Patrick Ludvigsen: Candidate Profile

Back to Prospect Heights City Council Ward 4

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: Prospect HeightsWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Prospect Heights City Council Ward 4 Age: 47Family: Dana - Wife Paige - Daughter Sabrina - Daughter Morgan - DaughterOccupation: Construction Project ManagerEducation: BS - Engineering Technology MS - Industrial ManagementCivic involvement: Lions Club Past PH Park Board Member City of Prospect HeightsElected offices held: Prospect Heights Park Board Alderman Ward 4 MayorQuestions Answers What makes you the best candidate for the job?I feel that it is my experience on the City council and my long term view I take when trying to resolve City issues. Every time the council takes action on an issue, I base my vote on how it will affect the city not only today, but 20, 30 or 50 years from now. My experience on the city council allows me to better understand how the process of local government works and how to best resolve issues within that framework.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.Nobody likes to pay taxes, myself included. In my opinion, you have to weigh how much in taxes we pay with what we get in return. We are very fortunate to live in a City that is ranked in the top 50 safest towns in Illinois and is in one of the top high school districts in the state (#9 Hersey #35 Wheeling out of 674 schools). While I would love to pay less in property tax, I would not want to give up the standard of living that we currently enjoy. It is important though that all units of government do all they can to reduce costs and operate as efficiently as possible. As far as sales taxes are concerned, Prospect Heights' rate is equal to or less than most of the surrounding communities.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?The police department is well prepared for the next decade. There are improvements being made at every level of the department. The department has recently made upgrades to its facilities, radio communication system and does a much better job of rotating out older patrol cars. Recently there have been some retirements of officers, and the new officers coming in out of the academy have been very impressive. I have no public safety department concerns.Where, if anywhere, could the current budget be trimmed, and conversely, are there areas the budget does not give enough money to?An area that needs to be looked at more closely is the use of outside contractors. I feel that we need to look at outsourcing some of the work that we currently do in house like grass cutting and tree removal. Our public works does a very good job, but if we outsourced in these two areas, we would have a more predictable cost for this work year after year. Also, we would reduce the amount of equipment we would need to maintain, which would free up additional time to work on more critical public works issues. I feel that we must start to invest more in technology throughout all departments in the City. Recently we have replaced old equipment in public works and at the police department, but we now must take the next step and improve the way in which we use technology. We need to update our computer systems and data storage and retrieval systemsWhat's one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?The council does a good job of communicating new ideas with each other. When any of us have an idea that we feel would benefit the City, we talk about them at our workshop meetings.What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?Candidate did not respond.Please name one current leader who most inspires you.None come to mind for current leaders, but Ronald Regan inspired me the most.What's the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?The importance of family.If life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?I would have worked harder in school.What was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?Math. I use it every day.If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?There is nothing more important than family.