Many of you knew my late father, Pat Bieter. He was a teacher in Boise for around 40 years; he also served in the Idaho Legislature. As long and as well as you might have known him, you probably never knew him when he wasn’t bald. He was, to quote Vin Diesel, taller than his hair.

But, for my father, baldness and greatness went together. He would point out that Winston Churchill was bald, several of the great popes and saints, and Cecil Andrus.

This is a picture of me when I first came into office. (Well, it was a little before I was in office, but you get the point here.) Just a few months ago, I looked like this. My father would have been very, very proud of me.

In case you didn’t catch the story, a local charity, a great group that sponsors Camp Rainbow Gold, which is a camp for kids with cancer, approached me and said, “Mayor, will you help us raise money by shaving your head?” I said I would do that but only if they raised $25,000. I thought that was an amount that was out of their reach. Well in fact, I think I left some money on the table, because they raised $25,000 in one night. So, if you want to see the Mayor look like this again, the bidding starts at thirty grand.

You know, a bald mayor is a pretty good metaphor for the times that we’ve seen in the last few years: a little severe, a little exposed to the elements, but still smiling and still optimistic about the future. These are some of the toughest times we’ve seen in our city and our country in generations.

But it’s a good story in the City of Boise, because our city hasn’t just survived; we’ve taken the steps necessary to pave our way for prosperity going forward.

I’ve been asked to describe the economic development philosophy of the City of Boise. This is our motto: “If we do everything, we win.” Not be all things to all people, but think about it – if we do everything, we win.

I want to tell you a little bit about what I mean by that. I want to review the great things that have happened in the city over the last 12 months. Also, doing everything includes using every tool we have to push the city forward, especially in these tough times. Doing everything means we need some more tools from the State of Idaho. Finally, you’ll see what I mean when I talk about some of the new projects that you will be seeing in the City of Boise in the months ahead.

When I was elected a little over six years ago, along with this great City Council, we set about aligning city services with our citizens’ priorities. We also passed a structurally balanced budget; we did that so in tough times, we would be able to answer them with targeted cuts and not the crude across-the-board cuts that we too often see.

So in these tough times, we were already prepared. We’ve been able to sustain vital services like our police and fire service, our parks, our public works, our airport – the resting pulse of the City of Boise.

But when the current is against you, if you stand still, you’ll actually end up losing ground. That’s why it’s been so important to us to push forward with projects that are already in the works to make sure that we do all we can to move the city forward.

Projects like our third neighborhood library at Cole and Ustick. It’s the first library the City of Boise has built from the ground up; it got LEED Gold certification for sustainability in design and construction. Along with our other libraries in the City of Boise, we’ve had tremendous success. There are 20,000 new library cardholders in the City of Boise just in about the last 18 months. I don’t think even shaving my head would show more success than that.

These libraries are also economic stimulus programs themselves. Each of them is located in a shopping mall, and the added foot traffic helps existing and new businesses prosper as well. As evidence of what I’m talking about, you need only to look at the shopping center at Cole and Ustick that has a new name; it’s now called the Library Plaza. These are the kinds of things we can do in the City of Boise to help.

You can’t talk about the last 12 months without talking about a project we’ve been working on for a number of years; it’s called the Allumbaugh House. Despite the intense need for services provided – detox services, sobering, crisis mental health – that project has floundered for a number of years. Beginning in 2005, when I called a summit, our partners have stuck with us through some very tough times: Ada County, the City of Meridian, the State Department of Health and Welfare, and our local hospitals Saint Al’s and St. Luke’s. I’m happy to say that as of May 3rd, we’re open to provide these necessary services to those who really need this kind of help. Please join me in thanking everyone who had a hand in this great success.

We’ve also had a number of other successes this year. We’ve had three great acquisitions of property in the Boise Foothills – Pole Cat Gulch, Stack Rock, and most importantly Hammer Flats. We have been able to make these purchases in pursuit of preserving these areas for recreation and wildlife literally forever. If we’re able to complete the sale of Hammer Flat to the state Department of Fish and Game, we’ll have another $4 million to leverage even further and purchase more property in the Foothills going forward.

Even as we speak, we’re beginning construction on a footbridge between Garden City and the City of Boise over in the 36th Street area. It’s the first phase of a great parks complex that includes the Ray Neef River Recreation Park and the Esther Simplot Park. Not only will this provide important recreational opportunities right here in the City of Boise, but it’s also a jump-start for redevelopment for an area that can use a little love.

