not because it has gotten bigger every year- and harder to get a ticket but I hope you love this event because it means something.  Because it is a place where visions are formed, plans discussed, innovations born, and dreams…dreamed.

That’s what I envisioned for Anaheim some seven years ago when I first gave you this address, and I hope you can join me in saying with certainty that we have achieved that!

We’ve all lived through these last seven years together, and we know that over these times, we’ve seen a lot.  We’ve lived through war and terror, and despair and hope in those efforts.

When I was elected, our economy was just showing signs of life and recovery from a recession precipitated by, or certainly deepened by, the attacks of 9/11. 

From that recovery, we experienced one of the strongest periods of economic growth in our lifetimes, fueled by a fantastic surge in tourism, a thriving service sector, continued explosive growth in the technology fields, and a booming real estate market.

And as we all know, a major portion of the real estate boom was illusionary, and now we find ourselves again, we hope and believe, emerging from recession.  But even if our economy indeed has started to grow again, still far too many people remain unemployed and under-employed, and forecasts point to a slow recovery.

We’ve been through tough times these last many months, and they are not over.

And the strength of our public sector is built on the foundation of a thriving private sector. 

When the economy suffers, people hurt, businesses hurt, and the government hurts.  A shrinking economy shrinks our tax base.

By no means are we immune to these effects in Anaheim.  Our tax revenues have decreased for two years in a row. 

But Anaheim has always believed in fundamentally sound fiscal management, things that seem basic to so many of us but are too often overlooked by government, that seems to forget where their money comes from.

In this city, we believe in balanced budgets, and not balanced on paper, but balanced in reality.

We believe you cannot spend more than you take in.

We believe in making adjustments as the situation changes, and that is why, on more than one occasion during the recession – and in fact, more than once this year, we have gone back into our budget and made cuts, to ensure we are living within our means.

I thanked our public sector employees earlier today, and I meant it.  They deserve our thanks, because we’ve asked a lot of them.  We asked them to continue to deliver high-quality, cost-effective city services even while we reduce spending.

We asked them to implement new and innovative policies and programs without giving them new departments and new employees to staff those programs.

We’ve asked them to do more with less and they’ve delivered.

And we continue to ask it.  We’ve begun work on our 2010-11 city budget, and to be honest, we are not out of the woods yet.  We don’t know with certainty where the economy will go, or where the state is going with their budget and how that will impact us.

We know that our two largest revenues, our sales tax and our transient occupancy tax may no longer be falling as fast as they did, but they aren’t rising fast either, and remain well off of their peaks of just a few years ago. 

The bottom line is that we still have at least one more tough budget year, and we are not done cutting.  To maintain our fiscal discipline, we simply must continue to find ways to be efficient, to use every tax dollar wisely, and to continue to insist on excellence in our municipal services while feeling the restraints of a tight budget. 

And we know we will accomplish this because Anaheim understands what real excellence and real sacrifice means.  

One of the new programs we implemented last year was our Military Banner Program.  My Council colleagues and I created this program because we wanted to raise awareness of the brave men and women from Anaheim who are serving today in fields of combat in our nation’s Armed Forces.

In this program, we recognize the service and personal stories of Anaheim residents serving overseas.  We have just created a special page on our city web site, which highlights these contributions with photos and stories, and soon, we will erect banners to hang at some of the major intersections throughout our city, displaying the name, branch of service, and a photo of these brave men and women. 

For the last couple months, Anaheim families have been submitting the names of honorees.  And as a result of private corporate donations, the first batch of banners will be provided free to those families and at no taxpayer expense.

But while honoring those Anaheim residents who are in fields of battle, we are reminded that they have chosen to serve us and put their lives on the line for our community and country. 

That reminder was made vividly clear last November 10th.  Anaheim resident Justin Swanson, Lance Corporal in the U.S. Marines, died while serving his country in Afghanistan.  His mother, Mary Hargrove, joins us today and I am proud to announce that our first banner produced under our Military banner Program will honor Lance Corporal Justin Swanson.  

