Good evening and thank you all for coming out in this cold, bitter weather to join with me as I formally announce my candidacy for Mayor of Knoxville.

Rev. Middlebrook – thank you for bringing blessings for a beloved community to our gathering.

Vice Mayor Bob Becker – thank you for that introduction and for your excellent service on City Council and as Vice Mayor. We will miss you, but wish you well with your new family.

Family is important – and that’s why I want to recognize my family members who are on this journey with me: My husband, Gene Monaco, and I have a blended family of 5 grown children, a son-in-law, and two grandchildren.

With us tonight are Carmen, Joan, and Jacob and my grandchildren Jada and Silas. I couldn’t do this without their love and support.

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I am running for Mayor because I believe in Knoxville. I believe, as I did seven years ago, that Knoxville can be the most vibrant and livable city in America. And I believe that Knoxville can be the greenest city in America.

We can do this -- with the right leadership and with engaged citizens working together for positive change.

Many of you stood with me seven years ago in our first run. We were outspent, but we weren’t outworked. We built grassroots support and gave voice to critical issues. We ran a clean, honest campaign that earned us respect and enduring partnerships.

We energized this city. We came very close on Election Day. But we did not prevail.

We then faced that choice that comes along with disappointment – whether to retreat to the margins, undercut the winner and root for his failure; OR to roll up our sleeves, join in, and help build a great city.

I am so very proud that you joined with me in working with Mayor Haslam to make Knoxville better.

Mayor Haslam worked with us, placing some of you on key city boards and task forces.

He re-appointed me to the Knoxville Transportation Authority. He asked for my help with the South Waterfront redevelopment plan.

Four years ago, Mayor Haslam asked for my leadership to turn the Community Development Department around. I accepted the challenge.

All of this happened because both Mayor Haslam and I believed in Knoxville. We believed that a vigorous election should build community, not destroy it. We worked together with a common vision and common purpose.

Governor-elect Haslam brought me into his administration with full power to re-organize and re-energize my department and invited me to help shape and implement other administration priorities and policies. I am honored by the confidence he placed in me.

Though we will lose our respected Mayor, we will gain a great friend and ally in the Governor’s office. I know he will do a great job.

I now have experience that no other candidate can claim. Before sitting at the Mayor’s desk, I already know Knoxville’s government from the inside and out. I have helped shape a successful administration. I understand the budget process. I know the talents of our city staff, and I know how to engage these talents for common purpose.

I have the right experience and I am ready to serve as your Mayor.

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Tonight I’d like to share some highlights of my vision for Knoxville as the most vibrant, livable and greenest city in America. We will have many opportunities during the campaign to discuss each of these issues in greater detail.

When I talk about Knoxville, I like to start at its Heart.

I believe a great city has a strong, vibrant downtown -- a healthy pulsing heart at its core.

We’ve got one. Downtown Knoxville has become everyone’s neighborhood -- a vibrant place to live, work, play, and visit.

It’s been my neighborhood for the last 30 years. I have always worked in or near the downtown area. For nine years now, I’ve lived within a mile and a half of downtown. Gene and I spend many hours downtown, enjoying the restaurants, movies, Farmers Market, unique shops, arts and culture, social life and other amenities.

Even in this tough national economy, downtown businesses have opened, survived and thrived. Developers have taken risks to reclaim and restore vacant and rundown properties.

The anchor for any vibrant downtown is residents, people-presence 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We have seen an influx of downtown dwellers of all ages who have added to the vibrancy and economic strength of downtown.

A strong downtown Knoxville is a regional economic generator, vital to our tax base and to our identity.

“Downtown” is more than just a few blocks around the Square and Gay Street. The Old City, both sides of the waterfront and the major commercial corridors that extend from downtown must also beat strong if Knoxville is to be vibrant and livable.

Cumberland Avenue, the Central and Broadway area (aka Downtown North), Magnolia Ave, and the south waterfront have been a priority of the Haslam administration and will continue to be with mine.

As community development director, I have supported a strong downtown and extended commercial core.

As Mayor, I will continue to strategically invest in public infrastructure and city services to maximize the private sector investment that is vital to a strong and expanded downtown.

I have the right experience and I am ready to serve as your Mayor.

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I believe a great city has strong, safe neighborhoods. Every neighborhood should be a great neighborhood in which to live.

