Weisner ready to lead Aurora into future

Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner handily won his re-election bid on April 7, defeating challengers Richard Irvin and Stephanie Kifowit.

Just days after the election, Weisner sat down with the Daily Herald to discuss Aurora's future and what he's learned from his first term in office.

Q. You've just finished your first term. What lessons have you learned?

A. The one thing that always occurs to me is - I think it was (Ben) Franklin who said this - "Genius is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration."

I think what occurred to me is that it's important to have a vision, it's very important to have a vision, but what's really critical is persistence in working toward that vision. It's all well and good to have a vision, but if you don't do everything in your power to realize it, it probably won't happen.

In politics and government and life in general there are naysayers, there are points of resistance that unless you are ready to lay it on the line and go flat out it probably won't occur. We've been extremely persistent because I realize you have to be to get where you want to be.

Q. What is your vision for Aurora?

A. My vision when I took office was basically of a city where crime was much less of an issue. We know any urban area is going to deal with crime, but my vision was to make crime much less of an issue (than) it had been in previous years and I think we made serious progress there.

My vision was also to begin the transformation of our downtown from a somewhat dormant downtown that had not been in its heyday for quite some time and transform that into a vibrant center of activity where people not only want to work and play but also want to live.

We've seen that start to take shape with River Street Plaza. We've strengthened our property standards department and passed the crime-free housing ordinance that strengthens our hand in terms of dealing with landlords who don't care how well their properties are maintained or who they rent to as long as they make a buck. We have stronger tools for good landlords to deal with bad tenants and we have stronger laws in terms of our abilities to deal with bad landlords.

What I think we're looking at in the future here is accomplishing all those things in the context of a sustainable city, both in terms of our design and our operations.

Our police department is a good example of that vision as it is less dependent on fossil fuel resources than most buildings. That is an example of where we want to go. We're looking at a program right now that will train our people in terms of green-collar jobs, which we think will be a new opportunity in our economy and in the future, and allow them to work with our citizens to improve energy efficiency and conservation in their homes.

Creating a center of commerce using land owned by the city would allow us to invent green-collar business whether they are in the service or manufacturing industry.

Q. Where does Aurora need to go in next four years?

A. We made good progress over the past four years reducing crime, creating economic development and activity in our downtown and improving quality of life in our neighborhoods. We did that by focusing on some very necessary foundational-type things that included a lot of infrastructure work within the city, including a new sanitary sewer system that was required downtown in order to add any kind of new development down here. We were at capacity and the IEPA was not going to issue any further permits for things like Waubonsee Community College, River Street Plaza or Ballydoyle, which just opened.

We needed a police station very badly. I think we've addressed those really foundational or basic needs so in the next four years we have the opportunity to really grow in a number of ways.

I think the other foundational thing you might say that we did was to begin an effort to clean up our riverfront, which really had suffered as a result of 100 years of the industrial era when that's what riverfronts were used for. But the legacy of that was some very environmentally challenged sites along the Fox River.

In order to take this thing into the 21st century in terms of what people want, water is a great attracter and we have a beautiful river so, therefore, absolutely wonderful potential along our riverfront.

But that was being pretty well counterbalanced by the environmental issues that were all along that riverfront, so we addressed those by partnering with the state and private developers like Shodeen. We have made progress on cleaning up our riverfront.

Q. What is the status of RiverEdge Park?

A. We're working on finishing up acquisition as well as moving toward the undergrounding of two sets of ComEd facilities over there. Before we can do much else we need to get that taken care of and we anticipate doing that this year.

As the economy improves we're also working on finalizing some partnerships with other entities, governmental and otherwise, to get their involvement, financially and otherwise, in the project. And that's moving ahead.

Lastly, as the economy begins to improve, we can retune our efforts to look for private sector and foundational support as well. We want to get as many financial partners in this as we can and now is not the best time to be asking people to involve themselves in new ventures. Again, I think we'll have the foundation laid and as the economy improves, it will be ready to move forward.

Q. You stated recently that the city would be forced to make some tough decisions because of the economy. Can you be more specific?

A. We are obviously in the midst of an economic downturn, which certainly puts a crimp in our plans to have a residential mix in the downtown. It slows that process down.

But I think where we are right now is really trying to position the city so that as we come out of this economic downturn, we are in the best possible position to move forward once the economy will allow that. And I believe we're moving forward now, just not at the pace we would like to because of the tightness of credit. That makes it tough for developers.

Q. Does that mean we'll see fewer capital or large-scale projects being undertaken?

A. In that sense, you're hitting the nail on the head. We've created that foundation already so what we need to do now is be good shepherds of the taxpayers' money over the next couple of years but even more so because of the reduction of overall revenues coming into the city.

We have the dual obligation, I think, of continuing to do what is critical, by providing critical services to our residents and working on critical infrastructure projects in a very focused and prioritized way but with a goal of coming out of this economic downturn stronger than ever. I think we've seen a glimpse of what Aurora can do over the past four years and I want to make sure we're positioned to basically get off the blocks very quickly in terms of economic development and job creation as this slump ends sometime in the next year and a half.

Q. The city froze pay rates last year because of the economy. Will that continue?

A. I think there's going to have to be a number of decisions that have to be made in terms of pay increases across the board within the city, in terms of hiring, in terms of consolidating departments to reduce expenses. We're going to have to be looking at the things other cities are looking at in terms of pay increases, furlough days. If the economic and revenue situations continue to run in the negative direction, we have to be ready to deal with it.

Q. Did you encounter any situations during your first term that you would have handled differently?

A. I'm sure there are many things I would have done differently. Unfortunately my sense of the election process is basically that if we were electing a Monday morning quarterback instead of a mayor, we probably would have had a lot of qualified candidates.

But I think the job of mayor, particularly in the city of Aurora where the mayor is the manager, you have to continue moving forward. You're bound to make mistakes and the critical thing is to learn from them and not repeat them.

Q. What is something about you that few people know?

A. I don't think there's much left that people don't know. Having gone through the cancer experience and seeing that as the headline in a newspaper tells you you don't have much privacy.

Luckily, I tend to enjoy public contact and being with people so generally that's just fine with me. There's moments here and there where I wish I could control the news a little bit more in terms of personal things, but such is life when you're the mayor of a large city like Aurora.

I don't think there's much I can shed new light on. I'm learning to be a calmer person, I guess you could say. On the other hand, I think I'm a pretty demanding boss, but I don't think that's a bad thing.

Q. What do you do in your free time?

A. I'm a fairly voracious reader. I enjoy history a lot and I've been reading some things on (Abraham) Lincoln. Also, I read three books relating to the founding fathers and relating to the politics behind the scenes of the Revolutionary War and the diplomatic efforts that were very critical at the time.

Q. Did you learn anything about those diplomatic efforts that you're going to try to incorporate at city hall?

A. I think there's a heck of a lot of wisdom wrapped up in that time period and how they learned how to get where they needed to go by building personal relationships. In that context, that's why I've worked so had as mayor to establish those relationships in Springfield, Washington (D.C.) and with other mayors.

Q. What legislative agendas will you be pushing in Springfield during this term?

A. I think the capital bill has been something we've been trying to see accomplished for several years and we have federal dollars for highway or road improvements that are sitting there waiting for the local match that typically comes from the state. And they're beginning the process of the next highway bill so should the state not come through with the matching amount, they will thereby put communities like Aurora and others in a very precarious position.

How can our legislators argue we should get funding in the new bill if we haven't managed to utilize what they gave us in the last bill? We've also had a lot of state and federal support on our riverfront efforts and we hope to maintain those relationships moving forward, too.