The city-sponsored event began with a prayer led by Sunnyvale resident Stuart McGee in which Sunnyvale residents were urged to "P.U.S.H." which stands for "Pray until something happens."

Howe gave a five-minute speech that, while optimistic about the city's future with the new downtown plaza and the plan for reopening of the downtown street grid, struck several somber notes.

While he praised his fellow council members and the city staff for this year's budget balancing—he lamented the fact that as of that moment, California did not have a working state budget.

He was optimistic about the economy, after acknowledging that Sunnyvale was hit harder by the "dot-bomb," than it had been by anything since the Great Depression.

In addition, the city paid tribute to two soldiers from Sunnyvale who recently died in Iraq. Marine Cpl. Bumrok Lee and Army Spc. Patrick McCaffrey and all Sunnyvale community members serving overseas.

In addition to his address, Howe presented several awards to members of the Sunnyvale community.

Network Appliance received the Outstanding Environmental Achievement of the Year for designing a state-of-the-art, energy efficient power and cooling system for their new mission-critical data center. Wilcox High School graduate Bindu Gottipati and Fremont High School graduate Aneta Pariaszevski both received High School Senior of the Year awards. Bindu was nominated for academic achievement and hundreds of hours of volunteer work and Aneta for leadership in the classroom, on the playing field and in the community.

Sunnyvale Historical Society member Margaret Maletetis was recognized as the Outstanding Community Volunteer of the Year for her work with several local organizations. Funeral home owner Richard Smith, received the Outstanding Businessperson of the Year award for his business and civic volunteerism, and Dr. Gayle Cornelison of the California Theatre Center received the city's first Outstanding Contribution to the Arts award for her work with the CTC in putting together almost 14,000 performances in Sunnyvale.

Sunnyvale's Distinguished Citizen of the Year award went to Geoff Ainscow who spent 11 years on Sunnyvale School District's Board of Education Development, creating an environment that encourages cooperation over conflict. Howe gave Jeanine Stanek the Mayor's Award of Excellence for 2004 for her long and distinguished service to the Sunnyvale community.