When I say we need to do everything, these are the kinds of projects that I mean. Our job is to provide the context for you all to succeed, but you know it takes more than that. We’ve got to use every tool at our disposal, especially during these tough times.

That’s why we’ve aggressively pursued federal funding to the tune of around $47 million. Those are important funds that put food on the table and give local people jobs and do local projects – important projects that help our transportation system, help our energy efficiency and much more. That’s also why we took our best shot at $40 million for the Boise Streetcar Project. It’s a project that’s been on the books for around 10 years. If we do it now, not only will it be cheaper, but it will be leverage as our city and our valley grow to provide an important service.

Also, we’ve taken a depreciating asset, 18 miles of rail line in southeast Boise, and we’ve turned it into a revenue generator. It’s provided $900,000, the lease of that line, that we can use not only to upgrade the line but also to spend on important economic development projects in the City of Boise. It’s provided hundreds of thousands of dollars to do that.

Projects like the Boise Greenhouse; just a few weeks ago we announced that the Small Business Development Center at Boise State University has agreed to run the Greenhouse for us. The Greenhouse is our incubator just kitty-corner from City Hall. It’s an incubator for technological companies, with a preference for those with energy-innovation ideas. We hope out of those small seeds some great companies will come out of that.

You know, the most disappointing thing I heard this last year was told to us by a German company that had short-listed Boise – but had ultimately chose Colorado – to locate a facility for the production of solar panels for electrical production. They chose Colorado not just for logistical reasons, but they told us it was because Colorado is known as a green state and Idaho isn’t.

That was awfully frustrating for us to hear as the first city in Idaho to sign the Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement; a city with a geothermal system that’s rated one of the 10 best, not just in the country, but in the world. We need to work against those misconceptions, all of us, and change the perception of our city and our state. We need to do that with projects like the Greenhouse, like our LED streetlight program, like other sustainable Boise initiatives – and like this initiative:

Today I am announcing negotiations with a company called Sunergy World. They want to lease property, 40 acres from the City of Boise near the airport, for a $45 million solar electrical generating facility that will produce 10 megawatts of power. Old-timers might recognize this site as the former city dump; now we will produce green energy, jobs for our local economy, and most importantly put Boise in the game for alternative energy production. Sunergy also proposes placing solar panels on awnings in surface parking by the airport as well, to generate even more electricity and leverage assets in the City of Boise for our local economy.

We need to do all we can to bring new companies like this to Boise, but also work with existing companies that are already here in Boise. That’s why we’ve worked with local companies like CradlePoint Technology and Biomark Incorporated, two great local companies that we’ve helped find properties located in the City of Boise so they can expand here. For example, CradlePoint has grown their workforce by 75 percent just in the last 18 months, and now their headquarters is located on the corner of 8th and Franklin in downtown Boise.

We’re so pleased to have those kinds of businesses expanding here. Boise is a great home for technological companies, from the mighty Micron to medium- and smaller-size companies all around town. Virtually every one of these companies owes a debt to an individual who helped bring Hewlett-Packard here 37 years ago. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming and thanking one of the true pioneers of Boise’s new economy seated right up in front here, Mr. Ray Smelek.

I would also like to recognize another gentleman who has been a great partner to the City of Boise. In a few days, Stan Olson will retire from the Boise School District. I hope you will join me in helping him out on his next endeavor as a candidate for state Superintendent of Public Instruction. Stan if you will rise and be recognized please; let’s hear it for Stan Olson, ladies and gentlemen.

As I said, Boise needs to use all the tools we have to help us move forward, but if Boise and communities all around the state are going to prosper, we simply need more tools. Contrary to what some in the Legislature believe, economic development doesn’t happen by cutting back alone. If the best thing that we have to say is, “At least we’re not California,” that isn’t going to serve us well in a 21st century economy. We simply need more tools.

The citizens of Idaho have an opportunity to give ourselves one of those tools with passage of what’s called HJR5. Very simply, HJR5 allows public airports, including the Boise Airport, to issue bonds for important capital facilities to help keep up with demand for passengers and cargo with our airports all around the state. We are the only state in the country that requires that kind of vote. We are essentially clipping our own wings. We live in the most remote urban area in the country. We simply need flight. Please join me in helping us pass HJR5 this November; I’m calling on all of you to help me.

