Gary Paul Sarsok: 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: Mundelein, ILWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Mundelein parksAge: 62Family: I am married with 5 children 12 grandchildren.Occupation: I am involved in Information Technology.Education: I have two years of liberal arts college.Civic involvement: I am involved in the Church as a Secular Third Order Carmelite, I have worked with the Lake County Right to Life organization.Elected offices held: I am currently a Republican Fremont Township Committeeman.Have you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: I have never been convicted of any crime.Candidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 To treat this office as business and make the Mundelein Park District more affordable for the hard hit Mundelein residents.Key Issue 2 To find and generate new income streams in order to lower taxes.Key Issue 3 I want to insure that the Mundelein Park District is made more fiscally responsible. And I want to insure that the employees take ownership and stewardship and free the employees to find solutions to problems as they come up.Questions Answers What programs aren#146;t paying for themselves? Would you keep, eliminate or change them? How and why?Our golf course has been losing income do to the downturn in the economy. I believe if we lower the golf fees we will bring in more income.Is there any additional open space the park district needs to acquire? Please describe.I do not believe that this is an appropriate time to considerbuying more property while so many in Mundelein are already hard pressed to pay their taxes. But if there is an opportunepurchase I would let the voters decide what they would want.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?Currently our park district has an unfunded federal mandateto make structural changes to the swimming pool at Community Park which will cost approximately $120,000. This has already been budgeted, however given the economic times I do not anticipate paying for any more programs unless it is ableto pay for itself without raising taxes.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?There already is knowledge sharing between the various park districts in Illinois which have served each district very well. It appears to me also that the village and the park district already cooperate when needs arise, but by and largecentralizing resources is not needed at this time.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.As a newcomer and having lived in Mundelein for 50 years, I want to give back to the community and use my experience I have gleaned having served IBM for 32 years.