Wendy White Eagle: 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: ElburnWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Twitter: Candidate did not respond.Facebook: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Campton Hills Village Board Age: 57Family: Eagle Clan Member - Hocak Nation of WI. Parents were John H. White Eagle and Lyla L. Miller. I was born and raised in Madison, WI. Paternal Grandparents - Sanborn White Eagle and Annie Spirit.Maternal Grandparents - Frank Florence Miller.Occupation: CEO - Native CapitalEducation: BS / 1986 - Communications, Edgewood College, Madison, WI.Graduate School - UW Madison School of Business/Edgewood College - Executive MBA Program. (20 credits earned in 36 degree credit program.) Eagle Clan Member, Hocak Nation of WI, lifelong learning in Leadership based in community service.Civic involvement: Plan Commission Member, Village of Campton Hills, IL.Board Chair, Chicago Foundation for Women, Chicago, IL. Treasurer, Chicago Area Ho-Chunk District, Chicago, IL. Member, Edgewood College Alumni Board, Madison, WI. *****************Past Board Member, IC Stars.Elected offices held: None - first time Candidate.Questions Answers What makes you the best candidate for the job?I have had many leadership positions throughout my career and strongly believe that one of the aspects of my performance that has consistently stood out is my ability to build teams. I have deep knowledge in the finance, organizational development, and management arenas which I now believe I can leverage into my public service. Additionally, I know what it is to act on a vision and create a future alongside people who help design the picture and bring nuance and color to ideas. I also believe that leaders, like myself, earn that privilege every day. Campton Hills can become a driving force and leader in the greater Chicagoland community. We are nimble enough - based on the size of our population - to create a community that is in demand as we grow forward, together. As we expand our vision of what makes community I believe we can also leverage both human capital and local resources to create a shared sense of place. Collaborating, even in this microcosm that is our Village, will allow for diverse voices to be heard and for plans to be made as we grow forward, together.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.I would like to hold the line with the current level of property taxes and increase local sales tax. Vibrant economies have three things in common. They align themselves with resources - educational and community - where new ideas turn to innovation, have robust Governmental regulation for business creation, and investment targeted toward early stage capital infusion. At this stage in my career I have experience with both supporting business development with capital alignment and also bringing innovation to the market. I believe this experience qualifies me to be in a position to augment activity in the Governmental arena with progressive regulation. If elected, I would seek community involvement in the development of a plan for the kinds of businesses most appropriate to the area and which utilize the current infrastructure. By driving transparency and community involvement into this development process I know that we can develop a strong rudder that can serve to guide activity. As we operate in a cost-effective manner we can drive economic vibrancy and competitiveness. With balanced development, we can increase sales tax revenue while maintaining aspects of this very livable community that has been the hallmark of our area. Focusing on our semi-rural nature, business can be attracted to the area which would augment revenues in a way to keep taxes stable while helping us offset ever increasing costs to operate the Village. My goal would be to keep taxes stable while growing local business. This would ripple throughout our very local economy.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?I believe that both the Fire and Police coverage in our area are very good. I think that the Departments are poised for the growth that is sure to happen in our area. Expansion will surely have to be looked at very closely, and based on what I have already seen occur, both Departments will have to work to continue to leverage resources with surrounding municipalities. Only by pursuing coordinated investments will we be able to keep up with changes that are happening in the world around us. One public safety concern that I do have revolves around the devastating impact of opioid use. While it appears that our direct area may have lower issues with this epidemic, I can also say that no challenge like this ever will pass over any community. So, as I learn more about this topic, I will speak more about issues specific to Campton Hills.Where, if anywhere, could the current budget be trimmed, and conversely, are there areas the budget does not give enough money to?It appears that the approved budget for the Village has overall revenues projected to be just over $3.2M. (This is from data provided as of 01.13.2017 in Budget to Actual Summary Summary handout at Village MTG 01.17.2017.) So, as a first step, it is important to look at the overall budget as ranked in order of dollar amount. Approximately half of the revenues for our community come from Income Tax and local/sales taxes. It appears that the Income Tax line would remain somewhat stable so the main items to look for increase to augment revenues would be in the local and sales tax area. We simply have to get more people into our area who are shopping and spending their dollars locally. On the expense side approximately one-third of the total budget is allocated to Police protection. It is important to balance public safety alongside cost AND make sure that we are keeping our obligations current as is relates to pension and benefits. So, in conjunction with our current Police Chief, it would be important for me to take a longer look at this part of the budget and develop a solid understanding of this part of the Village budget. My goal would be to align budget activity with the leadership already in place in our Police Department, challenge assumptions, and team to implement any changes.What is one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?We truly can balance growth in our semi-rural community! With an eye toward sustainable and mindful development it is time to start generating new ideas about what is possible. Then, once more robustly framed, we can look for development that fits within this direction. I'd like to work with a broad spectrum of community members to create understanding and depth in knowledge of local resources including our human capital. As we look to honor the natural beauty in our area, and while balancing important economic engines, we can develop our area with activities that can interact with both. As this outline begins to take greater form there are a couple of underlying values important to also keep in mind. One is managing and protecting our water resources and the other is promoting farm-to-table options that are literally located in our backyard. Right now I do not see this actively promoted in our community and I believe we are missing an opportunity. One of the other ideas I have is to better promote our area as a destination for bicyclists interested in touring. Our area currently enjoys a great deal of bike traffic so my sense is that we can easily capitalize on this traffic and promote this activity.What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?The Village of Campton Hills is poised to build sustainable prosperity. We are connected to one of the most economically vibrant parts of the country and it is time we reach out to build connections to regional businesses and information networks that help us drive local economic activity. We can build a diverse and strong business community that drives job creation and expansion as we begin to know all the human and resource capital in our area. Then, after our vision is outlined and agreed upon it would be time to communicate broadly our local amenities that offer ample open space and recreation. We can achieve great things while at the same time providing for communication processes that increase governmental responsibility, community involvement, and accountability. I strongly feel that our Village is at a place in its growth that we are moving out of its initial formation phase. It's time to bring new faces to the table, and with this greater diversity, generate ideas that truly motivate community members. We can become a leading livable community in the greater Chicagoland area. Our size allows for community members to really know one another and band together in a manner that blends both those living in larger developments and those who live in a more rural setting.Please name one current leader who most inspires you.Justin TrudeauWhat is the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?Compassion and respect for other members of our human family.If life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?I would spend time re-learning our Hocak language when I was an Undergrad from my Father and Aunt Josephine.What was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?Organizational Development classes that helped me learn how to work in teams with all kinds of personalities (including my own!)If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?Spend time with your grandparents and learn both the Hocak language and one other in addition to English.