The Vancouver City Hall lobby was packed.
All sorts of elected officials and notable figures showed up. Even the little bird who made headlines at Sen. Bernie Sanders’ rally last week in Portland was perched on the podium.
It was several minutes past the 5 p.m. start time for the mayor’s annual State of the City speech. Where was Mayor Tim Leavitt?
Suddenly, the video screen above the stage turned on, showing Leavitt working out in the Marshall Community Center gym.
In the video, the mayor looks at the clock in a panic. He dashes into the locker room and emerges in a suit and tie, then runs to the parking lot to discover he’s locked his keys in the car.
Leavitt chases after a C-Tran bus and then tries in vain to hail rides from a succession of people, including Clark College President Bob Knight (who runs over him with a golf cart), Kim Capeloto of Riverview Bank and Clark County Council Chair Marc Boldt. As Leavitt pounds down the street, people tweet about his progress and cheer him on.
In Esther Short Park, he encounters retired city Councilor Larry Smith lounging on a bench with a golf club, saying he can’t make it to Leavitt’s speech because he has a tee time. Rojo the Therapy Llama makes a random cameo.
The video ends with a breathless Leavitt adjusting his tie and opening the door to City Hall.
At that moment, Leavitt made his entrance and took the stage to audience applause.
Following the National Anthem, things quickly got somber, with a slideshow remembering some of the inspiring community members who died in the last year, including John McKibbin, Ed Lynch and Vancouver police K-9 Ike.
Then Leavitt recapped the city’s progress in meeting the goals he’d set forth in his 2015 State of the City speech.
“Let me begin by stating without equivocation that your city is strong. Your city council and city leadership is stable. And, moving forward, your city is poised for great accomplishments. The results of our focus are bearing fruit,” he said, citing solid city finances and services, economic development and neighborhood livability and planning for long-term stability and prosperity.
Each of the city council’s 2015 initiatives were a success, he said.
• It adopted a long-term investment strategy for streets.
• It added more police.
• It committed to take action to address the community’s affordable housing crisis.
• It strengthened the city’s investment in the downtown waterfront project by building roads, sidewalks and utilities.
The city has made strides in connecting the community through investment in technology, Leavitt said. For instance, the city has launched E-Plans, a system that allows people to submit planning documents online. Vancouver also has a new contract with CenturyLink digital cable services, providing residents an option to Comcast.
“We are eager to continue work with the private sector for providing high-speed Internet access to all of our citizens. Are you listening, Google?” Leavitt asked.
Leavitt gave the audience a sneak peek at the city’s new mobile app called “My Vancouver” that allows citizens to easily notify the city about things requiring attention, such as pot holes and broken streetlights. (Details will be released to the general public next week.)
He hit the highlights of the 2016-21 strategic plan, which places a priority on reinvigorating parks, trails and recreation programs, taking another look at beginning annexations again and creating a resource team to study the Vancouver Police Department’s staffing needs and recommend increases.
“There really is a lot of cool stuff going on in our community now,” Leavitt said. “This year we’re proving we’ve got momentum, and we will keep moving forward.”
Interspersed with short video clips showing commercial development projects, multifamily housing projects and construction sites, the speech lasted just 30 minutes.
Audience members were all smiles when it ended.
Renee Bartocci, chief of staff to the chancellor of Washington State University Vancouver, said what stood out to her was all the changes the city made in the last year.
“It’s nice to see the level of growth that’s happened in our revitalized community,” she said.
Scott Thompson, 32, a public affairs student at WSUV, said, “The video was awesome. … It was fun. It was entertaining.”