Would you please join with me in thanking Justin’s family and all of our service members and their families.

And it is this kind of service and countless other examples that tell us that we cannot simply sit idly by.  We must lead.  While we know it would be easy for any city facing tough times to just hunker down and try to ride out the storm, preserve what we have, and not try anything new.

But that’s not Anaheim.

Even through these trying times, we’ve never been satisfied with the status quo.  This past year in Anaheim has not been a year of mere survival.  Through the trials, we implemented new ideas, new programs, and new ways to keep our city moving forward with innovation and improvements in our responsiveness and our quality of life.

What government do you know of that cares about customer satisfaction, like Anaheim?  We implemented the JD Power and Associates Anaheim Customer Satisfaction survey and measured the customer experience of people interacting with our planning and building department, our utilities department, and our police department.  From the results of these surveys, we identified areas where we can do better, and we’ve done it. 

Customers in our planning department can now pay fees online for many routine services such as plan revisions, temporary occupancy permits, re-inspections, overtime inspections or permit renewals. In fact, just last week, we now have the ability to handle most all of our business license renewals online, a benefit to over 20,000 businesses!

Our police department has also continued to improve everyday interactions with our public, in one on one contacts with residents, at the public counter at our police stations, and through Anaheim Anytime online or even through our Facebook and Twitter pages.  New data and information for crime victims is now available and our response times in responding to victims has significantly improved.

And virtually all of our customers can now pay their utility bills online. 

In the course of this customer satisfaction project, we identified more than 365 ways for customers to interact with the City to obtain services, permits, or information.  And more than 100 of these opportunities involve the payment of fees for services, charges, or taxes. 
 
After lots of hard work, city staff reports that more than 90% of all these financial transactions can now be made online.  Let me just tip my hat to the staff on this one—this is a big accomplishment.  

And in another area of innovation, the Anaheim Center for New Energy Technologies (AC-NET) which I first announced in my 2008 State of the City address, has developed into a testing incubator for emerging clean tech businesses to help demonstrate their viability. Following an April 2009 Business Plan Competition, AC-NET began working with selected competition participants to field test their technology products. These new technologies are now being tested on City-owned facilities throughout Anaheim.

One new technology, developed by a business called Hadronex, involves a “smart
cover” concept which helps clients detect and prevent sewage spills by providing
 continuous real-time monitoring at critical locations. Through its wireless digital
 data sensor network, sanitation agencies use this technology to manage their
systems, and prevent sewage spills, illegal dumping, and vandalism.

Hadronex’s smart cover concept was the Grand Prize  winner of our first business plan competition and  in the video a few minutes ago you heard its founder David Drake tell us firsthand how valuable AC-NET has been for Hadronex and other clean tech entrepreneurs.

AC-NET has also expanded its partnership with California State University, Fullerton by working with their new Center for Sustainability and Environmental Studies to develop a summer 2010 Graduate course focused on advancing energy research and clean technology ideas to market.

Students of this summer class at Cal State Fullerton will be able to participate with AC-NET in our Second Annual Business Plan Competition in conjunction with the Tech Connect World Conference and Expo, a technology convention being held in Anaheim this summer from June 21-25. 

The Tech Connect World Conference is designed to bring together early stage companies from around the globe to meet with corporations and investors.  Now isn’t this a cool partnership with Anaheim and our public utility working through the framework of AC-Net and our partners at Cal State Fullerton to put on a business plan competition in conjunction with a world-wide tech conference being held right here in our own city!  It’s great.

Last year we formed the Mayor’s Tech Advisory Committee and we pressed the city to become more tech user-friendly and conversant in modern social media and communications tools as a way to better serve our residents.

One of the programs that came out of that effort was the Great Anaheim Apps Challenge.  We asked people from around the nation to submit their ideas for mobile applications that would make life or services in Anaheim more efficient, more enjoyable, or just plain better.  Over 850 entries were received from people in 12 states and 94 cities around the country.  Councilwoman Galloway and I were two of the judges and it was amazing to see the inventiveness of the people when asked for their ideas.

