Mark Elkins: 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: Hanover ParkWebsite: http://www.markelkins.infoOffice sought: Hanover Park parksAge: 46Family: Mark has been married for 22 years to his college sweetheart Caroline Kennedy-Elkins. He has two lovely daughters aged 9 and 12.Occupation: Mark is an entrepreneur. He is currently investing in real estate and operating a printing and direct mail advertising business called PostMark#146;s.Education: Mark attended William Rainey Harper College in Palatine Illinois for two years before transferring to NIU in DeKalb, Illinois. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Northern Illinois University where he graduated in 1997.Civic involvement: He became a Master Mason and began participating in Masonic Children#146;s Charities when he was 21 in 1985. In 1993 after moving to Hanover Park he was appointed to the Hanover Park Youth Committee by then Mayor Sonia Crawshaw. He served in this capacity until 1995 when he was elected to his first term as Park Commissioner.Elected offices held: He was elected Park Commissioner in 1995 and has served for 16 years.Have you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: noCandidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 We must hold the line on taxes. Each year since I have been in office taxes have been reduced as a percentage of home value. This is a difficult time for the citizens of the district. This last re-assessment from Cook County appears to have reduced home values in Hanover Park by 20%-25%. Homeowners are having trouble meeting their mortgages and losing houses at a very rapid pace. There is no room in a family budget for increased taxes. Even though this will be an additional burden on the District we must not unnecessarily push this problem off on our citizens. Fortunately for the people of the Hanover Park Park District our current board has taken steps to increase our available cash through non-tax bonds. This will improve but not entirely remedy our short term cash flow without increasing taxes. At a time when the State of Illinois, the County of Cook and the Village of Hanover Park are piling on additional taxes to raise revenue, Your Park District has found creative ways to keep your taxes low.Key Issue 2 Provide top quality programs. We are very selective in our programs so that we are able to fit in the best and most critical programs in place. These must be tailored to satisfy a changing demographic population. The district has played to our strength. For example we have continued to develop our tennis program. While other facilities are shrinking their offerings in this area we are growing. This allows us to compete well by bringing in players that have fewer alternatives in their own communities. This greatly benefits our residents because it allows us to focus that additional revenue into the needs of our district. Fortunately over the years we have created an efficient and creative staff that is capable of making solid recommendations to the Board that keeps costs down. When the Park District was founded it was by a vote of the residents that there should be quality parks and programs and it is my responsibility to fulfill that expectation. By concentrating on what we do best we are able to perform at the highest level. Over that last few years we have even been receiving awards and accolades from the State of Illinois for our excellence.Key Issue 3 Continuity. After 16 years on the Park Board, I have experienced downturns in the economy. These are difficult times for everybody and the District is no exception. Despite the tough economy, I have seen to it that the quality of our programs does not suffer and we continue to provide enough programs to satisfy the needs of the community. The community cannot afford the time it takes for a new Board Member to learn the job. The new candidates have not been active in the Parks and have never even attended a public meeting. They may carry a limited perspective from the point of view of a participant in a single program many years ago but this is insignificant when it comes to overseeing a multimillion dollar budget. Each new person that takes office comes with their own agenda and will want to mix things up a bit. Is it a good idea to fool with a system that works so well? My father used to say #147;if it ain#146;t broke, don#146;t fix it!#148; Not only is the district currently running at top efficiency on less tax money, we provide some of the best programs which cannot be found in our neighboring communities. To gain revenue, our neighboring Park Districts have been advertising to our residents. This has not hurt our enrollment at all. Why? Existing participants recognize the high quality that we provide. Why would anyone want to mess with that?It is vital to have a steady, trained person in the position to continue this vital work. Many people do not know that Park District Commissioners work without pay. This is my service to the community. I am equal to all citizens of the District in my payment of taxes. This means that I want an efficiently run, high quality Park District to serve the needs of our community. I am merely custodian of the public and I serve to be certain that public is satisfied. It is often said that politicians only shape the kind of policy that helps them. In this case, my needs and the needs of our community are the same.Questions Answers What programs aren#146;t paying for themselves? Would you keep, eliminate or change them? How and why?Senior programs have never made money and will never be cut as long as I am Commissioner. Our seniors have given so much to the community and they deserve excellent programs. This is a group of citizens that pays their full share of taxes but does not take full advantage of our services. Senior programs must be maintained to service their needs at all cost. Don#146;t forget, our Park District isn#146;t that old. It was founded in 1964 and many of our long term residents are responsible for the formation of the district. If not for them, we would not now have any of the recreation service the Park provides.The swimming pool loses money every year but, can anyone imagine a Park District that doesn#146;t have a pool? We have seen that surrounding communities have needed to use our facility when theirs fail. This has a devastating effect on those communities. For many families, the pool is the center of life in the summer! All of our summer camps use it; we offer swim lessons and host the swim team. The swimming pool offers a unique escape from the everyday grind as well as providing inexpensive recreation for children. We intentionally keep our prices low enough for the working families in our district to afford it. We even worked on making sure that any kid staying at the pool all day can have an inexpensive meal at our concession. In a difficult financial time, many families are skipping vacation and opting for a #147;staycation#148;. Our pool provides an excellent alternative that everyone can use. When the decision is made to take the kids to an expensive place where they can play in the water