From the time she took the oath of office, Mayor Daria Devlin got started on the transformational change that she promised during her campaign. As part of that process, she’s scheduled in time to listen to the concerns of city hall employees, area businesses, and the community.
City employees told her they welcome her vision for change, but they want improved communication. “So we really heard both a desire for newness, so there’s really a desire for change, but also a desire for folks to stay connected to understand what’s going on – to know the vision, we really heard that communication over and over,” Devlin said.
When it comes to the challenge of improving blighted housing, Devlin said she’s hearing input that Erie can streamline zoning and code enforcement, things the city controls. She’s even looking to fund proactive code enforcement. “We can look at proactive code enforcement which I think is critical, rather than just doing violations. We want to provide our residents with an opportunity to help with those (violations) and our code enforcement officers are ready to do that, we just have to kind of find the funding for them,” Devlin said.
Some of what the Devlin administration heard at a community listening session at the Booker T. Washington Center involved ways to improve the condition of rental properties. “We talked about renter’s rights, we talked about education for our renters and our landlords to understand rights and responsibilities,” Mayor Devlin said. “We also heard concerns about law enforcement particularly in light of what’s happening in the world and the country right now,” she added.
And because of concerns about youth development, and keeping kids on a successful path, some big improvements for Erie’s summer recreation program are already on the way. The Devlin administration plans to align the summer rec program with what Erie’s Public Schools say they need, and that may mean having a focus on literacy. “So we’re going to be working to align and kind of reboot that entire summer rec program, put our dollars out there for partners who can help meet the goals of the school district which are of course our goals too, to make sure our youth are successful,” Mayor Devlin said.
Mayor Daria Devlin gives her State of the City Address this weekend on the Insider Public Affairs program with Lisa Adams. You can see it Saturday at 9am on WICU, Sunday at 7am on WSEE, and Sunday at 11am on WICU.