Sharon Kuderna: 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: LombardWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Lombard Village Clerk (4-year Term)Age: 47Family: Married, Two ChildrenOccupation: Administrative AssistantEducation: Glenbard East High School; College of DuPageCivic involvement: Village of Lombard Community Relations Committee;Elected offices held: Candidate did not respond.Have you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: NoCandidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 The Village Clerk position does not require me to vote on issues. Therefore it is my main objective to help the board and other staff members out in any way I can and to make the best decisions for Lombard as a whole.Key Issue 2 Another objective of mine is to focus on the issue at hand and pay extreme attention to detail. When I am figuring out a problem or dealing with a situation I think it all the way through before jumping right in. I take into consideration any kind of problems that may arise ahead of time and come up with solutions and results before they actually occur. I believe that fixing things early on is better than only covering them up, which may cause larger problems in the future. There are many things to think about when starting a something new, such as, maintenance, staffing, etc., all of which I contemplate before starting a new project. Some things may seem like good ideas now, but is my objective to think about how good it will be for the community in five, ten, or twenty years. I think it's best to learn from our mistakes and use them to benefit the community.Key Issue 3 I consider myself to be an average Lombard resident. My family has many of the same issues, situations, and interests that most Lombard families do. As a result, I?m on your side. I am excited to share suggestions and ideas that most residents would make themselves and, in a sense, be the voice of the people.Questions Answers Should the Ken-Loch golf links remain open space or be developed? Why?I would like to see Ken-Loch remain open space for now. I believe we have enough residential and commercial properties that are currently vacant. We should be trying to occupy the existing buildings before adding new ones. Also, being that our schools are already crowded, we should do our best to keep occupancy levels under control and try to cut down on the over-crowding of classrooms.Village government in Lombard has been sharply divided and the board has been deadlocked on several key issues since Bill Mueller's death. How will you help unify the board so it can better address Lombard's needs?President Mueller was highly respected by the residents. I do not think citizens realized how much he worked at keeping our board together. I have been promised that I have support from both sides of the divide to run for Village Clerk. With the backing from all around I will be able to make suggestions that will benefit all, bringing together a full board that can work together and cooperate to help Lombard move forward.Given the delicate balance between the need for revenue and over-taxing local businesses, what is your opinion of your community's present level of local sales taxes? Is the tax just right, too low or too high? Explain.I believe that the taxes are a bit high. I realize how hard it is to make ends meet for local businesses as well as how hard it is for families. On the other hand, I realize if we want things to improve it is going to take revenue to make those improvements. Overall, I just do not want taxes to get so high that we force out existing or have trouble with future businesses.Talking with your friends and neighbors, what seems to be their biggest public safety concern? Explain the concern as you see it, and discuss how you think it should be addressed.I think one of the main safety concerns is about outsourcing the EMTs. I do not want this to happen. One of the perks for residents of Lombard is maintaining thatsmall town feel? where everyone knows everyone. When someone gets hurt and an EMT must be called, people are scared. Knowing that the EMTs are employees of Lombard, I feel that they are better qualified to handle the situation. Giving residents? reassurance to keep loved ones a little more calm and collected in event of an emergency. We all want to be treated with fast, kind, and knowledgeable service and we can't be certain that's going to happen if we outsource. With an outsource service we have no control over who is hired and their experience. Nor can we be sure that the EMTs in charge are not just in it for the money. Lombard is a town full of caring individuals and I believe having our own EMTs on hand is best for our community.What's one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?I would like the board to revisit the issue of village wide voting for all trustees. I think it is a great idea to keep our town divided into six districts still having their own trustee. This system makes it easy for each resident to know who to call when they have a question or a problem. However, every resident should be able to vote on all six trustees, since their decisions as a whole affect us all.False431544Sharon Kuderna, running for Lombard Village Clerk (4-year Term) False