Just a couple weeks ago we announced 15 winners, the 3 highest in each of the categories of water & power; parks & recreation; public safety; tourism, sports & entertainment, and the catch all category– Anything Anaheim.

And I think all of the winning ideas were very cool but let me highlight a couple of the winners.

One, from Carolyn Bryant, was entered in the Parks and Recreation category and she named it “Get Me There on a Bike.” In this app idea, a person would indicate where they want to go on their bike and with the cell phone mapping software and GPS, the app would design a bike-friendly route to get the user to their destination.

This idea will be developed and we plan to work with OCTA on developing this app over the next few months, but let me give you just a teaser on what we are coming up with

Another of the winning app ideas came from Kit Thongdyxay (THONG-DIX-AY), his entry is called the Water & Power Account Status App.  This app will monitor water and power consumption in real time and let the resident know if they are conserving, or using too much, and suggest ways they can save water and power. 

Like I said, it’s amazing how many great ideas you’ll get when you ask.

And in addition to embracing information technology, last year we also talked about more pragmatic efficiencies. And I am excited to announce that this summer, we will break ground on an innovative reclaimed water demonstration project.   At build out, we will be able to save 35 million gallons of water per year by recycling local waste water, and as we face a looming water crisis in California, we all know the importance of this savings.

This past year, we also reformed our local workforce investment efforts in Anaheim and consolidated all of these programs around a new website, AnaheimJobs.com, to make it easier for employers and job seekers to connect.  In fact, we were recently told by one major employer considering a move to Anaheim that the existence of a streamlined workforce investment site to facilitate staffing their new office is a major plus in their consideration of moving here.

It was Councilman Harry Sidhu’s idea this year to have our AnaheimJobs.com department, team with the Chamber to host a job fair.  This turned out to be a very successful boost to local job seekers, with 7500 attendees looking for jobs and more than a hundred employers and hundreds of jobs secured.  And because of this success, we are looking forward to this year’s job fair to be held again at the GardenWalk.

And we have always made it a point to understand that, while recessions may be national or even international in scope, they can be deeper in some places and less so in others.  Further in fact, we have made it a point to create policies and foster an environment where people can invest in themselves, invest in their future, invest in their business, and find success.

A few years ago, we created a Home Improvement Holiday, saying that if Anaheim residents would invest in improving the value of their own homes, we would waive city permit fees for a period of time and guarantee quick plan reviews.  And because of this program, tens of millions of dollars were invested by Anaheim residents into their homes.

Then we lowered business taxes and fees, especially for home-based businesses, and waived start up taxes and fees altogether for new businesses started or located in the city. Hundreds of businesses generating many jobs were created from this program right here.

And last year, we became one of the first cities in the nation to adopt a comprehensive economic stimulus package for the housing industry.  Our program recognized by the National Association of Home Builders, focused a new approach in addressing building fees, in which these building and development impact fees for residential construction are deferred until the home receives its certificate of occupancy – fees paid at the end not at the beginning of the construction process.  This saves builders tremendously in their start up costs and encourages them to look to start getting back to building here in Anaheim.

And now we see dozens of cities have followed Anaheim’s lead. 

What does a program like this really mean?  Well, last year in all of Orange County there were building permits issued for only 1,945 new residential units.  And Anaheim made up about 850 of them. 

I believe this permit fee deferral program encourages residential builders to look to Anaheim as a place to do business.  And in fact, helped put people back to work here and truly has strengthened our local economy.

 In creating this environment of incentives for investment, we believe that our recession will be shallower and our recovery will be stronger here in Anaheim.  

In the year ahead, we’ll see the continued benefit of a strong partnership with our Resort Area and tourist serving businesses.  Our friends at the Disneyland Resort are making over a billion dollar investment in expanding California Adventure and in fact, opened up a new expansion to the beautiful Grand Californian just this past September.