Neighborhoods are the building blocks of a great city. Great neighborhoods are walkable and bikable, with access to parks, recreational activities, and public transit. Great neighborhoods have stable property values. They are safe and secure with responsible neighbors.

Strong neighborhoods are often the direct result of strong neighborhood organizations that provide a unified voice to work with city hall.

I know this from years of experience as a neighborhood activist and as a trainer of neighborhood leaders and a designer of neighborhood planning programs.

As community development director,

• I worked with a citizens task force appointed by the Mayor to create the Office of Neighborhoods, a results-focused link between the city and neighborhood organizations.
• We have a dedicated Neighborhood Advisory Council
• We re-instituted the Neighborhood Small Grants program to provide needed resources for neighborhood projects.

Just this week, the News Sentinel ran an extensive report on the problems some of our neighborhoods face with vacant, blighted, and abandoned properties. The reporter did an excellent job of describing the complexities of the ownership issues, local and state laws, and the resources available to tackle this problem.

As community development director, I am responsible for programs that prevent, mitigate, gain control when necessary, and strategically re-use these problem properties.

I convened a joint initiative of city and county government, the county Trustee, and the Council of Involved Neighborhoods to strengthen our existing tools and identify new strategies. We have a short list of priorities that we are actively pursuing, and just last night I reported on our progress to City Council.

This is not an easy problem to solve. We need sustained city commitment, intergovernmental cooperation, and active neighborhood support. The City must strategically invest in these neighborhoods to maximize the private sector investment and to meet the housing needs of city residents.

All of Knoxville benefits when blighted neighborhoods are revitalized and strengthened, when calls for city services are decreased, and when tax rolls are increased.

As Mayor, I will continue these commitments to strengthening all neighborhoods.

I have the right experience and I am ready to serve as your Mayor.

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I believe a great city has a strong regional economy with good jobs for all residents.

A strong, robust economy and the ability to grow and attract good-paying jobs is the result of many factors:

• A competitive and educated workforce
• Being a good place to do business
• High-quality local infrastructure
• Access to technology, research and development
• Access to capital
• Regional cooperation of city, county, and state governments, Chambers of Commerce, UT, TVA, Oak Ridge, KUB, and other public utilities.
• Quality of Life amenities that attract and keep businesses and their employees

We have a great start, and are recognized by Forbes, Entrepreneur, and other business reviews as a great place to invest, build businesses, and raise a family.

Our challenge is to continue to grow new businesses, retain and expand existing businesses, and focus on strategic business recruitment.

I bring professional economic development experience to the Mayor’s office.

I worked with Whittle Communications and the Chamber to develop a regional economic development plan that resulted in the creation of Tennessee’s Resource Valley, which was the predecessor to current regional marketing efforts.

I have worked on commercial business development strategies and heritage-based tourism.

As community development director, I have supported business and job creation through business loan programs, commercial façade improvements, and workforce training.

At bi-weekly meetings, the Mayor, Chamber officials, KCDC, senior city staff and I report on economic development opportunities and track our progress.

As Mayor,

• I will work closely with the Chamber on their goal to make Knoxville America’s Best Business Address and with regional partners to promote the assets of our Innovation Valley.
• I will ensure that small, minority, women, and veteran-owned businesses have equal access to opportunities to do business with the city and to thrive in Knoxville.
• I will focus on a diversified economy, giving our young people real opportunities to make a good living and build careers in Knoxville.
• I will be a strong supporter of education and work closely our educational partners to ensure that we have a competitive workforce.

I have the right experience and I am ready to serve as your Mayor.

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I believe in a green and sustainable Knoxville.

The future health and wealth of our city depends on how well we embrace sustainable development practices. This means the way we grow and build, how much we consume, what we throw away, how we use our natural resources, how we travel, what we eat, and how we live.

I believe Knoxville can become the greenest city in America. We’re on our way. Consider just a few of our results:

• Knoxville is one of only 12 Solar Cities chosen for a federal grant to integrate solar technology into public buildings. We are significantly growing our solar capacity.
• Through an innovative energy service performance contract, we are reducing the energy use of 99 city facilities with guaranteed payback over the next 13 years.
• We are a regional partner in the highly visible electric vehicle rollout
• All traffic lights are now high efficiency LEDs, and we are piloting LED streetlights.

