Stephen R. Reed

Infobox_Politician
name = Stephen Russell Reed


width = 150px
height = 200px
caption = Current Mayor of Harrisburg
birth_date = Birth date and age|1949|8|9|mf=y
birth_place = Chambersburg, Pennsylvania
death_date =
death_place =
residence = Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
office = Mayor of the City of Harrisburg
term_start = 1982
term_end = present
predecessor =
successor = Incumbent
party = Democrat
religion = Catholic
spouse =
children =
website =

Stephen Russell Reed (born August 9, 1949, in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania) is the current and longest-serving mayor of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He moved to Harrisburg with his parents as a boy.

Biography

After moving to Harrisburg in the 1950's, Reed attended Bishop McDevitt High School, where he graduated in 1967. He went on to attend Dickinson College and was named a Finnegan Fellow in 1970. He did not graduate from Dickinson and later served as an emergency medical technician in Harrisburg, while pursuing his early political career.

Political Life

Active in the Democratic Party as a teenager, Reed headed the Teenage Democrats of Pennsylvania, was Vice-President of the College Young Democrats of Pennsylvania, and was active in many civic activities. Among his early work experiences was a staff job for the Democratic Caucus in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

In the Democratic landslide victory year of 1974, when he was 24, Reed campaigned hard for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and upset four-term Republican incumbent George Gekas, who later became a Pennsylvania state senator and U.S. Congressman. He would go on to serve three terms as a member of the state’s House of Representatives until 1980.

As Mayor

Re-elected to the state house in 1976 and 1978, Reed was elected Dauphin County, Pennsylvania Commissioner in 1979 and Mayor of Harrisburg in 1981. He has won re-election as Mayor in 1985, 1989, 1993, 1997, 2001 and most recently in 2005.

During Reed's tenure, restaurants, museums, hotels, several large office buildings and new residences were constructed within the city limits. Reed was instrumental in the city getting its minor league baseball team, the Harrisburg Senators, and later led the city to purchase the team when it was sold to a buyer who intended to move it out of the region.

Harrisburg is also known world wide for its use of land value taxation. Harrisburg has taxed land at a rate six times that on improvements since 1975, and this policy has been credited by Reed, as well as by it city's former city manager during the 1980s with helping reducing the number of vacant structures in downtown Harrisburg from about 4,200 in 1982 to less than 500.

Reed is credited with conceiving and developing Harrisburg's City Island park, the National Civil War Museum, the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, and the high school that accompanied it. In 2000, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania placed Reed in charge of the failing Harrisburg School District, for which he imposed a massive reform and rehabilitation project. Most recently, in 2006 Reed was credited and recognized by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for reducing the city's flood risks. [cite web| url=http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=31423| year=2006| title=Harrisburg Mayor Recognized For Reducing City's Flood Risks| first=| last=| publisher=Federal Emergency Management Agency| accessdate=2007-01-14]

Reed's successes are balanced by setback: population loss, mounting debt, and continued poverty remain challenges as Harrisburg's slow recovery continues. Those setbacks notwithstanding, in December 2006 the City Mayors organization recognized Reed's achievements by awarding him the bronze third place in its annual World Mayor competition. [cite web| url=http://www.worldmayor.com/results06/wm_winners06.html| year=2006| title=John So, Lord Mayor of Melbourne wins the 2006 World Mayor Award| first=Tann| last=vom Hove| publisher=worldmayor.com/| accessdate=2006-12-31]

Mayor Reed continues to bear strong criticism for purchases of historical Civil War and "American Old West" artifacts with public funds. [cite web| url=http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040418-121304-1892r.htm| year=2004| title=City slicker aims for the Old West| first=Jerry| last=Schwartz| publisher=AP/Washington Times| accessdate=2007-05-12] The artifact purchases were intended for use in a planned Old West Museum, part of a larger plan by Mayor Reed to develop a "critical mass" of national and historically focused museums in Harrisburg, centered around the National Civil War Museum. Plans for the Old West Museum met strong public opposition and Mayor Reed placed the plans on hold, commissioning a public study (funded by an auction of some of the artifacts) to review the feasibility of the museum. Mayor Reed faced similar criticism when acquiring artifacts for the National Civil War Museum. Opponents and critics are most outspoken about the methods Mayor Reed used to fund the purchases without public oversight: "Every time the independent Harrisburg Authority floats bonds for the Harrisburg school district and other government agencies, it collects a fee and deposits it into an account. The mayor can draw on that account for any capital expense as long as he has the signatures of two members of the authority (all appointed by the mayor). [cite web| url=http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040418-121304-1892r.htm| year=2004| title=City slicker aims for the Old West| first=Jerry| last=Schwartz| publisher=AP/Washington Times| accessdate=2007-05-12] "

Mayor Reed won reelection in 2005, unopposed, after winning the Democratic Primary against Jason Smith, a Harrisburg entrepreneur and outspoken critic of the Old West Museum and artifact purchases.

References

ee also

* List of mayors of Harrisburg

External links

* [http://www.harrisburgpa.gov/government/electedOfficials/mayorsOffice/reedBio.html Biography of Mayor Stephen R. Reed]
* [http://www.citymayors.com/mayors/harrisburg_mayor.html CityMayors.com profile]
* [http://www.worldmayor.com/comments06/harrisburg_comment06.html Stephen Reed nominated for the 2006 World Mayor Award]