Ryan Heuser: 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: MarengoWebsite: http://www.RyanHeuser.comOffice sought: McHenry County board District 6Age: 39Family: Married,5 ChildrenOccupation: Operating EngineerEducation: High School Grad, IUOE local 150 ApprenticeshipCivic involvement: Tebala ShrinersElected offices held: N/AHave you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: NoCandidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 Keep a balanced budget through cost saving efforts that do not include job loss!Key Issue 2 Property tax relief for homeowners whose property has been devalued by the housing crisis!Key Issue 3 Develop a comprehensive plan to improve McHenry County`s roads and bridges, which will draw businesses, attract new tax dollars, and create jobs. While keeping a balance between new development and conserving our environment and natural resources.Questions Answers McHenry County has managed the recession without a budgetary crisis like those in other counties. How do you ensure the county continues on that path and that reserves aren?t depleted? Are there specific budget areas that need more attention?Yes there are areas that need to get addressed. First the Board would have to look at itself and decide if it really needs 4 memebers per district at $21,500 a member. How can we ask others to make a cut if the board wont make any cuts to itself. I would propose a fifty percent cut to the SIZE and SALARIES of its members. Which would save the county $258,000 a year. Also cut the chairman's salary from $82,200 to $50,000 a year another savings of $32,200. This may not seem like a lot of money but it would at least create a couple extra much needed jobs. Since the Board refuse to help with taxes they might as well help create some jobs!Does the McHenry County Board have a good transportation improvement plan? Please be specific and suggest whether you think anything is missing or should be scrapped.They seem to have an average plan. Having a long range plan out to the year 2040 is too far. As the economy changes one way or the other the plans will change, now they wasted money on studies and plans for no reason again! A question I would have for the Dist. 6 board members is how long did they know about the roundabouts on Route 20 and never said anything, and why are they not standing up with the people they are supposed to represent, and speak out against them like I did!Does the county need to address its ethics policies? Why or why not? If so, how?I believe the Ethics policy is fine as written except for the penalties. Section 7(b) A person who INTENTIONALLY VIOLATES any provision of Section4 (Gift Ban) of this ordinance is subject to a fine in an amount of not less than $1001.00 and not more than $5000.00. I believe the amount for this violation should start at $5000.00 and not more than $10,000.00. This would help cut down on Gifts for Favors.Assess McHenry County?s efforts thus far in terms of groundwater preservation and protection. What needs to be done now and in the future?Protecting our ground water should and will always be an important issue. What needs to be done now is it needs to rain unfortunately there is nothing we can do about that. There is not going to be a booming housing market for a long time so were not going to have an increase in population which equals more water usage. With the dry summer we experienced this year the water table went down a considerable amount, and the amount of irrigating that needed to be done didnt help much either but it was necessary to help save the crops. Watering bans need to be enforced by the city's during dry summers as this, green lawns are not that important, drinking water is.Assess how the county health department approached the whooping cough outbreak. What should have been done differently?Candidate did not respond.