Education

- Appoint an Education Partnership Coordinator.

• Joanne Milner was appointed to this position in January.

- Create the Mayor’s School Summit.

• The first Mayor’s School Summit has been scheduled for August 22^nd at Highland High School from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
• Since the beginning of the Administration, the Mayor’s Office has been closely coordinating with the Salt Lake City School District on a range of policy and legislative issues.
• During the legislative session, Mayor Becker’s Office joined the Salt Lake City School District in lobbying efforts and editorial board meetings aimed at stopping a bill that unfairly taxed Salt Lake City residents to pay for the Jordan School District split.
• Mayor Becker has been regularly visiting schools and meeting with school groups in the Mayor’s Office.

- Work with the University of Utah, Salt Lake Community College, Westminster College, and Brigham Young University to create a “Salt Lake City is College-Bound” scholarship program.

• Under the direction of Mayor Becker’s Education Partnership Coordinator, the “Service in the City” Scholarship has been conceptualized and will soon be formally announced.

Environment

- Accelerate the planning and funding for Salt Lake Bikeways.

• Mayor Becker increased funding for Salt Lake Bikeways ten fold in his budget. This proposal was ultimately approved by the City Council.
• Increased funding will allow the acceleration of many Salt Lake City bikeways projects.
• The Mayor’s budget also included the creation of a new Bikeways and Trails Coordinator position, approved by the City Council, to further this effort.

- Initiate completion of the Jordan River Parkway.

• Mayor Becker has been leveraging the City’s resources and working with other stakeholders to see this restoration completed.
• This was reflected most specifically in many of the budget recommendations he made, including the addition of $400K in new funding over last year, bringing the City’s total investment in the Jordan River Parkway up to $3.6 million.
• The Mayor initiated discussions on the trail gap between 200 South and North Temple with Rocky Mountain Power, Questar and Union Pacific.
• Mayor Becker has also been in contact with Davis County officials to determine how to proceed with plans to connect the Jordan River and Legacy Parkways.
• Mayor Becker participated actively in Envision Utah’s “Blueprint Jordan River” project.
• Mayor Becker has pursued a federal appropriation for Parkway completion with the Utah Congressional Delegation.

- Address a comprehensive review of staff, land-use ordinances, and overall planning policies within the Community Development Department and Building and Housing Services.

• Early in his Administration, Mayor Becker commenced a major reorganization of the Community and Economic Development Department to address this initiative.
• This move included a comprehensive review of staff and the decision to hire a new CED Director and Planning Director to oversee the updating of land-use, housing, and permitting processes with consistent implementation.
• The Buzz Center was created to provide one-stop guidance on land use, housing and permitting projects.
• Mayor Becker is also strictly following the guidance of a recently completed planning audit which suggests a number of ways Salt Lake City can further improve in this area.

- Revise Salt Lake City’s building codes to strongly encourage use of LEED (or LEED-equivalent) building standards.

• As was reported in the Salt Lake Tribune on May 29, 2008, the Mayor has begun looking into how the City’s building codes can be expanded to encourage the use of LEED building standards in the future.
• During public speeches and private meetings, Mayor Becker has been gathering input from the business community, City Council and architectural community to determine the best way to implement this initiative.
• Because buildings are a leading contributor to carbon emissions and climate change, this is one of many efforts currently taking place in Salt Lake City to improve the environment.

- Require departmental carbon footprints.

• Mayor Becker appointed Vicki Bennett to the position of Director of the Office of Sustainability and the Environment.
• Under Bennett’s leadership, all city departments have begun developing plans for measuring and reducing their carbon footprints.

Equality

- Pass a nondiscrimination ordinance.

• Expanded the Office of Diversity to become the Office of Diversity and Human Rights and appointed a new staff member to oversee this effort.
• Under the leadership of Mayor Becker’s Coordinator of the Office of Diversity and Human Rights, the Administration is pursuing a City-wide effort to document discrimination to help inform the creation of a non-discrimination ordinance.
• The Mayor’s Human Rights Commission has been meeting regularly to address this issue.
• A survey was completed to gather data about how Salt Lake City residents experience discrimination.
• In the weeks to come, Mayor Becker, Council Chair Love, and the HRC will be announcing a series of town hall meetings to gather more data on this issue before recommending a nondiscrimination ordinance to the Mayor and City Council.

- Establish a city registry for domestic partnerships.

• The Domestic Partnership Registry was established by unanimous vote of the City Council and ultimately was retained after coming under attack at Utah State Legislature. The name of the registry was changed to the Mutual Commitment Registry.
• The Becker Administration is now looking into the logistics of implementing a City policy which would encourage companies who do business with the City to extend benefits to those who’ve registered on the Mutual Commitment Registry.

- Change the city’s retirement plan to allow an employee to name a domestic partner or another designee as a beneficiary.

