Welcome everyone, and thank you for taking the time to be with us today.

First, I want to express my appreciation to Barbara for her leadership in 2009.  We were able to chalk up many accomplishments on your watch.  And, to all my colleagues -- Chris, Mary, Walter and Barbara -- I look forward to working with you to continue making progress and bringing our vision of what Arlington can be to life.  Despite our different styles, personalities, policy priorities and skills – we have come to work very well together and I respect each of you and the commitment you bring to this job.

We live in interesting times.  One year ago, we ushered in a new sense of hope and possibility when Barack Obama became President.  He inherited immediate economic challenges, yet made a commitment to address long-term issues.  He spoke to his commitment to tackle the big issues.   We will try and do the same.

2010 will be about sustainability – with a clear focus on our fiscal and environmental sustainability.  I define sustainability as living within our means while creating a community that can be maintained without using up our planet’s resources and threatening the future.  The most common definition of sustainability was offered by a United Nations Commission in 1987, as meeting “the needs of the present without compromising the ability of further generations to meet their own needs."

Fiscal Sustainability – The FY 2011 Budget

Though BusinessWeek has identified Arlington as the most likely jurisdiction in America to weather the recession, we currently face the most difficult fiscal challenge we have faced in decades.  Over half of our revenue comes from one source – property taxes.  While our residential property assessments have seen minor drops relative to our neighbors, we are projecting a serious reduction in our commercial property assessments this year.  By law, the tax rate applied to residential and commercial property must be the same.

This Board has already given guidance to the County Manager, in developing her proposed FY 2011 budget, that the total budget shall not exceed the current FY budget – and that any gap be covered equally by budget cuts and revenue increases.  As we did in 2009, we will ensure a safety net of basic needs for our most vulnerable residents and weigh each decision against the vision and values that we aspire to create and promote.

We have tough choices ahead, but challenges are also opportunities.  My personal philosophy is that government, if done right, is essential to shaping the community in which we live, putting the community’s values into action, and enhancing our quality of life.  I also believe that as elected officials, we have a solemn obligation to ensure that we are spending other people’s money wisely.

The economic challenge presented to us this year is an opportunity to: 

• aggressively look for efficiencies and process re-engineering;
• leverage technology to achieve cost savings and improved services;
• enhance our partnerships, particularly with the Arlington Public Schools.  Both boards are taking the lead in seeking ways to collaborate and/or consolidate services; and,
• fully engage our residents and businesses in our budget process.  In an enhanced effort to seek your creative ideas as our customers and partners, we will provide an on-line suggestion form that will deliver your ideas directly to the budget office and to the Fiscal Affairs Advisory Commission that advises this board on the proposed budget.

Environmental Sustainability – Community Energy & Sustainability Task Force

Arlington’s tradition of long-term planning has generally positioned us well for the future.  The video released last year – Arlington’s Smart Growth Journey – chronicles how our predecessors on this Board and others showed great foresight in redesigning our land use plan to complement the proposed metro system.  Many of you spend countless hours planning and re-planning the many aspects of Arlington years and decades into the future, including our General Land Use Plan, Master Transportation Plan, Storm Water Management Plan, Open Space Master Plan, 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness, and more.

The primary missing element is a community energy plan.  Arlington is a national model of smart growth. It’s time to tackle how we use energy with the same gusto.  Shortly, I will ask this Board to create, and I will chair, Arlington’s Community Energy and Sustainability (CES) Task Force.  Let me tell you why we need it, what it will do and who will participate.

For most, we take energy for granted.  We flip a switch, plug a cord in an outlet, or fill the car at the gas station. Yet there is growing concern about the sustainability of our communities and our quality of life, because of our reliance on carbon-based fuels for our energy.

For our country, there is a compelling need to stop the dependency cycle of borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Middle East while destroying our collective environment.  As our own Tom Whipple has warned, the time at which oil demand outstrips supply – peak oil – is near.

For Arlington, we have a vested interest in reducing our reliance on carbon-based fuels, becoming more energy efficient and advancing the transition to renewable sources of energy.  This will reduce our future risk of being held hostage to inevitably higher costs for these fuels and will position Arlington to be more competitive in attracting businesses and green jobs.  And Arlington must continue to do our part to protect our environment and preserve the delicate balance with nature that allows us to live and flourish on this planet and within this ecosystem.

This “green ribbon” Task Force will make recommendations for short-term and long-term goals for the reduction of Arlington’s total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as well as strategies and actions necessary to meet these goals.  We will build on our successful Arlington Initiative to Reduce Emissions (AIRE), which focuses on reducing GHG emissions from Government operations (4% of the community total), to address the other 96%.

Arlington’s investments in energy efficiency have been good business.  Our investments are paid back in five years, with net savings through lower operating costs each year thereafter.   We have learned that reducing energy consumption makes economic and environmental sense.  

