Annunziato Pulice: Candidate Profile

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:BioKey IssuesQA Bio City: Wood DaleWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Wood Dale MayorAge: 49Family: Married 27 years, 3 childrenOccupation: Candidate did not respond.Education: Candidate did not respond.Civic involvement: Knights of ColumbusChicago Italian American Charitable OrganizationElected offices held: Alderman Ward 1 City of Wood Dale, 2007 - PresentHave you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: NoCandidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 Stop the automatic water rate increases. The City Council had set a goal to collect approx. $1 million per year for city infrastructure. Right now the City is collecting about $ 800,000. I feel this is close enough, but we have 2 more increases scheduled over the next 15 months bringing our total to $1.8 million. These increases will cost the residence approx. 15% more. I feel the elected officials should start making the tough decisions not keep raising rates. The citizens deserve a break.Key Issue 2 The Underpass Referendum this project will cost between $20- 22 million with minimum positive impact; this is a waste of grant money. Instead we should only do the planned Safety Improvements, which include the new traffic signal at Irving Park and Wood Dale Road. This would cost approx $4 million, all coming from grants. I would vote no to the underpass referendum, but go forward with the planned safety improvements.Key Issue 3 Wood Dale Finances. I keep hearing how we have money but nobody mentions that a 1% sales tax was passed through a referendum about 4 years ago. This extra 1% is about 70% of our reserves. If we didn't receive this money we would have had to pull money out of reserves to pay for the projects that have been completed the past 4 years. Our goal going forward is to attract new businesses so we can improve our sales tax income. We don't want another 1% sales tax increase nor can we afford to give another $1.2 million tax incentive to a small single business.Questions Answers After an elected official borrowed city money to pay for health insurance, explain why you believe the measures put in place to prevent this in the future are either sufficient or insufficient?The new measures now give staff the authority to impose late penalties if health insurance premiums are not paid on time. The ordinance also gives the power to cancel the insurance if the payment continues to be late. This could be sufficient if the staff follows through, but what happens if the elected official tries to intimidate the staff into not acting on its authority. Personally any elected official who abuses their power should have to resign, that would be sufficient.Last year, Wood Dale was one of the few municipalities in DuPage County that did not suffer layoffs or cutbacks as a result of the recession. How do you think Wood Dale can sustain this balance during continued economic struggles?Wood Dale has been able to sustain because about 4 years ago the city started to receive an extra 1% sale tax that was passed through a referendum. The extra 1% equals approx. $7.5-8 million collected over the past 4 years. Bottom line without that money we would have taken about 70% of our general fund to complete the projects we have done. Going forward we will need to make the tough decisions and find ways to increase our sales tax base without putting more of the burden on the citizens. We will need strong leadership not another 1% sale tax referendum.When the new $1.27 Metra station came to Wood Dale last year, the hope was that it would spark residential and commercial growth in downtown. Is that happening? If not, what will it take to make that happen?I look at the Metra Station as the cornerstone of our downtown. We do have a couple of projects that may be coming forward this spring, but the strength of the economy may determine whether or not the developers will continue to go forward and build.Do you think plans for a ""corporate Main Street"" in the Thorndale Corridor are the best way to capitalize on the Elgin-O'Hare Expansion? Why?In my opinion the corporate Main Street will be the best use for this area. The combination of hotels, corporate headquarters, restaurants and shops with some residential mixed in would increase our sales tax revenue and land values. The Main Street will also have some type of transit station in the center which will make it more accessible. This will make the area even more desirable because of the easy access. What do you think is the best way to deal with existing businesses and homes who are in the Thorndale Corridor but don't fit into the Corporate Main Street plan?The fact is the corporate Main Street could take up to 15 years, maybe longer, to be fully complete. We have some businesses in the area that may want to expand and they should be allowed to do so. We don't want the property values to go down. We will need to work together with land and business owners so we have a smooth transition.