Marcus E. Banner: 2023 candidate for Elgin City Council

Bio

Town: Elgin

Age on Election Day: 45

Occupation: Union Laborer 1035

Previous offices held: Committeeman

Q&A

Q. What is the most serious issue your community will face in the coming years and how should the city council respond to it?

A. True transparency and abuse of power by those who hold it. The council should be apart of investigations and get all information first hand from all involved in order to draw an untainted or preconceived conclusion.

Q. How would you describe the state of your community's finances?

A. Those who have stable livelihoods remain stable and growing those who are blocked from equal opportunities at good middle class jobs with benefits remain in distress trying to find a way.

Q. What should be the three top priorities for spending in your community during the next four years?

A. Job opportunities for our forgotten communities. Help the poorest of our communities to become self sustainable so they can in turn invest and uplift those communities.

Q. Are there areas of spending that need to be curtailed? If so, what are they?

A. I've worked in the private sectors and public sectors the notion of a budget driven by spend it or lose it has to go. The waste can be found in every aspect of our city government.

Q. What do you see as the most important infrastructure project the community must address? Why and how should it be paid for? Conversely, during these uncertain economic times, what project (s) can be put on the back burner?

A. Projects that create jobs for our citizens so that money is then constantly recycled back into our budget as tax revenues. Sales, real estate, fuel and so on.

Q. Describe your experience working in a group setting to determine policy. What is your style in such a setting to reach agreement and manage local government? Explain how you think that will be effective in producing effective actions and decisions with your city council.

A. Family, business and community. My approach is always and not or. Take all ideas put on the table, consider all who will be affected and how can everyone and everything benefit from these ideas. The true meaning of inclusion.

Q. What makes you the best candidate for the job?

A. I believe I am the best candidate for the job because I haven't been institutionalized by the political system with the desire to be a politician driven by how the system works and how I can benefit and gain prestige.

Instead I'm a blue collar working family, community man with the desire and courage to be an official who will fight for how the system should work ensuring that it is truly transparent, accountable and inclusive especially to our forgotten communities those considered to be the least of us.

Q. What's one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?

A. Homeless To Homeward Bound and projects to condos. This would begin with seasonal temporary internships within all city departments to fulfill the needs of large projects that we can do internally instead of contracting out. These interns would be gather from our forgotten communities so they can be given on the job training that they can take anywhere and have a self-sustainable career with good benefits and retirement plans as well as be able to pay into our tax revenues through sales, real estate, fuel and so on. No longer being a burden on the system.