Lili McGovern: Candidate Profile

Note: Answers provided have not been edited for grammar, misspellings or typos. In some instances, candidate claims that could not be immediately verified have been omitted. Jump to:BioKey IssuesQA Bio City: Hoffman EstatesWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Hoffman Estates parksAge: 55Family: two sons; James McGovern and Terry McGovernOccupation: unemployedEducation: BS. Leisure Studies, University of IowaCivic involvement: Board of Commissioners, Hoffman Estate Park DistrictElected offices held: Commissioner, Hoffman Estates Park DistrictHave you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: noCandidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 To support staff in their efforts to continue to provide first class facilities and experiences for the residents of the Hoffman Estates park district. This is accomplished by setting and maintaining sound environmental and fiscal management practices. And by providing opportunities for the staff to increase their personal and professional skills through continuing education and other career enrichment opportunitiesKey Issue 2 Continue to offer family oriented free recreation opportunities for the community. Our party in the park gets better every year. I love the way our staff has adapted the event over the past few years to maximize the variety of activities and consolidated the time so that the community groups that participate can take maximum advantage of the opportunity to showcase what they offer. We offer free movies nights outdoors in the warm weather and in our gymnasiums when the weather is cold. The park district can play a very important role in our community by continuing to offer opportunities for families-- especially multi-generation families #8211; to recreate together. Our Friends of the HE Parks foundation raises funds to provide scholarships for families that cant afford to pay for programs so I will continue to support the activities of the foundation.Key Issue 3 This is a personal goal #8211; to grow in my skills and understanding as a commissioner.Questions Answers What programs aren#146;t paying for themselves? Would you keep, eliminate or change them? How and why?We have a policy in place to which the staff adheres that sets a minimum rate of revenue over expenses on programs and that rate varies from program to program. Some programs are more profitable than others because they have lower operating costs and larger enrollment, such as youth sports and dance classes. Some other programs may not be as profitable for the opposite reason: high overhead costs and lower attendance. Overhead costs include direct costs such as instructional staff and materials and indirect costs such as utilities, facility maintenance and the salaries of full time staff that oversee the part time staff. A very large percentage of all our programs are funded directly and exclusively by registration fees. But we try to strike a balance by proving a variety of programs to satisfy the needs of our diverse community .Is there any additional open space the park district needs to acquire? Please describe.It is a priority to preserve open space. We have acquired several small parcels on the west end of town. Many of them will remain in their natural state and will never be developed. It is important that we keep open space as western part of the district becomes more densely populated. It#146;s a challenge to fulfill our goal to provide open spaces when our tax dollars aren#146;t growing and our costs of maintaining areas, even the ones that are naturalized continue to increase each year. We very much want to provide a dog park on the west end of the district and are investigating options now.Are there any unmet recreational needs? If yes, what are they and how would you propose paying for them? Or, should they wait until the economy improves?In 2010 we conducted a community attitude and interest survey to determine how well we meet the needs of the community. By and large the residents of Hoffman Estates are very happy with our programming. The number one recreational need that requested was walking trails. And most residents polled felt that their individual needs were being adequately met.A challenge in this economy is determining whether or not the drop in enrolment is an economical or a cultural shift. While we continue to watch the budget and have increased our cash reserves there are programs, specifically youth sports that have lower registration numbers than in the past. So the difficult question to answer is; is this merely economic or are kids losing interest in organized sports and spending more time at home playing video games. And if that is the case, is this acceptable to parents because it is convenient or are there 2 parents working now and no one to drive kids back and forth to activities. I don#146;t think this is unique to our community and it#146;s a chicken and egg type question that may be answerable only upon looking back in the future.Would you support sharing/pooling resources (i.e. printing, vehicles) with other local governments (school districts, village, etc.)? If so, what areas would you consider combining or merging to save money or improve efficiency?Many government agencies share resources and facilities, and the park district has had great success with partnerships, the relationship we have with the CHicago Wolves is a great example. We have profited financially from this, we were able to build an addition to the Triphahn center and our ice hockey and skating programs are stronger than ever. A typical model of successful partnerships in other communities are combined maintenance facilities and as we continue to expand to the west we are starting to see the need to have a maintenance facility there, so this could be something we might explore in the future.If you are a newcomer, what prompted you to run for the park board? If you're an incumbent, list your accomplishments or key initiatives in which you played a leadership role.We have accomplished many great things over the past 3 _ years. One thing about this organization that sets it apart from most is that there is absolute cooperation between leadership (the board) and staff. I don#146;t think it is fair for any individual to claim responsibility or to take credit for our staff that works so hard to implement the wishes of the community. That said, a lot has happened: in 2009 we were awarded the National Gold Medal for Excellence in Parks and Recreation, we completed the renovation of Vogelei Park, constructed Black Bear Park, enlarged Bo#146;s Run dog park, completed a major renovation of our golf course and renamed it Bridges of Poplar Creek. On a personal note, my fellow commissioners elected me as president in 2009 and I served as the first woman president of our board.I am very pleased that we have expanded our early childhood program to include accredited full day pre-school. This type of accreditation is not easily achieved and our staff has worked hard to meet the qualifications.We have also been very effective in our GREEN initiatives. We have done many things, eliminated certain types of disposable paper products, cut down on the number of photocopies we make, for instance nearly all of our board communication is electronic. Our employees are encouraged to communicate with each other electronically through their internal network, and simple things, like vacation requests are no longer done in writing. Our parks department gasoline consumption is down well over 10% simply by enforcing a #147;no-idling policy#148;. We have installed more cost effective lighting in our facilities and have investigates more environmentally friendly paving options for some of our parking lots.I am confident that we will continue to be fiscally responsible while we deliver first class programs, services, parks, playgrounds and recreation centers.