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• Flood: Suttle announced $15 million in federal funding to secure a levee system weakened by last summer's flooding. That represents Omaha's share of $280 million Congress has approved for Missouri River levee repairs in the Omaha District of the Army Corps of Engineers.
• Jobs: Suttle said 700 businesses have opened and 8,000 jobs have been created since he took office in 2009. “Creating jobs in this economy is not easy, but it is crucial to the health of our city on so many levels.”
• Sewer overhaul: Suttle said he's working to find a way to provide residents with clean water without forcing them “to pay an unreasonable price” for the $1.7 billion, federally mandated sewer upgrade project. He plans to explore new technologies, stronger green solutions and ways to significantly cut costs.
• Libraries: Suttle said city libraries served a record number of visitors last year. He told the story of a man who lost his job and was living in a shelter. The man went to the South Omaha Library to use its computers, work with library staff on his resume and apply for jobs. “Thanks to the help he received from our public library, he is now working as a certified nursing assistant here in Omaha.”
• Parks: The city opened the 216-acre Lawrence Youngman Lake Park northwest of 192nd Street and West Dodge Road last year and made improvements to six other parks and playgrounds. The new Omaha Parks Foundation raised nearly $250,000 in private funds for future parks improvements. “Our parks have remained safe places for our children to play.”
Read Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle's State of the City address here.
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Guns and violence are in Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle's cross hairs for 2012.
Over the next few weeks, the Suttle administration will unveil a bevy of new executive orders to tackle the problem, he said in his annual State of the City speech Thursday.
“We're going to have a brand new set of tools in our toolbox” to combat violent crime, Suttle said.
Details are still being worked out, but one plan will leverage the city's building code to put pressure on landlords who rent to violent offenders. The idea is to push problem landlords into confronting problem tenants, said Suttle spokeswoman Aida Amoura.
“When they're having to follow code, they're not going to be as lax on individuals who might be involved in criminal activity,” she said.
City Councilman Ben Gray, who represents District 2 in north Omaha, said the plan is a good way to make landlords more accountable for the renters they house.
If landlords won't step in, he said, “the city will.”
“And the city will in a huge way.”
A second plan will have the city work in cooperation with the county attorney to stiffen penalties for violent crimes and repeat offenders, Amoura said.
Both ideas are still weeks away from fruition, she said.
Police Chief Alex Hayes heard the speech in person but said he couldn't comment on the specifics of either idea.
“We're always talking about new ideas and different ways to combat what's going on in the city,” he said. “Things are always changing, so you need to change with them.”
Suttle lauded efforts to remove 843 illegal guns from the streets. He said there are three keys to reducing crime — education, enforcement and employment.
In that vein, he said he planned to announce an initiative for a summer youth jobs program.
Gray said providing jobs in north and South Omaha is key to reducing crime.
Gray specifically cited summer jobs programs and said he hopes more businesses that bring on those workers will hire them permanently.
“If more businesses stepped up, then we could get more things done,” Gray said.
Speaking Thursday morning at Gallup University's campus along the Missouri River, the mayor praised the city's response to the threat posed by last summer's record floods.
The mayor also emphasized creating jobs and finding a way to ease the financial burden of a $1.7 billion sewer upgrade project.
He said he's working to find a way to provide residents with clean water without forcing them “to pay an unreasonable price.”
His speech echoed some of the rhetoric from his mayoral campaign. He spoke of job creation — a major talking point from his campaign — particularly in northeast and South Omaha.
Suttle urged city residents to do what they could to help bring jobs to the most economically stressed portions of the city.
“Creating jobs in this economy is not easy,” Suttle said. “But it is crucial to the health of our city on so many levels.
“While we've made great strides in pulling out of this economic recession, we cannot afford to slide back.”
He said a spirit of cooperation is key.
Suttle did not discuss whether he'd run again for mayor in 2013. Suttle's aides have said the mayor wishes to remain focused on present challenges.
Local dignitaries attending Thursday morning's speech included five of the seven City Council members, officials from the Army Corps of Engineers and business leaders including representatives from Gallup, the Metropolitan Entertainment and Convention Authority and young professionals.
Suttle used most of his address to outline what he saw as his administration's accomplishments in the past year.
City officials stabilized city finances, streamlined city services and launched projects to improve parks and neighborhood business districts, Suttle said.
“The people of Omaha have proven that we are our best when we are working toward a common goal,” Suttle said. “My challenge as mayor is to offer Omaha a government as good as its people.”
World-Herald staff writers Jeffrey Robb and Nancy Gaarder contributed to this report.
Contact the writer: 402-444-1068 johnny.perez@owh.com; twitter.com/PerezJr
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