Cliff Mortenson: 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: WinfieldWebsite: FirefighterOffice sought: Winfield Village boardAge: 54Family: Madison (daughter)Occupation: Candidate did not respond.Education: UCOD, Illinois State University, Fire Collage - University of IllinoisElected offices held: My only political experience has been with the village of Winfield both on the Plan Commission and the Village board.Have you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: No. Candidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 to support the Town Center concept and help it move forwardKey Issue 2 the River Walk project which I feel will support the Town Center ProjectKey Issue 3 I feel we need to continue to look for both short term and long term funding solutions in order to fund such things as roads, infrastructure, and mantience projectsQuestions Answers What makes you the best candidate for the job?I've been involved with the village government in one way or another for the past 18 years. I feel that this brings a wealth of history about how and where we have gotten to today. It has also given the citizens in the village the opportunity to get to know me. I've served this village thru four different administrations and half of that time as the Chairman of the Plan Commission. I have also been appointed by two separate administrations the the postion of trustee. I'm familiar with the job and I have the time it takes to meet and listen to the public.Given the delicate balance between the need for revenue and over-taxing local businesses, what is your opinion of your community's present level of local sales taxes? Is the tax just right, too low or too high? Explain.Winfield's present level of sales tax is one of the lowest in the area and I feel that moving forward we can use this to our advantage in attracting people and businesses to our townTalking with your friends and neighbors, what seems to be their biggest public safety concern? Explain the concern as you see it, and discuss how you think it should be addressed.One of the biggest safety concerns that I hear about is crime. I will say that our crime rate is one of the lowest in the county and we do fully man our shifts on a daily basis. However our police department is down a few positions from the 2005 -2006 manning levels. But we have still been able to maintain a minimum manning on the streets with creative scheduling and we haven't had to lay off any of our police officers even in our difficult economic times.In these tight economic times, municipal budgets have to be prioritized. Where, if anywhere, could the current budget be trimmed, and conversely, are there areas the budget does not give enough money to?I will answer the last part of this question first, Yes - roads. Trimming the budget is still an on going process but we are stilling doing what ever we can to maintain current services. Lay offs are always an option but we are trying to consolidate services and work with or staff to trim costs.What's one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?One idea that I have been thinking about is doing something for our Seniors and Retirees. I would like to put together a program that might be sponsored by the police department that would meet once a month to educate our seniors on topics that would be important to them. For example, Personal health, a topic that we could get the hospital to speak about, Scams that the seniors are being confronted by, a topic that our police can talk about, and agencies available to seniors that they might not be aware of, help with taxes and transportation to name a couple. I feel that we need to acknowledge and do something for this segment of our town' population because we always talk about the past and our history, now I hope to be able to do something about it.