Fiscal Stability, Responsibility and Accountability

• Wilmington's Financial Freedom/Search for New Revenue Streams
• Professional Management and Control of the City's Operating Budget Eliminating a Inherited Deficit
• Internal Fiscal, Programming and Service Delivery Monitoring
• Independent Review of the Division of Revenue
• Executive Order on Grant Funding
• Dismissal of Former Auditor and Hiring of New, Highly Qualified City Auditor
• Resolution of 16 Most Troublesome Lawsuits
• Bond Issue/Bond Refinancing (saving City nearly $1 million)
• Union Negotiations/Labor Management Relations
• The Suburban Street Fund/Reinstitution of Regularly Scheduled Street Maintenance
• New Internal Computer System
• New Internal and External Telephone System
• Review of City Boards and Commissions
• The Wilmingtonians Disbanded

Public Safety

• Safety and Security of Citizens in the Post 9/11 Era
• Implementation of Citywide Emergency Siren/Verbal Notification System
• Citywide Distribution of Disaster Preparedness Handbook
• Emergency Management of Drought, Snow, Residential Explosion and Hurricane
• Redeployment of Police Department/Centralized Command/Elimination of Mini-Stations
• Creation of Neighborhood/Community Police Officer Sectors Specialists (for street patrols, to attend community meetings, and available to citizens by cell phone)
• Improved WPD Response Time to Incidents
• Increased the Drug Investigation Unit from 7 to 23 Officers
• Neighborhood Drug and Fugitive Sweeps
• Neighborhood Corner Deployment Units (jump-out squads)
• Annual Special Summer (May through August, 2002, 2003, 2004) Deployment Police Patrols (overlapping shifts/more officers per shift)
• Increased the Authorized Strength of the WPD by 10 Officers Through Partnerships with Private and Public Entities (WHA, Private apartment complex and two school districts are providing multi-year funding)
• Neighborhood Camera Systems/Hilltop (6 cameras) and Eastside (10 cameras)
• Downtown Video Safety Partnership Program (25 cameras)
• New State Law Increasing Penalties for Juveniles Convicted of 1st Degree Armed Robbery and Assault and Cases Heard in Superior Court
• New City and State Laws Prohibiting the Possession and Use of Scooters
• New City Law Prohibiting the Possession and Use of Paint Ball Guns
• Downtown Nuisance Crime Initiative (WPD, Downtown Visions, DelDOT, Parcels Inc., and Private Business Support
• Implementation and Expansion of Red Light Video Safety Program from 10 to 15 Cameras (63% drop in red light violations since 2001)

Preserving & Strengthening Wilmington's Neighborhoods

• Initiating/Supporting Important Trends of New Residential Living and Business Growth and Development
• Mayor's Vision Plan for Wilmington
• Established City's First Quality Control Program to Identify and Solve Quality of Life Issues and Concerns
• Initiation of Residential Improvement and Stabilization Effort (RISE)
• Creating New Neighborhoods, Kirkwood Manor and Kirkwood Manor II, Village of Eastlake, Shipley Run, Southbridge, Christina Landing
• Vacant Property Giveaway Program
• Vacant Property Registration Fee Program (680 rehabilitation permits issued by the City since the start of the program)
• Vacant Property Giveaway Program
• Vacant Property Demolition Program
• Quality Rental Housing Initiative (landlords/tenants)
• Façade Improvement Program
• Corner Property Redevelopment Incentive Program ($35,000 per property)
• Redirecting the Use of Limited CDBG Federal Housing Funds (funds now used only for housing projects)
• WHA Property Disposition Program (20 former vacant properties being converted to owner/occupied homes)
• The Hilltop Initiative
• Improved Citing of Code Violations to Include Corporations
• CSX Sidewalks and Curbs and Legal Action on CSX Bridges
• Improved Snow Removal (adapted equipment for smaller streets)
• Increased Pot Hole Repairs (Quick-Fix Program, December through March)
• Graffiti Removal Program (more than 1,700 sites cleaned throughout the City)
• Improved Abandoned Vehicle Removal Efforts (2,300 abandoned or untagged vehicles removed in past four years)
• Removal of Drug 'Marker' Shoes from Overhead Wires
• Resumption of Regular, Annual Schedule of Maintenance for Resurfacing of City Streets (process had been interrupted by the Suburban Street Fun scandal)
• New Equipment for Street Cleaning/More Coordinated Approach to Annual Operation Clean Sweep
• Little Italy Planters
• Beautification of Martin Luther King Boulevard
• City Tree Inventory
• Continual Contractual Agreement with Delaware Center for Horticulture for Street and Neighborhood Beautification

