Q&A: Why Galvan is running for mayor in Elgin

If Joseph Galvan is elected mayor of Elgin in April, he'll be the first Hispanic mayor in the city's 161-year history.

Galvan, who is running against incumbent David Kaptain in the April 7 election, is a principal with Galvan and Associates, which provides information technology and business management services.

He also serves on the board of Lutheran Social Services of Illinois and is a past regional director for the Midwest region of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Kaptain was elected to the city council in 2005 and mayor in 2011. He served on the city's planning and zoning commission and as chairman of the Elgin Community Network. He is a retired chief chemist and director of process control for the Fox River Water Reclamation District.

Galvan sat down with the Daily Herald for an exclusive interview about his candidacy. Here is an edited version.

Q. Why are you running for mayor?

A. When we moved here in 2006, we just fell in love with the community. I want to continue to make Elgin a better place to live.

Q. You haven't been involved in Elgin's city government before. Why start at the top?

A. I could have run for the Republican party for the 14th Congressional District when Dennis Hastert retired in 2007. But I had been away from home quite a bit for HUD and I love my wife dearly. When she says "no," it's "no." All politics is local, and this is about as local as you can get.

Q. What would your leadership be like?

A. I call it "management by walking around." You go out and try to understand people. It's about leading by example and being an activist. I speak Spanish, and I think that's obviously a real advantage. I heard Mayor Kaptain is a good guy, but there's a leadership void. It's about working with all council members.

Q. What is Elgin doing right?

A. Here on the west side, they have worked with developers in planning for parks and nature trails. Downtown, they have had some good ideas with utilizing the Fox River and doing some of the basic infrastructure, like Festival Park.

Q. What is Elgin doing wrong?

A. We need to look at taxes and the budget. You can always find ways to cut. Diversification of revenues is just another form of taxation - it's going into people's pockets. When I was community development director in Franklin Park and Country Club Hills, I was responsible for city budgets and I understood how to make reductions. Also when I worked for HUD the federal government also asked us to make 5- to 10-percent cuts across the board more than once.

Q. A lot of political candidates say they can reduce taxes and cut budgets. What would you do specifically?

A. Sometimes you reduce expenses through attrition, sometimes it's about looking at a reduction of services. I'm not talking about hurting people or hurting community organizations. I'm just talking about finding ways to keep our heads afloat.

Q. Do you think there's a divide between Elgin's Hispanic population, which is 44 percent, and everyone else?

A. I've heard that. Part of it is creating a bridge to reach out to them, and I think I can be that bridge. Whether it's at the city level, or the library board or park district, we have to make sure we get people involved. We're all Elginites. How do we work together, how do we unite? It gets back to outreach.

Q. What are your thoughts on housing in Elgin?

A. We have still too many foreclosures, especially here on the far west side. Part of that is working with the real estate community to let people know what a great product you have. People from this side of town don't go east, and that gets back to image. We need to do a better job of attracting businesses to Elgin. We need to do more events like Nightmare on Chicago Street on a quarterly basis. The target audience should be families.

Q. Have you ever worked with the Housing Authority of Elgin?

A. We had a small contract a little bit over a year ago to recertify Central Park Tower as seniors-only. I would not have approved the new project (a yet-to-be-built six-story building). It's too dense. You don't build up - none of the housing developments across the country do that. You build out, you decrease density, or you set up people for failure.

Q. You resigned in October from the board of United Neighborhood Organization in Chicago, which is facing investigations by the Internal Revenue Service and Securities and Exchange Commission.

A. I was on the board for six months, if that, and they were already in trouble. I was brought in to help, but I resigned because of the time commitment. They used to be a good organization for the community, and hopefully they can continue in some fashion.