Since it was rejuvenated and reopened in 2000 for the Palace Theater. Waterbury is performing arts Jewel, built in 1921, has welcomed more than 2 million patrons. Each has had to walk through a glass entrance of doors and over a beautiful foyer made of original marble. Few, if any, recognize what's under their feet, two hairline cracks extending quite a distance across the floor that were created by the Great Brook, an actual river running beneath the foundation for decades that has since been diverted. Frank Tavera. The palace CEO says. Pretty amazing, right? So symbolic of how much Waterbury has been rebuilt to. Welcome to Three by Ten How Waterbury Rebuilt Itself as a City of Strength. Episode one Fix the Foundation and Stay focused. The early 2000s are not a time that many like to even discuss because the city of Waterbury, in particular, especially assigned state oversight board, was beginning a systematic process of analyzing finances, given the situation that it found itself in. Running a city is a lot like constructing a building. Both are monstrous entities with machinery, materials, contractors and crews needing to do their parts in absolute rhythm. At the turn of the 21st century, if the City of Waterbury was a building project, it was approaching a very perilous phase. A worst of the worst realization that their building's foundation had completely cracked and their entire blueprint needed to be redrawn. But how could that be? This was Waterbury, Connecticut. Once the brass capital of the world, Suspicions of what caused the foundational issues turned in the confirmations as answers started to see through the proverbial cracks. Joan Hartley. Connecticut State Senator says It was a dark time. I headed conversations throughout 1999 with regard to my concern about the finances of the city of Waterbury. Now that's out of my purview in my cognizance, but it was very apparent that the city's revenue was not in any way coordinated with the city's growing indebtedness. Lo and behold, Hartley received a phone call from Mark Ryan, the Secretary of policy and Management and state budget director of Connecticut, right before the December holiday season. No funds were available for paying employees, he said. Not fire, not police, not teachers, not anyone. Plus, there was another startling issue. The city pension fund was almost gone. Combined with the fact that Waterbury already had a triple B-minus bond rating in the eyes of credit agencies equal to junk bonds, a vote of zero confidence for investing in the city. The whole scene was dire. So the newly appointed oversight board has gotten involved not even to consult on building the city back up as much as how to keep it from totally collapsing. It was clear that everything regarding the city's expenditures needed to be looked at and the board knew the three areas were particularly key. Budgets, contracts and the grand list. As such, a stipulation was enacted. The city's department heads would be required to bring their operational plans and expenditures before the oversight board. The conversations would be about every dollar in front of everyone every other week. From the conversations, a dynamic emerged with open lines of communication came. Transparency, with transparency came trust, and with trust came strength. The process was different, difficult, and totally transformative. Fred Luke Oversight Board member had this to say. Fortunately, the legislature was compelled to create an oversight board that could really make a difference. We had unprecedented powers and, of course, heavily supported by the governor at the time, John Roland, who hails from Waterbury. There was not one aspect of the city operation that was not improved in one form or another. Slowly but surely, the cracks in the foundation of Waterbury got fixed by the oversight board and subsequent administrations, including that of Neil O'Leary. I have to say the city staff and Mayor O'Leary, who was police chief at the time, rather than resist any suggested changes, he embraced the process. I chaired one of the sessions where we went through the project list. It was a long list and they had addressed and made progress on every single one of those. Upon his election as mayor in 2011. O'Leary, a born and bred Waterburian, was insistent that the policies and procedures now solidifying the city's fiscal base be maintained. And he had more ambition to address root level issues like rehabilitating Waterbury’s most difficult properties. The former brass company cites that now sullied the landscape. Nearly every one of these used to be brass factories are, by definition, brownfields properties abandoned or underutilized because of pollution. From what the former brass barons left behind. Each property needed extensive analysis, costly remediation, and quite frankly, someone dedicated enough to start the overwhelming process. Mayor O’Leary was that person. There's nothing sexy about it. It's very complicated. It's very difficult. It's very expensive. But this site is just one of many now in Waterbury that has been completely remediated. And now new construction putting these properties back on the grand list, relieving the pressures of high taxes for the Waterbury ratepayers. And most importantly, creating jobs not only for our citizens, our residents and our but our youth. Rehabilitated Brownfield properties became usable again in a variety of innovative ways. Prior to the remediation work, Waterbury Industrial Commons, a commercial park in a renovated brownfield, was on the verge of losing world class wire manufacturer Luvata Industries as its anchor tenant. Luvata stayed and broadened its commitment. The project became the largest industrial redevelopment attempted in Waterbury since the Brass Mill Center was built in 1997. And in the process, the city's economic development team secured a second growing industrial corporation for the site. King Industries on another restored Brownfield, a complex for the Waterbury Police Activity League or PAL, was created. Now the 3.2 acre piece of land is home base for the nonprofit organization, which creates partnerships between youth, law enforcement and the community through educational, athletic and recreational programs. It's more than a few fields and a community center. It's a haven for the more than 4000 youth involved in the programs and a stunning reuse of what was once blighted property neighboring a huge factory for the former Chase brass and copper. Yet another former brownfield is home to the Brass City Food Hub, the first purpose built facility in Connecticut to aggregate, sanitize and distribute farm produce that will meet a new FDA food safety standards. Local farmers can bring their crops to be commercially washed and packaged in additional phases, will create expanded greenhouses. And a market café Across the street from the Food Hub was another left behind Brass Factory. To make matters worse, the entire building, all 86,000 square feet of it, burned to the ground in a weeklong 2012 fire. Through exhaustive efforts, though, the site is now a sparkling recreational facility featuring a new baseball field Mayor O'Leary