Rick Montalto: 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 Board (4-year Terms)Age: 58Family: Married to Carol for 38 years, three children ages 31, 27,and 26, two grandsons ages 2 and 8 months.Occupation: Retired in 2009 after 31 years in law enforcement. Currently teaching Criminal Justice classes for Waubonsee Community College and fullfilling my duties as Trustee for the Village of Sugar Grove.Education: A.S. Criminal Justice, Triton College B.A. History / Political Science, N.I.U M.S. Management Organizational Behavior, BenedictineCivic involvement: Coached youth baseball, soccer, and basketball. Active in Kaneland schools music boosters, sports boosters Active in formation of St. Katharine Drexel Church Served 7 years on the Village Public Safety Committee Served 5 years as Chair of the Village Board of Police Commissioners Served the last 4 years as Village trusteeElected offices held: Village of Sugar Grove Trustee 2009 - presentHave you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: NoCandidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 To continue to work on controlled sustainable growth for the village. We have accomplished quite a lot over the last four years by encouraging businesses like McDonalds, Walgreens, Provina Mercy Health Care, various fast food franchises, hair salons, eye clinics, tax services, etc. to invest in our community during one of the toughest economic times our country has seen in decades. We need to continue in this direction to provide additional services for our residents while trying to keep the tax rate down and not negatively impacting our schools.Key Issue 2 During the next four years I would like to see us make a significant effort to bring diversification of housing to the community. In order to attract additional businesses we could use additional rooftops. In todays tough economy not everyone can afford a single family home. We need to look at developing apartments, condos, retirement communitees and assisted living facilities. I believe the senior living examples should be our first concern because it is wrong to have people who have spent their life in our community have to sell their homes when they can no longer take care of the homes, and have to leave the community for senior housing because we currently have nothing to offer as an alternative.Key Issue 3 There are at least three more goals that fall into the third place catagory. We need to continue to focus on the I-88 Rt 47 interchange to bring additional rooftops and businesses to town as well as to continue our focus on improving RT 47 through town to provide better access for additional development. In addition,we need to continue to invest in new technology in an effort to enhance the efficiency of the services provided to the community.Questions Answers What makes you the best candidate for the job?I believe that every member of the board should bring something unique to the board so that we have a strong diversification in skills. My 30+ years in emergency services provides valuable input for village emergency preparedness plans, emergency equipment purchasing, traffic and special event planning, etc.. I believe that a life time of community service, combined with my educational background, my dedication to the community, my experience as a current trustee, and my desire to provide efficient and effective government make me the strongest candidate for this position.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.The average consumer is always going to consider any sales tax too high. Although our sales tax could be slightly lower, it is comparable to many communities around us. Sales tax is just one aspect of revenue and although some communites may have a slightly lower sales tax, their residents may be taxed for other services that ours aren't. What we have to remember about a sales tax is that roughly 50% is paid by people who don't live in the village while the residents reap 100% of the benefits of services from that tax.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.We are fortunate to have a low crime rate in our community. I attribute this to a positive police presence and the partnership formed between the community and the police. The biggest public safety concern that I hear from residents has to do with traffic issues on RT 47. Do to the fact that the Prairie Parkway project has been tabled by the state we are going to continue to see increased traffic on RT 47 as communities to the North and South of us grow. The biggest concerns have to do with how hard it is to cross or make left hand turns on RT. 47 during rush hours. As I previously stated, RT 47 improvements are one of my goals. I believe that we will have to continue to work diligently with the other agencies involved to improve safe passage across and onto RT 47. This spring you will notice the improvement of RT. 47 and Cross St. providing turning lanes. In addition, I would like to see traffic lights for Waubonsee College and RT 47, Park and RT 47, and the straightening out of Prairie and RT. 47 with a traffic light.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 believe we have worked hard to provide the best services for our residents while staying within our budget. During the last 4 years we have reduced our number of employees by 20%, frozen salaries, given furlough days and prioritized our projects. I don't think we can trim our budget any more without cutting services to the residents. What we have done is to think outside the box to provide for our residents. We were one of the first comminities in the state to provide the Municipal Electric Aggregation program. The first year this saved our residents $700,000. That is money that can be put back into the community in sales. In addition, I personally promoted an Administrative Towing program with our Police Department that put costs that we traditionally incurred back onto the offenders. This program has generated around $200,000 to date, at no cost to the general tax payers. We have budgeted a significant amount over the past four years to improve our roads, the water system, and the flooding issues in the Mallard Point /Rolling Oaks subdivisions. Though we will still need to continue focusing on road improvements, we also need to start budgeting more toward sidewalk replacement and parkway tree replacement due to the number of sidewalk failures and the devestation from the Emerald Ash Borer.What's one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?I am not sure if anyone else is talking about it or not but I believe there is a strong need for fiber optics throughout the Village to encourage additional business to come to town and improve service for the residents.