BIOGRAPHY OF MAYOR STEPHEN R. REED

Stephen R. Reed was elected Mayor and Chief Executive Officer of the City of Harrisburg at the age of 32, taking office in 1982 and reelected 6 times since. In the past five-reelection bids he was the unprecedented nominee of both political parties. He is the longest serving mayor in Harrisburg history and is currently the longest-tenured mayor of all of Pennsylvania’s cities. Prior to taking the helm of government in Pennsylvania’s Capital City, he served three terms as a member of the state’s House of Representatives (1974-1980) and he also served as a Dauphin County Commissioner (1980-1981). He was the youngest legislator and youngest commissioner ever elected in Dauphin County and the second youngest Mayor in City history. He was born August 9, 1949, in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. He is a 1967 graduate of Bishop McDevitt High School in Harrisburg and he attended historic Dickinson College in nearby Carlisle, PA.

Mayor Reed has initiated a wide range of programs and policies aimed at stimulating business and residential programs in Harrisburg. As a result, over three decades of decline in the City’s economy have been reversed with major net gains in the number of businesses, private sector jobs and livable homes, with major increases, after 25 years of sharp decline, in property values. The highest level of private investment in City history has now been realized in the period since 1982, amounting to over $3.8 billion in new investment in Harrisburg. The number of businesses on the City taxrolls has increased 450%, and property values have risen eight-fold from $212 million in 1981 to over $1.6 billion today. Programs he initiated have resulted in substantial reductions in the crime, fire, unemployment and vacant property rates.

Mayor Reed has also focused on restoring the City’s financial health, resulting in the City’s credit rating, non-existent in 1981, being restored and upgraded. Today the City is able to routinely enter the public finance market with credit endorsements at an AAA rating, the highest in the U.S. market. His financial programs and policies have earned Harrisburg the nation’s top two financial awards, the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award and the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting, making Harrisburg one of six out of the 2,460 municipalities in the state to do so.

Some of Mayor Reed’s work was recognized when the National Civic League twice selected Harrisburg out of hundreds of communities nationwide as an All-America City. MONEY Magazine, in recommending that readers invest in communities where property values would increase the fastest, wrote that Harrisburg was one of the top three cities in the nation where property values would increase the most over the next ten years. KIPLINGER Magazine gave a similar report in 1998. Harrisburg was also selected by the U. S. Conference of Mayors as one of eight profile cities in the nation to showcase economic development success.

Programs and projects undertaken by Mayor Reed have further resulted in Harrisburg being selected for: The Outstanding Community of Pennsylvania, which is the highest community award in the state, from the state Chamber of Business and Industry; the Samuel E. Cobb Award of Excellence from the state Department of Environmental Resources, the state’s highest award for forestry and conservation; Tree City USA for thirteen consecutive years (1987 to present), the nation’s highest conservation award; the First Place National Pretreatment Award from the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, the highest national award for water pollution control; upgraded three times by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for success in floodplain and emergency management, becoming the only Pennsylvania community to be upgraded and resulting in a 15% reduction in property owners’ flood insurance premiums; National Police Accreditation, the highest recognition in law enforcement in the United States (of over 21,000 police agencies nationwide, less than 500 have ever achieved Accreditation).

Mayor Reed has undertaken hundreds of projects in the City, with benefit to both the City and region, including development of the Harrisburg waterfront where Commerce Bank Park, Skyline Sports Complex, RiverSide Village Park, three Marinas, the John Harris Trading Post and numerous other facilities have been built, bringing over 12 million people to Harrisburg City Island since 1987. The Mayor brought professional baseball, football, soccer and basketball franchises to Harrisburg during his tenure, and under his comprehensive Parks Improvement Program, more than $68 million has been invested in the City’s parks and open spaces. The Mayor has also created world-class tourism and visitor attractions, including The National Civil War Museum, the Pennsylvania National Fire Museum, the Hilton Hotel and Towers, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts, the Susquehanna Art Museum, Danzante Performing Arts Center, Harrisburg University for Science and Technology, and many, many more.

Mayor Reed has focused extensive resources and effort upon the reconstruction of city neighborhoods blighted by decades of previous abuse and decline. Thousands of owner-occupied housing units have been newly constructed or restored, along with a significant expansion in the number of affordable housing units based in the city. New city renewal programs enable residents to make basic systems repairs to their homes, fix up their facades, redo sidewalks and even start their own businesses. His commercial and retail development efforts have resulted in thousands of new jobs for city residents, and Harrisburg today has its lowest unemployment rate in city history.

Mayor Reed has established new programs and policies to solve serious financial problems that once threatened the very existence of the City’s pension system and its daily operating budget. He serves on the Boards of the Capital Region Economic Development Corporation, the Whitaker Center for the Science and the Arts, Penn State University - Harrisburg, Harrisburg University, and many others.

A long-time proponent of regional cooperation, Mayor Reed spearheaded Central Pennsylvania’s first-ever regional coalition of governments, the South Central Assembly for Effective Governance, for which he serves as co-founder and Chairman. He was also one of the first proponents of a light rail commuter transit line to alleviate midstate traffic congestion, and he also advocates the creation of a multi-county regional asset district to better serve midstate tourism and recreational facilities and attractions. He has also served as the catalyst for international trade and exchange programs with such nations as Mexico, India and China.

Mayor Reed is the author of a variety of publications including a crime prevention manual and a crime victim and witness handbook, both of which have been used across the Nation. His public safety leadership has resulted in substantial improvements in fire and police operations. The Harrisburg Fire Bureau is the largest professional firefighting force in Central Pennsylvania and through the mayor’s efforts has realized a 76% decrease in the fire rate. Elements of the Bureau comprise both the state and federal Urban Search and Rescue Teams, amongst the most elite disaster response agencies in the nation, for which the city serves as base and administrator.