says This is our latest park. That was another brownfield. And I'm so proud of this site being in the police department for the 32 years that I was here. I worked this section a lot of my career, and it always astounded me how neglected the South end of Waterbury had become. Once all the factories closed, the south end of Waterbury became a very impoverished and depressed area. And that's why when we got into office, we made it our focus to start doing projects such as these. So we have really changed this face of the south end of Waterbury. Much more to be done. No question about it. But the reality is, is that these are the bones now. across the city. More than 30 brownfield properties have been or in the process of being rehabilitated, a whopping 158 acres of prime real estate. All the while, the city of Waterbury has remained steadfast in adhering to the fiscal fortitude set forth by the oversight board years prior. A continued focus on budgets, contracts and the grand list may be the most notable contract adjustment was the 2013 switch to a new insurer. In the previous four decades, administrator Towns had not explored competitive bids on the city's third party health provider. The O'Leary administration, however, dove headfirst into finding the most comprehensive provider that could serve the needs of the city employees. Cigna was awarded the insurance business, and the company came as advertised. Since the Cigna contract began, the municipality has saved more than $2 million each year, a groundswell of dollars that could be reinvested into the city fixing Waterbury’s Foundation, following its new blueprints and building back up could not have happened without a multitude of capable stakeholders, not the least of whom are the citizens themselves. The look into why Waterbury was in such dire straits around the year 2000 revealed a stunning finding. The city had been delinquent in conducting property revaluations. Revaluations are supposed to be a regular occurrence, but the city had ignored them for over two decades. On top of that, the tax collection rate was an abysmal 60% when property revaluations occurred as they should have all along. The result was an immense increase in what citizens were used to paying and the mill rate, a calculation which determines the amount of tax a property owner must pay, jumped. On top of that, a 15% real estate surcharge was imposed. The people of Waterbury paid the price literally. The citizens response to that was that they lined up around the block to pay that extra surcharge. That, to me, created an indication that the citizens of Waterbury had not given up on the city yet. It meant a lot to see those people stepping up and making their contribution to the future success of the city. The strategies employed by the city fall under the umbrella term cost containment. But at the ground floor are individuals who have taken it upon themselves to forge ahead, maintain fiscal balance and embrace collaboration. among those collaborators was City of Waterbury Finance Director Michael LeBlanc. The sound financial stability of the city of Waterbury really is premised upon what happens each year with the city's budget. It really starts with the development of an achievable budget. Void of any gimmicks. One of the key components with the budget development processes is not to incorporate one time revenues or expenses for services that are less than what is actually going to result as the year proceeds. A lot of effort goes into the development of the city's budget director departments. The Board of Aldermen, public hearings on the proposed budget and managing that budget from day one. The collective fiscal fortitude is now propelling Waterbury to new heights, where the ground is solid and the skies are clear. The city has realized the budgetary surplus in each of the last several years. Its unreserved fund, which has not been tapped and currently contains upwards of $25 million, Is expected to continue growing to attain 8% of budgeted expenditures annually. The property tax collection rate, once a laughable figure, now surges above 97%. Major economic development projects have occurred and are continuing. All around the city and bond rating agencies have been taking notice of the progress. A bond rating is, in basic terms, the credit score given to a city which greatly influences interest rates and investment appetites. In 2016, the Kroll Bond rating agency upgraded Waterbury to Double-A minus in 2022. They further upgraded the city to Double-A stable. Waterbury’s highest rating ever Why is that so important? when we go to borrow money for capital improvement projects that aren't grant funded, the interest rate is significantly lower than it would be if we didn't have a strong bond rating. So we're able to do more with less payments. We're able to do bigger projects, more meaningful projects with less cost to the taxpayers of Waterbury. as businesses have opened or expanded in Waterbury. Tax revenue for the city has increased and subsequent burdens on citizens has plateaued. Business investment has also influenced the grand list. Evaluation of all taxable real estate motor vehicles and personal property located within the city over the last several years. Growth of business has become symbiotic, with growth of residential property interest, including a significant draw from folks living in the New York boroughs. Here's Jeannette Mejia, who recently moved her family to Waterbury from Queens. when I was doing my research for purchasing a home. I started looking at Connecticut and I looked at the programs. That was what was most important to me. Then I found Crosby, and I found that they had an ECH program, and then it was just getting him qualified and getting him in. And that's what I did. I looked at the neighborhoods I've seen different areas of Waterbury. I heard nothing but good things that have been happening up and coming. You know, just speaking to my neighbors, it's like all great schools, you know, great community. I wanted peace, quiet and parking. And that's exactly what I found. The city of Waterbury never received the government bailout. The residents and employees had the sacrifice stick together and succeed by doing the work says Senator Hartley The people here have a very special resiliency, and it's such a warm, welcoming community. There were no bail outs there were no handouts to us. We did every nickel of it ourselves, and it was because of the resolve of the taxpayers of the city. Waterbury that we were able to do this. In Waterbury, dollars and cents have only been derived from a dollars and sense approach that now pervades City Hall and beyond because of its approach and its people. Waterbury is on terra firma, solid ground with pathways of opportunity getting paved for everyone's benefit. The. overlooking Interstate 84, Mayor O’Leary had this to say. The solid financial position of the city is great, but the administration still needed to tackle enormous projects like that highway. Listen to episode two of the Three by Ten podcast. Watch the three part video docu series and buy the companion hardcover book at thewaterbury.com