• Mayor Becker has directed the City Attorney’s Office to explore options that would achieve this objective. Further exploration and discussion will be ongoing before this is fully instituted.

Engaging the Community

- Initiate “Salt Lake City Solutions.”

• The Salt Lake Solutions Steering Committee was formed and announced in the State of the City speech.
• The Steering Committee formulated community objectives to guide Salt Lake Solutions in each of the projects that are taken up in the years to come.
• Salt Lake Solutions has undertaken two major projects, the Fisher Mansion and Pioneer Park.

- Establish open communications with state government and neighboring communities.

• Mayor Becker has met with leaders from communities surrounding Salt Lake City; Davis County Council of Governments and state legislative leaders.
• Mayor Becker regularly communicates with Governor Huntsman and leaders statewide on issues that impact the Capital City.

- Strengthen security and neighborhood safety.

• Mayor Becker met with Police Chief Burbank shortly after taking office to address this goal.
• A variety of strategic funding decisions related to the Police Department were recommended by Mayor Becker in the recently passed budget to help strengthen security and neighborhood safety.
• Mayor Becker’s staff has worked collaboratively with the SLPD to help inform the public about the important role it plays in helping make our community safer.

- Provide additional police officers.

• Based on the guidance of Police Chief Burbank, Mayor Becker made funding recommendations in his budget to boost police presence throughout Salt Lake City by funding administrative positions that consequently would free up additional police officers to fight crime.

- Encourage neighborhood involvement in public safety.

• The Mayor successfully recommended an increase of funding for Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) and Mobile Watch programs in Salt Lake City.
• This funding increase will allow the programs to expand the involvement of more neighborhoods in public safety.
• The Becker Administration is directing an effort to bring the CERT, Mobile Watch and Neighbored Watch programs together, to coordinate and become more effective in protecting the community.

Excitement

- Implement elements of Downtown Rising and the Downtown Transportation Plan. I will prioritize action steps to implement the Downtown Rising plan and the Downtown Transportation Plan (which is currently in draft form). Upon taking office, I will immediately pursue the following:

• Downtown Transportation Plan sailed through the Planning Commission this week and will be before the City Council later this summer where it is expected to pass.
• Appointment of Bob Farrington as Economic Development Director.
• The Becker Administration has established an ongoing collaboration with the Salt Lake Chamber and Downtown Alliance as well as the Vest Pocket Coalition and other small business groups.

1) the creation of a downtown cultural district, in coordination with Salt Lake County, which would include preservation of the Utah Theater and development of a Performing Arts Center;

• The Mayor created the Downtown Theater Action Group to tackle the issue of securing a location and funding for a grand theater downtown.

2) the creation of a year-round Public Market;

• The Becker Administration has been working with UTA, the Chamber, and other organizations to secure a possible location of a year-round Public Market downtown.

3) working with the state of Utah for a Global Exchange Place;

• The Administration has completed all the paperwork and necessary procedures to establish the Foreign Trade Zone in Salt Lake City.
• Mayor Becker has communicated with Governor Huntsman and his support staff on behalf of the City for this project.

4) the creation of a Downtown Parking Authority;

• The Mayor has successfully recommended funding for a feasibility study, the first step toward establishing a Downtown Parking Authority.

5) the initiation of a downtown transit circulator system;

• The Transportation Division and UTA have put everything in place for the Downtown Transportation Circulator Branded Bus System which will be initiated later this summer.

6) capitalizing on the completion of commuter rail from the north and our Intermodal Hub Central Station with bike lockers, bike rental facilities and a safe bikeway system downtown; and

• Mayor Becker is actively exploring development of a bicycle service and storage station at the Intermodal Hub (Central Station) and studying possibility of bike share or rental program.
• Vastly increased the funding for bikeways.
• Under the leadership of the Becker Administration, improvement of downtown bikeways and the bus service system has been moving forward.
• As part of the Interlocal Agreement, UTA has agreed to initiate a study to see if looping the TRAX line from the Intermodal Hub through the southwest quadrant of downtown to the north/south line is feasible.
• Mayor Becker has initiated efforts to preserve the historic warehouse north of the Intermodal Hub.

7) developing, in conjunction with the University of Utah, an extension of the campus to our downtown and along the transit lines of University Boulevard (also known as 400 South) with research, classroom and housing facilities in a manner that is compatible with existing neighborhoods.

• Mayor Becker has directed his Senior Policy Advisor to coordinate with University of Utah officials on Project Universe, a development project on the southwest end of the University of Utah campus.
• Project Universe is the first link toward the 400 South/ University Boulevard project.
• The City will be hosting Saturday workshops on Project Universe in July to further dialog with all interested stakeholders.
• Mayor Becker has met with President Young on this issue.