A critique of Mayor Rick Gray's performance

(Reprinted with permission from www.LookingAtLancaster.com)

"Former defense attorney J.Richard Gray - known to all as 'Rick' - has been doing an exemplary job as mayor of Lancaster, Pennsylvania over the last three years... For the most part.

There can be no question that Rick Gray has done much to improve the operation and the finances of the Lancaster City government. After inheriting a $7 million deficit, Rick Gray has presented budgets which reduced deficit spending with only minimal tax increases. The number of people employed by Lancaster City has dropped since Rick Gray took office, with some positions combined, and others eliminated completely.

Gray has refocused the city government to get better results. Customer service personnel have been reshuffled to better respond to the needs of residents. A neglected portable truck scales was brought out of storage, and police officers were trained in truck inspections. Electrical vehicle speed measuring devices (similar to VASCAR) have been purchased, and are being used to catch speeders. And the long-neglected "boot" program for traffic scofflaws was restarted.

Rick Gray is willing to spend money when it will save taxpayer dollars in the long run. Outdated and worn-out equipment has been replaced and upgraded when appropriate. All of the city's desktop computers are being replaced with upgraded models. Desperately needed fire trucks and safety apparatus have been purchased. And new automobiles for city staff have been bought (through a purchasing consortium) to replace others which are as much as 20 years old, while providing vehicles for other city employees who currently are reimbursed by the mile - all of which will save money for city taxpayers.

Rick Gray has repeatedly proven himself to be a strong and effective manager. Gray's selection for fire chief, Tim Gregg, is a firefighter with more than two decades' service in Lancaster who has outstanding management and organizational skills, in addition to being a "people person" and an all-around nice guy. For Chief of Police, an outsider was brought to Lancaster from Philadelphia, a ranking officer with proven management skills who is tough enough to deal with the kind of personnel issues that occasionally appear among any group of strong-willed individuals (a police official once compared managing detectives to "herding cats").

Productivity and attitudes of Lancaster City personnel have improved remarkably under Rick Gray. After being downsized and disrupted by previous mayors, morale in the Fire Department is once again high (although staffing remains at historically low levels, specifically because of Lancaster City's difficult budget issues). Other officials like Randy Patterson (brought in by Gray for the combined position of Director of Economic Development & Neighborhood Revitalization) and Patrick Hopkins (Director of Administrative Services) have worked with their staffs to more efficiently obtain the results that Lancaster City needs.

Rick Gray has made a number of proposals, some controversial, designed at making Lancaster City a better place to live and work. Gray was able to hire a consultant to study Lancaster City government, and make recommendations to make it more efficient and more effective; some of these proposals have already been adopted. Gray's single trash hauler program has noticeably improved trash collection, and saved residents money over what the largest companies used to charge. Gray negotiated a tough new licensing agreement with Comcast, which creates new public access cable channels, and provides local government and schools with free services. Gray instituted regular inspections of all rental housing units in Lancaster City, improving living conditions for many people. Gray pushed through a comprehensive update of rental housing regulations, designed to better protect renters, landlords, and neighbors. Rick Gray has even begun to examine zoning practices within Lancaster City, and has taken the first steps toward a more appropriate neighborhood-based zoning method.

Unfortunately, Rick Gray has his flaws.

Gray has a preoccupation with grandiose projects, some of which threaten to be costly for Lancaster City taxpayers in more ways than one. For example, the "streetscape improvements" currently under way in downtown Lancaster - which include drastic "traffic calming" narrowing of traffic lanes - have already torn up sidewalks that clearly did not need replacing. Using borrowed money to give the sidewalks of downtown Lancaster a "unified" look, while Lancaster City government is still spending more than it collects in revenue, is a questionable idea at best. And the current proposal to rebuild the northwest quadrant of Penn Square not only clashes with the "streetscape improvements", it is out of character for the historic buildings located there.

Rick Gray has been an outspoken champion of a proposed streetcar system in downtown Lancaster. To promote the streetcar proposal, Gray has permitted the indefinite display of a repainted Philadelphia trolley in a prominent position on public property downtown, next to the police station. (This streetcar appears to be far too long to navigate the tight intersections of Lancaster City streets.) The streetcar project would only benefit a small number of individuals, while restricting traffic flow and making streets less safe for motorcycles, bicycles, and pedestrians. Appeals for increasingly scarce State and Federal funds at a time of budget cutbacks and increasing opposition to "pork" projects like this one do not make sense.

The one area where Rick Gray's reach has clearly exceeded his grasp is in his support for the downtown hotel and convention center project. For example, when higher than expected construction bids created a $20 million budget gap for the project in the summer of 2006, Gray announced a complex plan to provide enough funding so construction could begin. Much of Gray's plan proved to be nothing more than smoke and mirrors; many of Gray's proposals never happened. Instead, the LCCCA simply borrowed millions of dollars more than was originally planned.

In early 2005, as Rick Gray was beginning his campaign for mayor, he clearly stated to a number of different people his concerns about several aspects of the hotel and convention center project. Yet by late spring, Gray had become an enthusiastic supporter of the project. This turnabout was so sudden and so dramatic that it appears someone may have been pulling his strings. To Gray's credit, he has at times expressed concern over the burden placed on Lancaster City taxpayers by his predecessor to guarantee the government-owned "private" hotel. And Gray's appointment of former mayor Art Morris to the LCCCA board, where he quickly became chairman, belatedly brought real accountability to the project.

There are other issues. For example, Gray and his staff have already been working toward the creation of a taxpayer-funded performing arts center (which will exempt even more prime real estate from paying taxes). And the partial demolition of the east side of Lancaster Square, while well-intentioned, will leave a starkly featureless open space downtown which could remain that way for many years.

Rick Gray has undoubtedly been the single most effective mayor of Lancaster for decades. Gray clearly deserves to be re-elected for another term in office. But the reason Gray has been only a good mayor, and not a great one, is his enthusiastic support for expensive, grandiose and inappropriate projects in downtown Lancaster.