Hill faces challenge in Geneva's 1st Ward

Voters in Geneva's 1st Ward face two genial choices on April 7.

There's Alderman Sam Hill, a retiree who has been on the council for eight years, and formerly served on the Geneva park board.

And there's Michael Olesen, president of the Geneva Investment Group and owner of Stockholm's Pub.

Lifelong newcomer

"I believe my academic training (a degree in economics), business experiences and concern for community as a whole provide me with an insight and a desire to do the best job I can for the citizens of the 1st Ward," the 46-year-old Olesen said.

He's a lifelong resident of the town, and has volunteered for the Geneva Community Chest since 1996.

In an interview with the Daily Herald, Olesen defended the right of aldermen to delve into the smallest of details of running the city, after first giving staff general direction and seeing what they do. One example is the leaf pickup service, which the council spent a good deal of time discussing recently.

"If they (elected officials) are not being provided with the detail from the city staff, then I believe that everyone has every right to get in to the nitty-gritty to do what is best for the people.

"Because if the elected people don't, then what is best for the people is not going to get done," he said.

On finances, Olesen said that before cutting personnel costs, officials should first make sure they are getting the maximum efficiency for what dollars they do spend.

"Once those have been exhausted, at that point in time a community is required to make certain that it acts fiscally responsible. So if a service is not of a critical nature, then a layoff would need to be considered.

"I feel it is responsible to go into debt if the service is of critical nature that helps or saves lives. I would never cut the fire department or something like that trying to balance a budget."

Olesen opposed the idea of the city helping to finance or use public money to help private enterprise, such as to entice developers for the far east side. "The businesses should be able to sustain themselves on their own merits without having to go to the public trough," he said.

The incumbent

Hill, 74, who has lived in the 1st Ward since moving to Geneva in 1977, thinks the city council should be a policy-setting body. The budget is based on goals set annually by the council, with input from the staff. "We shouldn't be doing the nitpicking. Let the department heads reduce their own budgets for these lousy economic times. They've got to live with them and if they don't, we have to question that," he said.

Hill hopes to avoid laying off workers by limiting salary increases. "We want to hold the line and we want to keep our people working, so we can maintain public services," he said.

He favors continuing the leaf service, which came under criticism last fall because not all areas received their guaranteed two pickups due to snowy weather. He thinks the city may need to plan to have workers do it the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving, to get the two pickups done.

He doesn't think a third pickup is warranted; he likes the plan the city came up with, where residents can put leaves in December in brown paper waste bags and have them picked up on their regular garbage days. In previous years, the city used to do a third pickup, weather-permitting, and people got used to it.

"That was a great solution for residents who paid attention to the information," he said.