Claire Goldenberg: Candidate profile
Bio
Name: Claire Goldenberg
City: Lisle
Office sought: Village of Lisle Board of Trustees
Age: 47
Family: married 36 years, one adopted son
Occupation: Business Owner dealing with Merger & Acquisitions
Education: University of New York at Buffalo - Licensed Customs Broker - Certified Import Specialist - Certified Export Specialist
Civic involvement: Precinct Committee'man' since 2016, ran for County Board, volunteer with www.arf-il.org
Previous elected offices held: Precinct Committeeman
Incumbent? If yes, when were you first elected?
Website: www.ClaireForDuPage.com
Facebook: @ClaireForLisleTrustee
Twitter: @ClaireForDuPage
Issue questions
What are the most important issues facing your community and how do you intend to address them?
As trustees for Lisle our biggest challenge is growing our population to reverse the years long attrition and attracting tax paying businesses to domicile in Lisle. I intend to develop an outreach program that will work to attract more commuters, residents and businesses. I will seek out marketing platforms that have proven effective in promoting communities. On the commuter side I would work with BNSF to develop commerce at the train stations and work to entice commuters to stay and check us out!
What makes you the best candidate for the job?
We have the opportunity to elect 3 people as our Village Trustees, I am asking for the voters support because I know what I am capable of and will work tirelessly for the benefit of all my neighbors in Lisle. I have been attending the board meeting as well a watching or reading the minutes of ones I missed. I am concerned about our current board. They appear to be contentious and sometimes downright angry with one another. In my line of work, I create consensus between groups who at the beginning don't want to cooperate and find ways to get them closer together in their differences so in the end the compromise benefits all concerned. I will translate these skills to help steer our board in a positive direction.
Describe your leadership style and explain how you think that will be effective in producing actions and decisions with your village board or city council.
My leadership style is one where I create consensus and get buy in from those involved. I have found in negotiations the best outcomes result when parties can find ways to give and take so that everyone gets something they need. The Village Board of Trustees must always keep the resident's best interests at the heart of all their decisions and leave personal feelings out of it in order to do the job we elect them to do. I will work to ensure we all keep this at the forefront of all our work and discussions.
How would you describe the condition of your community's budget, and what are the most important specific actions the town should take to assure providing the level of services people want?
Our budget is continuously strained by raising costs for everything from energy to labor. In order to keep Lisle's taxes in check we must scrutinize every line item. Overall, we have been doing a fair job on this front, but there is always room for improvement and if we can increase our tax base then we could increase services for our residents without raising resident taxes.
What's one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?
I hope to share many good ideas to help make Lisle an even better place to live, work, shop, raise a family and play. However, something that has been nagging at me since I started looking at where all the money goes is this: We pay for many services for the Village, like landscaping, plumbing work, electric work - the list goes on. However, all these companies that we pay for these services reside OUTSIDE of Lisle. I would encourage our local business to get involved in the bidding process and possibly lean towards a Lisle company, as that would only benefit Lisle in the long run by keeping the money here, where it will be spent. I see it as a WIN WIN WIN!