August 13, 2007

Coral Gables citizens voted to return Mayor Don Slesnick for his fourth term, despite facing two challengers including a former mayor.

Slesnick will be serving the first four-year mayor’s term in the city’s 80 year history until 2011. In 2005, Coral Gables voters approved to amend the City Charter to extend the mayor’s term from a two-year term to a longer term of four years.

Slesnick won by a wide margin, receiving over 56 percent of the votes cast. He is the first mayor, since the city’s inception in 1926, who will have the opportunity to hold the office for a full decade.

The Early Childhood Association of Florida has selected Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer to receive its annual “Champion of Children” Award. The award will be presented to the mayor on September 28 at a luncheon at the Association’s annual conference in Orlando.

Dyer is being honored for using funds from his office to promote high quality pre-kindergarten in Orlando. The mayor launched a pre-kindergarten initiative and doubled the number of high quality pre-kindergarten classrooms in the city. Upon taking office in March 2003, Dyer pledged to expand Pre-K opportunities to children right away. The mayor opened eight new pre-kindergarten classrooms during the 2003-2004 school year and expanded the initiative to serve children at twelve elementary schools in the 2004-2005 school year.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, joined by District Attorney Kamala Harris and Police Chief Heather Fong, signed a new law co-authored by Harris that strengthens San Francisco’s anti-gun laws on August 1.

“Now San Francisco has the toughest anti-gun laws in the country,” said Newsom. “We are committed to getting guns off the streets.”

The new law, co'sponsored by two members of the Board of Supervisors, Ross Mirkarimi and Sophie Maxwell, prohibits the possession or sale of firearms on city property, requires firearms in residences to be in a locked container or have trigger locks, and requires firearm dealers to submit an inventory to the chief of police every six months.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, August 1 in conjunction with the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhoods and Constituent Services, launched the “311 Community Challenge” to help strengthen confidence in the 311 system among residents, community leaders and stakeholders.

The 311 Community Challenge encourages participating communities to call 311 with service requests on designated issues such as graffiti, debris on wires, potholes, faded signs, street light repair and similar issues. Baltimore’s 311 systems began in 2002 and today has become a key component in the city’s Cleaner Baltimore Initiative in which residents are encouraged to report items such as overflowing trash cans and poor service with their trash removal.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar B. Goodman and Las Vegas city council gave unanimous approval to allocate federal funds to operate three tenant based rental assistance programs August 1. This is the fourth year that Las Vegas has used tenant based rental assistance to prevent homelessness. Tenant-based rental assistance (TBRA) is a subsidy program that pays the difference between fair market rent and what an applicant can afford to pay for rent, utilities and security costs. All three programs give preference to homeless individuals.

To operate the tenant-based rental assistance programs, an allocation of $267,566 will go to Help of Southern Nevada, $60,911 to Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada and $64,501 will go to the Neighborhood Services Department EVOLVE Program.

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, in response to the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, said Seattle’s comprehensive inspection and repair program is working to keep all of its 149 bridges safe and strong.

“We are a city of bridges and it is vital to keep every one of those spans safe, strong and sound,” Nickels said. “Our program for inspecting and repairing bridges is one of the best in the nation and we will continue to make the investments needed to ensure our bridges remain in good shape now and for the years to come.”

Seattle’s “Bridging the Gap” program, which voters approved last year, is providing significant investment in bridges around the city. Over the next nine years, the city is planning to spend $128 million rehabilitating, replacing and retrofitting bridges to better withstand earthquakes and an additional $21 million enhancing inspection and maintenance programs.

Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin activated a Heat Energy Plan August 4. As a result of the Heat Alert issued by the Combined Health District of Montgomery County, Dayton has activated its Heat Emergency Plan to help area residents escape the excessively hot temperatures. Residents should take immediate action to protect themselves from the dangerously high temperatures. Families and neighbors are also asked to check on elderly residents and other at-risk individuals. The city’s Heat Emergency Plan will be in place for as long as a heat alert or heat emergency is in effect for Montgomery County.