After 12 years, Gray ready to step down from Lancaster City mayor post

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Gray, who will be 73 in November, has served as mayor for the past 12 years. Before that he was a trial lawyer in the city. He’s walked to work from his home on Prince Street for the past 45 years, and in that time he hasn’t taken many days off, Gray said.

After he’s done sleeping in for a few days, and possibly taking a vacation or riding one of his nine Harley-Davidson motorcycles, Gray has a few options on the table. He’s still licensed to practice law, and he’s gotten a few calls from local nonprofits to join their boards.

He’s also interested in teaching a course in urban policy and politics, and is talking with local colleges.

“I might be doing that; I might be a greeter at Walmart,” Gray joked.

He still has nine months to find his way before a successor, yet to be determined, takes over the mayor’s office.

He’s proud of where the city is today: People have finally stopped asking him when he is moving out of the city, or why he wants to live downtown.

Houses are selling, there are places to eat and things to do. The Lancaster County Convention Center, which opened in 2009, is booked with events. Retailers and art galleries stay open later on the first Friday of each month, a staple event downtown.

“It’s vibrant,” Gray said.

And it’s because of businesses, according to Gray. Downtown businesses owners and their entrepreneurial spirit have really helped the city, he said.

Advice for next mayor

He hopes his successor will maintain good relationships with the business community, and that he or she will continue to push for living-wage jobs and use funding available through the City Revitalization & Improvement Zone program, or CRIZ, to assist businesses.

CRIZ redirects some of the taxes paid by local companies to use for economic development in the city. The Lancaster Marriott expansion recently was awarded $5.6 million from the program. The Marriott hotel is attached to the Lancaster County Convention Center.

The biggest challenge facing the next mayor is in finances and pension plans, according to Gray. The city pension plans are fairly well funded, but there needs to be reform in that area.

Property taxes can’t keep funding police, fire, public works and schools, according to Gray. “It’s not a fair tax assessment.”

The taxes are set based on the assumption that people who own homes have enough money to cover them. But that isn’t true of all homeowners.

“Taxes have them out doing part-time jobs,” Gray said.

He suggested that the city needs a menu of taxes, because the property tax comes out in one lump sum, while sales taxes, for example, take smaller bites. There is no sales or business tax in Lancaster city.

“We need real reform,” Gray said, noting that boroughs are dealing with the same challenges.

Change has to happen at the state level, he said, but elected officials can’t seem to put a coalition together to address the issue.

“It’s like a hot potato,” Gray said.

In the neighborhoods

Five people are running to replace Gray as mayor of Lancaster: Republican Cindy Stewart; Independent Tony Dastra; and three Democrats, Norman Bristol Colon, Danene Sorace and Kevin Ressler.

While the city has a vibrant downtown, the candidates have expressed concerned about urban poverty and the plight of city neighborhoods.

Some candidates have been somewhat critical of Gray, saying he didn’t really respond to concerns about poverty until the 2015 release of a report called “Lancaster prospers?”

Prepared by researchers at Franklin & Marshall College, the report said that the economic development of downtown had improved income levels in some areas, but poverty had increased in other parts of the city.

“It shouldn’t have taken so long for Mayor Gray to determine that it was time to do something about it,” Ressler said.

Gray, however, pointed to several ongoing efforts to support the neighborhoods.

“Downtown wasn’t built in a day; neighborhoods aren’t built in a day,” Gray said.

Gray formed the Mayor’s Commission to Combat Poverty in August 2015, and the commission has devised a plan to cut poverty in half in Lancaster city by 2032.

The plan is called “One Good Job,” and Gray hopes his successor is serious about following it through.

Another plan that stresses revitalization in the neighborhoods is the Lancaster City Alliance’s “Building on Strength” economic development plan. The plan, created at Gray’s request, maps out the city’s intention to invest in outer commercial blocks such as Manor Street and other streets in the southern end of the city.

Those plans are underway, Gray said, noting other efforts to improve quality of life for city residents.

For example, the city continues to inspect and license all apartments, and it is working with landlords to address lead problems in city homes.

The city spent $100 million on a water filtration facility that gives residents cleaner water. It also started providing free smoke alarms, which has cut the number of house fires in half.

“They don’t see that,” Gray said of people who are critical of the city’s efforts outside downtown.

Sitting at his desk, sporting his signature bow tie, surrounded by his wife’s artwork, Gray compared running the city to maintaining the 38 Harley-Davidsons he’s owned in his lifetime: if you don’t change the oil, the engine will die.

When it comes to the city’s infrastructure, Gray said, “the oil’s got to be changed.”

Despite the need for some maintenance, Lancaster is a strong, historic city with beautiful buildings and a diverse population, Gray said.

“The neighborhoods are beautiful in this city,” Gray said. “Take your eyes off the gum on the sidewalk and look around.”

Gray admits he never intended to get into politics, but ended up there because he felt it was his civil obligation. He intended to serve only one term, he added. “I’m not a career politician.”

What’s left

Gray still has a few things he’s hoping to wrap up before the end of his term, like completing the LanCity Connect broadband fiber optic network, which will provide high-speed internet to city residents. The network is the result of a partnership between the city and Berks County-based MAW Communications Inc., which have been working for nearly a decade on the project. The network is being rolled out this spring neighborhood by neighborhood.

The project is important to Gray because of research showing that access to high-speed internet can attract businesses, and also help children in low-income families prepare for jobs of the future.

Lancaster city is talking with school district officials on how to get internet into the homes of low-income families, Gray said.

It’s projects like this one, and ongoing efforts to create green infrastructure in the city, such as bike paths and storm and wastewater upgrades, that distinguish the mayor, according to Marshall Snively, president of the Lancaster City Alliance.

“What I appreciate most about him is he is very forward-thinking and innovative,” Snively said.

A lot has changed in Lancaster since Gray took office, most notably the completion of the convention center and the Marriott, an influx of new businesses and a growing art community. The city also adopted single-hauler trash collection in 2006, a move that almost cost him re-election, Gray said.

Gray attributes his ability to get things done to the fact that he ran the mayor’s office as though he wasn’t running for re-election.

“In Lancaster I’ve always been considered kind of different. That’s fine with me,” Gray said.

His knack for building relationships with everyone – Democratic residents and Republican business leaders, as well as state legislators – is what makes him unique, according to D. Hunter Johnson, owner of real estate services company Tono Group.

Tono, which has five companies under its umbrella, recently moved its headquarters to the west side of the city. Its mission is to repurpose buildings downtown instead of designing and constructing new ones.

“I always joke that Rick is a Republican in a Democrat’s clothing,” Johnson said. “He’s very pro-business, and he plays both sides of the aisle.”