Michael Armato: 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: hampshireWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Twitter: Candidate did not respond.Facebook: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Hampshire Village Board Age: 74Family: Wife, Ann, of 46 yearsSon Tim, Daughter-in-Law Amy2 Grandsons, Owen 8yrs old Leo 6yrs oldDaughter Suzanne, Son-in-Law Michael1 Grandson, Anthony 13yrs oldOccupation: Owner of Signarama, Carpentersville, ILEducation: 4yrs of CollegeCivic involvement: -Member of "The New Century Partnership of Elgin" 1993-2000.-United Way Auditor of organizations requesting funds.-Fund Raising Chairman for Neighborhood Housing Services of Elgin-Board of Directors, Boys Girls of Elgin.-Charter member past treasurer of Carpentersville Rotary.-Commissioner on the Business Development Commission of Carpentersville 7 yrs.-Hampshire Zoning Board of Appeals 3 yrs.-Appointed Hampshire Village Trustee in Nov. 2015.-Hampshire Finance Committee Chairman.-Introduced Hampshire to the concept of a "Business Development Commission".-Appointed to to lead the newly formed Hampshire Business Development Commission as Chairman.Elected offices held: -Executive Vice President of a manufacturing company for 35 years-President of the New Century Partnership of Elgin 501c3 Corporation.-Treasurer of the Carpentersville Rotary.-Commissioner of the Carpentersville Business Development Commission.-Hampshire Village Trustee.-Commissioner of the Hampshire Business Development Commission.Questions Answers What makes you the best candidate for the job?I believe that my varied experiences, over the last 51 years, can be utilized to assist Hampshire in taking advantage of opportunities to attain sustainable economic growth. As a Trustee, I have been chosen to lead the newly formed Hampshire Business Development Commission (BDC). Along with the other members of the Commission, I can assist in the creation of public/private partnerships to bring new retail, office industrial facilities to Hampshire. Thereby, increasing the Village's revenue, creating new employment opportunities, diversifying the local economy along with enhancing the community's image quality of life. I spent 7 years working with the City of Elgin the Grand Victoria Foundation in the redevelopment of the Historic Downtown area along the Fox River. I have served 7 years as a commissioner on the Business Development Commission in Carpentersville. I can bring that experience to the Hampshire BDC. Also, I believe that I bring a certain amount of economic financial business sense. I have owned and operated 2 successful businesses. One for 35 years the second one for 16 years.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.I believe that the current sales tax level, of 7%, is equivilent to that of the surrounding communities. We do have an advantage over villages, directly to the east, that have a sales tax rate of 9%. Any increase in the sales tax would have a negative effect on Hampshire. The property taxes are higher than they should be. That is because we have very little retail and other commercial businesses when compared to size of the Village the size of our population. The result of this is that there is a greater burden on residents property taxes to finance the cost of operating the Village. With an increase of retail and other commercial businesses, the hope is that there will be less pressure to increase property taxes, in the future. With the increase in the operations at the I-90 interchange, one might consider an increase in the motor fuel tax. The vast majority of this tax increase would be borne by transit traffic not the residents.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 that we have excellent police fire protection. If we are going to see a great increase in the utilization of the I-90 interchange area and along Route 20, northwest of Brier Hill, we will need to expand both departments. This would probably include constructing a second Fire Station, in that area. The expansion of the size of the Village along with the increase of businesses population, will dictate the growth of the police department. I have concern, that in the older part of the village, we have several narrow streets without curbs and sidewalks with vehicles being parked on both sides of the street. This, not only does not allow two vehicles traveling in opposite direction to pass one another but forces children and pedestrians to walk on the street and be partially hidden by the parked vehicles. It is an accident waiting to happen. My second public concern is the intersection of Route 72 and Brier Hill Road. Because of high mounds of earth on all four corners of the intersection, especially on the southwest northeast corners, traffic traveling north or south, on Brier Hill, must almost pull into the intersection to view the cross traffic. Since I raised this issue at a Board meeting, it is my understanding that the Village, Police department, Fire department, the Township the County have met on this issue. Having the news media highlight this problem might go a long way to make a positive change.Where, if anywhere, could the current budget be trimmed, and conversely, are there areas the budget does not give enough money to?Being involved with the Finance Committee, I believe that it is remarkable that the Village staff is able to operate the Village and provide the services that it does with the limited budget at their disposal. There is no fat to be cut. One possible area of study would be looking at the expenses that we occur from outside services and see if those expenses could be used to hire a Village Administrator to deal with the same issues. I have no specific knowledge that this could be the case, it is just worth exploring. As far as areas that need more funding, all of our existing programs that are in place to assist in the renovation of the Village, assist in business expansion business creation are without any funds. We need to set aside monies to cover the depreciation expenses of our plant and equipment. It would be nice to also have a rainy day fund to cover those unexpected needs. Currently these costs expenses are covered by the use of general funds. This use then keeps the Village from making other improvements. This is all the more reason why we must change from being reactive and to be proactive when it comes to economic growth.What is one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?The creation of "Shop Hampshire" available through the Village's website. It is more than a business directory. Upon obtaining a business license (required), you wouild then have access to a basic on-line listing at "Shop Hampshire" Free of any cost. You can build a complete profile of your business, including pictures. This gives visitors to the Village's website and mobile app the ability to search for your business by category or by name. You have complete control over your listing. You can include Hours, specials or coupons, a link to an existing website, links to your social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter Linkedin.What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?1. We need to have more transparency for the residence. It is important to have the residents better informed about what is happening in the Village, good or bad. We need to reach out to the residents to find out what they want for the future of the Village. Maybe we should have an open forum or town hall meeting once or twice a year. It has always been shown that if you include input from the residents in formulating your plans, you will have less resistance as you implement those plans. 2. We need to equip our police squad cars with Dash Cameras, as soon as possible. Eventually, we must find a way, financially, to equip every police officer with a body camera. This would lead to the assurance protection that the officer's actions were appropriate and that an individual's rights were not violated.Please name one current leader who most inspires you.Speaker of the House, Paul RyanWhat is the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?To be neat and organized. If you try hard, you can do better.If life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?Take better advantage of the educational opportunities that were available.What was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?Mathematics. It taught me how to be analytical logical reasoning.If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?Enjoy life, share with others and don't forget to save for the future.