Our convention business remains second to none, and we’ll look to find ways to expand our convention center so we will continue to attract the top shows across the nation.

This spring we will host, for the second year, the Restoring Community Conference, in partnership with the Urban Land Institute, Orange County.  This conference will be held March 11 at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel, and will focus on ”Creating Cities that Protect Private Property, House the Family, and Foster Civic Culture”.

As for sports, we were very pleased that the USA women’s national volleyball team relocated to Anaheim this year, joining the Anaheim-based 2008 Olympic gold medal Men’s team in their plans to build a competitive team for the 2012 Olympics.

Additionally, our Anaheim Ducks bring great pride to this city and under the ownership of Susan and Henry Samueli make being a part of the Orange County community a cornerstone of the team.

And true to form the Angels achieved much this year on the field.  And this summer, Anaheim can truly claim to be an All-Star city, as we join in hosting, with our partners at the Angels, Major League Baseball’s All-Star game on July 13.

Anaheim is indeed an All-Star city.  How else can you describe a city that looks recession in the eye and seeks not to retreat, but to move forward even more aggressively than before?  That sees opportunity in crisis and moves boldly to build to the future. 

And that is why I am confident in saying: The state of our city of Anaheim is strong; we will continue to weather the storm and we remain ready for tomorrow’s prosperity.

Now of course, I have hinted at it, but we all know there’s a big elephant in the room today.  And no, I am not referring to any fat Republicans who happen to be here. I am, of course, referring to the fact that this is my eighth and final year as Mayor and my final State of the City address.

Over this time, more important than any one of the individual programs we’ve adopted, we have tried to establish a new culture in Anaheim.  This is based on a vision that relies on entrepreneurship and innovation to address challenging problems.  A vision that acknowledges that not all, nor even most, of our solutions come from the government. 

I also said, from day one that Anaheim should play a larger role on a larger stage.  Anaheim is a significant force in this state.  The tenth largest city by population, and larger still in economic output.  It’s not just the Los Angeleses and San Franciscos that speak for the cities of California, its Anaheim as well.

And our voice has been heard.

Over these last seven years, I believe Anaheim has fundamentally changed.  The spirit of optimism, the culture of entrepreneurship, and the role of leadership are part of our city fabric now.  It is dyed deep into who we are.

I am truly honored by some of the accolades and praise I have received for leadership in my time as Mayor, but the new Anaheim is not about me.  Regardless of who stands at this podium next year (and yes, I do have my opinion about that), the new Anaheim will demand that our city be a force for human progress.  We have changed.  Innovation is part of our culture now, and we’re not going back.

Nor am I done.

Not by a long shot.

If I can paraphrase a guy who was way smarter than me, the Nobel-prize winning physicist Richard Feynman, who said something like this:  Humans tend to think that we are always at the end of history.  But we’re not, we are at the beginning of history.  There are many problems to confront.  Many lessons to learn.   We solve those problems, we learn those lessons, we do what we can, and we pass it on.  That is our true legacy.

I’ve had no finer sense of joy and wonder and accomplishment in my public life than my time as Mayor of Anaheim.  But I was elected for eight years, not seven, and I’ve got stuff to do.

So let’s get to it.

For starters, I think that where we can, it is time to give our economy a little kick start.  Economists say that the recovery has begun, but many are saying it will be shallow and too many warn that it may be a so-called “jobless recovery.”

That’s not good enough for Anaheim.

Which is why I have proposed and will ask the Council to adopt a new Sales Tax Rebate, called the Anaheim Purchase Incentive, or API Program, in early February to continue through June.

We know that consumer confidence remains a concern in how strong any recovery will be.  We also know that one of the best indicators of increased confidence is not only consumer purchasing, but larger business to business purchases.  These are a sign that businesses are ready to invest in themselves again in preparation for growth, rather than to be in mere survival mode.

So let’s give these actions a boost.

I propose that for large, sales taxable purchases made in Anaheim, that half of the city’s share of the sales tax be rebated to the customer. 

