Quin O'Brien: 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: GrayslakeWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Grayslake Village boardAge: 47Family: My current wife, Maria, and myself live here. My 2 kids share their time between here and with their mother in Mount Prospect. My daughter, Julia, is 18 and my son, Quin, is 15.Occupation: I am the broker/owner of a home based real estate company (4 Sale Realty, Inc.) with 37 agents working for my company. Also, I drive a school bus for Grayslake Central High School through Durham School Services.Education: Associate of Science Degree from McHenry County College, 1983. Since then I have taken many sales, management, and language classes at Harper College and also at the College of Lake County.Civic involvement: Grayslake Chamber of Commerce. National Association of Realtors. Also, for the last several years, I have sponsored at least one little league team for Grayslake Youth Baseball (GYBA). And, with the exception of this past year, I have been a sponsor of the sports teams at Grayslake Central and Grayslake North by advertising in their sports programs. Last year I sponsored a girls softball team at the College of Lake County.Elected offices held: None.Have you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: No.Candidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 Commercial growth (to bring jobs and increase non-residential taxes).Key Issue 2 Improved transportation to relieve congestion along the major roads such as Route 83 and Route 120.Key Issue 3 Maintaining the tight reign on spending that the current board has established.Questions Answers What makes you the best candidate for the job?I am the owner of a local small business. As mentioned earlier, it is a home-based real estate company. The past few years have caused me to run very lean. The lessons learned running my own company translate directly to keeping tabs on the village. Based on conversations I have had with residents of this town, I have found that what I want for my family, my home, my business, and my community directly corresponds with the same wants, needs, and wishes of the other residents of Grayslake.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.Based on the fact that the village is debt free and is also running a small budget surplus, I would say that for the tax base that we have, the taxes are right where they should be. However, taxes here in general are a burden to most people. Every effort should be made to work on things that work towards reducing local taxes including bringing in new commercial development, running leaner in government while retaining a high level of service, and outsourcing services where possible to lower future pension liabilities.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.Transportation. The talks I have had indicate that the people think that Grayslake is a nice safe community. However, if they had to take issue with something that could be construed as a safety issue, that would be transportation. It can take 20 minutes to get from one end of Grayslake to another. If you have an emergency situation, that is 20 minutes too much.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 actually admire the job that the current board has done. Our town is in the black and the board does not get into the petty squabbles that bog down other towns. Through this tough time they have maintained fiscal responsibility.What#146;s one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?In order to encourage local growth in our business community, I came up with an program similar to the lawn mower rebate program for homeowners. However, this would be geared towards local businesses. To increase their local awareness by offering ads for jobs or perhaps promoting shopping in Grayslake to shoppers outside of Grayslake, the village could offer a small stipend towards the cost of an ad. With the lawn mower and tree program, the reimbursement programs have very specific limits such as 50% of the cost of a new tree up to $200.00 once every 2 years. The business stipend could be a nominal amount back to the business once a year with an annual cap to the program. I have others but you only wanted one so I grabbed what I thought would be easy to implement, effective, and immediate.