Anne Kritzmire: 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: LONG GROVEWebsite: www.voiceoflonggrove.comTwitter: Candidate did not respond.Facebook: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Long Grove Village Board Age: 54Family: 3 children: 2 sons and a daughterOccupation: Managing Director, Marketing StrategyEducation: BS Electrical Engineering, cum laude University of Notre DameMBA Finance and Marketing, with distinctionKellogg Graduate School of Management (Northwestern University)Civic involvement: Board of Directors, Chicago Public Media (WBEZ public radio) (www.wbez.org) Board of Directors, Chicago Children's Choir(www.ccchoir.org)Advisor Committee member, Venturing Crew 140 and Troop 140, and district fund raising (Boy Scouts of America)Cantor, St. Mary parish of Buffalo GroveElected offices held: None in elected governmentCurrently President of the Closed-End Fund Association (cefa.com)Questions Answers What makes you the best candidate for the job?Long Grove is a special place that needs careful financial and economic development while protecting the best of its heritage and unique character. It also needs a long-term view and plan, so that its limited resources can be put to smart and efficient use. The election 2 years ago encouraged more residents to become engaged in village plans and decisions, and we need to continue and increase that level of engagement and proactive communications. My background in finance, strategy, and communications gives me skills and experience that complement those already on the board. I have several years of experience with various other boards: non-profit, trade association, and mutual funds, which has required connecting dots between strategy, finances, regulations, history, values, and communications. These are just the topics that are, or should be, important to a village board. I have much to learn still, but I am perpetually interested in learning and thoughtful about connecting ideas and soliciting new ones. I bring an open mind and the ability to challenge with respect when there are genuine differences of opinion. My goals are always to collaborate and innovate to seek the best outcomes for our Village and its residents, business owners, and property owners.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.Long Grove has no property tax that goes to the Village, but rather high property taxes that support our excellent schools (Stevenson Kildeer-Countryside, mainly) and other strong resources. Our residents voted overwhelmingly - 83% to 17% - against a property tax in 2013. I share that view, both personally and as a matter of respecting what our village residents vote for, when residents are given a fair and full set of facts to consider. Our sales tax level is not zero, but modest. Since it represents the majority of the village's revenues, I think the key priority is expanding economic development in a smart way that is in keeping with the character of the village. In other words, I think the sales tax rate is fine, but the village needs to grow its sales tax base in order to grow village revenues. That is an interesting challenge in the face of decreasing "bricks and mortar" retail, yet I look forward to working hard on just that.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?Long Grove police coverage is provided via contract with the Lake County Sheriff's office, and that relationship seems good and responsive. However, communication could be improved when crimes or safety concerns do occur. One of my goals will be to use technology in a smarter way to ensure relevant crime and safety information is pushed to residents, faster, and in the manner each resident desires. Our full-time fire coverage from the Long Grove Fire Protection District, which covers about 2/3 of Long Grove, is good and well-resourced with trucks, vehicles, and trained staff. They are challenged by the lack of municipal water in many cases, as well as single-lane roads, but have good proactive plans including automatic aid agreements with neighboring towns. So, in short, I do not have specific concerns with police and fire coverage, but think we can and should do better in proactive communications regarding public safety and security.Where, if anywhere, could the current budget be trimmed, and conversely, are there areas the budget does not give enough money to?The Village has a modest, "small government" budget, with a variety of items outsourced to flex when needed, such as engineering and legal counsel. From what I see, those areas and full-time staff seem responsibly resourced. However, lots of money has been spent on streetscapes, signage, and infrastructure focused strongly on the downtown area, and it hasn't worked. Downtown is not currently what I or other residents want it to be. It's not clear that the investments made were the top wishes of the downtown business and property owners, while it's very clear that creating a TIF district didn't work as intended. Without introducing a village property tax, we need to be smarter about our longer term investments. I would put more effort and budget towards investing in appropriate economic development for downtown and beyond downtown "â#128;œ marketing the town to appropriate new businesses, and marketing those businesses to a wide and interested audience. We need to create "critical mass" "â#128;œ a level of businesses that offer products and services that people want, and buildings that businesses want to rent, that attracts even more energy and commerce to Long Grove. The road maintenance plan that began two years ago was smart, and I favor continuing to seek opportunities to work with other villages to buy cheaper by buying together. Most of all, I believe we need to work within a comprehensive plan to sequence projects wisely, and be rigorous about our expectations for return on our village investments.What is one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?Long Grove has so many successful and visionary business men and women who make their homes here, but if they don't own commercial property in the Village "â#128;œ or even if they do - we haven't asked them in any regular way for their input or ideas on the economic development of the Village. I would seek to create an ongoing steering committee and idea sharing forum for economic development and marketing, starting with a core group of such talented business men and women. It would be open to, and proactively seek out, all people with passion and big ideas to share, rather than be a standing commission that reacts to what is put in front of them. Technology could be a huge enabler, using virtual bulletin boards used by marketing researchers, village-wide blogs; heck, even virtual reality might help us think bigger and smarter about the right ways to change.What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?Transparency, thoughtfulness, collaboration, and respectful disagreement and dialogue on the Village Board are important to me. I want Villagers to have complete confidence that their board is working for them as a whole, and not serving individual interests. Budget responsibility is also a big hot button for me; we have a small government and residents tell us they want to keep it that way. That means we have to be smart about what the revenue is spent on, when it is spent, and clearly communicate what things cost and realistically what the benefits are, or are not, expected to be. Sentiment is valuable, but not at all costs. Finally, I want to work to really PUSH timely important information to our residents, property owners, and business owners, in the ways they want to receive information. There's a reason pizza delivery is popular; people don't always want to have to go get pizza "â#128;œ or village information that affects them.Please name one current leader who most inspires you.Pope Francis - he's holding firm on the Church's core principles, while shifting its interaction with the world to be current and vital.What is the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?To work hard and always be curiousIf life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?While I have had set-backs for sure, I'm more interested and thrilled to see what's ahead than what's behind.What was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?I really loved learning everything. That said, a class in ethics taught me it's critical to consider context and different points of view. Always.If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?Already working to give them this: Be kind, be responsible, be joyful, be curious, be honest, and be grateful!