Mayor Reed’s efforts to combat crime have also realized improvements, with the city crime rate down 56%, more than 100 city blocks covered by organized Crimewatch groups, and the largest professional police force in the midstate. At Reed’s direction, the city police force has been held to the highest standards in the U.S. and is one of the longest-tenured recipients of National Police Accreditation, one of only 600 police agencies in the U.S. to be so named. In 2005 the Commission on Law Enforcement Accreditation bestowed its prestigious Flagship Agency award upon the city, making it a model for cities around the world in professional law enforcement operations and administration.

As a result of his leadership, Harrisburg’s emergency response operations and capabilities regularly receive rave reviews from state and federal evaluators, and have often realized the saving of lives and properties during floods, blizzards and other natural and manmade disasters. Mayor Reed also serves on a federally appointed review panel for judges being considered for appointment to the federal bench in Pennsylvania’s Middle District Court.

In 2000, the Pennsylvania State Legislature undertook the unprecedented action of removing control of the declining Harrisburg School District from its elected school board and placed it solely in Mayor Reed’s hands, making him the first mayor in the state to be tasked with also running a school district.

Then considered the worst-run district in the state, Reed’s efforts in just 5 years of leadership have already realized increases in the graduation rate – up 71%; number of graduates going on to higher education – up 263%; test scores – up 20%; enrollment – up 34%; amongst many other positive indicators. The dropout rate has dramatically declined 58%, and the teenage pregnancy, truancy, and delinquency rates have also gone down. Reed’s focus on early childhood education has resulted in the city’s first-ever daily pre-school programs for children aged 3 to 5, thus better preparing them for elementary school and lifetimes of learning.

The Mayor also undertook the establishment of the city-based Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, the first new university to be formed in the state in nearly a century. The University focuses on the sciences and advanced technologies, and is innovatively linked to business incubator and workforce development programs as well as the Science and Technology High School, or Sci-tech High, which prepares local students for higher education in the mathematics and science fields.

Under Mayor Reed’s direction, Harrisburg is the only city in the nation that is establishing a formal education program for its citizens that runs from 3 years of age to adult continuing and advanced education.

For public and community service, Mayor Reed has been selected for many recognitions, including:

-- Honorary Doctorate from Shippensburg University

-- Honorary Doctorate from Dickinson College

-- 2005 Recognition Award from the Interdenominational Ministerium

-- 2005 Presidents Award from the Pennsylvania Pump Primers

-- 2005 – 6-time winner of Harrisburg Magazine’s Simply the Best categories for Best Politician and Best Role Model

-- 2004 Government Leader of the Year Award from the Greater Harrisburg Regional Chamber of Commerce

-- 2004 Presidents Lifetime Community Service Award from the African American Chamber of Commerce of Central Pennsylvania

-- 2003 Hall of Fame, Greater Harrisburg Board of Realtors

-- 2003 Black Achievers Program Award

-- 2002 Harris-Penn Award, for outstanding community service and leadership

-- 2001 Chevrolet National Trailblazer Award

-- 2001 Citizen of the Year of the Harrisburg Elks Lodge #12, for outstanding and meritorious service to the community

-- 2000 Alex de Tocqueville Society Humanitarian of the Year Award, presented by the United Way for support of the United Way and its affiliated agencies

-- Chapel of the Four Chaplains in 1998, the nation’s veterans’ groups highest award for community service

-- 1998 Urban and Community Forestry Award from the PA Forestry Association, the top award in the state for urban conservation practices

-- 1998 Distinguished Leadership Award from the PA Planning Association, the state’s highest award for municipal planning activities

-- The Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence, the highest award in the State of Pennsylvania for environmental practices and policies

-- Honorary Doctorate Degree in Public Service from Harrisburg Area Community College

-- Named “Leader of the Decade” for the 1990’s by the prestigious Leadership Harrisburg program

-- Named the Central Pennsylvanian of the Year by APPRISE Magazine (and additionally named by them as the Most Irreplaceable Central Pennsylvanian

-- Recipient of the Tree of Life Award from the Jewish National Fund

-- Recipient of the “Pennsylvanian of Vision” award by the American Diabetes Foundation

-- PA State Lions Club Distinguished Service Medal

-- United Negro College Fund award for his contributions and leadership

-- Recipient of Capital Region Economic Development Corporation’s prestigious “Catalyst” award

-- Central Pennsylvania Entrepreneur of the Year Award

-- Dauphin County Chief of Police Association’s Citizens Support Award

-- Honored by the state Center for Independent Living for his commitment to the rights of the disabled and challenged

-- Salvation Army Community Service Award, only the third person at the time ever named to receive the Army’s top civic award

-- Named Government Leader of the Year in Pennsylvania by the state Chamber of Business and Industry

-- Recipient of the Nautilus Award from local shelter providers for his commitment to helping solve the problems of homelessness in our nation

-- Recognized by the International Association of Business Communicators as the Business Communicator of the Year

-- Selected for the nationally-known Giraffe Award, the first-ever public official in the Nation so selected for his willingness to “stick his neck out”

-- Recipient of the American Legion’s Distinguished Service Award, their highest national award for community service

-- Four times selected for the annual “Groundhog of the Year” award by the PAXTON HERALD weekly newspaper, for being the “person least afraid of his shadow”

-- First person named by the state Secretary of Health as Honorary Medical Technician; Mayor Reed was a real-life emergency medical technician, instructor and ambulance crew chief for ten years and has saved more than a dozen human lives through CPR and other emergency medical treatment in the handling of all types of emergency calls, including the delivery of newborn babies

-- Honored by the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame for his contributions to sports and sporting excellence