Paul Kierig: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Paul N. Kierig

City: Tower Lakes

Office sought: Trustee

Age (on election day): 66

Family: Married to Laura, 41 years. Two children

Occupation: Retired lawyer. Assistant General Counsel and V.P. with Allstate Insurance Company. Primary responsibility was with Allstate's investment portfolios.

Education: JD University of Illinois College of Law. LLM in Taxation from John Marshall Law School

Civic involvement: 6 years on Tower Lakes Improvement Association Board.

Previous elected offices held: Trustee, Tower Lakes

Incumbent? If yes, when were you first elected? 2014

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Issue questions

What are the most important issues facing your community and how do you intend to address them?

Like most units of government, Tower Lakes is challenged financially. Costs and revenues do not rise equally. We have to look for every opportunity to manage costs.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

I managed our recent $3.7M water improvement project: helped establish a Special Service Area, looked for financing alternatives, reviewed construction contracts and monitored construction activity. No other candidate has similar experience with the Tower Lakes Water System.

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.

As a resident of 32 years and a former TLIA board member, I understand how the various parts of Tower Lakes need to work together. I managed people in my prior job and work well in a team environment.

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?

With the completion of our water system project, the Tower Lakes Water System is in good financial condition, although we must continue to manage reserves for future replacements. We must look for every opportunity to reduce expenses from our general fund so we can allocate more of our limited resources to road improvement.

What's one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?

BACOG and Lake County are very active in water shed monitoring. We must work with these and other organizations to preserve and protect our water table (for drinking water) and our surface water for our lakes.