Donna Johnson: Candidate Profile

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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:BioQA Bio City: LibertyvilleWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Libertyville Village Board Age: Candidate did not respond.Family: I have a son and a daughter. My parents our 36 year residents of Libertyville.Occupation: Corporate AttorneyEducation: Bachelor of Science Degree in Politiacal Science and Juris Doctor of Law.Civic involvement: Liturgial Minister at St. Joseph Church for over 30 years. Involved in our Corporate Initiative against Domestic Violence and the Susan B. Koeman Cancer campaign.Elected offices held: Chaired the Zoning Board of Appeals for Libertyville and sat on the Planning committee for 9 years.Questions Answers What makes you the best candidate for the job?My strong commitment to the community and preserving the home town community culture in Libertyville as it exists today. My prior experience in chairing the Zoning Board of Appeals and my current experience as a sitting Trustee. My training as a lawyer provides me with the educational backgroud to quickly assess issues and articulate the conerns and consideration raised by our residents. My concern for preserving business opportunites in our community to help generate revenue to balance the budget and allow us to continue offering our residents quality services. I also bring the professional female prospectives to this position allowing balance in our discussions with the other Trustee's. My ability to engage residents and actually listen to their concerns to hopefully achieve a direct resolution or to find viable alternatives.What is your opinion of your community's present level of local sales and property taxes? Is the tax just right, too low or too high? Explain.This is a difficult question in light of the current economic situation in Libertyville and the entire state. This question has to be answered considering the need to balance the operating budget for the Village in order to continue providing quality services to our residents. However, I always continue to look for opportunities to reduce these taxes if it will not trigger a deficite in the operating budget and it will not reduce required serives for our residents.Rate the efficiency of your town's police and fire coverage. Are the departments well prepared for the next decade? What, if anything, should be changed? Do you have specific public safety concerns?If we had an endless budget we could always use additional personel both on the police and fire deparments. I feel we have a very efficient police and fire department when you consider budget contraints and this is because we have two great chiefs leading both departments. Considering the potential threat of terrorism today in all of our communities I think that when the budget allows us we can seek opportunites to even offer more equipment in both deparmtnets to help protect their staff and to allow them to be better prepared in defending residents and themselves against acts of terrorism.Where, if anywhere, could the current budget be trimmed, and conversely, are there areas the budget does not give enough money to?When you consider the financial impact on the budget from the decline in sales tax revenue over the years and the increased expenditures in maintenance fees for our older buildings, allocations of salt because of prior years bad weather, retirements, union wage requirements we are doing well to ensure that the Village is fiscally responsible and that our budget is balanced.What's one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?Our residents including myself need to be conscious of waste and attempt to do more recycling. We need to get the local students and service clubs to partners with the Village to perform those task that would offer learning and service opportunites that could help defer the cost of full time employees performing these task. These would have to be task that are within the realm of what student would be capable of learning and performing within a certain period of time.What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?I think it is always important to encourage a community and its residents to become actively involved. I also think it is importatnt when issues like Brainerd and the gambling machines surface that people have a public hearing/forum to voice their opinions on both sides so everyine can be heard. It is important that our residents are encouraged to support local businesses so that the sales tax dollars stay in Libertyville. We need to support the grocery stores in our community to ensure they stay here and to keep the dollars in Libertyville. It is also important to support Main Street and the positive impact they have had on our wonderful down town area.Please name one current leader who most inspires you.The Pope is a true humanitarian accessible to the people and not afraid to address sensitive issues, even if it puts his life at risk.What's the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?I have learned that luck and access to influential people can help with advancement in today's world more than advanced intellectual skill.If life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?I would devote more time focusing on healthy eating and physical exercise.What was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?My favorite subject was Math. It helped me develop my analytical skills and it also helped me maintain control of my finances.If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?Be a leader that way you are part of the decision making process.