Matt Krummick: 2025 candidate for Libertyville village board

Bio

Office sought: Libertyville village board (Vote for 3)

City: Libertyville

Age: 51

Occupation: Commercial real estate developer

Previous offices held: Libertyville Village Trustee since 2021; Libertyville Plan Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals for 6 years, final year as chair of ZBA

What is the most serious issue your community will face in the coming years and how should the village board respond to it?

Unfortunately, that issue is one that is financially related. While our village has been an excellent steward of tax dollars, as represented by our low municipal tax level compared to other municipalities across the Chicago area, each year Springfield wrecks havoc with our expenses.

This comes in the form numerous unfounded mandates that the General Assembly passes each year. These regulations imposed on our municipality and others create burdens that must be paid for directly by the municipality without a corroborating offset from the state.

Additionally, the Local Government Distributive Find (LGDF) which is a fund that distributes to municipalities monies from the state income tax, is typically in flux. Prior to 2011, 10% of the net take that the state received through resident income tax was distributed to Illinois various municipalities. Since 2011, to deal with Springfield’s increased spending and budget issues, that portion has been reduced to 6.47%.

This reduction in revenue to our village, in conjunction with the unfunded mandates, continuously challenges us by having to be more steadfast in how we spend our money locally.

How would you describe the state of your community's finances? What should be the top priorities for spending during the next few years? Are there areas of spending that need to be curtailed?

Due to informed and thoughtful governance over this past several decades, Libertyville has a stellar balance sheet. We have been able to slowly pair down debt in particular that which was incurred through the development of the sports complex and its subsequent sale.

Our fiduciary excellence is further evidenced in our Moodys Bond Rate of Aa1 which keeps our cost of capital low. Furthermore, there is a large gap between our current bond obligations and the overall debt ceiling versus that which is allowed by state statute, which only highlights the DNA of fiscal responsibility that runs in our village.

Top priorities for thoughtful spending from a programmatic perspective includes continued implementation of our parks master plan, street maintenance program, and our annual fleet replacement program.

Continued development of our upcoming police station will be funded through a separate fund that is fulfilled through the non-home rules sales tax which was recently initiated and I firmly stand behind.

What do you see as the most important infrastructure project the community must address? Why and how should it be paid for? Conversely, during these uncertain economic times, what project(s) can be put on the back burner?

From an infrastructure perspective the lead line water service replacement program, which is an example of an unfunded state mandate is underway and will continue to be a sizable expense for quite some time as those lines are replaced. Additional improvements to our stormwater/wastewater system which were the subject of a recent facilities and rate increase study are paramount.

When we look at our expenses, approximately 75% of our budget goes to public safety and public works. Neither is a department we want to shortchange in any way. As a result, this board has been steadfast in economizing our department structures and streamlining process.

With the recent sale of the sports complex and the reduced capital burden that brings, we are just beginning to give staff some breathing room by adding long-needed full-time equivalent staff members to the ranks.

Should things get lean however, we can always curtail or defer spending on our parks and playground improvement plan yet still deliver a robust parks and activity programming experience that our residence expect and deserve!

Describe your experience working in a group setting to determine policy. What is your style in such a setting to reach an agreement and manage local government? Explain how you think that will be effective in producing effective actions and decisions with your village board.

We have been blessed with many strong board members as well as department heads. I constantly enforce the notion that our human personnel, from our department heads to our village administrator are our true leaders in our community. They are running the “business” on a day-to-day basis. We are simply the board of directors offering guidance and setting policy.

I do that by encouraging staff to dig for solutions, listen to their thoughts but also lever the various specialties and areas of expertise that myself and many of our board members possess.

However, it takes intelligent assertiveness to be a leader and that’s something that I know not to lack. I’m also compassionate to the needs of others and through my 10 years of municipal experience here in our village, I have learned how to balance those tenets quite well.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

This is not my first rodeo and our village is not in a position to be a training ground for leadership right now. In 2015, Mayor Terry Weppler extended an invitation for me to meet with he and Scott Adams. There, they asked me to be a member of the plan commission.

Our village board historically has had a strong pedigree in this community where leaders of the board often come from the committees down below I’m no exception to that rule. I served six years on the plan commission & the ZBA as well as served as its chair. It’s that experience that helped me join the village board in 2021 and offer an instant value.

Additionally, through my work as a commercial real estate developer in Zoning and Approvals, I am in municipalities throughout Chicagoland everyday; with a depth of entitlement experience across the U.S. Each day I work with municipal leaders, interface with their processes, and pivot to each communities culture. I see how different municipalities are run and how they function from within. Through that, I work with our village staff and board to bring best practices to our village as well as reinforcement of current ideals that I feel that we are on the cutting edge of.

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

While we have had a lot of successes over these last four years at both the board and committee levels, I would like accelerate the process by which we can livestream our public board meetings and our plan commission/ZBA hearings to a village YouTube channel.

The last time this was investigated there were many equipment and technological hurdles that compromised the feasibility of setting this up in our current boardroom. However, with some of the remote streaming applications that have flourished recently, I think there may be a new solution out there for us.

One final change I would like to see is fostering more attendance at our municipal meetings. From inviting veterans and Scout troops to lead us in the pledge, to formally inviting various neighborhood associations and resident groups to attend the board meetings and gain introductions to staff, we can build up awareness in village government and increase participation.