Today I  delivered my 8th State of the County Address, my annual report card on how we're doing as an organization. The title of the speech is Leading by Example in Challenging Times. This year, my speech covered three main topics:

The Economy - Thanks to a long history of conservative fiscal policy, Orange County remains strong in spite of the current wave of tax reform coupled with the slumping real estate market. I believe the careful investments we made when times were good, coupled with key moves to stimulate our economy, will pay off during these hard times and help us recover more quickly as the economy improves.

The Environment - My goal is to make Orange County, the geographical center of the Sunshine State, a showcase for green technology. Green industry is also clean industry. The buzzword today is clean-tech. Clean-tech uses fewer natural resources and has a much smaller impact on the environment. We want to roll out the "green carpet" for these clean-tech businesses in Orange County. I call it our Green-to-Green (as in dollar signs) Initiative. Going green creates economic opportunity and jobs…green collar jobs.

Ethics - I fully support those reforms that include full financial disclosure, restrictions on gifts and a process for handling ethics complaints along with an appropriate means of enforcing our ethics code. The people who elected us to office need to know their public servants meet the highest ethical standards. I also believe other public agencies should follow our example.

Richard T. Crotty
Orange County Mayor