Editor's note: The Medford Chamber of Commerce hosted their annual State of the City luncheon on Thursday, Oct. 27. The following is the address given by Mayor Stephanie M. Burke, which was submitted to the Transcript by Burke's office.

Good afternoon,

I’d like to begin by thanking the Chamber of Commerce for hosting this wonderful luncheon as well as everyone in this room for being present today. You are here today because of your commitment to this community and I am proud to serve as your Mayor as we work together to invest in the future of Medford.

We have made great progress in just 10 months; from signing onto the Community Compact with the Lieutenant Governor, to attending several ribbon cuttings of new businesses and organizations throughout the City; we have been involved from the start and will facilitate initiatives such as: development, revitalization, public safety enhancements and so much more.

Once elected, I assembled three transition teams: Business and Economic Development, Cultural Affairs and Recreation, and Constituent Services. The volunteers on the Teams spent countless hours meeting with businesses, community groups and constituents; the Chair of each subcommittee provided a report detailing areas of concern and processes to consider moving forward.

Specifically, the Business and Economic Development Transition Team conducted community meetings in five key business districts and engaged over 250 participants. Those participants throughout our community, some within this room, contributed ideas about desired changes, upgrades and initiatives. The Primary recommendation within their report-aptly named Envision Medford, is that the City create an integrated businesses and growth focus for development throughout Medford.

I recognize how essential the businesses are within our community and the impact you have on the quality of life in our community.

Based on early recommendations from the Transition Teams, one of the first initiatives was to restructure the Office of the Mayor. The office now has assigned roles for key staff members all with the goal of providing exceptional customer service. With a reduced overall executive budget, we focused on the following:

Creating Job Descriptions that focus on business and cultural needs throughout the community as well as community relations, which includes the liaison between the Mayor’s Office and the City CounciThe business and cultural liaison, held by Allie Fiske who is here today, has been extremely involved with the Chamber of Commerce by attending numerous Governmental Affairs meetings over the past several months and cultivating a strong relationship in order to collaborate on mutually beneficial efforts.

We want every business to be successful and we want you to partner with the City in order to reach the utmost potential. To this end, we have created the “How to do Business Guide”. Depending on the type of business, this guide directs individuals to appropriate departments at City Hall, describes permitting processes, and provides individuals with links to online applications and other web resources.

In addition to Allie’s efforts, my Chief of Staff Jennifer Dever Wood, our Building Commissioner Paul Mochi, and Code Enforcement Officer John Bavuso attended the Government Affairs Committee Meeting last night hosted by Dominic Camara.The feedback received brings light to how we can work together to streamline processes and to advance our knowledge of current issues within the business districts.

Constituent services

We have learned from the private sector how important it is to engage with people that need assistance from City Hall. In an effort to improve customer service within City Hall for businesses as well as residents, all City Hall employees were required to participate in customer service training which engaged employees in important dialog and guidance regarding best practices in serving the public. I also created the Constituent Liaison in my office, Lauren Feltch, to assist all.

We have signed an agreement for a new phone system. The system will include voicemail and an efficient intercom system to allow City Hall to streamline its communication and respond to important inquiries in a timely manner.

In order to make City Hall more responsive: we launched SeeClickFix. This is a communications platform for citizens to report non-emergency issues, and the city to track, manage, and reply--ultimately making communities better through transparency, collaboration, and cooperation. 1189 issues have been closed since go-live in March! This system, will continue to be monitored and tweaked in the future.

We have also made significant improvements to the parking system.

We have negotiated a reduction in the Park Mobile phone app fee to $0.05 for Medford residents and $0.30 cents for Non- Medford residents. This is a great tool to allow for accessibility at your fingertips.

We also added a senior citizen parking permit for seniors 65 and older that can be purchased for $25. We have heard great responses by our seniors who have acquired this pass.

The Business add-on program is another feature, allowing any business that signs up with Park Medford to add additional time to the meters/kiosks for their customers if needed. Again, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive from businesses utilizing this.

