George Milkowski: Candidate Profile

Back to Metropolitan Water Reclamation District

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: ChicagoWebsite: Not yet availableTwitter: Candidate did not respond.Facebook: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Age: 68Family: Married to Rhonda for 38 years. My son, Matthew, is an Art teacher in a Chicago Public School high school. My daughter, Marcy, is a practicing veterinarian in ChicagoOccupation: Retired CPS high school teacherEducation: Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education, University of Illinois, 1970; Master of Arts (concentration in public policy analysis), University of Illinois, 1981.Civic involvement: I have been elected to the Board of Directors of the North Boundary Home Owners League since 2010. I am the chairman of NBHOL's annual community picnic.I am a regular blood donor through LifeSource with over 145 donations to date.Elected offices held: NoneQuestions Answers The board continues to be dominated by officials from Chicago as opposed to the suburbs. Do you support reforming the way the board is elected to ensure more balanced representation?Yes, I would favor dividing the MWRD into nine separate districts and having elections as is the Cook County Board.The role of board members is described as part time, yet the salary associated with it is more than most people make in their full-time job. Is the salary appropriate? Why or why not?No, a part time job should get part time pay. If a commissioner receives the equivalent of a full time salary, then the commissioner should resign or take a leave of absence from all other sources of employment.If you are an incumbent, what has your attendance been for board meetings? IF you are a challenger, have you attended any meetings? How many?As a challenger, I have attended about 70% of the meetings over the last four years.How do you rate the MWRD on transparency and the public's access to records? If you consider it adequate, please explain why. If you think improvements are needed, please describe them, why they are important and how you would accomplish them.The MWRD needs improvements. Getting information from its website can be somewhat confusing.Contact with the offices of the various commissioners is easy enough but getting timely responses is a hit or miss situation.Please list any elected office you've ever run for and what the result of that election was. Have you ever been appointed to fill an unexpired term?I ran for the Cook County Board in 2012 and for the MWRD in 2014. In 2012 I received about 7% of the vote and in 2014 myself and the two other Green Party candidates got about 11.5% of the vote.What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?Although I am a Green Party member, I am also a taxpayer and I find it disturbing that the MWRD continues to lease land that is not needed "for the corporate purpose" for 39 years, ignoring statutory mandates to rid itself of unneeded property. If the land is not needed for 39 years, then why not sell it and return it to the tax rolls?Please name one current leader who most inspires you.Bernie SandersWhat is the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?Personal responsibility and consideration for other people.If life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?More time with my familyWhat was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?History. A high school teacher made me realize how much progress humanity has made in the last 6,000 years, so I also became a teacher.If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?Never intentionally say or do anything that will hurt other people and always try to do what you know is the right thing to do.