Downtown/Riverfront Residential & Business Development

• Residential/Business Development Incentive Program
• Creation of 1,200 New Jobs in Wilmington
• Advantage Wilmington Business Marketing Program
• Residences at Rodney Square (residential living)
• Ships Tavern Residential, Retail and Parking Garage (residential living)
• Nemours Building (residential living)
• Downtown Farmers Market
• Downtown Trolley
• Downtown Retail Planning and Development
• AAA Mid-Atlantic Relocates to Wilmington from Philadelphia
• Advance Publishing Inc., Relocates Offices to Wilmington from New York
• Health Core Moves to Wilmington from New Castle
• ING Expansion to former Chase Building
• The Renaissance Center (former Dry Goods Site)
• Signature 22- Story Skyscraper at 2nd and King Streets
• Market Street Manor (residential/retail complex between 4th and 5th on Market Street)
• Small Business Development/Expansion Through WEDCO
• New Majority Business Development Conference
• Delaware Franchise Showcase
• Expansion and Addition of Residential Component of Delaware College of Art and Design
• Expansion of Delaware State University Downtown Campus
• Conversion of Market Street Mall to Pedestrian and Vehicular Retail Spine
• New Streetscape Projects
• Wilmington Initiatives (street, roadway and transportation improvements)

Environmental and Health Issues

• Revised CSO Long-Term Control Plan
• Assessment and Remediation of Former Tannery Sites
• Brownfields Initiatives for City Parks, AAA Mid-Atlantic Site, Bank One Data Center
• South Wilmington Area Management Plan
• Odor Study of Wastewater Treatment Plant
• Healthy Wilmington 2010
• KIDS COUNT Report for Wilmington

Education

• Wilmington Early Care and Education Council (WECEC)
• Opening of Day Care Provider/Teacher Resource Center at Shortlidge
• KIDS COUNT Report for Wilmington
• Development and Expansion of Downtown Colleges and Universities
• Christina School District Plan for a City High School and Administrative Office Relocation
• Opening of Nativity Prep School for Urban Youth

Constituent Services

• Computerized Complaint Tracking System
• 'City Help' E-Mail Complaint System
• Departmental 'Cluster' Approach to Problem Solving/Issues Resolution
• Constituent Bill of Rights
• Redesigned and More User Friendly City Web Site
• Established E-mail News and Information Subscriber Service
• Established City's First Wireless "Hot Zones" for Free Internet Service
• Produced an Expanded and More Useful Community Organization Directory

Arts, Cultural and Entertainment

• Opening of Theatre N
• Creation of a Wilmington Independent Film Festival
• Creation of the Wilmington Games (two-week Olympic-style schedule of athletic events for young people of all ages and abilities; average of 1,600 youth have participated in past two years of the Wilmington Games existence)
• Attracting David Bromberg to Wilmington from Chicago
• First Night Wilmington
• Clifford Brown Jazz Festival
• Riverfront Blues Festival
• First State Ballet Theatre Relocates to Wilmington from Newport
• Reconstruction of Delaware Art Museum
• Expanded Art Loop Series

Preserving & Promoting Wilmington's History & Assets

• National Park (Freedom Park) Proposal
• Upgrading of the Rock Manor Golf Facility
• Re-opening of Rockford Tower
• Refurbishing of Caesar Rodney's Statue in Rodney Square
• Preserving the History of the Underground Railroad

NOTE:

Additional details about any of the issues/topics/initiatives mentioned in this Accomplishments Summary is available by contacting John Rago, Communications Director for Mayor Baker by e-mail or by calling (302) 576-2109.