We have also placed new color monitor kiosks in test locations throughout the city and are awaiting the results from Park Medford’s survey on the “experience” at the Kiosk.

Lastly, we will be introducing the Park Medford card in November, this prepaid card, similar to a Charlie Card, will have your license plate loaded into the card allowing for a quicker time at the kiosk!

We launched the Senior Work-Off Abatement Program just two short weeks ago. This program matches the skills of seniors living in Medford with the needs of departments in City Hall. These individuals will provide essential support to the departments and improve staff’s ability to provide adequate customer service. One of the many job positions is the role of “greeter” at City Hall to assist all who enter.

The Council on Aging went through substantial renovations over the past few months and Pam Kelly, Director of the Council on Aging, did a wonderful job making necessary accommodations for our seniors. Just adjacent to the Senior Center is home of the Krystle Campbell Peace Garden, which we just recently unveiled with the help of the state funding, Dagle Electric, Lauren DiLorenzo - our Director of Community Development - and several others.

Public Works

Under the leadership of Brian Kerins, DPW Commissioner, we are now aiming to continue street sweeping throughout the fall and depending on snow events, there will be a sweeper out every day during winter months to maintain the squares and main arteries.

Our forestry division removed 205 dead or diseased trees and pruned 225 city trees as well as removed 93 tree stumps. We were also awarded Tree City USA status for the 18th consecutive year and Tree City USA Growth Award for the 6th consecutive year.

We just recently launched an adopt-a-site program allowing residents or businesses to adopt an area of land to plant and maintain in order to beautify our street corners and intersections.

Arts/culture

While in the square you may notice the new banners along the light poles which are a great cultural addition to the Square. It highlights our history that includes Amelia Earhart and much more.

The Chevalier Theatre is a staple in our community and adds tremendous value in cultural events, musical performances and much more. The Commission released a RFP for Management of the Theatre and recently received one response. It is being evaluated in November.

After a recent cultural issue arose concerning the announcement of Hijab Day at Medford High, the Diversity Office initiated an open community forum at Medford High and then at Tufts University. The conversation was a great way to hear from students that are part of the Arabic club, leaders within our community, public safety officials and residents to discuss issues differing cultures might be facing and how to overcome these challenges. We changed a negative experience into a positive outcome.

We are working to create linguistic capability to have Connect CTY reach out to the community via phone and email in 11 different languages

Building partnerships

Establishing and strengthening relationships with Tufts University is an ongoing process which I am thrilled to be involved in. Rocco DiRico and Barbara Rubel are wonderful assets of the community to collaborate with in order to better connect students to our arts and culture events, farmer’s markets, Patriots Day and our goal of revitalizing Medford Square. By embracing the Town/Gown relationship, we will attract more students to Medford as opposed to Davis Square and other local areas.

I have met with President Monaco from Tufts University regarding growth and development within the City and how we can continue to support one another.

Most recently, I met with a wonderful group of students this week in a Political Science class at Tufts where we had a great conversation about municipal government, economic development, transportation, and more.

Marketing for Medford businesses was another recommendation made in the report. We became aware of a company, CGI Communications, which offers great marketing strategies. The company understands the importance that marketing and advertising offer to businesses within a community and the role technology plays in sending that message is key. It also promotes the role that the City of Medford and its key assets have on the business environment. CGI Communications came to Medford last week and I hope many of you got involved!

Speaking of City Assets, I am happy to announce that construction is underway at City Hall to make necessary improvements to the roof, handicap accessibility, restrooms and other needed modifications to this beautiful WPA building. It will be turning 80 in 2017 and we want to show her off in all of her glory.

We also began the grant process in April 2016 for the Public Library. We have hired and architect to assist in completing the grant that is due in January. We will be notified in July 2017 if approved. The library held community focus groups and received 778 responses to an online survey in May, and a building plan was created and accepted by the MBLC in June.

