Mayor Cox Echoes President Kennedy and Asks, "What Can You Do?"

On Tuesday, March 15, Chula Vista Mayor Cheryl Cox gave her first State of the City Address since being re-elected to serve another four-year term.  The State of the City Address for a local municipality doesn’t typically draw huge ratings.  It’s the stuff that politicos look forward to dissecting, future candidates poke holes in, and something that gives the every day Joe some hope and vision for the future.

Since I find myself wavering somewhere between politico and average Joe - I thought I’d provide an overview of the items that stood out the most to me.  

Overall, I was very impressed with Mayor Cox’ speech and the vision that she laid out.  Ambitious? Yes.  Can anything be achieved with such a contentious council? Maybe.  

The best part to me was her call for Chula Vista’s level of debate to “grow-up” and her echo of former President Kennedy’s call that, “We cannot be content to ask what can be done for us. Let us ask ourselves what we can do for our community.”

The Mayor presented an ambitious vision that we can choose to support or not - Some may not support the vision, and that is okay.  But participation in the process of how this vision (or some alternative) is implemented is critical to ensuring the vision is not compromised.  

Z’s State of the City Highlights

"The Centennial provides great examples of philanthropy - people giving of their time, talent, and funding to benefit our community. This summer, the Chula Vista Charitable Foundation will make its first grant awards of around $25,000. Good works are important to a growing city. I would like to challenge our residents to double next year’s award by becoming Charter Members."

This not only provides economic development through investments in local nonprofits, but also strengthens the diverse services offered to meet our local needs.  I echo Mayor Cox in challenging everyone to “Give Local” when considering gifts - for we are certain to know someone or some group who will benefit from our gift.

“I hope 2011 reflects a positive outlook with more members of our community helping others, and that each of us will commit to promoting this sentiment. Next week, Wanda Bailey, whose position as Chief Service Officer is funded by one of twenty leadership grants awarded throughout the nation, will release a service plan to help bolster community involvement in the areas of education and health and wellness. Her work has paid early dividends in the form of an additional $50,000 planning grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service to help build volunteerism.”

This is pretty cool! I honestly don’t know much about this and will be looking forward to learning more.  I’ve talked with many people who are always on  the look-out for ways to give back.  But it takes time to hunt down projects that fit our schedules and family ability.  I have a feeling that a blog write-up on this plan is a sure thing :)

“The success of our city is directly related to our student’s success and our school’s performance.  A strong education system is everyone’s business. According to UC Santa Barbara’s California Dropout Research Project, the lifetime economic losses from just one year’s worth of high school dropouts is more than $136 million for Chula Vista.  Increasing the number of high school graduates by just half would generate $68 million in economic benefits to the community and fewer acts of violent crime.”

As someone who works in education, I was so excited to hear this! A huge kudos to Mayor Cox for her forward thinking in linking the city’s success with that of its education system. It would be so easy to say this is a school district problem not a city problem - but that can’t be further from the truth. 


The economic impact of a poor education system can’t be ignored - those are huge costs!  When there aren’t enough schools - families, housing, development and businesses are impacted. Likewise the addition of new homes, cuts to recreation programs and city services impact schools.  

“Restructuring, however, comes at a human cost. Through no fault of their own, many talented people no longer work for the city, and uncertainty in the workplace is hard to endure. Since the financial crisis, blame directed towards government employees comes far too easily, and, in many cases, is misguided when the entire country is experiencing the same, or even worse, financial times. Our employees are not to blame. They have demonstrated a willingness year after year to respond to budget corrections. Contributing eight and nine percent to retirement helps fill a projected $12.5 million deficit. Just as corporations and private employers make substantial changes in their employees’ pensions, government could do no less.”

Yes! I hope that all of us fight the urge to follow the national trend of placing blame on our public employees.  Chula Vista employees are our neighbors, friends, PTA/School Site members, and more.  They are working more with less - just like the rest of us. They have experienced layoffs and dramatic cuts to pay and benefits - just like the rest of us. 

“Government should be lean, efficient and employ high performing staff.  Let me give you an example.  Public Safety is at the center of our efforts to keep neighborhoods safe, improve the economy and create jobs. Chula Vista has the lowest ratio in the county of sworn personnel to residents, yet we are a safe city, the third safest in the county. Overall crime is down 32% over five years. The Chula Vista Police Department has demonstrated that it is a model of effectiveness and efficiency.”

Another example of how our city is doing more with less --- and doing it successfully! Are there ways to be more efficient? Probably.  Are there areas where we may be too lean? Probably.  The work is most definitely not done, but let’s continue to learn from our successes and failures - together.

“The magazine that once called Chula Vista ‘boring’ now dubs our region as the ‘Best Place to Build a Business.’ California CEO magazine honored Chula Vista as one of ‘California’s Best Cities for Business.’ Going forward, and as funds become available over the next four years, I will urge the City Council to invest in business development and recruitment. Staff member Craig Ruiz attracted the Canadian renewable energy company Siliken to Chula Vista. Michael Meacham has been working with electronic devices manufacturer Leviton as they consider expanding in Chula Vista.”

Housing is rebounding, albeit slowly ... But with all these new homes - you have to wonder about the impact of all those new cars driving to jobs far away.  It’s great to hear that there will be focused efforts to bring businesses here.  


Clean Tech, which the Mayor mentions in her speech, is a niche that we are positioned to be a leader in the region. Our business development and recruitment efforts have been lacking for some time and the proof is in the pudding - so let’s do this!

“Residents can also take steps to improve services simply by spending locally. You have heard the Chula Vista Chamber of Commerce slogan, ‘Shop, Dine, and Stay Chula Vista.’ This message is critical. Unfortunately, Chula Vista’s sales tax revenues are among the lowest per capita in the county. With a conscious effort to shift our daily routines to spend more of our dollars in Chula Vista, we can be part of a solution ... Please, urge your family, friends and neighbors to Shop Local, because these dollars can support valuable projects, like recent strategies to fight graffiti.”

This is one of the easiest ways YOU can help contribute to the success of our City!  Shopping local builds our local economy and provides the money for all the community services that we have grown to love.  Check out our Favorites page to see some of our readers picks for best places to shop - and send us others that aren’t listed.

“During challenging times, it is easy to become bitter and frustrated, and yet, for every frustration, for every bit of negativity, there is an opportunity to do things differently and better than before.”

“Chula Vista has grown up and our level of debate should, too.” 

“I want the best for Chula Vista - we all do.”

“This is our hometown. Together, we are responsible for being the best stewards of the environment, our businesses, schools, parks, libraries and neighborhoods. We all have equal shares in our city’s successes or failure.” 

Yes, we all want what’s best for Chula Vista. The details of “what’s best” may be debatable but a level of debate that is respectful AND inclusive is one that will in no doubt produce Chula Vista’s best!