Ryan Krajecki: 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: HampshireWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Twitter: Candidate did not respond.Facebook: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Hampshire Village Board Age: 40Family: I have a wife and 4 children.My wife is Marie Krajecki, and she is a realtor with Century 21My oldest is Calvin, and he is 18 years old.My second oldest is Andy, and he is 16 years old.My youngest son is Owen, and he is 12 years old.My only daughter is Grace, and she is 10 years old.Occupation: I am a Senior Sales Engineer for an Automation CompanyEducation: I completed 3 years of study at the University level.I self studied to gain my Pneumatics Engineer certificate.I have completed online courses in Political Science as well as Economics.Civic involvement: I worked on our local little league board for 5 years. I have coached in youth sports for baseball, softball, and basketball since I moved to Hampshire in 2003. I volunteer for the Hydrocephalus Association as a fundraising helper as well as event participant. I am a member of our local lions club. I sit on the planning committee for the Village of Hampshire as well as the revolving loan fund committee. I also volunteer at our local food pantry once a month.Elected offices held: Village Planning Committee memberRevolving Loan Fund Committee memberQuestions Answers What makes you the best candidate for the job?I have spent the 13 years I have lived in Hampshire dedicated to serving the community. I have served on the Little League Board, coached youth athletics every year in multiple sports, served on the Lion's Club, sat on the Village Planning Commission and Revolving Loan Fund Board. In addition, to that I have successfully started 2 real estate companies. I have also been very successful in my primary job of selling industrial robotics. For years I have juggled many responsibilities while maintaining success in all of them. Furthermore, I believe I have an ability to understand complex systems in order that I can create solutions that are effective. Finally, my ethics and character are very strong. My commitment to fairness and justice have allowed me to possess a judgement that develops solutions that are fair and balanced. When all of these qualities come together along with a deep love of Hampshire and a strong belief in it's future, I believe I can have a very positive impact on the development of the future of our Village.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.At the present time, while the real estate taxes are somewhat high in the Village of Hampshire, the vast majority of that is not being assigned to the village. So when viewed on a per person or per household value it does not appear that number could be much lower in order to fund the local operations of the government. However, it also appears that the Village government is able to function on the funds that they have as they have shown modest budget performance over the past few years. My assessment is that the tax that is assigned to the local Village is just right. The best chance of improving budget performance would be to increase the efficiencies of government.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?At this time, I am not aware of any extreme deficiencies in the current performance of either the Fire Department or the Police Department. However, I do believe from having conversations with a local Fire Department official that the Fire Department is in need of additional resources to help them prepare for the future. Furthermore, with the increased call volume that comes with the continual development of the truck stop area it appears that more resources could be directed towards the fire department in the Village of Hampshire. However, the fire department is not primarily funded locally through the Village Budget, so I would work as an advocate to assist the Fire Department to get the resources they require to continue to provide their high level of service into the future.Where, if anywhere, could the current budget be trimmed, and conversely, are there areas the budget does not give enough money to?After a thorough analysis of the Village budget, I was not able to detect any glaring budget issues. I would argue that to determine areas of the budget to trim without having worked intimately inside the government at this time would be presuming quite a bit. There are areas which jump out at me as higher than I would expect, however not having worked along side these departments with a deep understanding of their functions limits me in being able to determine what cuts would be made without compromising the ability for that area to function.However, as I have spent many years working with budgets in my business experience, I have successfully identified areas in the past using analysis of data and comparing that data to organizations of similar construction in order to improve economic performance. It is just difficult to make those assessments as a candidate at this time.What is one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?I believe that the Village of Hampshire would benefit from an increase in revenue from non-residents. At this time, the percentage of revenue burden that is placed on individual residents is much higher than is optimal. Therefore, my idea would be to aggressively pursue the development of the industrial/commercial sector in the Village of Hampshire. We have large tracts of land offered at much lower prices than many surrounding areas, especially to the east. Additionally, we have access to 4 main roads in the Northwest suburbs: I90, Rt. 20, Rt. 72, and Rt 47. Furthermore, we have good supply of workers with many large and growing areas surrounding our town in addition to our own citizens. Therefore, my idea would be to work with developers to find tracks of land to develop industrial parks in the Village in order to attract industrial companies to set up shop in Hampshire. The benefit to the people includes a reduction in the percentage of Village funding being carried by each individual resident as well as an increase in the availability of jobs. A proper balance of residential and industrial/commercial is critical to the development of a healthy well funded community.What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?My wife and I moved our family to Hampshire in 2003. Both of us had grown up in the suburbs of Chicago to the east. We have fallen in love with our town because of it's incredible community focused on families. The small town feel that has been developed by generations of town leaders has created a great place for us to raise our children. We feel safe and connected to our neighbors.The urban sprawl that comes from the east is inevitable due to the continual expansion of the population. I have watched over the years as development continued to move west. It is hard for me to believe that process will end.As a net result Rt. 47 is going to develop much the way Rt. 59 and Randall have exploded with companies and new residents. My ultimate goal would be to smartly prepare and take advantage of that development preserving the strong sense of community that Hampshire has as well as increasing our ability to gain the benefits of increased places to shop and work. This will require wise and informed practice driven by a vision of where the community is going coupled with a strong understanding of where it has come from. My commitment is to sensible growth that benefits the residents and preserves the experience my wife and I have come to treasure.Please name one current leader who most inspires you.Elon Musk. He is both committed to excellence as well as feeling the burden to use that excellence to benefit the world around him.What is the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?Discipline and hardwork. My parents taught me that life is challenging but through self control and commitment you can make a good life.If life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?I would have pursued political science from the beginning. I did not consider it a real possibility when I was young.What was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?History and economics. Understanding economics has helped me secure a quality life and history has given me context to live it well.If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?Work diligently to discover who you are and what you like, and then use that understanding to contribute positively to the people in your life.