David White: 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: Round LakeWebsite: http://www.communitycommitment.orgOffice sought: Round Lake Village Board (4-year Terms)Age: 44Family: Divorced father of 3 girls, 22 17 16. All currently live with meOccupation: Full-time Lieutenant with The Greater Round lake Fire Protection DistrictEducation: Associates in Fire Science from CLC and 1 class from a Bachelors in Fire Science Management from Southern Illinois University.Civic involvement: NoneElected offices held: Never held elected officeHave you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: NoCandidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 Fisical responsibility, ie: Competive bid process, look into economic growth for the village.Key Issue 2 Try to reduce overall expenses by 5% without a disruption in services.Key Issue 3 Develope of long term plan with realistic goals.Questions Answers What makes you the best candidate for the job?I believe i am the best candidate for the job because of my background in comminuty service both as a firefighter and police officer. I know the issues with the Village and surrounding areas ie: Low housing rates, low income familys, high unemployment rates and little sales tax to the Village.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.Our local level of sales tax is to low. It has been low for years. Very little development has come to the village in the last 10-15 years. Yes we have areas dedicated for development but who is going out and seeking businesses to come to town. Current Trustees sitting on the economic commitee should be seeking out businesses to come to town. There needs to be a balance between residental growth and commercial development.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.In talking to family and friends public safety is really not a concern at this time. We have a some great people working for us but there is room for improvement. We as a Village need to let our department heads run their areas and not be involved on a daily basis.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?Over my years in working in the "Public sector" I have always heard if you dont spend your budget you cannot ask for more next year or ask for more knowing you really dont need it. We need to held our Department Heads to a thinking of "less is more". Budgets are tight and everyone needs to do their part to work with less. Hold all employees accountable for their time so the Village gets the max amount of work out of everyone working for the us.What's one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?I would like to see some services kept in house. Recently the village went out to bid for work on village owned vehicles. We have room at public works to hire our own mechanic to complete most of the work for us. Currently the Police and Public works have fleet managers working for them if we had our own mechanic for the Village we could have that person just be the fleet manager for all village owned vehicles and equipment as well as work on the vehicles in house.