Bryan McRoberts: 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: Glendale HeightsWebsite: http://www.forabetterglendaleheights.comOffice sought: Glendale Heights Village Board District 6 (4-year Term)Age: 43Family: Family: Wife and 3 kids (ages 16, 13 and 1) Occupation: Vice President with Bank of America in Global Credit Risk TechnologyEducation: Bachelors of Science in Math and Computer Science from Wheaton College.Civic involvement: Coach in village softball program (coached Majors team last year, will coach Pony team this year), member and actively involved at Gary Church, including its Christmas Sharing program; was chair of Pastor Parish committee at previous church (Friendship UMC in Bolingbrook)Elected offices held: NoneHave you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: No. Candidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 My biggest issue is our alarming amount of debt. The 2012 CAFR report has our bond debt at $49 million dollars, which includes $29 million in bonds that were taken out two years ago in one big chunk. These bonds are essentially loans, and if your village is in good shape financially, loans of this nature are not necessary. The village is now paying nearly $3 million dollars per year just in debt retirement - that's a lot of money that could be going toward other services, or used to lower our high property taxes. Most people are unaware of the large nature of our village's debts. My first priority is to stop the accumulation of debt while insisting on a balanced budget. The last few years have seen deficits of $2.4 million or more every year.Key Issue 2 Another important issue is the large number of commercial vacancies. Is Glendale Heights doing what it can to keep businesses here and to attract new businesses? The steady departure of businesses and long vacancies (the empty former Dominicks is a good example of this) would indicate that the actions the village has taken haven't been very successful. One easy way to signal to the business community, and to everyone else, is to lower our outrageous tax rate. Illinois has a base tax rate of 6.25% and Glendale Heights adds 2% to that (3% if you include the food and beverage tax). That's the highest in the area and makes products more expensive in Glendale Heights. My goal is to greatly reduce the sales tax rate, but our slate agrees that reducing it from 8.25% to 7.75% is a good first step. Once the effects of that can be absorbed into the budget, further reductions can be made. This won't solve the vacancies all by itself, but it's an important signal to businesses that Glendale Heights want to make itself more business-friendly, and should make it easier to convince them to locate here. More businesses setting up in Glendale Heights means more jobs readily available for our citizens. The revenue loss from the sales tax reduction can easily come from a lot of areas in the budget.Key Issue 3 Another issue is to focus on making Glendale Heights far more business friendly. After speaking with quite a few business owners who are quick to tell stories of how many license fees are required, and about unexpected hurdles and delays in getting permission for various business activities, it doesn't seem so strange that businesses are slow in moving here. I've been very involved in Bank of America's efforts to comply with complex regulations like the Dodd-Frank Act that was passed several years ago. I'm familiar with red-tape and compliance issues, and I understand that they can serve a very useful purpose. However, I've also seen a lot of cases where well-intentioned regulations have lots of unintended adverse impacts, and Glendale Heights is a great example of that. Regulations, just by their nature, raise the cost of business. This cost has to be passed along to the customer, which makes their business less attractive. By eliminating regulations and ordinances that are making Glendale Heights less business friendly, we make it easier to keep the businesses we already have *and* make it more likely we can attract new businesses. That in turn means more sales tax revenue for the town, so it's a win-win all around.Questions Answers What makes you the best candidate for the job?I've worked for small (2-man shop!), medium and large companies. I'm familiar with the sets of problems each of those kinds of companies face. I've even had my own internet business and had to figure out how to pay a number of contractors and report everything required by state and federal laws. I can speak the language business owners use and I'm a numbers guy, so I think I'd be a great advocate for making Glendale Heights a prosperous place for business - which would lead to more prosperity for our citizens. 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.Considering that our sales tax rate of 8.25% is in the top 9% of all of Illinois, I think it's pretty obvious that our tax level is too high. Taxes are necessary for revenue generation purposes, but you don't want to be at the top in the area in terms of tax rates, yet that's exactly where Glendale Heights is currently. With a lower sales tax rate, the hope would be that more people make purchases in Glendale Heights, which would cover the potential loss in revenue from the reduction. The Glendale Heights budget of over $40 million can easily withstand some cuts that wouldn't impact services. Restructuring the debt is one area to investigate (some of the debt has a variable range that can reach 6.25%, which is unacceptable when rates are much lower currently). The golf course loses over $350,000 every year - that needs to be considered. There are lots of other places that would be ripe for reduction to account for the lowering of sales tax revenue and to help bring Glendale Heights back to a balanced budget. 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.A number of residents are concerned about the crime rate - especially in certain segments of Glendale Heights. You want everyone to feel safe in every part of the village - and the safety and security of the people should be the village's primary duty. As a village board member I'd want to spend a lot of time with the local police and find out what their efforts entail and what additional options might be available. Until I have a more detailed understanding of the issues, it wouldn't be wise to make concrete proposals to address it.In these tight economic times, municipal budgets have to be prioritized. Where, if anywhere, could the current budget be trimmed, and conversely, are there areas the budget does not give enough money to?Easy places to trim would be debt retirement via restructuring/re-financing; taking a detailed look at the golf club that loses a considerable amount every year; and looking at all the village board related expenses (it totals $200k per year).What's one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?I'd like to take another look at Glendale Heights building its own High School (Glenbard Central). Not in the near future - Glendale Heights needs to be in a much stronger position financially. Having a high school where all its students go would give Glendale Heights a much stronger sense of identity. As it is, many kids don't have much contact with each other past eighth grade because they go to different schools. My understanding is that some money was donated to the village for the use of building a high school, and I wonder where that money is. I don't see it listed in any CAFR reports.