Bob Porada: 2025 candidate for Des Plaines 7th Ward Alderman

Bio

Office Sought: Des Plaines 7th Ward Alderman

City: Des Plaines

Age: 66

Occupation: Trial lawyer

Previous offices held: None

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

The maintenance and repair/replacement of our aging infrastructure requires careful planning and consistent funding. Proactive subsurface infrastructure (water/sewer) upgrades prevent emergency repairs, resident inconvenience, and water loss.

While casino revenue is allocated to infrastructure, we need to dedicate additional funds to the accelerated replacement of sidewalks, curbs/gutters, and parkway aprons and to street resurfacing. “Infrastructure” also includes green space so we need to plant more parkway trees and routinely maintain them. These investments will enhance the unique beauty of our 7th Ward neighborhoods for years to come.

As for casino revenue, the opening of additional casinos may soon further cannibalize Des Plaines’ share of Rivers’ proceeds so we need to anticipate that possibility and plan for it, now. What is not a serious 7th Ward issue are the city’s decades’ long downtown redevelopment plans which will never benefit our 7th Ward — ever.

Until we reimagine the four-lane Miner Street super highway, the too-dense Metra station, and the poorly located ugly Pace depot, all of which divide downtown into north and south for blocks, downtown will never thrive.

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?

We're in fine financial shape but we can lower the burden on our overtaxed residents by lowering the city levy. We need to stop political pandering and deceptive doublespeak. Elected officials, unelected bureaucrats and my opponent brag the city “is paying down debt.”

Homeowners with a mortgage, folks with an auto loan and consumers with a credit card pay down their debt every month and don't expect a gold star for it. While I'm no fan of debt, debt for worthwhile infrastructure is no vice. But, debt from buying up downtown properties willy nilly with no realistic plan, and removing them from the tax rolls meaning we pay more tax, is no virtue.

When my opponent gloats that she’s “not raised property taxes,” she takes you for a fool. While the city’s tax levy may not increase, our increased reassessments every three years means we pay more. Property taxes are a zero sum game meaning that all taxing bodies, including Des Plaines, collect their respective fixed sum split up among us.

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?

For decades the elephant in the room has been the dangerous Northwest Highway “S” curve which discourages 7th Ward residents from going downtown and prevents all pedestrian/bicyclist access to downtown. With each passing year the cost to replace this derelict death trap escalates.

The recent $5 million flood mitigation project, while necessary, was money better spent on total bridge replacement. And, that goofy idea to build a pedestrian bridge over the S-curve tracks was a waste of time and money.

It’s well past time for Des Plaines to bite the bullet and make this happen by using its municipal bonding authority while securing partial funding from the federal/state governments and from the railroads.

If Des Plaines has money to spend on downtown “redevelopment” — including $6 million for the theater which has failed to meet expectations — we can find the money to contribute to this critical infrastructure improvement.

And, while we’ve made progress toward an east/west bridge over the tracks between Wolf and Mt. Prospect roads, there is a 50% savings when building the less expensive overpass (vs the underpass). This 50% savings can be applied to the S-curve bridge project.

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 city council.

In my daily life as a trial lawyer while interacting with other parties, their lawyers, and federal/state court judges, I'm required to develop an effective action plan, propose realistic solutions, negotiate effectively, and reach compromise as much as possible. When consensus is not possible, I am always mindful of alternative positions, insightful of other views, thoughtful of competing interests and respectful to all participants.

From 2005-15 while serving on Des Plaines' Consumer Protection Commission/Zoning Board of Appeals — never missing a meeting — I utilized these skills to reach agreement on a wide range of municipal issues. My practice is to listen to everyone's position, learn about the reasons for those views, look for opportunities for compromise, lobby for the best consensus, and legislate the best result for Des Plaines.

I have long-standing relationships with the aldermen with whom I will serve for two years (Wards 2, 4, 6, 8), over the years have developed a fine rapport with them, and for decades we’ve discussed — and solved — issues of importance to Des Plaines. As alderman, my promise will be diligent preparation, spirited debate, and effective results.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

With the promise spoken by our Founding Fathers 250 years ago, blessings bestowed by the Almighty, and my own determination, I've been fortunate to live the American dream. Lou Gehrig was wrong; truly I am the luckiest man on earth. I put myself through college and law school, started a dozen small businesses and have successfully created jobs, paid taxes, and managed budgets. I accept public service as an awesome responsibility and commit 100% to our 7th Ward.

I will insist that we receive our fair share of city services for which we pay high taxes and will work for the benefit of our 7th Ward, first.

I will listen to 7th Ward residents, first, while respecting the views of all Des Plaines residents.

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

7th Ward residents take great pride in their homes but the city does not take pride in the appearance of its 7th Ward property. The streets are filthy, the parkways are not well maintained and those trees that are not partially dead are unkempt. The fall leaf collection using 1950s technology creates a bigger mess than it solves.

Winter snow removal is hit and miss due to parked cars, impeding emergency response and safe driving. I'll advocate for regularly-scheduled curb to curb street sweeping on a biweekly basis, minimum. This includes streets which Illinois or Cook County maintains.

No more “that's not our jurisdiction” or other excuses which result in Golf/Rand/Central/Mt. Prospect Roads and Northwest Highway being 7th Ward eyesores.

Regular tree trimming will ensure that the 7th Ward has tall, proud, living trees, not stunted, dying, low to the ground “bushes.” Leaf collection will use modern single machine technology (like Mt. Prospect) instead of our primitive broom and shovel. At present, our snow removal and mitigation by a fine public works crew is timely and professional but the inability to plow curb to curb leaves blocks unplowed and unsafe.