Dennis Hogan: 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: WinfieldWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Winfield Village Board Age: 68Family: Wife Jo Ann (41 years), daughters Colleen (stay-at-home mom), Katie (HS English teacher) and Erin (attorney) and four grandchildrenOccupation: Retired - Army Corps of Engineers (also news reporter in the 70's)Education: BS - Journalism (Geography minor). University of Maryland, College Park, MDCivic involvement: Chair, Winfield Economic Development Task Force; Chair, Winfield Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee; Member, Winfield Communications and Technology Committee; Wheaton Park District coach volunteer - 10 years; St. Louis County Park District coach volunteer - three yearsElected offices held: NoneQuestions Answers What makes you the best candidate for the job?My professional experience and long service to the village make me the best candidate. Trustees benefit from well-rounded backgrounds and a willingness to work hard and work well with others. Having empathy and concern for resident's needs is crucial. I believe I possess those traits. During my professional career, I ran multi-million dollar programs domestically and overseas. I managed hundreds of employees, administered budgets and developed business strategies. The skills I developed will assist me as a trustee. I also work well with others. Besides my career work, I spent four years in the military and nearly 20 years as a civic volunteer embracing the benefits of team building and gathering different perspectives and ideas. On local issues, my views are consistent with the vast majority of Winfield residents. I support open Government - not all candidates can state that based on past actions. Winfield was placed on probation and reprimanded twice for blatant Open Meetings Act violations a few years ago. This insulted our citizens. I support the resident's right-to-know and their need for inclusive, not exclusive Government. I also support development that expands our tax base and maintains our quality of life. I chaired the Steering Committee for the recently-approved Comprehensive Plan Update. Developed through citizen input, the plan gives us the opportunity to work together to develop Winfield as our citizens have directed. This is the smart way to develop - not the arbitrary re-zoning of the past. I also support maintaining our infrastructure and volunteer participation.What is your opinion of your community's present level of local sales and property taxes? Is the tax just right, too low or too high? Explain.Until a few years ago and unlike other area municipalities, Winfield only received the general 1% re-distribution of sales tax. Beginning approximately two years ago, our residents voted twice in binding referendums to increase Winfield's sales tax rate by circ;frac14; of 1%. The total of the sales tax increase the voter's approved went directly to our Village for road repair purposes. Winfield residents likely will be asked to vote on two additional circ;frac14; of 1% sales tax increases that also would be dedicated to road work. If the final two increases are approved, the total 1% increase passed by the four referendums will bring our Village's sales tax rate in line with surrounding communities. I support this process of citizen input on how they want to manage their community. I am fine with our present level of property tax assessments. I do not support doubling our property taxes as was proposed a few years ago by some of the candidates I'm running against. The voters defeated the 2012 referendum on that increase by a 2-1 margin and I was one of voters that voted against the increase.Rate the efficiency of your town's police and fire coverage. Are the departments well prepared for the next decade? What, if anything, should be changed? Do you have specific public safety concerns?Winfield's fire coverage is overseen by a separate taxing body, so I will not address that specific issue. Concerning public safety, Winfield thankfully is a relatively crime-free community. I believe our Police Department is minimally staffed. According to Winfield Police Chief Reever, the department has adequate equipment. I believe it's the role of Trustees to continually explore ways to support our police department's resources. A concern I have is the police pension fund. Similar to other municipalities, Winfield currently is about 50% funded. The Village, to the best of my understanding, never has missed a pension payment and has been investing more than the actuarially recommend amount to the fund. However, Winfield, as with other municipalities, must be at the 90% funding level by 2040 in order to meet State statutory requirements. We need to get "ahead of the curve" on this issue. One method obviously is to strive to increase our revenues through development. We've started on that path through development of the Comprehensive Plan Update and subsequent implementation actions. By state statue, pension funds are managed by independent Police Pension Boards. The Village currently is collegially partnering with our PPB to improve the police pension fund rate of return. That also will help. Finally, I believe municipalities must urge the state legislature to enact significant pension reform as a long-term solution.Where, if anywhere, could the current budget be trimmed, and conversely, are there areas the budget does not give enough money to?Winfield's budget has been trimmed continuously for at least the past 10 years. The Village Board and the Village Administration is exploring, and must continue to explore, efficiencies in our processes. That's basic. Trustees also need to explore ways to collaborate with other units of government - an example being partnering with Du Page County for bulk buying of road salt. Another recent example was the use of innovative and inexpensive debt servicing and grant acquisition to obtain funds to repair our badly decayed roads. Winfield currently is repairing 40% of our total road network over an 18-month period and is dedicated to maintaining our roads in operable condition. This initiative is smart and is resulting in significant taxpayer savings. We need to continue exploring other innovative ways to lower our expenditures.What's one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?Other persons are discussing this issue in varying degrees, but implementing our Comprehensive Plan Update (Comp Plan) is a key to our Village's future in my opinion. I was Chairman of the Comp Plan Steering Committee and believed wholeheartedly in the process. The update was delayed unnecessarily by the prior Board for approximately 1 circ;frac12; years. During that period, re-zoning actions not even reviewed by the Planning Commission were approved, resulting in lawsuits and citizen anger. It was "shotgun" planning. When the current Board majority under President Spande was elected, the Comp Plan process finally was initiated in 2013. The process used extensive citizen input over a one-year period under the oversight of Teska, one of the metro areas best planning advisory firms. The entire community reached consensus on how to proceed on major redevelopment of our community and the Plan was approved in May 2014. We now can proceed with neighborhood friendly residential and commercial redevelopment along the Roosevelt Road and St. Charles/County Farm Road corridors and in the Town Center. On a separate issue I believe needs to be addressed, the village needs to develop a partnership with Northwestern/Central Du Page Hospital to explore mutually beneficial major redevelopment of our Town Center. Both of us will benefit by working as a team.What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?I believe in open and transparent government. Two years ago, with a different Board, we had closed Government that promoted secret meetings on matters such as disbanding our Police Department (including being cited twice for OMA violations/being monitored by the State's Attorney Office) and proposing issues seemingly "out-of-nowhere" and proceeding to take immediate votes on those issues. The current Board is operating in an open manner and I applaud that stance. We must continue that direction - we do not need to return to the days of secrecy. The resident's right-to-know how its business is being conducted is paramount. I also support our citizen volunteers. Some of my opponents do not. Frankly, I'm not sure why they take that stance. Our volunteers give us free expertise, some of it unique and substantial and also their time and efforts. Throughout the current implementation of the Comprehensive Plan update, our resident volunteers have done, and are doing, a significant portion of the development and implementation work. It would have taken significantly longer and cost substantially more without our volunteers. We need these citizens. And last, we need to focus on all aspects of our community's development, including our recreational and cultural areas where our citizens can relax and play. We have a beautiful community and need to continually enhance and promote those areas.Please name one current leader who most inspires you.Pope Francis because of his intelligence, humility and ability to cut through all the nonsense that goes on the World.What's the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?You are personally responsible for your life. Only you control your destiny.If life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?Getting golf lessons at an early age. If you saw my swing, you'd understand why I'm writing this.What was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?Geography, which was my minor in college. It didn't help my career, per se - I sure love reading maps and the travel section.If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?Be personally responsible and strive to have a happy life.