MAYOR’S COLUMN -- John J. Collins

Thanksgiving Day is the first true American holiday.

After the first harvest by the New England Pilgrim Colonists in 1621,

they held for a day of thanksgiving and prayer.

It strikes me as a bit odd that God and prayer were so consistently

incorporated in the governmental process during the early days of our

country. Today, if a fourth-grader gets caught praying in the classroom,

he could be looking at “5 to 10 in the big house.”

Oh, well, back to Thanksgiving Day.

Gradually, through the years after 1621, governors of the several New

England colonies proclaimed an annual day of thanksgiving after the

harvest.

This also became an annual custom of many states by the middle of the

19th century.

In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a day of thanksgiving.

Since then all presidents have issued a Thanksgiving proclamation

designating the last Thursday of November as a national holiday of

thanksgiving.

Bringing this national holiday to a more local perspective, I believe the

residents of Fountain Valley have a lot for which to be thankful.

For the last 378 years since the first thanksgiving, we have enjoyed the

benefits of the hard work of our forefathers.

However, we are also blessed with the beneficial actions of the City’s

founding fathers, and those public servants who followed for the last 42

years.

I am thankful that Jim Kanno and his colleagues on the first city

council, back in the late 50s, created the first strategic plan for

building out the development of our city.

In fact, Fountain Valley was the first master-planned community in Orange

County and one of the first in the state.

Because these people, mostly farmers, were insightful and dedicated, many

potential community problems were never given the opportunity to surface.

Community squabbles over land-use issues that plague some other cities

have not occurred in Fountain Valley. This has given our community the

opportunity to come together in unity and address issues of common

concern and benefit.

Our city forefathers gave us a road map that set almost all standards by

which we operate today.

I am thankful that the council and our city manager in the late 1960s,

Jim Neal, and adopted the concept of a two-year budget with a 10-year

fiscal forecast. Fountain Valley was one of the first cities in

California to adopt this forward-thinking budgetary style.

Because city staff and councils have followed this process and discipline

for the last 30 years, Fountain Valley is one of the most fiscally stable

cities in Orange County.

No utility taxes; low water rates; well-maintained parks and streets; and

highly trained public safety department personnel and top-of-the-line

safety equipment are all the result, in part, of this budgetary

discipline.

So, as you give thanks for your personal blessings, and you think about

the generations of forefathers who, since 1621, have contributed to your

good fortune, please add a special prayer of thanks for your local

forefathers who gave birth to this “Nice Place to Live.”

JOHN J. COLLINS is mayor of Fountain Valley.