Mayor William James Inaugural Address
(Reporter\’s Note) Mayor James (right in photo)delivered his message to the governing body and members of the public at Thursday (January 4) Reorganization meeting.
\”It is a great honor to be standing in front of you this evening as your newly elected Mayor.
The first thing I think is important for me to do, is to on behalf of myself and the citizens of Gloucester City Thank Former Mayor Thomas Kilcourse for his many years of dedication and service to our community. I’d also like to thank and commend Patrick Keating and Raymond Coxe for their service and further thank the both of them and Ron Pollander for a clean campaign in the past November Election.
Next, I’d like to recognize and thank New Jersey State Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts for taking time from his busy schedule to attend tonight’s ceremonies and administer the oath of office. Thank You Mr. Speaker
I‘d like to recognize – Retired Freeholder – Our very own Tom Gurick,
Newly elected Camden County Sheriff Chuck Billingham, Councilman Tom McAdams of Brooklawn
I feel it is important for everyone here, to know, that the work has already begun and that Jay, Nick, Bill, Rocky, Jean, Elsie and I have been working on this transition of government for the past month.
Our objectives are simple.
Initially we intend to better communicate with you exactly what is going on within our town and within our city government.
Secondary but equally as important is, with Citizen Advisory Committees, we hope to address the major issues that exist now within our community and those situations that we will encounter in the future. We as your government officials are humble enough to know, that we do not have all the answers and we will need your help and input in the development of innovative problem solving techniques to address these situations.
As you will see within the very near future, a lot of changes have been made already. These changes were not made merely for the sake of change but instead were made after careful consideration and discussion and because at this particular time in Gloucester City’s History, we felt, they were necessary.
More changes are expected in the future and from this point on you will be informed of them ahead of time and you will be informed as to the reasoning behind those changes.
All is not well in Gloucester City and each and every day I come to find new challenges directly before us.
This administration has inherited a long awaited and slowly moving redevelopment of our waterfront,
We’ve inherited the need for a new water treatment facility,
We’ve inherited a large debt service due to an antiquated infrastructure and the need to further improve the infrastructure to address the future needs of redevelopment.
We’ve inherited as every municipality has, the exorbitant rise in cost for employee health insurance and other operational related insurances.
We’ve inherited several instances of costly litigation.
We’ve inherited a loss of 70 residential tax ratables through a now stalled School Construction project.
We’ve inherited the possible failure and or the impossibility of the state to live up to it’s obligations to build the new school.
We’ve inherited declining neighborhoods; empty storefronts and an over worked and understaffed Housing Department.
We’ve inherited the request to expand the WaWa
We’ve inherited the stigma and the associated problems of being labeled an Abbott District
We’ve inherited the need to develop relationships with other municipalities related to shared services and consolidated purchasing.
We’ve inherited a loss in Emergency Services revenue of over $120,000 due to what we believe to be a contract signed with an incompetent collection agency.
We’ve inherited a Marina that remains half filled with only 50 percent water and electric supplied and $40,000 a year in costs to the taxpayer for operation.
This Marina was also the subject of a 5-year litigation action, which was just settled out of court at a cost to taxpayers of $100,000.
We’ve inherited An Urban Enterprise Designation accompanied by the responsibility to see that the monies acquired through the UEZ are spent wisely with our eyes directly upon the impact of these monies on the business community of the future.
We’ve lastly, as far as I know, have inherited approximately 2000 rental units within our community that offers only a little over 4,000 housing opportunities.
I’m sure everyone here tonight could probably at least add one more item to the list of things that need to be addressed and needless to say this list alone represents a pretty daunting task, especially for a retired cop, a boilermaker, a Site Development Coordinator and 4 experienced councilpersons.
But as I said before we are humble enough to know we can not go it alone, We know that we are going to need the help of each and every one of you to help us push ahead into the future and to hopefully someday, excel as a community together.
The first thing we are going to do in this regard is to surround ourselves with good competent individuals. It has been proven throughout history that when an individual or group accomplishes this feat that success and good fortune are sure to follow.
In closing I can only promise you two things, that we will continue to hold the high ground to stop the decline of our neighborhoods and we will continue to fight the good fight to give Gloucester City Government back to the people it represents. Each and everyone of us, as your elected officials has the inherent Bipartisan responsibility to serve you to the best of our ability and I intend to embrace this ideal. The November Election is over; it’s time to move on.\”