Paul Humpfer: 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: CarpentersvilleWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Carpentersville Village Board Age: 51Family: I live with my two children in our home on the west side. My daughter, Erin (17) is a Junior at Jacobs HS and my son, Benjamin (15) is a Sophomore at Jacobs HS.Occupation: Sr Benefits AdvisorEducation: BS in Business Administration, Accounting Certified Public Accountant Licensed Insurance AgentCivic involvement: Village of Carpentersville Trustee, Chairman - Audit Finance CommissionElected offices held: Candidate did not respond.Questions Answers What makes you the best candidate for the job?I am experienced in village government and we have made much progress in Carpentersville. I enjoy working with residents, my friends and neighbors and am humbled by the trust they have in me to perform this role. I believe government needs to be open and transparent and I will continue to work towards this goal.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.Our goals should be to reduce sales and property taxes. To reduce property taxes we need to reduce the tax levy. Our property taxes are made up of 3 categories, debt service, police fire pensions and corporate/operational levies. The corporate levy used to run the day-to-day operations and payroll has grown very little over the past 8 years. In four of the last eight years, the corporate levy has experienced zero or negative growth. Over this time, we have reduced the number of village employees by 30, or 15%, without village services suffering from these reductions. Our debt service levy has grown due to the number of infrastructure project, streets, sidewalks, and water/sewer lines. These projects have been supplemented by grants from state and federal sources to defray the project costs. Unfortunately, recent Springfield legislation is causing large and rapid increases in pension funding. This is where the majority of tax increases (double digit) has occurred. To reduce expenses further, we need to look at public safety, police fire, from a regional perspective, consolidating departments where it makes sense. We will not be able to reduce our operational and pension levies without consolidation. The current structure is very expensive. Additionally, powerful Springfield union lobbyists have successfully pushed through bills with the assistance of local state representatives and state senators, who passed legislation obstructing consolidation and allowing unions a seat at the table to determine the size their department. Two trustee candidates are members of this union.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?Both departments are efficient in performing their respective roles. For Carpentersville's Police department, coverage is sufficient and if elected, I will continue to monitor the adequacy of Police coverage. We do need new ways to address noise and speeding problems and are planning changes in implementing current ordinances. Carpentersville's Fire Department is comprised of professionals who do a great job in performing their role. We have opportunity to address current staffing levels by taking into consideration the number of departments regionally that provide support. In 2014, statistics show Carpentersville was supported by 22 different fire departments, including support from Elgin, Algonquin, Crystal Lake, and the Dundees. FDs from South Elgin, Hoffman Estates, Streamwood, and Hanover Park also provided support. Carpentersville reciprocates this support. A regional model for staffing needs to be seriously discussed and considered. Unfortunately, our local state senator and house representative from Elgin have supported and passed legislation preventing consolidation with other departments. In addition, they supported unions determining the size of our fire department. Their politics and legislation have created unfunded mandates that will cause more expense to Carpentersville's residents, higher property taxes and higher pension costs. This hurts our efforts to reduce property taxes and cost of public safety, which Carpentersville residents will have to bear. This has also led to two people running for Carpentersville trustee who will support and directly benefit from increases in pay and pensions.Where, if anywhere, could the current budget be trimmed, and conversely, are there areas the budget does not give enough money to?First, all village employees need to held accountable for their performance. Performance standards are set by the village manager, based on oversight and policy direction from the village board, and developed by discussion and reports from our residents. If we retain the best employees, who are reviewed often for performance, we will continue and improve to efficiently and effectively provide services to the residents of Carpentersville. One budget area that should be considered for reduction is healthcare costs. Full-time employees, both union and non-union, receive $20k from taxpayers to fund their healthcare costs. We are not an affluent community and this contribution is too much and should be a concern to all taxpayers. A risk is that the employee unions will file a grievance causing legal costs to the village. Overtime is another area eligible for reduction. If we efficiently run our operations, providing the essential services our residents need, overtime should be limited to those unforeseen occurrences, like bad snow storms. Grants from state, federal and other sources are opportunities to offset expenses and costs to village residents. Major improvements this year to Carpenter Park will be funded by a grant secured by our village manager. Grants reduced the costs of Maple Ave reconstruction, infrastructure improvements at Golfview Rt. 68, and tree purchases from Emerald Ash bore infestation, among many other projects.What's one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?We need to increase our manufacturing base by attracting and, if necessary, incentivizing manufacturing companies to locate in Carpentersville. This will increase our tax base and provide jobs to our residents and the region. Working with CUSD 300 to develop a program for local high school students to be ready to fill new and existing manufacturing jobs is an area I would like to see implemented. Discussions have begun and need to continue. In addition to this, investing in improving the educational level of our residents is important, especially those who do not have a high school diploma. If we could help by providing access to classrooms of educational institutions who are partnering with Carpentersville, will benefit the village. Educational level is a demographic important to marketers and is used by them to determine which cities/villages they will recommend to retailers.What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?Economic Development always needs to be at the forefront of our efforts to improve our village. While we have a new Walmart store coming to the village's eastside and Panera coming to the Rt. 31 corridor, we need to continue to find other retailers and restaurants to locate in Carpentersville. As discussed previously, we are examining ways to address the some 900 excessive noise complaints we receive annually. An ordinance change has been considered and we need to have a solution in place before this spring/summer. We have developed and set many new policies for the village. We have learned our auditors use this information in examining the our books and records and hold us to account if a policy is violated. Internal controls are important. We need to continue setting goals for the village and measuring whether those goals were met. We appreciate any suggestions and thoughts for new goals and improvements to make the Carpentersville better. I would like to see more areas of the village develop neighborhood watches. Having this interaction with our police department helps them provide better service. Neighborhood watches have increased over the past few years, and the more neighborhoods who participate, the safer it makes Carpentersville.Please name one current leader who most inspires you.Candidate did not respond.What's the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?Candidate did not respond.If life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?Candidate did not respond.What was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?Candidate did not respond.If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?Candidate did not respond.