SPARKS -- These are critical times for the City of Sparks, and this morning in his annual State-of-the-City address Mayor Geno Martini layed out his plans for the future.

The big topic during today's address was the multimillion dollar city budget shortfall of 2011.

The mayor said, “Numerous employee focus group meetings were held to solicit input and feedback on areas where the city could reduce services and save public dollars.”

Last year, the city implemented a new plan to help them govern in unprecedented times. The Sparks Sustainable Services Initiative or SSSI, was designed to streamline the organization by prioritizing services. It certainly has helped, but as Martini points out, it’s not an end all to their problems.

“As a result of the SSSI program our budget has stabilized, at least for the short term. We have some way to go before we see an upswing in city revenues. Our local and state economies remain fragile.”

He discussed high unemployment rates and the city’s dismal housing market as the council prepares for another difficult year ahead.

Latest projections show Sparks’ total revenue for 2012 is expected to decline 4.9% from last year.

Mayor Martini says they’ll continue to support shared services that make sense and introduce new ways to save residents time.

He thanked community volunteers and city leaders, and reported positive news, property crime in sparks is down by the double digits despite difficulties with police staffing.

“For a city our size, the standard is two officers per thousand citizens. Our sworn officer workforce is closer to 1 officer per thousand. We have 11 percent fewer officers than we did in 2008,” said the Mayor.

The fire department was also recognized for partnering with the private sector and raising funds through grant programs to continue outstanding service.

Martini touched on the importance of Sparks’ special events, saying they enhance the quality of life and increase tourism, something they plan to improve upon this year. He ended with a solemn promise to put our city back to work.

“Everything we do needs to focus on creating jobs and the rest will follow for sparks, our region, and Nevada.”

FOX 11 News' Shannon Moore will have the full story tonight at 11.