Fighting crime will be one of the center pieces of the Stimpson administration's goals as it moves into the new year. On Wednesday, the mayor outlined his plans during his annual state of address.
"I'm not exaggerating when I tell you this, every single day when we wake up the full-most thing in my mind has to do with public safety, but it's a huge challenge," Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson said.
Stimpson's message has been clear during his first eight years in office: make mobile the safest city in America. He addressed the recent uptick in crime in the city.
“it’s a national problem, it’s a state problem, but that doesn’t make you feel any better when you see two people get murdered," Stimpson said.
Stimpson said they're working on improving public safety. He said Mobile's new Police Chief Paul Prine brings new ideas to the table but he pointed to one thing residents can do..
"We need community involvement. It doesn't work otherwise. I think some of our citizens are starting to realize that they need to be more helpful," Stimpson said.
The mayor said the number of trials in our judicial system need to be increased in order to get bad characters off the streets.
"Trying to get them to a place where they can get more done. They have limited funds, but I think we can do some things to help them so we can focus on the criminal trials," Stimpson said.
Annexation was another hot topic.
"Were looking at a mark of probably over 210,000 people because of parts of the city that continue to deteriorate, you'll continue to lose some population, so you can't just say we want 200-thousand and think you're just going to stay there. so shoot a little higher then hopefully, at some point we're going to have some growth in the city."
By the end of the mayor's 100-day agenda, he will lay out a plan for the council on annexation. The mayor also said the city is in good financial shape. He said his team has plans for some key projects.
"From an execution standpoint, we're really ready and poised to start doing things that really we've dreamed about eight years or four years ago," Stimpson added.