Randy Hopp: Candidate profile

Name: Randy Hopp

City: Elgin, Illinois

Office sought: Gail Borden Public Library Board Trustee

Age: 67 years

Family: Mother

Occupation: Retired

Education: Elgin Area School District U-46 kindergarten through graduation from Elgin High School with high honors in June 1969. Undergraduate studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the College of Engineering as a James Scholar graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Metallurgical Engineering with highest honors in June 1972.

Graduate studies at the Colorado School of Mines in Metallurgical Engineering 1972-1974.

Graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Material Science and Engineering 1974-1976.

Civic involvement: Big Timber Dancers 1961-present.

Song of Hiawatha Pageant 1962-1979.

Gail Borden Public Library Board of Trustees meetings 2004-present. For longer than the last 14 years and for more than 170 meetings which is over a longer time and for more meetings than any of the other competing trustee candidates, incumbent or challenger. Elgin Township Board of Trustees meetings 2009-present. Kane County Board: Committee of the Whole meetings 2009-present; Redistricting Task Force meetings 2010; Board meetings 2015-present. Fox River Water Reclamation District: Board of Local Improvements meetings 2012-present; Board of Trustees meetings 2012-present. City of Elgin Walk With the Mayor Dave Kaptain walks 2014-present.

Previous elected offices held: Gail Borden Public Library Board Trustee 2009-2013.

Gail Borden Public Library Board, Illinois Open Meetings Act Officer 2010-2013.

Incumbent? If yes, when were you first elected? No

Website: None

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RANDYHOPPELGINIL

Twitter: None

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ISSUE QUESTIONS

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

The most important issue presently facing the Gail Borden Public Library is the next remodeling project at the Main Library that the library director wants and the board of trustees has unanimously approved to proceed to the architect planning stage which is to eliminate the south wing of the Computer Center which has 30 brand new publicly available computers with internet access, all 3 of the printers, and both of the scanning stations with their printer and the only virtual reality unit in the library and replace it with a program room for the exclusive use of children's programs at an estimated cost of $325,000.

I am a candidate for Gail Borden Public Library trustee to defend the library as a library.

The core mission of the library is to provide visitors with access to information. The most powerful mode to access information for visitors is publicly available computers with internet access. The most numerous group of publicly available computers with internet access at any of the 3 library locations is at the Main Library in the publicly accessible part of the Computer Center that has a total of 60 computers in 2 wings: 30 computers in the north wing and 30 computers in the south wing.

Why are you running for office? Is there a particular issue that motivates you? If so, what is it?

The Gail Borden Public Library board of trustees is the employer of the library director and the library director is their employee. The employer is supposed to have authority over the employee and the employee is supposed to be in submission to the employer. That employer/employee authority relationship is reversed between the board of trustees and the director. The director pursues domination of the board of trustees and the trustees are almost always completely subservient to the director. Further, the board of trustees has a responsibility to oversee the job performance of the director, the functioning of the library, hold the director accountable for her job performance, and to create policies for the library for her to implement. None of the current trustees even has the attitude to oversee the job performance of the director or create any policy for the library.

I am a candidate for Gail Borden Public Library trustee to be independent of the domination of the director, actively oversee the functioning of the library, and to collaboratively create policy for the library.

If you are an incumbent, describe your main contributions. Tell us of important initiatives you've led. If you are a non-incumbent, tell us what contributions you would make.

I am a candidate for Gail Borden Public Library trustee to serve:

1. Each of the taxpayers who pays property taxes directly or indirectly through rent on property in the Gail Borden Public Library District.

2. Each of the visitors to the library either in person at the Main Library in Elgin, the branch libraries in Elgin and South Elgin, the Bookmobile Library wherever it parks in the district, or online at the library website, www.gailborden.info.

3. Each of the visitor-serving employees of the library but not the library director and her "cabinet" of management employees.

The most recently completed of many remodeling projects that the library director has wanted and the board of trustees has always approved at the Main Library was the elimination of the majority of the tables and chairs for public use in the café area and construction of a Kane County Teachers' Credit Union branch in 2018. I spoke at multiple board of trustee meetings in defense of the public use of those tables and chairs and against the commercial financial branch use which is not a library use. I also spoke at each step of the zoning change process required from the City of Elgin.

Do you have a library card? How long have you had it? How often do you use it?

In the Spring of 1959, I and my 2nd grade classmates at Columbia Elementary School in Elgin were taken by our teacher on a field trip to the Gail Borden Public Library in its original building at 50 North Spring Street in Elgin, which is still standing today, for a tour of all 3 floors led by the librarians. At the conclusion of that tour I and each of my classmates were issued a library card. I have held and cherished my library card ever since, for 60 years. This spans the reminder of the time that the library was in the North Spring Street building, the entire time that the library was in the newly constructed but since demolished building on the south side of Kimball Street in Elgin, and the entire time that the main library has been in the grand newly constructed building on the north side of Kimball Street in Elgin. I have visited each of the 3 main library locations innumerable times over the past 60 years and I use my library card multiple times each week. The Gail Borden Public Library has been my most favorite place to visit in Elgin ever since my first visit on that field trip.

What impact have economic and technological changes had on libraries? How does a library remain relevant? How should its role in the community change?

1. Almost all of the revenue for the Gail Borden Public Library District comes from property taxes. The maximum rate of increase in property tax revenue is the consumer price index (CPI), a measure of inflation, as specified by the Illinois property tax cap law. The CPI is a modest 2%, so library revenue growth is a maximum of about 2%. This allows for modest increases in library spending which requires fiscally conservative and responsible trustees, which I would be.

2. The library staff have embraced the opportunity to provide visitors with the most current information technology, and so do I. Publicly available computers with internet access, Wi-Fi, digital as well as classic print materials, E-books and E-readers, Hoopla, Roku, and other online services, computer and digital equipment training classes and more are all available at Gail Borden Public Library locations and online which I enthusiastically support.

3. A library remains relevant to visitors by providing information resources that visitors want. Gail Borden Public Library does that, and I share in that dedication to service.

4. The primary role of a public library in a community is and will continue to be as a source of informational resources both at the library and online to serve visitors.