Richard C. Gallagher: 2025 candidate for Inverness village board

Bio

Office sought: Inverness village board (Vote for 3)

City: Inverness

Age: 83

Occupation: Retired CEO

Previous offices held: Inverness Village Trustee since 1997; member, Illinois Energy Resources Commission

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

While Inverness has a AAA bond rating from Standard & Poors, the state of Illinois is facing some serious financial difficulties that could impact Inverness. These include such items as unfunded pension liabilities and individual and corporations, leaving Illinois along with the taxes they paid in Illinois.

Inverness receives a significant portion of its revenues from Illinois in the form of sales tax, motor fuel tax, and income tax revenue. As Illinois is pressed for additional revenue, I would foresee the possibility of the state, reducing the amount that Inverness receives from these various sources.

Since the property taxes that Inverness levies almost entirely fund, our police services, if Illinois reduces these payments to Inverness, taxes, levied by Inverness would have to increase to cover essential services.

Since Inverness has cash reserves of approximately $10 million, we need to ensure that these reserves are maintained so that we have the financial resources to cover these potential revenue shortfalls from Illinois.

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?

Inverness’s finances are superior. Only a handful of municipalities in Illinois have a AAA bond rating from Standard and Poors -- Inverness is one of them. As chairman of Inverness’s finance committee for the last 24 years, I am very proud of the following village accomplishments:

1. The AAA bond rating.

2. Clean audits from our outside, independent auditors for the entire period.

3. Healthy financial reserves of approximately $10 million.

4. Annual budget expenses that did not exceed our revenues.

5. A reduction in village property taxes for the current year over the prior year.

The village’s top priority for spending, continues to be focused on our superior, police services, and maintaining our good roads. To facilitate this, we have doubled our road spending for this current fiscal year.

As we currently maintain a very lean staff, and are very prudent in our spending, I see no areas of spending that need to be curtailed.

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?

Our most important infrastructure project is the maintenance of our roads. We recently paid off a $10 million bond issue that was utilized to pave the village roads. In the current fiscal year, we were able to increase funding to maintain our roads from $750,000 to $1.5 million out of our current funds. This was a 100% increase in road funding.

If necessary, in the future, we may have to resort to another bond issue to maintain our roads. There are no other major projects that would have to be put on the back burner.

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.

My experience in a group setting was formed by my four years attending the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. There, the predominant theme of leadership, was to gain the willing cooperation of others to accomplish an assigned task. In order to gain that willing cooperation, one must be open about the issues, especially in the financial arena.

In chairing our village finance committee for the last 24 years, we always invite all of the village trustees to our finance committee meetings. At these meetings, we discuss the annual budgets and the results of our independent auditors. By systematically walking through these issues, we are able to satisfy any lingering concerns that our board members may have.

As a result, when the finance committee recommendations go to the full board, everyone is on board with the conclusions, and there are no surprises. This approach ensures that the board members know that there are no hidden minefields, nor any surprises, and they give their willing cooperation via their votes.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

I believe I am one of the best candidates for the position of village trustee. I have had a successful 28 years on the board with 24 years as the chairman of the finance committee that has produced a village with a sterling financial record.

My background of 10 years in the Army, 20 years in banking, president of four companies, and CEO of a marketing firm have given me a very wide breath of experiences to be a successful village trustee.

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

The one idea that no one is talking about is how the village management keeps our municipality out of serious lawsuits. Our village president, Jack Tatooles, does a masterful job in keeping Inverness out of serious lawsuits. This action saves the village a significant amount of money. Not many note this very significant accomplishment. Even though the village can be absolutely right on an issue, and be on the side of the angels, the village would still have to pay the litigation fees which can be substantial.

Such lawsuits can create divisions within a community, and we need to continue the practice of avoiding major litigation.