Kevin M. Geary: 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: Sugar GroveWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Sugar Grove Village boardAge: 48Family: Born and Raised in Naperville Illinois. Sugar Grove became my home in 1996 with my wife and son Michael who is now serving in the Marines Corps.Occupation: Commercial Real Estate Broker and Property ManagementEducation: Course work in General Studies, Electronics, and Real Estate at College of DuPage and Waubonsee Community CollegeCivic involvement: Sugar Grove Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors for over eight years.Downtown/ Main Street re-development committeesSugar Grove Corn Boil NFP Board of Directors eight years and President the last two yearsElected offices held: Sugar Grove Village Trustee 1999 to PresentHave you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: NoCandidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 As a Village Trustee, I have listened to what you the tax payer have to say and have successfully worked on your behalf to get the job done and will continue to work for you.Key Issue 2 Promote business growth within the village, to increase the amount of Retail, Office, and Industrial tax base which offers no Negative Impact to our Schools as well as to the Village infrastructure.Key Issue 3 Candidate did not respond.Questions Answers What makes you the best candidate for the job?Over the last 28 years I have held a number of professional positions from Technical Training Specialist to Customer Service Representative to Quality Control Process and Metric Engineer to currently a Real Estate Broker. With my diverse background I would like to continue to bring my Quality, Customer Service, and Business experiences to the table and apply my common sense business skills to our Village#146;s projects and programs.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.First off, I believe it needs to be said that Sugar Grove is not a home rule community and cannot on its own, raise taxes (sales or otherwise) without going to referendum (asking the residents permission). I would like approach the question from a different angle, which is how can Sugar Grove be successful in growing our commercial areas. This question has the ability affect the community in two specific ways. The first would be property tax. Sugar Grove has many undeveloped commercial lots that are not reaching their full potential. When fully developed each commercial lot building will pay their proportional share of property tax, of which 15% of the overall tax bill will go to the Village as revenue.The second is sales tax. Having Commercial Businesses that charge sales tax in our community is good. As a byproduct of growing the above, you have job creation which is also good. When the day time population is increased it also creates a demand for other businesses from, diners to eat in, gas stations, to hair salons, to car repair, etc. In many cases the money spent in Sugar Grove comes from outside of our community.Talking 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.I believe the greatest public safety issue Sugar Grove currently faces is how fragmented the community is and the inability for pedestrians to walk or bike from one side of town to the other safely. The original belief was that developers were going to provide the necessary connection points throughout the community. However with the current downturn in the economy and few developers looking to begin new projects, I believe the Village needs to prioritize improvements such as sidewalks along major highways (Route 47) to a lighted crossing such as the one at route 47 and Cross St. I also believe opening a dialog with key players such as Federal Transportation, IDOT, BNSF, and the Village for widening the viaduct and providing pedestrian passage north to south along Route 47 and as part of the viaduct widening provide for a pedestrian walkway east to west over route 47. The next would be the ability to do the same for the bridge at Route 56.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 am always conservative when allocating funds and reviewing the Villages budget. During our last budget review we had scheduled replacement of a number of vehicles due to their time in service. I strongly supported the decision to not purchase new vehicles and to extend the service life of the existing vehicles. With this one change, even with ongoing repairs the Village saved over $300,000. We also looked at personnel and salaries and had to make some tough decisions and I am prepared to make some tough decisions in the future to keep service for our residents but have a balanced budget. I was not in favor of the Village charging our residents a dollar if they choose not to do auto pay for water bills.What#146;s one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?I believe one thing that could be a community development project is the dedication and development of the old hotel site as a Vetrains Park. As it stands right now the Village has to maintain the park through mowing and other activities. The dedication cost to the Village would be next to nothing, and could get all sorts of other groups involved to complete the project. For example the Legion could donate and install a flagpole, the garden club could plant flowers, and if there are any Eagle Scouts looking for a project this would be an outstanding project. When completed it would be a community place for reverence and celebration.