Artesia, CA, June 24, 2015– The City of Artesia’s mayor, Miguel Canales, addressed a room of 154 residents, businesspeople, community leaders, public officials, and members of the press, at the City’s annual State of the City Address and Luncheon held at the Artesia Divino Espírito Santo (Divine Holy Spirit) Portuguese Hall.
The mayor spoke about the city’s recent accomplishments and its most important current initiatives. He also described several upcoming events and encouraged attendance, participation, and sponsorship.
The event included a welcome by the recently crowned Miss Artesia, Rocio Hernandez, who was accompanied by the Miss Artesia Royal Court. The pledge of allegiance was led by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Captain Keith Swensson. Lunch was sponsored by Ziba Beauty and the Artesia Chamber of Commerce. Podium floral arrangements were sponsored by Ideal Florist. The Portuguese Hall provided the venue.
The mayor began his remarks by acknowledging the tremendous progress the city has made in stabilizing its finances.
“Your City Council and I have been very gratified to be able to adopt a city budget that is balanced, frugal, and prudent. It doesn’t use any General Fund reserves to get there. And speaking of reserves, we’ve been able to move the city from having declared a financial emergency and nearly zero dollars in emergency reserves to having an emergency reserve that is equal to 25% of our operating budget. This is a huge improvement, and provides an added measure of financial stability to the city’s capacity for providing necessary public services.”
The mayor listed numerous improvements in North Artesia, including the installation of 56 street lights, 14 stop signs, a new sidewalk on Elaine Avenue, and the cape sealing of 166th Avenue. He also highlighted various park improvements, the Artesia sign, and numerous cost saving improvements like the City’s website, its phone system and its migration over to LED light bulbs.
The mayor talked about the city’s numerous economic development programs, and reported that the city “is currently negotiating” several new development deals, “Our new planning overlay program should bring a lot of economic development to the city, because it allows denser, multi-story, mixed-use development in strategic areas of the city.”
The mayor also announced numerous upcoming events.
“Next week, the City will host its annual Independence Day celebration on Saturday, the Fourth of July, at Artesia Park. The City will again be sponsoring a professional fireworks show featuring 2,700 elements, and live music will be provided by the Blue Breeze Band. We’ll be out there barbequing and enjoying traditional picnic games, and I hope to see you there. It will be a fun, family day.”
The mayor encouraged participation in the City’s Night Out Against Crime on Tuesday, August 4.
The mayor called for sponsors for two upcoming events: a golf tournament fundraiser being held for the benefit of the Teen Program. The fundraiser, “Putting the Greens for Teens!” is being held Friday, August 21 at the La Mirada Golf Course. The second sponsorship opportunity is the International Street Fair and Diversity Festival, scheduled for Saturday, October 3rd.
“This is the biggest turnout we’ve had for the State of the City Address in several years,” said City Clerk Gloria Considine.
You can view a video of the speech on the City of Artesia Youtube channel.