Accomplishments of Mayor Eldridge Hawkins, Jr.
and The City Council: July 2008 - May 2009

Since the new administration took office in July 2008, with the cooperation of the City Council, hard working municipal employees and concerned citizens, Mayor Hawkins and his team of directors have focused on making our city safer.

Working together, here is what they have accomplished:

Making Orange Safer

• Transformed the Police Department from top to bottom.
• Result: Reduced violent crime. 13% decrease in crime from prior year, July 1 – May 1, 2009: 1500 arrests. • Created Gun Buyback Program to take guns off the streets
• Restored confidence of federal, state, and county law enforcement in Orange Police resulting in close cooperation and large seizures of drugs and guns
• Implemented a Child Internet Safety Program
• Monitoring known crime “hot spots” as result of complaints from citizens and council members
• Established Special Police Officers to increase police presence on streets
• Promoted gang awareness through presentations to students and parents
• Establishing Highland Train Station as a police substation
• Created Police partnership with Board of Education to make schools safer
• Standardized a complaint system for citizen and council members and assigned a captain to handle complaints
• Cross trained detectives to take on additional police duties making police more cost-efficient
• Developing plans for drug court and community service for minor offenses
• Working with neighboring communities on mutual problems that occur at borders
• Updating the City of Orange Emergency Operating Plan for dealing with all types of Disasters.
• Received grant from the Federal Emergency Management Office for Fire Safety Equipment including protective gear and breathing apparatus to protect firefighters entering a burning building 
• Improved relationship between citizens and police through community policing
• Established Adopt a School, Adopt a Street, Adopt a Church in which officers voluntarily
  participate in community affairs
• Created executive internship program for Orange High School students focusing on the managerial
  and organizational side of police work
• Continued Junior Police Academy program for children in the City and had a successful graduation class
• Created Operation Park and Walk, where officers park their cars and walk patrols along Main Street and other major thoroughfares and “Hot Spots” increasing police presence
• Established liason with different ethnic groups to further mutual understanding.
• Energized neighborhood Police Community Council meetings with regular attendance of Police Director and top police officials improving communication with community
• Created Open access to the public, in person, by telephone, by letter and by email
• Established an Open Door Policy encouraging all police employees to discuss their concerns and ideas
• Promoted first Haitian police supervisor and first Hispanic female supervisor
• Interviewed every employee to determine their skills and how they best benefit Police Department
• Established Newsletter to inform the community of police activity and interactions
• Expanded Crime Watch meetings and encouraged greater membership and activities

Improving Quality of Life and Health

• Created Quality of Life Task Force to coordinate city departments in dealing with chronic fire, maintenance and sanitation code violations that threaten health and safety:
• Demolished long-standing blighted properties that were unattractive and hazardous
• Issued numerous fire and code violation notices to remove health and safety hazards involving electrical, plumbing, infestation, and fire exit regulations
• Conducted comprehensive site inspections of more than 100 local businesses to ensure compliance with business licensing, zoning, fire, and maintenance code requirements.
• Placed liens on private properties that required the use of municipal labor and resources to clean up debris and plant overgrowth
• Carried out more quality of life and prostitution arrests since July 1 last three years combined
• Instituted a rapid response “pot hole repair crew”
• Conducted a broad array of recreational programs consisting of active passive, and athletic pursuits geared toward meeting the physical fitness needs for all segments of the community’s population.
• Created Health Alliance to bring medical services directly into senior citizen housing
• Arranged for Fire Department to respond to first aid calls in order to reduce response time

Providing More in Services at Lower Cost to Taxpayers

• Conducted the first systematic and fair evaluation of the performance of employees to improve productivity
• Negotiated a contract including give-backs with firefighters who had worked 3 years with no contract
• Reorganized Law Department to bring more legal work in-house and reduce use of outside legal counsel
• Restructured Public Works Department to include a full-time Municipal Engineer reducing reliance on outside engineering contractors.
• Working with neighboring communities, Board of Education, and other levels of government to identify and implement opportunities for shared or merged services and purchasing
• Became one of first municipalities to identify infrastructure, environmental, road and other projects that could be funded through the federal economic recovery program
• Managed review of FY 2009 Introduced Budget to recommend reductions of approximately 12%
• Pursuing reassessment to repair the imbalance between residential and commercial property values caused by revaluation when home property values were at their highest. Revaluation forced homeowners to pay more than their fair share of property taxes. Reassessment could lower property taxes for homeowners by thousands of dollars
• Moving fire dispatch system to a shared facility at UMDNJ Hospital saving $150,000 per year
• Applied for and received federal recovery grants and earmarks for neighborhood stabilization, safety, and water infrastructure
• Obtained additional Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding for demolition or boarding up and securing of vacant  blighted, abandoned properties 
• Won more funding for first time home buyers to assist with down payment and closing costs
• Improved process for cleaning up private properties and paying for the clean-ups with clear accounting of costs and placement of liens
• Working with Essex County to explore revenue opportunities at Orange Reservoir

Increasing Citizen Involvement, Improving Communications

• Conducted public forums before taking office to gather citizens input on priorities and services
• Expanded the use and delivery of programming for the City’s Channel 35 Community Access Television Station
• Initiated televising of City Council Meetings and Public Forums
• Instituted monthly Community Forums with department directors present to keep residents and
  businesses better informed and encourage citizen participation.
• Topics have included public safety, foreclosures, taxes, Main St. Revitalization, and Property Tax Relief
• Developed Email Notification System to inform citizens of public events, celebrations, public issues, recreation, health and other services, etc.
• Transformed and redesigned municipal website to add video on demand of council and other public meetings and events, enable citizen complaints and requests for action, opinion surveys on public issues
• Created bilingual lobby reception and information area to connect citizens with the services they need
• Replaced computerized phone call answering with live, friendly human response to phone inquiries
• Launched volunteerism initiative modeled on President Obama’s Organizing for America to involve
  citizens in working for a better community
• Created community relations division in Fire Department to improve relationship with community

Spurring Redevelopment to Increase Tax Base, Hold Down Property Taxes and Revitalize Local Economy

• Broke the paralysis that for years blocked redevelopment. A state environmental requirement required a new water pumping station before the state would allow permits for new development. With the cooperation of City Council, the logjam was broken and construction begun.
• Launched a reinvigorated Main Street economic development campaign aimed at marketing, business retention and attraction to spur new development and help existing businesses to grow and thrive.
• Won state approval of Orange as a “Transit Village” which will spur residential and commercial
  development and beautification around our train stations.
• Developed comprehensive program to prevent foreclosures and protect tax base during national recession
• Creating public-private partnership to provide loans and technical assistance to new and struggling Orange businesses at no cost to taxpayers
• Worked closely with Housing Authority officials on plans to close the Walter G. Alexander Public Housing Project and relocate tenants as the first step in future redevelopment of the area.
• Doubled UEZ funding for  projects by aggressively and strategically new businesses to the UEZ program
• Cleaned up backlog of over $2M in past reimbursement payments from the state UEZ Authority