I believe that the future of Damascus - its prosperity and its promise - largely depends on the future of public involvement, working together as a community, and resolving the issues that presently divide us. For generations, people have come to Damascus to build a new life. As we near the completion of our draft comprehensive plan and move to the next phase of city planning, a new level of cooperation will be required between Metro, the state and county government, and the entire Damascus community. At the same time, we need to expand our existing partnerships and build new ones. Over the next year, we must work together with all of our citizens to mobilize our talents in order to make Damascus synonymous with excellence. All of us, whatever our politics, want to protect and improve Damascus. We all believe that the quality of life in our city depends on the strength of its local government, the safety of its streets, and the collective commitment to our citizens. That is why we need to make investments for the future to ensure that our neighborhoods are safe. That is why we must find new ways to engage our citizens so they have better access to information and can more fully participate in decisions that impact our city. We have a great deal of work to do, but government cannot do it alone. We face great challenges, and to move the city forward we need everyone, I mean everyone, to participate in our civic life. If we believe, as I think we do, that everyone, really everyone, in Damascus shares responsibility for our community, then we have to invite people to become involved. That means that we in government have to listen, but it also means that all of us in Damascus have to speak up. In order to make that happen, we must create new ways for people to take part in their government and come together to do our public work. The city council had several discussions about how best to get feedback from our citizens. It was recommended that a survey be sent to all citizens but because of the cost and poor participation in previous surveys, the council concluded that it would be better to hold Coffee Klatches around the city allowing citizens to share ideas, thoughts and concerns. The council and staff spent hundreds of hours meeting with the public and giving them the opportunity to express concerns about the proposed comprehensive plan. Counting the last Summary Meeting, we met with over 240 of our citizens giving them the opportunity to be heard. I personally spent four hours reading each and every citizen comment from the Coffee Klatches and the numerous e-mails received in an effort to understand the concerns and obtain insight from our citizens. The idea to send out surveys in the future is open for discussion. However, the decision to hold these Coffee Klatch meetings, I believe was the correct decision. The information gathered could not be more important. I pledge to work every day to enable all of us to share responsibility for the future of Damascus. All who attended the Coffee Klatch meetings and the final summary meeting did so because you care, as I do, about Damascus. Please help us, in city government, find better ways to engage all our people in making Damascus work for everyone. Damascus is an incredible place to live and work. At times this seems like a secret we are afraid to share. I believe that we must all do a better job talking about what is good about our city, our rich heritage, and our richly diverse and hardworking people. Damascus is a great city and I am honored to share with so many of you a new level of common responsibility for its public life. We know that if we work together, our best days lie ahead. Thank you, for your participation and thank you, for your commitment to our city.