David Weidenfeld: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: David Weidenfeld

City: Buffalo Grove

Office sought: Village board

Age: 67

Family: Married, 2 adult children

Occupation: retired attorney and corporate executive

Education: Collage and Law School

Civic involvement: Volunteer at OMNI Youth Services since 1985, volunteer at Remy Bumppo Theater Company, volunteer at Young at Heart senior pet rescue

Previous elected offices held: Currently Trustee in Buffalo Grove

Incumbent: If yes, when were first elected? 2015

Website:

Facebook: Re-Elect Dave Weidenfeld for the Village of Buffalo Grove Trustee

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Issue questions

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

The largest single issue facing our community is the precarious financial condition of the state of Illinois. That has caused it to retain roughly $600,000 in Village funds (LDF reductions and fees on Home Rule Sales taxes) over the last couple of years to help cover State expenses. Those amounts should have been available to cover expenses in the Village and this behavior by the State puts all communities in the position of having to make up for that loss.

A related issue is how to comply with the massive financial requirements of the State mandated pension system, which in 2018 alone required the Village contribute over $6,400,000. This number is not going to go down. Planning for future revenue sources to cover those increasing expenses means that I have valued long term arrangements with businesses that contemplate moving to Buffalo Grove. This creates a more predictable state of affairs and allows for long term planning as opposed to having to make unplanned decisions on important matters.

Finally, all communities in Illinois are facing massive future bills over aging infrastructure. The Village had not really reserved for this in the past and I supported the implementation of the fee to create a reserve to help deal with this looming issue.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

First, I think that I've looked at matters that come before the board from a fact based perspective. While I certainly would love to see the vision set out in the Lake Cook Corridor Plan come to fruition, I understand that in order for Community Development to be successful the Village has to take as broad an approach as possible so that we don't miss opportunities because we're focused on only one thing. Proceeding in this broader manner allows for the consideration of opportunities that weren't even initially on the radar. That approach has allowed us to bring numerous businesses to Buffalo Grove, as well as retain some that considered leaving, that will produce literally millions of dollars in incremental sales tax (not to mention jobs) over the next several years. Critically we were able to do this by looking at incentives that were based upon sharing of incremental sales tax revenue so that the residents were not put in a position of financing these opportunities. Where we have entered into such agreements I've also made sure that businesses who take advantage of revenue sharing but then decide to relocate have to pay back the revenue that has been shared.

Second, as we looked at opportunities I have kept in mind that existing real estate taxes are pretty high (they make up about 20 percent of the Village budget) so that when we look to fund Village operations we ought not to look to residential real estate taxes as the first option. Instead we have focused on opportunities to structure "deals" without the use of existing taxpayer funds. I have supported increasing purchasing efficiencies through the use of buying cooperatives and have urged Staff to investigate others.

Third, when it came time to create the Lake Cook Corridor Plan I was instrumental in ensuring that were numerous open sessions to allow the community to actively participate in the development of the Plan. I do not believe that the Village had previously allowed for that scale of public involvement.

Finally, I think that my prior job experience as a lawyer and manager of a large staff and the budget that went with that provides me with both the capacity to analyze complex situations and also the experience of making the necessary decisions to achieve goals with finite financial resources. Additionally I've been a volunteer at OMNI Youth Services for about 34 years, both as Board member and as a fundraiser.

Describe your leadership style and explain how you think that will be effective in producing actions and decisions with your village board or city council.

I've taken a collaborative approach to working with the other Trustees. There's a real difference between vigorously urging a particular course of action and being totally unwilling to compromise. Every Trustee comes with a different set of experiences and skills and it's essential that all of that talent is put to work solving what are some pretty serious and complex problems. This means that the only agenda that you can truly have is one that puts the best overall interests of the community first. It also means that you have to recognize that no one person has all the answers and that listening, and really considering, alternative points of view is the only approach that will produce a balanced and viable result.

How would you describe the condition of your community's budget, and what are the most important specific actions the town should take to assure providing the level of services people want?

The 2019 budget required making some difficult choices. The approach that we have taken is to look at what can reasonably be expected on the revenue side and limiting expenses to that amount. Considering that expenses have to include maintaining reserves this means that careful scrutiny has to go into each area of expense.

This awareness of fiscal restraint ultimately means the Village has to constantly seek areas to grow revenues, even if only to stay current with inflation and make those capital improvements that maintain Village infrastructure at a sustainable level. This is why the work that has been done in the Community Development area is so critical.

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

For several years I have seeking a way to create a community based foundation to help sustain and enhance the cultural and social life of the Village. For years the Village has included small amounts for the arts, disabilities issues, farmers market and the Buffalo Grove Days festival. As pressures increase on the use of Village funds a community based foundation could step into the role of sustainer of these kinds of activities and help all of them grow.