I co-chaired the Mayor’s Task Force on Energy and Sustainability which completed its task by delivering a comprehensive list of recommendations for the city’s first Energy and Sustainability Plan. The plan includes policy and program improvements that the city will now implement.

As community development director, I charged my staff with creating an affordable green housing policy and sustainable development practices. For example, we now require our private and nonprofit contractors to achieve Energy-Star certification on all new construction, and are piloting Earthcraft Renovation standards for rehabs and LEED certification on other projects.

We financed construction loans for the first 7 LEED Gold affordable houses in the state, built by Knox Housing Partnership and CAC.

We installed our first solar water heater, and in downtown Vestal we built the first city- owned pervious parking lot.

As community development director, I convened a regional 5-county collaboration to apply for a highly competitive federal regional planning grant for sustainable communities. I am pleased to report that we were one of 45 regions selected from a pool of 225 applicants, and that our award of $4.3m is the fifth largest in the country.

As Mayor, I will continue to support and expand the city’s focus on energy and sustainability. I will work with our partners on the comprehensive regional plan for sustainability. And I will work with businesses and state officials to promote innovative sustainable development opportunities.

I have the right experience and I am ready to serve as your Mayor.

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I’ve talked about my commitment to downtown, to neighborhoods, to good jobs and a strong economy, and to sustainability. And I’ve talked about the experience and commitment that I bring to the job of Mayor.

I want to briefly touch on a few more important issues:

Qualify of Life is critical to a vibrant downtown, great neighborhoods, and strong economy in a sustainable city. As Mayor, I will support:

• A strong arts and cultural community.
• Preserving our historic resources and conserving our natural resources such as the 1000 Acres of Urban Wilderness in South Knoxville.
• Maintaining and expanding our parks and greenways, with access to our blueways for kayaking and canoeing,
• Recreational opportunities that promote a healthy lifestyle.
• Access to healthy food and community gardens.
• Convenient, alternative transportation choices – public transit, bicycle paths, and sidewalks

City employees are the key to running a cost-effective and responsive city government. I’ve been fortunate to work with great city employees – the police and fire departments, and our non-uniformed employees. We must competitively compensate and properly train our employees in order to attract and retain the very best.

And I just have to add here that I have a great, talented, and dedicated Community Development staff whom I enjoy working with every day. I will miss you guys when I resign in 30 days, but I hope to be back!

I want to talk a moment about The Ten Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness. Though a relatively small initiative in the overall portfolio of city issues and budgets, it has created significant controversy and passion over one strategy-- the siting of permanent supportive housing. Yet remember that the TYP is a comprehensive plan with 9 strategies that address this subset of the homeless population that utilizes a disproportionate amount of public resources and services.

Moving people into housing first and providing them with supportive case management is already working in Knoxville, helping people stabilize their lives, address the issues that led to chronic homelessness, and reduce their need for more costly city services. This plan is part of a larger collaboration among service providers and the city to address all forms of homelessness.

It is my hope that this next year will provide opportunities to discuss strengths and weaknesses with the plan and ways to improve it. The problems and costs of chronic homelessness won’t go away by ignoring it or by demogoguing. This is a time for constructive community dialogue and for those who wish to lead our city to show their ability to do so.

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I have covered a lot of issues tonight but dealing with these issues is the responsibility of our next mayor. She’ll have to address these issues as she balances a very tight budget and continues to reduce city debt.

Fortunately, I have participated in the city’s operating and capital budgets process for four years now. And I have managed my departmental budgets successfully while delivering exceptional service to our constituents.

I am committed to an open, transparent, inclusive government that respects all residents and celebrates the strength and vitality that comes from our diversity.

I will work cooperatively with City Council, with County Mayor Burchett, and other elected leaders.

I will face these challenges strengthened by the truths I have learned through years of public service and citizen involvement:

It is easier to destroy, than to build. It is easier to complain and criticize, than to collaborate and create.

For those who take the easy route of destroying, complaining and criticizing, I am not your candidate.

But, for those who are willing to work hard with me, to build, collaborate and create solutions for a vibrant, inclusive, sustainable Knoxville, then I am your candidate.

I have the right experience and I am ready to serve as your Mayor.

If you believe in Knoxville as I do, I ask for your vote and your active participation in my campaign.

Thank you for coming tonight and thank you for your support.

I believe in Knoxville and I know we can win!