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City Showcase Highlights Successful City Programs
by Larry Foxman
 This is the last part of a series about cities featured during the City Showcase at the Congress of Cities in New Orleans.
Participants at the 2007 Congress of Cities in New Orleans had the opportunity to learn about unique city programs from across the country through the City Showcase. Visitors to the City Showcase were able to talk one-on-one with city representatives to learn and share knowledge about the programs and ideas being displayed.
Each of the cities chosen to participate in the City Showcase demonstrated successful program development in a variety of areas of interest to elected officials and city staff. More city programs will be presented at the 2008 City Showcase at the Congress of Cities in Orlando, Fla.
The following is a partial list of City Showcase participants with descriptions; the rest were featured in the January 21 and February 11 issues of Nation’s Cities Weekly.
Neighborhood Beautification
Canton, Ohio’s Beautify A Neighborhood: Ban Litter Program established a public/private partnership aimed at fostering neighborhood beautification through a dedication of public resources to neighborhood groups willing to assist the city in this process. The Ban Litter program establishes concrete scheduled dates for the city and neighborhood groups to partner to clean up one neighborhood at a time. The Street Department administers the program and works with neighborhood organizations to set the dates for their needs. The Street Department cleans the neighborhood areas on select dates, and notifies any homeowners if additional steps need to be taken on their properties. Contact Kevin Monroe at (330) 489-3030 or kamonroe@ci.canton.oh.us.
The El Centro, Calif., Graffiti Removal Program is a joint venture between the city’s redevelopment agency and police department and the county’s probation department. After realizing that simply covering the large amount of graffiti in El Centro was ineffective, the redevelopment agency enlisted the help of both the police department and the probation department to involve juvenile offenders to remove graffiti that had potentially been painted by themselves or their friends. Soon, a Graffiti Abatement and Crime Prevention Team was formed, comprised of two officers with backgrounds dealing with juveniles, who work at tracking and identifying the offenders. Contact Marcela Piedra at (760) 337-4543 or mpiedra@cityofelcentro.org.
The Junction City, Kan., Blight Team encourages citizen action to clean up deteriorating neighborhoods through citizen education and one-on-one involvement with a police department team assigned to enforce city blight ordinances, resulting in clean, safe neighborhoods and community pride. The program started by addressing run-down buildings, unmowed grass and trash in several areas of the city, and has grown to also include unkempt sidewalks and untrimmed trees that block sidewalks and streets. The annual budget for the Blight Team is $114,000, which includes salaries and vehicle maintenance. Contact Rod Barnes at (785) 238-3103 or rod.barnes@jcks.com.
Clean Sweep in Rochester, N.Y., is a small, cost-effective, but very powerful way to create impact on the community’s streets that suffer from a combination of discouraged homeowners and vacant properties. The city’s department of environmental services provided the role of project management, the city’s Neighborhood Empowerment Teams became host sites, and development agents and the city turned to local foundations and banking institutions to sponsor a marketing campaign. This effort resulted in more than 3,100 volunteers and 400 city staff members working more than six weeks to accomplish what would have taken more than two years and three times the expense using traditional management methods. Contact Paul Holahan at (585) 428-6855 or holahanp@cityofrochester.gov.
Police and Public Safety
The Family Assistance Coalition Team (FACT) program in Brunswick, Ohio, is a collaboration of community agencies actively working to improve the health and well being of residents by increasing communication and response protocols for families in crisis. FACT aims to decrease the number of domestic violence incidents in the community by coordinating professional treatment for family violence and support services such as emergency shelters, protection orders, housing programs, career guidance, and other needed family issues. The program’s centralized coordination allows intervention before a violent domestic dispute occurs, and has resulted in a 35 percent reduction in domestic violence. The Brunswick FACT program started with a $15,000 grant and has the capability of saving the city up to $170,000 per family under its assistance. Contact Police Chief Carl DeForest at (330) 225-9111 or deforest@brunswick.oh.us.
Originating in Hastings, Neb., the Ron Gardner Meth Coalition Project (RGMCP) is a community-based effort to fight methamphetamine usage by providing centralized leadership that integrates community leaders and their respective fields of expertise — law enforcement, education, health care and economic development — through monthly meetings to plan and implement activities to fight methamphetamine infiltration. The coalition was started with a $10,000 grant and various pro-bono services, and has an annual budget of $40,000. Outcomes are expected to be fewer prison and legal system costs, less theft, higher rate of economic development, property value retention and health care savings. Contact John Ferrone at (402) 462-0244 or jferrone@alltel.net.
The Vehicle Impoundment Program in Peoria, Ill., was expanded to incorporate the city’s noise ordinance in response to complaints the police department and city council members were receiving from citizens. From 2004 to 2006, the Peoria Police Department issued 1,411 loud music ordinance citations at $225 each, totaling $317,475 in revenue for the city. The problem was that 80 percent of the individuals receiving tickets refused to show up in court. The solution was to link the major consequence of impoundment of vehicles to individuals whose music could be heard from 75 feet away or more. Each noise offense results in towing, impoundment and higher penalty fees. In 2007 alone, the city has impounded 766 vehicles. Since the program started in June 2006, the city has realized revenues of $277,050. Contact Police Sergeant Michael Eddlemon at (309) 472-2323 or meddlemon@ci.peoria.il.us.
Youth
In a unique pairing not seen in many cities, the Los Gatos, Calif., Youth Commission has been staffed by the Los Gatos/Monte Sereno Police Department, a relationship that has fostered strong understanding and acceptance between youth and police, and has done much to improve youth-police, and youth-community relations. The police department has been able to educate, inform and guide the youth on law enforcement, as well as other important community issues. The youth commission meets with the town council twice a year to discuss issues important to the youth in the community. The youth commission’s close communication with the town council as an advisory board, rather than an events-based group, creates a sense of legitimacy and allows the youth commission to better serve the community. Contact Police Chief Scott Seaman at (408) 354-6840 or sseaman@losgatosca.gov.
The Youth Bureau Step Up! Youth Development Program in White Plains, N.Y., provides a community mobilization model to address the needs of the most at-risk African-American and Hispanic male youth. Step Up! focuses on improving police-youth interactions, reducing arrests and improving educational and employment outcomes. The program uses three components to meet these objectives: a steering committee made up of parents, faith community members, schools and community agencies; non-traditional outreach and case management; and youth-police training. More than 75 percent of Step Up!’s participants received jobs through the program, and crimes committed by young people under the age of 21 has decreased 40 percent in the city. Contact Frank Williams at (914) 422-1378 or fwill@ci.white-plains.ny.us.
2008 City Showcase
Applications for the 2008 City Showcase in Orlando, November 11-15, will be available in the spring. Cities interested in applying should contact Larry Foxman at (202) 626-3137 or foxman@nlc.org.
Details: Information on these outstanding City Showcase programs can be found in the City Practices Online Database on the NLC website by clicking here or by contacting the Municipal Reference Service at (202) 626-3130 or mrs@nlc.org. The City Practices Database lists more than 6,000 local government programs.
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