Good afternoon and thank you for being here. I am honored by the many dignitaries and citizens that have joined us here today for the beginning of this administration.

I must warn you in advance, as my friend and advisor Karl Zimmerman notes I am not exactly Mr. Charisma, but what would you expect, I am an engineer. Yes, I do have a calculator in my pocket but I did leave the pocket protector at home. For your sake over the next 10 minutes or so, I hope I remember some of the pointers and tips from my friend Ken Lebherz about making speeches. Here we go.

It is a great honor and privilege to have the opportunity to serve my hometown as Mayor. This opportunity for me was made possible by the hard work of many people. I would like to thank my family for all of their help, patience, tolerance, and ideas. My parents, Ann and Jack Holtzinger, my siblings, and my in-laws all have been incredibly supportive. I could not have done it without them. My wife and children have had to put up with an absentee husband and father over much of the last six months but have stood by my side just the same. I also have a tremendous group of friends who stepped up to the plate to support me. I name just a few here. John Sica and Walter Mills helped us put together common sense fundraisers that kept me in the game. Along with other friends, my campaign manager Jim Wolfe spent countless hours helping me cover neighborhoods campaigning. Rob Dickinson provided graphics and artwork and Karen Reed stayed up late and got up early on many occasions to make sure my campaign advertising stayed on course. I thank you all.

Since November 2nd, my wife, Pam, Donna Folden and Sandy Creecy, along with my transition team headed up by Jim Grimes and Rick Weldon have helped me prepare for today and the next four years. I thank the members of the transition team for their efforts in providing me with insight that will help shape an improved City Government operation over the next four years. In several instances this group of people put aside individual differences for the sake of the best interest of the City. The Mayor and Board will do the same over the next four years to advance the best interests of the City of Frederick.

I also thank Mayor Dougherty for four years of dedicated service to the City and for providing a wealth of information and access to City staff during the last two months. I wish her good luck in her next venture. My thanks and appreciation also extends to the outgoing Board of Alderman; Bill Hall, Joe Baldi, Dave Lenhart, Donna Ramsburg, and Marcia Hall for the individual insight and wisdom they brought to City Hall. They have provided valuable service to the City. I am also grateful to City staff who helped coordinate this inauguration and to staff of the Weinberg Center for hosting this event and to John Fieseler and Sandy Dalton for their guidance and experience in conducting this inauguration.

There is a great deal of optimism around the City as this administration begins. As a team, the City government needs to take advantage of this good will to move important City projects forward. There are many exciting economic development opportunities on the horizon, including the completion of the Carroll Creek flood control project, development of the East and South Street corridors, the expansion at B.P. Solar, and development set to take place at Fort Detrick. But we must be prepared to take advantage of these opportunities by putting the infrastructure in place to allow these projects to actually move forward. This is how we make our own luck on economic development. To that end, it is imperative that we get back to the table with Frederick County to come to an agreement for receiving water supply from the Potomac River. The County Division of Utilities and Solid Waste Management, headed by Mike Marschner, has done a tremendous job making this project a reality. It’s time for the City to get on board.

As we approach the next four years we have many big challenges ahead of us. We face those challenges knowing that it will require a team effort between the Mayor, the Board of Aldermen, and City employees to successfully tackle these challenges. Marcia, Kip, Alan, Paul, and Donna and I look forward to four years of working with you and making progress that this City can be proud of.

My belief is that the City needs to be sound at providing core local government services such as transportation, public water and sewer, parks and police protection before we will be good at providing other services. We need to be sound at the fundamentals of local government.

This is a lesson that has stuck with me from my senior year at Thomas Johnson as a football player. After struggling through three difficult years, which produced only three wins, I had all sorts of reason of why we lost; our offense was too predictable, we didn’t run the right plays, we ran the wrong defense. Coming into my senior year, a new coach arrives and installs an even more predictable offense; we go on the same snap count every single play. I still remember it - ready, set, gettum. And we spent hour after hour on the most basic clocking and tackling drills. It was not a fun existence for those of us on the TJ football team in August of 1981 (except for teammate and transition team member Dan Riddle, who always seemed to have fun that summer). The result of this focus on fundamentals was a complete turnaround for the T.J. football team that resulted in a winning record and just missing the playoffs. At the end of the season it finally occurred to me that our win-loss record over the last four years had little to do with what offense we ran or plays we called, and everything to do with basic blocking and tackling. We were sound at fundamental football and we won. Coach Lynn Carr taught us a lesson that went well beyond football. As a foundation for good government at City Hall, we need to get back to doing a good job at basic government services. I promise over the remainder of my term to refrain from telling any more football war stories, but I will apply the moral of this story to improving government services. Another basic philosophy that we must keep in mind is that protection of public health, safety and welfare of the general public must be the number one priority of the government. This principle must be applied to the full gamut of government operations from provision of roads, water and sewer to access to information and a City budget that makes sense to the average citizen. And open government should not a campaign promise, it should be a given.

During the campaign I talked about the need to streamline government and provide more efficient government services. I continue to believe this needs to be done. However, I am under no misconception that this will be an easy task. It will take a concerted effort among the Board of Aldermen, the Mayor and City staff. I can tell you that the City has great employees who are committed to providing excellent service. By putting a straightforward organizational structure in place and giving employees the authority to do their jobs, we can achieve excellent service without compromising protection of the public’s interest.

I am also under no misconception that I will be able to make everyone happy. My campaign focused primarily on improving the base infrastructure for this City. By doing this, I submit that this will improve the quality of life in the City and improve our chances for quality economic development and will ultimately lead to the City being able to provide more support for the arts and other cultural interests in the City. I also pledge to recognize my limitations as to knowledge of certain areas of interest and will seek advise from members of the Board of Aldermen and the community as to these areas of interest in order to make sound decisions.

I would also like to list several other areas that I believe must be priorities that I have not touched on yet:
1. We need to get the discussion of an Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance on the agenda and make it a reality. I truly believe we are shooting ourselves in the foot if we do not.

2. The recently approved Comprehensive Plan must be re-examined to determine to the City can feasibly provide basic government services to areas proposed for annexation.

3. A realistic plan for the completion of the center section of Monocacy Boulevard needs to be completed and implemented.

4. A plan must be developed for the extension of Monocacy Boulevard to the East Street extension.

5. Wastewater treatment capacity will soon become an issue and we must pursue a sound solution to this issue. In all likelihood this will again require a strong working relationship with Frederick County.

6. The City needs to pursue acquiring a regional park, which will provide a wide range of activities as well as a multitude of play fields. Opportunities to do this will soon evaporate, if we do not pursue this idea now.

7. In accordance with a recommendation of the transition team, I will propose the formation of a finance oversight committee consisting both of City elected officials and financial professionals from the community.

8. The City also needs to pursue a police substation on the western side of the City to allow for more community policing in those areas and to enable better response times to areas on the western side of the City.

It’s an easy thing to stand up here and make promises. We must aim high but we must be cognizant that we will make mistakes as we address the challenges we have ahead of us. We need to own up to our mistakes and move on. My wife noted a bumper sticker, which I think fits - it said “Progress Not Perfection”. WE may not be perfect, but we will make progress.

To the newly elected Board of Aldermen, I truly look forward to working with you and believe that we will have a good record of accomplishments. The City is lucky to have such well-qualified and diverse Board of Aldermen to represent it.

Now I would like to get to the real meat of my speech, the part of my speech with which I am most comfortable, what I really wanted to say is - Ready, set gettum. Lets get to work.

Thank you for coming and thank everybody for all their support. Please join us on the second floor of City Hall for light refreshments and the opportunity to meet your elected officials in person.