Specifically, for those one-time purchases of $20,000 or more, I am proposing that we rebate half of Anaheim’s share of the associated sales tax back to the customer. So, for a $20,000 purchase, half of Anaheim’s $200 dollar share of sales tax would go back to the purchaser.

Now I realize that $20,000 or greater in purchasing is a big amount.  For a consumer, we’re talking about a car, or appliances for the home, or maybe a whole new set of furniture.

But for business to business purchases, $20,000 and larger transactions are more common.  And they are much more likely, as I mentioned, to be part of a recession-emerging reinvestment by business. 

It may mean a fleet of trucks for a company ready to start expanding again, or a large purchase of a new computer system for a new business.

The exact purposes will be as varied as the consumer.  But as both businesses and individuals get back into the market, we want their purchases to bring revenues to Anaheim retailers.  And we’re willing to forego a little of our tax revenue today, to encourage people and businesses to shop here in Anaheim, spurring Anaheim retailers and creating jobs here in our city. ******Pause*****

OK and now I have a little confession to make.

I have heard the whispers.

When I walk into a room at City Hall, I hear people talking, and then they see me, and they sheepishly look away.

But I heard what they are saying: “That Curt Pringle sure is a transportation geek!”

It’s true.  I know it’s true. I am a transportation geek.

But I’m a geek with a purpose.  Because while the vast majority of the success of our private sector relies on their own innovation and hard work, government has a role.

Certainly, one role that we just talked about, is in creating a tax and regulatory climate in which hard work will pay off.

But another is the creation of a transportation system that allows goods and people, both workers and customers, to move about efficiently. 

That’s why I have sought to serve in leadership roles with the Orange County Transportation Authority and the California High Speed Rail Authority.  Again we need to make sure that the right infrastructure is in place now for the future.

And here in Anaheim we are taking it serious to plan for our future transportation needs.

A centerpiece of that is the ARTIC project—the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center.  In the year since I last spoke of this to you, we have made major progress.  We secured full funding for the first phase of this project, from federal, state, and local sources, and put together our project team of Parsons Brinkerhoff, HOK, and Anaheim Gateway Partners.

In fact, at tonight’s Council meeting, we will be asked to select the project environmental consultants, who will help us achieve state and federal environmental project clearance by the end of this year.  And once this is done, that’s when things really get going.

The project will break ground in 2011, and the construction phase alone will generate 3,500 local jobs.  The grand opening will arrive before we know it in 2013, making Anaheim the transportation hub of the Southland.

But ARTIC is not the only transportation investment Anaheim is making this year.  In partnership with OCTA, Anaheim is working to design and develop a state of the art four-mile fixed guideway system to connect ARTIC, the Platinum Triangle, the Anaheim Resort Area, and our convention center.  Based on public input we received last year, we are now refining plans, evaluating alternatives, and expect to adopt the final design concept this November.

The California High Speed Rail – is being planned to come to Anaheim and connect into the ARTIC station.  Environmental work is moving forward and if this portion is funded through the federal ARRA program, which we will find out this month, a high speed train system from Anaheim to Los Angeles in 20 minutes and then on to the central valley and San Francisco will be under construction by 2012.

We’re also planning for new mixed flow bus and shuttle service to connect high priority destinations, such as ARTIC to downtown Anaheim, ARTIC to the Anaheim Canyon Station, a West Anaheim bus circulator to the Resort, and expanded Senior Wheels programs.

You’re going to see a lot of movement this year in the realm of transportation, and with all these initiatives in Anaheim, we felt that it was time to put some branding behind a system of which we will all be proud.

And therefore, today I would like to announce that our new fixed guideway system will be known as the Anaheim Rapid Connection -- call it the ARC -- as you will see it arcing through our city, moving people from ARTIC to the Platinum Triangle to the Resort and the convention center.