or stay at home, our beach like pool with waterslides is a great alternative.Last year our athletic club also lost money. This has to do with the decline in the economy. For many years, profit at the club was enough to support many other activities and now our enrollment is down. This and the pool are the #147;jewels in the crown#148; of our park district. Many people in our community have never been in our club and are instead joining expensive gyms. I hope that some people reading this check us out! We offer tennis racquet ball and work out room along with other activities at costs that beat our competition by a wide margin. Our large locker rooms feature a whirlpool and sauna. When enrollment was up, we still managed a good profit despite the low fees. There is never a wait for a machine and we are open early and late to accommodate most schedules. There are areas where we cut costs and this is done primarily by cutting and consolidating programs with low enrollment. For example, we did not offer science and nature summer camp last year because the enrollment numbers were too low to justify additional staff expense. Instead we consolidated our camps and limited our offering. It may seem odd but the larger camps worked better than many smaller camps. When enrollment is below the cost of a program we will watch the number of people who sign up and if the numbers are consistently low, we close the program and opt for alternatives that will get better attendance. Fortunately, we do not have to make a profit, we only need to meet our mission which is to provide as many programs and services as possible on a balanced budget.Is there any additional open space the park district needs to acquire? Please describe.We one of only a few communities without a golf course and if we were to have this and a mini golf or #147;putt putt#148; we would enhance the community. These are proven revenue generators but they require more open space. One day I would like the Park to own all of the land on both sides of the Seafari Spings swimming pool and that would be a great place to put a mini golf and a skate park.There is a large tract of land currently owned but unused by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District that would nicely accommodate a golf course. If we were able to get an intergovernmental agreement to use that land there would be more than enough space.Another piece of land that we sometimes discuss lays alongside and over the land that is reserved for the Elgin-O#146;Hare expressway. IDOT has no immediate plans to continue the expressway and that land is currently unused. If we plan correctly and pay attention we could put in a very nice park that may remain there for 20 years or more. I remember as a boy that route 53 started at Dundee road and ended at North Avenue. The land reserved for the road could have been a very nice park for 40+ years from planning to building. As parks go, it would be relatively inexpensive to put in a parking lot and use the land for soccer fields and softball diamonds. Both of these things would be inexpensive and the only other cost would be maintenance which would be offset with the increased revenue from programs that fill the space.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?There are a number of things that are needed in the Park District and by proper budgeting we are able to take care of most of them. Most notably we are proceeding on a plan to build a #147;Safety Town#148; at Ahlstrand Park. Safety Town is the name given to an area that represents a replica town created to instruct children about safety measures. I will be real cute with little houses and streets.I also think the community needs a skate park. This is an interesting problem because we don#146;t have budget for it so ordinarily it would have to wait for the economy to improve. In this case, there may be public and private grants available to build it. If we were able to get a grant that covers the whole cost, we should do it now.The final unmet need I think is a #147;splash pad#148;. This is a park that has features that look cool but are really just giant sprinklers. These are expensive to build but they have the advantage of being a water park that does not require supervision. This park would be free to the public and would cool kids off without the need to visit the pool. This is definitely a lower priority until the economy improves.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?We are already participating in several intergovernmental agreements. Most notably, we have partnered with Streamwood Park District so our residents may use their indoor pool at a discounted rate.The Park District also has intergovernmental agreements with the local school districts in which we provide each other services and improvements in exchange for other services. We do things like install the playground equipment in exchange for use of the land. We might mow the lawns where our property overlaps in exchange for classroom and gymnasium space.We also cooperate with the forest preserve districts to provide hiking pathways that connect.Additionally, we are involved in agreements with the Village of Hanover Park to provide police protection and combine purchases to save money on fuel as well as many other things.In the past, we made agreements with other Park Districts to allow them to use our facilities when theirs are unavailable or inoperable. There is a mutual benefit in that we get paid for the increased use.I welcome any new agreement as long as it is to the benefit of the District.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.Taxes have come down every year that I have been on the Board as a percentage of home value.I am very proud to have been on the board during the planning and building of Seafari Springs Water Park and the addition of a tennis dome. I initiated revision of our preschool program to make it more culturally diverse. During the time I served on the Board; we have conducted any number of improvements to our parks including major renovations of Ranger and Heritage parks. I am also proud of my voting record. I am not a rubber stamp for the recommendations of staff and I will frequently vote alone or at least in the minority on issues which I think are wasteful or at least not well considered. One of the votes I remember is when I voted no for a $60,000 light for Ranger Park. We were getting reports that teenagers were frequently involved in inappropriate activity between the bushes and the tennis court fence. I suggested that before we rush out and spend $60,000 on a lamp, we should purchase a few hundred dollars worth of a ground cover plant that would make it unpleasant to be in the area between and behind the bushes. The rest of the board went with the recommendation of staff that we buy the lamp. I voted alone. My detractors may point out that the targeted activity stopped. I respond that it is very likely we could have accomplished the same goal for $59,800 less. I think it would have been worth the $200 investment to discover if we needed to spend the rest of that money to get the desired result.