Jim Haselhorst: 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: NapervilleWebsite: www.napervillecandidate.comOffice sought: Naperville Mayor Age: 55Family: Candidate did not respond.Occupation: Practice ManagerEducation: BA Physics - University of Colorado, Boulder MBA - University of Illinois, Ubana-ChampaignCivic involvement: 20+ years Naperville Jaycees 21+ years US NavyElected offices held: President - Forest Park Chiefs Mess Associations Secretary - Forest Park Chiefs Mess Association Secretary - Motor City Chiefs Mess AssociationQuestions Answers What makes you the best candidate for the job?I have over 30 years experience working in government, nine years being with a regulatory agency, which includes experience in government administration, contracting, finance and human resources. This experience involved working with government officials and leaders on the Federal, State and local levels as well as foreign leaders and officials. I also 20 years managing a small Naperville business giving me experience in business-city interactions/regulation and familiarity with the local small business environment and community. I believe this wealth of diverse experience provides me a unique set of insights and prospectives that I can use to improve city government and its impact on our community. Additionally, I have over 20 years experience as a community volunteer in both leadership and followship positions. I understand the wealth of benefits the volunteer community in Naperville provides to it's residents and businesses. The improved quality of life provided for resident that participate in events like Art Festivals, Parades, Last Fling, Ribfest, etc and the enhancement of the business environment by serving as an entrepreneurial incubator to vendors and arts participating in these events. I believe city-volunteer organization relationship well benefit from exploitation of this experience.How would you describe the condition of your community's budget, and what are the most important specific actions the town should take to assure providing the level of services that people want?The state of Naperville's budget is good and improving, the present budget short fall does not represent a significant or difficult problem to our community's economic health. There are still some areas that need monitoring and possibly future action, like the water utility reserve and the IMEA situations. The suggestion of some that encouraging great utility usage would solve these two issues is counter to pass city actions to persuade residents to conserve power and water. The biggest factor in the city budget is the health of the economy, which has been steadily improving since the budget crisis of a few years ago forced a reduction in city staffing and services. Despite these staffing loses the present City staff has done an outstanding job of providing City Council with ways to improve operating efficiency and cut operating cost with only a minor impact on the service provide to residents and businesses. The current economic tread holds promise than in the near future staff and safety officers lost to desperately needed reductions in city operating costs can one day soon be rehired providing better public safety and improve city services.How would you handle the role of liquor commissioner? Would you actively punish liquor license holders for violations that occur at their facilities? What type of punishments do you think are appropriate and what actions would you take to keep downtown night life safe?Why would you not punish documented violations? During my nine years with a federal regulatory agency there were several situation of clearly documented violations but no punitive action was taken. The reason for inaction was concern about the political fallout of punishing the violators, who were politically connected. The decision to engage in a more diplomatic approach of trying to persuade violators to comply generally failed and compliance was achieve by convincing them punitive action was inevitability. Drawing out the problem this way resulted in hurting the agency's credibility as well as creating a greater and greater legal liability. On the municipal level politics are not as significant a factor as the legal liability these situations create. Federal agencies possess a legal immunity that municipal governments do not and the cost of legally defending the city's actions could be significant when dealing with a tenacious violator, who believe the city has back them into a corner and has left them no choice. The normal punishments for violations are fine, suspension and revoking; anyone or all of which could lead an owner to bankruptcy and the belief they have nothing left to lose by suing the city. This means the city needs to make sure it has the documentation needed to prove a violation. In the downtown, were the patrons frequently move from establishment to establishment this can be difficult. The use of id scanners to information collects is a way of getting the documentation needed for punitive enforcement.The top three goals in the city's strategic plan are adding more government services to the website, improving traffic flow and increasing two-way communication with residents and stakeholders. Do you think these are the best three priorities? If so, why? If not, which other topics would you prioritize and why?No, I do not believe these goals are the best priorities for the city for several reasons. Remember these goals come from a consultant's recommendation. In over 30 years of government work I never saw a consultant's report produced any significant improvement. Consultant tend to not recommend setting goals that are stretches either because they do not want to be associated with failure or because the organization is working just fine and no real change is needed. Naperville's communications and website services are some of the best in Chicagoland and an area were only small improvements can be achieved. The biggest impediment to improved traffic flow is that most the streets needing improvement are not under city jurisdiction. Again only small improvements can be achieve by changes to city-controlled streets. The most underserved stakeholders in Naperville are it's small business owners and improvement in city services provided to them would result in major improvements to the city's image and economy. Indiebound Naperville is an initiative to encourage residents to purchase goods and services from local small businesses; greater city support of these types of programs can produce major improvements in our city. Initiatives by the city to provide support for and encourage the expansion of weekend markets like the farmers markets as well as the cart vendor program would provide quality of life improvement for residents while also serving as an incubator for developing local entrepreneurs that could one day become brick and mortar businesses and employer in our community.As the mayor of one of the state's largest cities, what role can and should you play in pursuing issues of regional importance that extend beyond Naperville's borders?Facilitator. Providing support, encouragement and when necessary leadership at meetings, forums and workshops on regional issues. Issues like SB 16, which places undue burden on communities, whose leaders have done everything right to shore up communities that elected leaders who did so many things wrong. This is an issue were a regional voice will be heard louder and clearer in Springfield than that of a city. Another regional issue that needs attention is the practice of large businesses playing cities off against each other to gain concession for locating in their community. Studies have shown these concessions overwhelmingly benefit these large businesses and frequently cost communities more then they gain. A regional agreement on permissible and prohibited practice by cities when negotiating with these large corporations could go a long way to ending this situation.What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?The south side of Naperville was promised a walk able shopping/community area amenity similar to the downtown/riverwalk area several years ago. Little progress has been made in this area and I believe it is time for the city to put more time and effort into making this happen. I realize the economic downturn and the resulting budget crisis were major factors in delays of this project, but the economy is improving and the budget crisis has been addressed. One of the main reasons for developing the downtown area was to create a walk able shopping area that would rival the Fox Valley Shopping Center and draw people to downtown, particularly Naperville residents. It was realized that every dollar spent by residents in neighboring communities was a loss in economic improvement for the city as well as lost city revenue. For most southern residents downtown Naperville is a longer drive then downtown Plainfield or even the shopping area around Clow Airport. The present situation once again motivates Naperville residents to spend their dollars outside our community. This project would bring these dollars back to our community.Please name one current leader who most inspires you.Mayor Pradel, his wholehearted support and belief in Naperville along with his omnipresence at community events is selfless leadership rarely seen today.What's the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?To keep an open-mind, be patient and respect/value our differencesIf life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?Regrets/mistakes are lessons to learn from. I value what I learn from these mistakes to much to want to erase them with a do-over.What was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?Science. It taught me to value different perspective and the insight each provides in solving a problem.If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?Don't be afraid to fail, failing is how we learn to succeed.