Community compact

In March we signed onto the Lieutenant Governor’s Community Compact. We signed onto three agreements: IT Study for the City; Complete Streets and our third being Medford Square Revitalization.

Based on our work on Complete Streets we were awarded a $400,000 grant from the State to focus on 6 specific areas of the City for reconfiguration of intersections, pedestrian signals, signage and crosswalk enhancements.

This concept provides equal weight to all modes of transportation, walking, biking, wheelchairs, as well as motor vehicles. This program allows businesses within our square to benefit from safety enhancements for pedestrians and cyclists along our roadways.

For the Medford Square Revitalization process, we amassed $90,000 in grant money to spearhead the review with fresh eyes. Many of you attended the meeting at City Hall and provided great input and feedback, but also expressed the fact that we have been down this road before. I am committed to this process and am announcing the next public session for December 7.

While this process takes its natural course, we are continuing to invest in Medford Square and I am proud to announce that we have received a $250,000 grant from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund for a complete redo to the current “Bus Shelter area” at River Street and Riverside Avenue in Medford Square. The project involves designing and construction of a new recreational and gathering space for all our citizens. It is another great step towards revitalizing Medford Square.

However, all of this work could not be completed without the dedicated people that work for this city and the amazing people that volunteer their time to make Medford a destination to work, live and play. I want to recognize some of the Department Head’s that are here today: Jennifer Dever, Chief of Staff; Lauren DiLorenzo, Director of the Office of Community Development; Aleesha Nunley, Director of Finance and Audit; Ann Marie Irwin, City Treasurer/Collector; Paul Mochi, Building Commissioner; Diane McLeod, Diversity Director and Chief Leo Sacco.

Highlights of some of these and others accomplishments include:

1,512 building permits, 658 plumbing permits and 436 gas permits being issued this year. Thank you Paul.$1.4 million collected from delinquent tax title accounts ($717,000 same time last year). Thank you Ann MarieImplementation of the Community Preservation Act due to the community outreach by both Assessor Ed O’Neil & Treasurer Irwin$250,000 grant from the Stanton Foundation to initiate the Dog Park in Riverbend Park. Great work by Alicia and Dogs4Medford!$125,000 grant from Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management for Gravel Wetlands, the first public green storm water infrastructure in the City.$250,000 from Mass DOER to upgrade lighting to LED throughout the schools.Attaining the ranking of Level II School system is an amazing accomplishment in this urban, diverse community. Thank you to the superintendent, his team and all the members our educational system.

Kudos to our Board of Health for receipt of a 7 year, $100,000 per year grant from the Massachusetts DPH Bureau of Substance Abuse to provide Massachusetts Opioid Abuse Prevention Collaborative services for six cities and towns in our area. We all understand the impact this drug has on our society and we are making every effort to raise awareness, erase the stigma and provide assistance for those suffering from addiction and well as support for the families.

Lastly, I would be remiss not to mention the fact that a Draft 5-year Capital Plan was presented to the City Council during September. The highlights include $20 million in funding for a new, state of the art Police Station. Every day, our officers put on their uniforms to serve and protect this community. The unknown of how the day will end is always an uncertainty. Please join with me to raise the respect for our men and women in Blue.

And let us not forget the firefighters that run to and not from in the protection of life and property. We are a better community because of the dedication these individuals have.

In conclusion, because of our collaborative efforts, more businesses, large and small, are coming to Medford, and I hope to see new businesses continually popping up all over our squares, but we must not forget our dedicated business owners who have continued to invest in this City for many years - we want to be inclusive in this process. I am hopeful that through great partnership we can see great success. I look forward to overcoming obstacles, accomplishing initiatives and surpassing the occasional doubt.

I want to conclude by thanking the Chamber for the wonderful working relationship that we enjoy together. Your leadership and input on the array of business, economic, and community related issues is always welcomed and truly appreciated.