After the Tuesday, November 10 meeting of City Council, NewsLanc asked Mayor Rick Gray whether his perspective on public safety in Lancaster City had been at all impacted by his narrow 313-vote victory in last week’s election. Gray maintained that his view has not fundamentally changed, since he always recognized that “there’s certainly crime in the city, and we have to do everything we can to combat it.”

Former Mayor Charlie Smithgall had based his campaign against Gray largely on public safety related concerns.

Following the election last week, Gray characterized his win as a mandate from Lancaster’s citizens, telling the Intelligencer New Era that “if you run down the city that you want to govern, [negative campaigning is] not going to work.” Editorials from both NewsLanc.com and the New Era later asserted that Gray would do well to more closely evaluate the reasons for this meager margin of victory.

When asked on Tuesday whether the ballot results had brought about any such evaluation, Gray acknowledged that “we’re certainly looking at everything,” but again emphasized the impact of Smithgall’s negative campaigning: “Unfortunately, you can take incidences and magnify them and make people feel uncomfortable and afraid. And that’s a large part of what happened in this campaign. Those types of tactics work to drive down the vote—that’s the purpose of negative campaigning—and, to that extent, they were successful.”

Gray asserted that the City’s past and continuing support of the High Point Project and school resource officers exemplify his commitment to a variety of public safety efforts that operate behind the scenes and may not always mean the introduction of more police officers. The narrow margin of victory, Gray explained, “hasn’t changed my perspective that, if you ‘fix broken windows,’ you don’t necessarily just do it through police, you do it through housing inspections, you do it through litter cleanup, you do it through proper trash pickup—all those things.”

Tough budgetary choices ahead

Also during the City Council Meeting, Gray, in his regular report to Council, observed that City revenues for 2010 are projected as low as 2007 levels, amounting to “roughly $5.4 million in budget cuts.” Noting that, since 2005, the highest increases in spending have come from police (increasing $3.4 million or 20%) and fire services ($2.1 million; 28%), Gray said that these services would have to be severely cut for the City to avoid any tax increase.

“City Council and City residents alike must realistically consider the improbability of balancing next year’s budget without a tax increase as well as a significant draw on reserves,” Gray asserted.

The Mayor also sought to preemptively counter any claims that the City has not done enough to prepare for this shortfall:

“Some will claim that we have reached this point because we’ve invest too much money in our sidewalks, curbs, and downtown revitalization. Remember, grants and capital budget dollars have funded these improvements. None of these funds could have been spent on personnel such as police and fire. Others will argue that the City government is too bloated with bureaucrats. In fact, our workforce is more efficient and our operations leaner than ever. Only 13% of the total budget is spent on operating costs.”

Gray concluded that, in developing the 2010 budget, the City is facing three options: 1) A tax increase, 2) A decrease in personnel costs, or 3) Both. “Initial projections are such that, should we fail to take action in the short term, the long term fiscal health of the City is especially ominous,” Gray said.

At the November 25 City Council meeting, the 2010 Budget Ordinance will be introduced to Council for its first reading. Later will follow a series of public overviews and readings—the schedule for which is available on the City of Lancaster website.

Council endorses single payer health care for PA

Also during the meeting, Council unanimously voted to formally endorse PA House Bill 1660 and PA Senate Bill 400, which would introduce a unique single payer health care system to the State of Pennsylvania. The legislation, and the massive savings it proposes to bring to entities like the City of Lancaster, was discussed in considerable detail during the August 11 meeting of City Council.

The Council’s resolution will be forwarded to Governor Rendell and to members of the PA General Assembly. Similar endorsements have already been passed by the Councils of Philadelpha, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, West Reading, and Wilkes Barre.