Bryan Croll: Candidate Profile

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Note: Answers provided have not been edited for grammar, misspellings or typos. In some instances, candidate claims that could not be immediately verified have been omitted. Jump to:BioQA Bio City: Barrington HillsWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Barrington Hills Village Board Age: 43Family: Wife- Johanna Children - Courtney (5), William (3), Evelyn (1)Occupation: Real Estate Business OwnerEducation: University of Virginia, BA (1993) Environmental Science Georgetown University, MBA (1998)Civic involvement: Barrington Area Conservation Trust, Treasurer, Board Member Presbyterian Church of Barrington Second Set Playgroup Biltmore Country Club Riding Club of Barrington HillsElected offices held: Candidate did not respond.Questions Answers What makes you the best candidate for the job?I grew up in Barrington Hills, as did my wife, and we have chosen to raise our family here. We treasure the natural beauty and open space, and its unique character and people. We want our children to experience Barrington Hills the way we did - the Village as one community. Unfortunately, the residents have become divided over the actions of its government. I want to help restore a sense of balance and fair play for the benefit of all residents. I'm not a politician; I've not held office before. Unlike the incumbents, I'm not entrenched in my positions. The Village needs fresh thinking. My work experience in environmental science, land management, and the real estate business will help me to analyze many of the issues facing our Village. I sit on the board of the Barrington Area Conservation Trust where we focus on protecting open space, and it is my intention to bring these experiences to the job of Village Trustee to continue to protect our five-acre zoning. Residents need honest representatives with sound judgment they can trust. I pledge to listen to the ideas and concerns of all residents, be responsive, and take their views into account when deciding Village issues. I will thoughtfully consider the impacts and consequences of every decision I make as Village Trustee, and be open and transparent during the process. I hope that in doing so, I can help Barrington Hills once again become a unified community that trusts and respects its government.What is your opinion of your community's present level of local sales and property taxes? Is the tax just right, too low or too high? Explain.In Barrington Hills, property taxes are the main source of revenue, but, of the amount homeowners pay in property taxes to the counties, the Village itself only receives about 18% of the total. That 18% is the area Trustees have influence over. My focus would be to look for areas to trim the budget. I think there is room to reduce the budget by about 7% from $8.4M to $7.8M over the next few years by saving on expenses like legal fees and 911 consolidation. Last year, the first full year under new Village leadership, spending came in $448,000 under the $8.4 million budget. That's the good news. The bad news is that these savings needed to be added into the 2015 road repair budget because the prior Administration consistently underfunded its 10-year road maintenance plan, spent the money elsewhere, and created a backlog of 4.79 miles of road that will cost taxpayers $4M-5M to fix. This $4M-5M is on top of the regular $1.0M the Village spends on road repairs every year. Just clearing that backlog at the same rate of $448,000/year will cost the Village over 5% of its budget every year for the next 10 years. The Village saved enough money last year to offset one-tenth of this deferred maintenance, but will need to continue to come up with extra money each year for another decade just to catch up, making it more difficult to reduce overall spending and deliver the budget reductions our taxpayers deserve.Rate the efficiency of your town's police and fire coverage. Are the departments well prepared for the next decade? What, if anything, should be changed? Do you have specific public safety concerns?I believe our current police and fire coverage is adequate. However, on January 26, the Village will consider replacing its stand-alone 911 single-person call center with a regional multi-person call center managed by Quadcom that serves nine other emergency services in neighboring villages. Currently, the Village call center handles only our police dispatch and transfers all fire and EMS calls. I support this consolidation in order to increase safety through redundancy and to save roughly $683,000 over the next three years, and $317,000 per year thereafter. While I understand that Phase 3 technology is coming, it isn't here yet. When Phase 3 is mandated in Illinois, and the support centers are built in our area, then we will have to re-evaluate our 911 services again. For now, consolidation will save the Village money immediately, while maintaining safety and call response times. I was impressed that Quadcom's manager started her career as a Barrington Hills' dispatcher and is extremely familiar with our area. Uniquely, Barrington Hills has a very high volume of non-emergency 911 calls. My understanding is that the Village will continue to retain local dispatch to handle non-emergency 911 calls and provide the high level of residential service that residents have come to expect.Where, if anywhere, could the current budget be trimmed, and conversely, are there areas the budget does not give enough money to?The Village spent $3.9M in 2000, rising quickly to $5.8M in 2004, and then up to $9.0M in 2008 (up 130% in 8 years, 11% CAGR). In 2009 spending dropped to $7.9M, and then rose slowly to $8.3M in 2012. Under the new Administration, Village spending has declined two years in a row, dropping to $8.1M in 2013 and $8.0M in 2014. Clearly, the 11% per year growth rate in spending each year from 2000 to 2008 was unsustainable. The new Administration is tackling the budget, but further work remains. I would like to see the budget down to $7.8M per year, rolling back spending to approximately the 2006 level. If elected, I intend to exercise strong oversight over all Village spending. Legal fees were a key area of overspending that is now being brought under control. Under the prior administration, legal fees went up 32%, an extra $204,000 per year on average, to more than the combined legal fees of Barrington and South Barrington. Last year, the long-time Village law firm resigned. Barrington Hills needs to find a permanent replacement that has municipal experience and charges competitive rates. I would like to see the Board confirm the temporary counsel and put the Village on the path of permanently reducing its legal fees.What's one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?I am heavily involved in the BACT Heritage Road Corridor program, a unique initiative that protects key roads in Barrington Hills like Brinker, Sutton, and Ridge from being widened by aggregating landowner-granted easements alongside existing right-of-ways. In a major push by BACT this year, additional roads are being added to the program. The Heritage Road Corridor designation protects our scenic local roads against both road widening and the installation of bike lanes, and I strongly support those protections.What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?Larger scale commercial horse boarding has been a big issue, and came to a head last year. Through counsel, I sent two letters to the ZBA analyzing the Village Code and court rulings, and recommended that special use permits be issued to larger scale barns that could not meet the requirements of the Home Occupation Ordinance. I feel this compromise position resolved the potential legal jeopardy for the large barns created by the courts, allowing them to continue operating as they have for decades, and keeping in place the home occupation protections that are important for maintaining the domestic tranquility of the Village. Special use deserved a hearing because in Illinois it is the standard zoning solution for resolving the kind of zoning ambiguity the courts had created by their rulings. Unfortunately, the ZBA did not discuss this recommendation during their hearings. Instead, the ZBA recommended, and the Board passed, an amendment that moved larger commercial barns out of the stricter regulation of the HOO into new, looser standards in the agricultural section. While I am gratified that HOO protections were retained for smaller operations, I disagree that we found the best solution for the larger barns. In addition, the Village's entire response to this problem may have created several potential new problems, including a possible lawsuit against the Village. A proper fix would have been to issue the larger barns special use permits that run with the land, protecting both their future existence and our zoning code.Please name one current leader who most inspires you.Elon MuskWhat's the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?PerseveranceIf life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?Helping peopleWhat was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?English - I still use it today.If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?Participate