Over 90% of our community’s total GHG emissions result from energy use in buildings and transportation.  In Arlington we talk, study and plan for how to use land.  We learned that land is a finite resource and we learned how to use our land most efficiently and effectively.  It is now time to do that with energy.

The Task Force will identify cutting-edge emission reductions programs and will tackle the issues of energy generation, distribution, storage and use in the greater Arlington community.  This is an ambitious task that few local governments in the United States have attempted, but, as former County Manager Ron Carlee has said, “We don’t do easy in Arlington.”  My hope is that this effort will become a model and catalyst for our region, our state and the nation.  It is the Arlington way to involve the whole community in the important decisions on our County’s future. 

Thanks in advance to my colleagues for their support of and contributions to this effort, and I will now put a motion before you to adopt the Community Energy and Sustainability Task Force Charter.

(Adopt CES Task Force Charter)

I would also like to nominate the following persons for membership on the CES Task Force.  As you will see, this is truly a blue ribbon-green ribbon Task Force.  There is an old African proverb that says, “If you want to go quickly, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.”  This is clearly an effort to go far, as reflected by the many organizations and individuals that have stepped forward to contribute to this effort.  I want to personally thank them for their willingness to serve.

(Appoint members to CES Task Force)

And the beauty of this energy efficiency work is that every one of us – individually – can work to reduce our energy consumption in our own lives, which usually saves money and enhances our health.  We will continue to provide you with ideas and opportunities throughout the year. 

Bicycle and Pedestrian Access and Safety Program

Also on the agenda for 2010, I hope to expand bicycling in Arlington.  Arlington has a longstanding commitment to become one of the best places in the nation to bicycle.  I love cycling and at different times in my life have done all my commuting on a bicycle.  I have also traveled extensively by bicycle, including many vacations, as well as a three-month ride from England to Greece.  I have always found the bicycle to be a wonderful compromise between walking and driving – as you can truly experience your surroundings while covering good distances.  Bicycling is good for one’s health, great for the environment and a sustainable form of transportation.

Our 2010 Bicycle and Pedestrian Access and Safety Program will build upon existing efforts to educate residents and commuters about the benefits of bicycling and walking, as well as to implement planned infrastructure and facility improvements --such as additional bike lanes, improved bike signage and bicycle parking facilities in major business districts.

I was impressed with the large numbers of cyclists on trips to Portland, San Francisco, Boulder and Paris.  Each year it becomes easier and safer to bicycle and walk in Arlington. Congressman Earl Blumenauer, dedicated cyclist, recently asked, “How many people, right now, are stuck in traffic on their way to ride a stationary bicycle in a health club?”  It is time for Arlingtonians to rediscover their bicycles, and I plan to lead the way.  Look for me in the bike lane!  I commit to riding my bicycle to work at least once a week throughout 2010. 

Other Priorities

There are several other priority planning efforts underway – all of which have a role in Arlington’s sustainability - that I will work to complete or advance in 2010:

• Update the Urban Forest Master Plan - that will use a new Virginia Tech tree canopy analysis to develop realistic canopy goals for commercial and residential neighborhoods.
• Develop a Natural Resources Management Plan - taking advantage of our natural resource inventory to shape County policies for preserving natural areas, including wooded parks, wetlands, rare plant communities and wildlife.
• Update the Streets Element of the Master Transportation Plan – the final chapter of our multi-year update of our master transportation plan that is critical to Arlington’s future sustainability.
• Adopt a Crystal City Plan – initiated in response to the 2005 BRAC decisions, this is another bold blueprint for the next generation of Crystal City that will benefit from all the lessons we have learned over the past decades.
• Adopt a Plan for East Falls Church – an important effort to design the area adjacent to this metro station to better serve the community. 
• Advance an Affordable Housing Plan for Columbia Pike – essential to preserve the diversity and character of Columbia Pike while recognizing the investments and revitalization that are underway as a result of our planning efforts over the past 10 years.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Arlington is a special place with talented, professional county staff and caring, engaged residents.  We are a healthy community by many key measures:

• Our public schools are some of the best in America;
• We enjoy the lowest tax and fee burden of any major jurisdiction in the metro region, and maintain a rare triple-triple A bond rating, shared by approximately 20 jurisdictions in the country;
• We are a safe community, with crime at historic lows;
• Our unemployment rate is the lowest in the region at 3.8%, and;
• We have a thriving arts community and vibrant, connected neighborhoods.

And we have a proud, progressive history of taking on big fights and big challenges… of breaking new ground and challenging the status quo.  Arlingtonians fought for racial equality and civil rights, we created a model of smart growth before that term was coined, and we led the region in our initial response to climate change.  We have the ability to do great things.  As Benjamin Franklin said, “Energy and persistence conquer all things.”

I look forward to doing some important things together in 2010.  Happy New Year.