Wow, "we're" going to be busy

So many issues, so many comments..... where does one begin?

New initiatives and key players taken directly from Mayor Slay's April 28, 2006 State of the City address to the Board of Aldermen:

• I will ask you to appropriate money to fund three new positions in the police department’s crime analysis unit.
• I propose beefing up the already successful “Most Violent Offenders” program with the addition of 20 police officers.
• Circuit Attorney’s Office will create a “Career Criminal Unit” to prosecute repeat and violent offenders.
• The U.S. Attorney’s Office will expand its efforts to prosecute career criminals and will use federal resources to target high crime areas for priority federal prosecutions.
• the State Division of Probation and Parole will work closely with St. Louis Police to identify repeat offenders who pose risks to our neighborhoods.
• The City’s Department of Human Services is developing a comprehensive prisoner re-entry program to provide neighborhood and faith based drug and alcohol treatment, access to job training and jobs, housing and social services. I am asking the Missouri General Assembly for one million dollars to test the effectiveness of this approach.
• I am asking you to appropriate additional funding to expand our very successful Drug Court.
• I propose we add three investigators to the Sex Crimes Unit so that all sex crimes are channeled to the unit. The Police Department will add an additional advocate for victims of sexual assault and sexual abuse. And, they will add a criminologist to the lab so rape kits can be processed faster.
• I am going to seek your support to add 24 officers to neighborhood patrols.
• I also propose that you fund an expansion of the Problem Properties and Nuisance Crimes Task Force to more effectively prosecute these new cases and fight problem properties.
• My office is working with the Missouri Department of Revenue on a pilot project to make it much harder to steal the tags.
• I am going to ask George Cotton, a well known community activist who organized the Vashon Men’s Initiative a year ago, to work with my Neighborhood Executive, Charles Bryson, to develop a plan to use every resource of our community to keep kids in school and off the streets. The heart of the plan will be zero tolerance to loitering, curfew violations, and truancy.
• I am also proposing we expand the successful Night Watch program. Police officers will check juvenile offenders who are under court supervision to make sure they are home at night as they should be.
• I am seeking state legislation that will require the Department of Family Services to intervene when a student misses more than 30 days of school in any semester.
• That’s why I have set a goal that by 2010, every child in the City of St. Louis — regardless of income — will have access to an after-school program. A strategic plan for a coordinated system of after-school programs will be completed this summer. I have asked ARCHS and St. Louis for Kids to take the lead to implement the plan.
• I am also proposing that we work together on a funding package to submit to voters this November to build two new recreation centers -- one in North St. Louis and one in South St. Louis.
• I am seeking authority from the Missouri General Assembly to submit a sales tax increase to voters this November to do more crime fighting.
• I am going to work with Dr. Williams and the School Board to create new career academies and schools focused on life sciences, information technologies, health care, and other New Century disciplines that will lead to great jobs.
• I propose that we add additional staff to SLATE and set a goal of doubling the number of City residents who get placed in jobs.
• I am going to create a special task force to focus on workforce development in demand-driven fields like health care and information technology.
• I will ask that you pass legislation this year to allow Project Labor Agreements; to increase the number of minority and women apprentices; and to give preference to City businesses in City government contracting.

And the final decisive quote" There are no divisive issues, or people, that should keep us from our agenda for fighting crime and poverty"

Game on...