Ralph Souder: Candidate Profile

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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:BioQA Bio City: Elk Grove VillageWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Elk Grove Village Park Board Age: 55Family: Wife: Patricia "Trish" Souder, Children: Dan, Pat KerryOccupation: ConsultantEducation: Northern Illinois University - BS Accountancy, Certified Public Accountant in IllinoisCivic involvement: Candidate did not respond.Elected offices held: Commissioner at Elk Grove Park District since 2003Questions Answers What programs aren't paying for themselves? Would you keep, eliminate or change them? How and why?There are many facilities and programs that are necessary to meet our community's needs that don't "pay for themselves" in park districts generally. One example is our parks, which are an essential feature. They generate no revenue and we remain committed to maintaining and improving them to Elk Grove Park District's high standards. Regarding facilities that are not as profitable as we would like, Fox Run Golf Links is our main challenge. Golf rounds nationally have been dropping in recent years, and Fox Run has been no exception until 2014, where we essentially broke even with the year before. I remain committed to operating an excellent golf course at Elk Grove Park District. Over the past 5 or 6 years, we have invested over $3 million renovating the clubhouse and, more recently, the course itself, replacing a 30-year-old irrigation system, upgrading the drainage on the course and sand traps, and improving the course layout. Fox Run has operated as an Enterprise Fund, meaning it operates within the constraints of golf revenue without any tax dollars. The plan for 2014 and until we have absorbed the cost of renovations, we have decided to use funds from the Corporate Fund to bolster the fund balance. In 2014, we moved a $300,000 reinvestment to Fox Run, and beginning next year, we will pay for certain capital expenditures directly from Corporate. As for recreation programs, staff does an excellent job of continually monitoring programs, improving or replacing them as needed.Is there any additional open space the park district needs to acquire? Please describe.There is very little land in Elk Grove to be had. We have approached District 59 in an attempt to purchase the unused land behind our Pavilion. To date their board has been reluctant to part with assets that could be used to benefit their constituents in years to come. We would love to add that property to our campus there. District 59 has been very gracious over the years, allowing us to use the land for events and for youth athletic programming, but I know we could put it to more immediate use and address needs of our community now and into the future.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?One need is to have a large, indoor space that could be used for athletic training, special events, larger tournaments, etc. We are currently exploring options to provide such a facility at Community Athletic Fields (CAF) and will be reviewing options there in 2015. We have also explored the possibility of acquiring an existing building in our Industrial Park or, again, attempting to purchase the District 59 land to house such a facility. We also have to continue to monitor the needs of adult programming as our demographics continue to trend older. We have a growing group of very active adults who use the Sheila Ray Adult Center. Our staff and board remain very conservative and innovative in finding ways to fund our projects. We carefully plan the phasing of projects with the goal of not increasing our tax levy and remaining affordable, especially to the residents of Elk Grove Park District. Innovative in that we always look for grant money available to fund projects, often successfully, and by structuring (sometimes restructuring) our debt to fit the requirements of our 5 and 10 year plan. Our Finance Director led the charge for us to become the first Park District in Illinois to buy our bond issue using the available fund balance in our Land and Capital Acquisition Fund, which saved the district more than $10,000 in bond issuance costs. Interest rates are at historic lows, which has given us the ability to tackle some large projects in recent years.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?In short, yes. Our district is very actively involved with other taxing bodies in our area. The relationship with the Village has been very strong, and we have shared equipment and services pretty regularly. With District 59, we have had a long-standing agreement where we maintain the land and parks around their schools and, in return, have off-hours access to their facilities. Within our district, we continue to look for opportunities to share equipment and services with Fox Run. One feature of Elk Grove Park District I have always been very proud of and impressed with is the tradition of having affiliated, but operationally independent, volunteer groups supporting our youth athletics. There are Associations in support of Baseball house and travel), Basketball, Football, Inline Hockey, Soccer (house and travel) and Softball (house and travel). These boards and the coaches within each program provide our community with excellent and focused (and free) labor giving the youth in Elk Grove opportunities to play any or all of these sports, either at the house level or in more competitive travel programs.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.I have served as a commissioner since 2003. I first ran on the board to give back to an organization that benefited me personally, as a participant in football and baseball when my family first moved here in 1972, and that benefited my family as my kids also grew up here in Elk Grove. As a financial and operations professional, I have been able to leverage my background, experience and knowledge in the areas of finance, management and employee benefits to help inform the board and assist in making solid decisions. I have served on a variety of committees including Finance, Golf, Athletics, Policy and Steering and Adult Center. During my time as commissioner, I have been involved in the move from a costly partially self-funded insurance plan and into a more cost-effective and predictable health plan; during the renovation of Rainbow Falls, I was involved in the public education initiative leading to a successful ballot referendum in support of the renovation, which includes an inline rink; the addition of the inline rink at Mead; the renovation of Fountain Square water park; the major upgrade of our maintenance facility; the continuing renovation and reconfiguration at the Pavilion and the Pavilion Aquatic Center. I am also very proud to have been a part of the team the hired Mike Brottman as our Executive Director 10 years ago, and currently winding up the process of hiring his successor.What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?During the 80's and 90's, Jack Claes, his staff and the commissioners that served with them created a visionary framework for a more innovative and feature-rich park district. Today, we are challenged with a continual cycle of repair, improvement and/or renovation of those facilities, parks and programs. Many of these have been accomplished and many remain in process. I have been heavily and intimately involved with the planning and staging process looking out over the next few years, and feel that my experience on the board, professional background and a demonstrated financial conservatism, leadership and teamwork will prove to be invaluable to the continued growth and improvement of your park district.Please name one current leader who most inspires you.Paul RyanWhat's the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?To be accountable and to live my life so that, when one day looking back on it, I can proudly smile.If life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?I can't think of anything. Good judgement is gained from experience, and experience is often a result of bad judgement.What was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?Physics. It was fun and provided the basis for looking at problems logically and clinically and working toward sensible solutions.If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?Continually learn, enjoy every day and always chase down your dreams.