But you know, we need local option taxing authority. Idaho is one of only three states, together with Alaska and Mississippi, that don’t have either state funding for public transportation or the ability to go to our voters and raise that ourselves. With all due respect to those other states, I would rather be in the majority.

Consider this irony: All around the state, we trust voters to elect legislators to come to Boise and represent them. But then those legislators don’t trust the voters who elected them with financial priorities in their own communities.

There are great examples of citizens all around the country voting to tax themselves for efficient, effective public services. Just two weeks ago, voters in the state of Arizona – a hard-boiled bunch if ever there was one – overwhelmingly passed one cent of sales tax to avoid cuts to public education. Recently the state of Kansas voted for an eighth of a cent to allow Kansas State University and Kansas University important money for research for engineering, for medicine, and for technology.

What would that be like in Idaho? What would an eighth of a cent do for us? You might be surprised: An eighth of a cent in Ada and Canyon counties amounts to around $7 million a year. What could Boise State do with research and development for $7 million? Perhaps with the assistance of U of I and Idaho State University, together with the College of Western Idaho, that research and development could be targeted to help local businesses thrive. If we take that eighth of a cent, add three more eights for a half a cent, Valley Regional Transit would have around $22 million for public transportation. That’s nearly four times their existing budget. That would not only provide for a great bus system, but the beginnings of a rail-based system, the kind of system that will serve us for years and years to come.

Only a half a cent, ladies and gentlemen, and only if voters approve it. What’s more, a sales tax taps those who are visiting in our community and helps defray the costs of essential services, where otherwise it falls almost exclusively to the property taxpayer.

All I’m asking of the governor and the legislators is to give us local option taxing authority; let us have a conversation here about our priorities, how and where we should spend those important public resources. Give us that important tool, and we’ll take it from there.

You know, there were moments this past year that caused us to look away from our tough times, our problems; it made us realize that, with hard work and determination and smarts, some truly great things can happen.

One of those great things was when a young man from Boise did a little maneuver called “The Hurricane” – five flips and three twists, something no other ski aerialist has landed in competition. Jered “Speedy” Peterson won a Silver Medal at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Another great moment was on fourth down from their own 33, when the punter at Boise State University, Kyle Brotsman, in a play called “The Riddler,” threw a perfect strike to another Kyle, Kyle Efaw – and Boise State won their second Fiesta Bowl Championship.

Boise State and Coach Peterson understand that, in order to have success, they can’t just be the best in the passing game, or the best at defense, or the best at gadget plays. It takes being the best in every aspect of the game to really have success.

So it is with us in the City of Boise. We don’t want just the best parks department, the best programs, the best police and fire protection; we don’t want just the best airport. We want all of that and more. We want the best recycling program, the best libraries, the best arts and history program. We want all of that, because you rightly demand and expect that out of us.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to speak to the Boise Young Professionals. I’m too old to be a young professional any more, but I’m young enough not to let my fondness for the past obscure my passion for the future.

I told these young professionals that staying in Boise is where they ought to be. This is the place that is small enough for them to have a big effect on turning this community into a dynamic area of innovation and creativity – in a geographic setting that is second to none.

It’s great to spend time with these young people, because their passions are tangible, but they also have something important to teach all of us. Spending time with these young professionals teaches us that we will have success if we don’t look back at what we’ve lost these last few years – rather, we look forward at what we stand to gain.

We need “The Hurricane.” We need “The Riddler.” And we need local option. If we do everything, we win. That’s how we build “the most livable city in the country” for our children and our grandchildren.

You know, my daughter, Josie, is about four years old now, and she’s old enough to start understanding a little bit about what I do, and that I’m a little different than the other fathers at her preschool. She said to me the other day, “Daddy, you’re the Mayor of Boise, aren’t you?” I said, “Yes, Josie, I am the Mayor of Boise.” She said, “Well, if you’re the Mayor of Boise, then I must be the Daughter of Boise.”

Yes, Josie, you are the Daughter of Boise, and your sons and daughters are the Sons and Daughters of Boise. We focus on economic development not to enrich ourselves, but to ensure the futures of our children and our grandchildren.

These are some of the toughest times we’ve seen since Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president, and I think FDR had it exactly right when he said, “When we seek economic and political progress, we all go up or else we all go down.”

I know that you’re here to help us all go up; you’re here because you care about the future of this community. If we do everything, we win. It is our challenge, it is our responsibility, and in the end it will be our great victory.

Thank you all very much.