Mayor Joe Hardy delivered the annual State of the City address to an assembled group at the Boulder Creek Golf Course Pavilion. The theme of his speech was “Empowering Our People, Enriching Our City”. In his opening remarks, he thanked several dignitaries from other state and local offices for attending. He also introduced all of the city’s department directors to the crowd.
He noted that the city’s efforts in personnel succession planning had been working out well. For example, when Roger Hall retired after 46 years as Parks and Recreation Director, they opened a nationwide search for a replacement and found the best qualified candidate was one who already worked for the city in the person of Julie Calloway. A similar scenario played out during the search for a new Public Works Director to replace Jamie Curreri. In the end, the city promoted from within, appointing Gary Poindexter to the role. Currently, Michael Mays is in his second stint as Acting City Manager and Greg Chesser has been filling the Acting Fire Chief position. The City Manager job should be filled soon and the nationwide search for a new Fire Chief is recently underway.
The City spent a good portion of 2024 working on the Master Plan with resident and business owner input. To assist in this effort, the City hired a consultant group, Emergent Marketing, to guide the process. To that end, the 2025-2030 Strategic Plan was adopted. It can be found HERE for those who are interested in what the City plans to focus on in upcoming years.
The Mayor noted that various departments within the City were working with local residents to make the City more accessible to those with disabilities. Results included upgrades at Oasis Park, designating a staff person to address ADA issues, enforcement of encroachment violations, and Downtown Parking Improvements. The City received an additional $600,000 from the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTCSN) to address ADA and Pedestrian improvements.
The City has also worked to make more services available online. Residents and business owners can request agenda packets, permanent records, pay utilities, register to vote, and more by going online at the City’s website HERE.
The Finance Department received several awards for accountability and transparency. The department provides a number of important documents online, including the budget (HERE), the Capital Improvement Program Suggestion Form (HERE), and the Open Finance portal (HERE) where you can find a lot of information about how the City manages its finances.
The Mayor talked about SeeClickFix, the City’s database for resident concerns. Since 2022, 3,858 concerns were received and 3,591 were resolved by the various City department staff. That’s a 93% success rate! We first told you about the system HERE.
It was noted that the City continues to work on the Dark Skies Project (we told you about that HERE). Reducing light pollution has been a major goal of Utilities Director Joe Stubitz. According to him, 929 new, environmentally friendly lights have been installed throughout the City. There are still a number of non-functioning street lights to be replaced this winter. To find out more about the City’s efforts to become a Dark Skies certified community, click HERE.
Included in this year’s address, were updates from the four local Clark County School District schools. Each principal of the individual schools were in attendance, as well. Boulder City schools continue to outperform county and statewide benchmarks and prepare our students for the future.
The Mayor introduced a short video from Clark County Commissioner Jim Gibson, who represents Boulder City. Mr. Gibson discussed ways that the City has received support from Clark County, as well as contributions made by the City to benefit the County.
The speech concluded with the Mayor providing the links to his State of the City address. You can watch it in its entirety on BCTV HERE. Additional information is available on the City’s website HERE.
