One hundred days ago, I stood before you to be sworn-in as Mayor of this remarkable community. At that time I set before you my ambitions and goals for the first hundred days of my term.
I had spent the past year on Bellingham’s streets, in diners and on front porches, in public debates and in individual conversations with citizens. The year 2007 was, for me, a personal immersion in the depth of intelligence, breadth of ideas and fundamental goodwill and good intentions of this community. I want the community to know that my first hundred days in office have been an immersion in the intelligence, creativity and goodwill of the staff and elected officials here at City Hall.
In its essence, the 100-Day Plan is an act of good faith by the Pike Administration to the community. The function of the 100-Day Plan was to drive real, concrete and meaningful steps toward addressing the issues this community cares deeply about.
The five broad objectives of the 100-Day Plan were:
Clearly, none of those objectives were going to be realized in their entirety in a hundred days – with the exception of the fifth, the streamlining of the permitting process, which is discussed in the report. Rather, I challenged myself, beginning my first day in office, to make significant and consequential movement toward addressing these critical issues over the next ninety-nine days.
As we worked together to implement the 100-Day Plan, we proceeded under the guiding principle that sound policy always trumps politics. As such, I asked city staff to revise any original action steps as necessary along the way to achieve a better outcome. Moreover, I was pleased to find that a few of the projects I proposed, before I became mayor, dovetailed with initiatives that city staff were already working on. In those instances, I aligned my efforts to support the staff purpose.
I am also choosing to use this opportunity to promote the “transparent” government principle that will be central to my administration. I believe that ready accessibility to information is an important component of transparency. As such, within the 100-Day Plan Report, I am choosing to not only draw attention to the new initiatives and action steps that will be rolled out this year, but to inform the community about ongoing City efforts that speak directly to 100-Day Plan objectives.
The fact of the matter is that we, as a community, have a lot of important work to do. But it is an equal truth that we have much good work both underway, and forthcoming. I believe that we deserve to celebrate what is healthy and successful about the city hall-community partnership, even as we work to make it even better.
Not every action step of the original 100-Day Plan was fulfilled completely, as explained in this report. However, even in those instances where my reach exceeded my grasp, we have made solid and meaningful movement toward the intended outcome. If I had to do it over again, I would set the same high bar. It is also of note that in a couple instances the original action step was broadened, to be more far-reaching. Those are also discussed in detail in the report.
The effort to realize the objectives of the 100-Day Plan has been remarkable, and it is absolutely a collective achievement. This community has clearly articulated its values, and we at City Hall have collaboratively worked to manifest them.
I am honored to report to you our progress.
~ Mayor Pike
Documents and Video
Date Posted: Mar 4, 2008
