David J. Andrejek: 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: Rolling MeadowsWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Rolling Meadows parksAge: 39Family: I have been married to a wonderful woman, Dina, since 2002. I also have two wonderful children. My son, Dominic, is 7 years old and in 1st grade at Kimball Hill School. My Daughter, Danielle, will be turning 3 this February, and has a leap day birthdayOccupation: I have worked for Motorola Inc. (now known as Motorola Solutions Inc.) in Schaumburg since 1996 as a RF design engineer. I am responsible for the design and development of two way radio infrastructure used by public safety entities.Education: Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from Southern Methodist University.Civic involvement: Kimball Hill PTAVoluteer T-ball coach for Rolling Meadows Park DistrictCubmaster in training for Pack 96 Cub Scouts. I will take over as Cubmaster in Feb 2012.Elected offices held: Candidate did not respond.Have you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: NoCandidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 Keeping taxes in check. During this economic downturn while my income and benefits have been going down, my taxes have been going up. The city#146;s (Rolling Meadows) portion of property taxes was raised substantially last year, Cook county property taxes in general were also significantly higher, and the Illinois legislature just increased state income taxes by 66%. To make matters worse, the Rolling Meadows city council is entertaining the idea of raising taxes again this year. Even the park district portion of my property tax bill spiked significantly (approx. 25%). The people in this community are taxed too much, and as park district commissioner, I will not vote to raise the park district#146;s portion of taxes, and do whatever is possible to drop the tax rate.Key Issue 2 Eliminating wasteful spending. Throughout my life, I have seen waste and wasteful spending in every organization I have been a part of. This is a fact of life, and eliminating 100% of wasteful spending is probably not a realistic goal. However, some organizations have this under much better control than others. As a veteran of the Air Force/Air National Guard, I#146;ve personally witnessed excessive wasteful spending of government dollars. As a government run organization, it doesn#146;t surprise me that it was highly wasteful because waste is most easy when one spends other people#146;s money on other people with limited accountability. As park district commissioner, I will seek out waste and put an end to it. I#146;ve successfully done this in my job and in my home, and I am positive I could do it as a park district commissioner.Key Issue 3 Offering quality recreational and social activities that appeal to a large segment of the community.The park district currently offers some outstanding programs as evidenced by the enrollment of a large number of people outside the district in certain programs (preschool, skating, hockey, etc), but I believe we can improve on this even more. More social activities that could involve the whole family and not just children would be a good start. Getting families involved in the community and well acquainted with each other is the key to a strong community. Additionally, the park district could lessen the effect of the current economic downturn by offering well priced social activities for a lower cost than private venues. Cost could be kept down by tapping into volunteers from the community. This engages more of the neighborhood, allows for more word of mouth advertising, and gives people a vested interest in their community.Questions Answers What programs aren#146;t paying for themselves? Would you keep, eliminate or change them? How and why?Candidate did not respond.Is there any additional open space the park district needs to acquire? Please describe.Possibly the vacant retail area at the SE corner of Kirchoff and Meadow (the old Dominick#146;s). This area could potentially be turned into a third Rolling Meadows skating rink, but outfitted with all the requirements needed to host skating events and tournaments. This would be a large undertaking and require serious considerations of both the risk and reward. However, the details of this endeavor are outside the scope of this questionnaire.Are there any unmet recreational needs? If yes, what are they and how would you propose paying for them? Or, should they wait until the economy improves?Music instruction. The park district has offered very few opportunities in the instruction of musical instruments over the past several years. This leaves young children limited choices for musical instruction #8211; namely paying high costs for private schools/private lessons, or waiting until middle school/high school to learn. In my opinion, the park district could offer introductory lessons in some popular instruments for a very reasonable price. The instructors need not be world class Maestros, only people competent enough in the instrument to provide a introduction. The park district could even team up with some local private music schools who could offer free or low cost instructors from their more senior students, and the school would benefit form having exposure to new clients who might consider private lessons upon completion of the introductory park district class.Would you support sharing/pooling resources (i.e. printing, vehicles) with other local governments (school districts, village, etc.)? If so, what areas would you consider combining or merging to save money or improve efficiency?This is an excellent way to save money and eliminate waste. As a newcomer, I am currently less familiar with specific areas for sharing, but this would definitely be a priority for me once elected, and something I would look into.If you are a newcomer, what prompted you to run for the park board? If you're an incumbent, list your accomplishments or key initiatives in which you played a leadership role.This is my first time running for any public office. Over the past couple years I#146;ve felt a desire to serve the community and I believe this is a good choice for me considering that I have young children that use the park distract for a fair amount of their extra curricular activities. When I found out the current board of seven members is comprised of six members without any young children, I knew this was the right office for me. I also believe my fiscally conservative background would be an asset to any government entity in the current economic downturn.