All these initiatives will come together under the banner to be known as ACONNEXT.  And, by  the time all these initiatives under ACONNEXT are completed by the middle of this new decade, Anaheim will have one of the most modern, most efficient, and most integrated transportation systems in any city in the nation.  In fact, let me show you what to expect.

I hope that’s enough to make all of you transportation geeks.

So if you are a business owner looking to locate a business in Southern California, let me say this to you, loud and clear:  there is no finer place to move or grow your business than Anaheim.

Now, we’ve talked about a tax climate and a culture of entrepreneurship that makes success.

And we’ve just discussed a transportation plan such that you, your workers, and your customers will be even more connected to the region and the world. 

What more could any business owner want?

How about the best water and power utility around, with cheaper power than is found in any southern California community, high-quality, affordable water, and aggressive business attraction and retention programs that make choosing Anaheim a simple decision?

Our Anaheim Public Utilities department is run by the best in the business, Marcie Edwards –who also serves as our assistant city manager – but Marcie prefers the title – the Queen of all things electric – but I was told not to use that title at the state of the city speech.

And through the innovation of Marcie and her Utilities team, the best public utilities department in the nation is about to get even better.

First, we will be launching Anaheim’s new Smart Grid – a major modernization of our whole electric system.  In 2009, we were awarded one of only six competitive Federal Smart Grid Investments Grants made to California utilities for $5.8 million, plus a competitive California Energy Commission grant of over $500,000.

These Smart Grid upgrades will not only make our power system more reliable, but this technology will give residential and business users the ability to manage their energy usage, power bills, and if they choose to, save money.
 
And, as part of improving our electric system, increasing efficiencies, and promoting economic, green technologies, I am proud to announce today a public-private partnership with iCeL Systems, Inc.

Icel is a startup company that has developed a new electrical battery storage technology that can be used for small applications like batteries for cell phones, to large applications like storage of wind power that is generated at night, to then use during the day when it is needed.

Icel and Anaheim are launching a pilot project designed to enable customers to store energy, in particular solar and wind energy, in a small, compact device located at their home, and then use that power at a time of the customer’s choosing.  Ultimately, a customer will be able to control the source of their home’s energy – the customer will decide when they want to take power from the utility, from a solar power system at their home or from their own storage system.  By controlling the source of their power as well as the timing of the use of that source, a customer will be able to exercise much greater control over their own power costs.
 
New power technologies such as ICEL are helping to define the course of the entire power industry – and here in Anaheim, we are using our assets to provide our Anaheim customers with the greatest benefits from this new technology.
 
It’s all very Star Wars and while I admitted earlier to being a geek, I am not THAT much of a geek.  But I do know this, Anaheim is a city of superlatives.  We do not use the word “best” lightly, but I know that when our new Smart Grid system is online and built out over the next several years, and our ICel partnership is thriving, I am sure that along with the best business climate and best transportation system around, we will have, hands down, the best electric system in California.
 
As you can see, there is a lot to do this year.  And I want to thank you so much for being here today.

I’ll admit there is some nostalgia for me, as there should, on the first of what will be a year of lasts for me.

But nostalgia for me never lasts very long.  I’m looking forward, not back, and I see it this way. 

I was blessed by the people of Anaheim through two elections to serve two thousand, nine hundred and twenty two days as their Mayor.  I have tried to make every day as Mayor a day in which I increased freedom, increased opportunity, and enhanced the quality of life of people in this community.

I have served some 2600 of those days, and still have over 300 days left.  That means over 300 chances to move Anaheim forward.  There will be big days, like when the Council votes on the Anaheim Purchase Incentive program, and there will be small days, like a quiet Saturday where I run out to the Home Depot, and maybe chat for 5 minutes in line with a resident who recognizes me and I take a note to fix a problem they mentioned.

But I do consider every day in this job to be a blessing and an opportunity to serve.  I will not squander a single one of those days.  And being with you all here today, reliving some past successes, admiring how we all have come through tough times, and pressing forward with another full agenda on our plate to advance the causes that we hold dear, is certainly a day well spent.

Thank you for being a part of it.