Geneva 2nd Ward candidates differ on dining tax

The two men running for the Ward 2 seat on the Geneva City Council disagree about whether the city should tax dining out and whether it should fill the vacant city administrator spot.

But they agree on several other issues, including not seeking home rule.

Incumbent Richard Marks is seeking a third term. He is a certified public accountant and owns a financial planning firm.

Michael Clements is a vice president of research and development for Quantitative Finance. It's his first run for office.

Marks joined the council in the middle of the recession. "The good old days were gone," he said, and aldermen had to make "tough decisions" about reducing the staff and trying to save money. "I don't want to see what we've done just slip away," he said.

Clements, 39, said younger people are underrepresented on the council, which is made up of people in their 40s and beyond. His background in finance means "I'm very comfortable wading through a budget," he said, but he added he has people skills too, including volunteering as a guardian ad litem for children in Kane County courts.

Issues and interests

• Marks favors not filling the assistant city administrator vacancy. Marks said the work formerly done by that position can be reallocated to other employees. Should the city administrator need more help than that, he could support hiring a lower-paid worker, such as an assistant.

Clements said he thinks the savings of the vacancy are marginal, and that he agrees with the city's previous practice of planning for succession to the administrator position. Promoting from within helps ensure it gets an administrator who understands "the nuances of the community," he said.

• Marks wants to repeal the places-for-eating tax, even though he voted in favor of it. "When it originally came up, I thought restaurants did not have an issue with it," he said. Marks now prefers voters be asked to increase the citywide sales tax.

Clements favors keeping the dining tax, because it gives the city more flexibility in spending than a sales tax and could not be withheld by the state, as sales tax payments can.

But the dining tax adoption was "communicated terribly," he said.

"I think communication is something the council needs to work on, moving forward," Clements said.

• Both are against the city having home-rule authority. Marks favors a proposed state law nicknamed "home-rule light," in which towns could get the lawmaking power of home rule, but not the taxing ability.

• Marks approves of borrowing money to provide incentives for redeveloping properties in the Riverfront tax-increment financing district No. 3. "We've got to put the infrastructure in to get them (developers) in there," Marks said.

Clements said he would have voted against creating the TIF district. Now that it's in place, he approves of borrowing to provide incentives.