RICK MONTALTO: 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: SUGAR GROVEWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Twitter: Candidate did not respond.Facebook: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Sugar Grove Village Board Age: 62Family: Married to wife Carol for 42 years.Daughter Michelle / Tyson GuthrieDaughter Christina / Brandon StakerSon Michael / Julia MontaltoGrandsons Brody Blake GuthrieOccupation: Retired Law Enforcement (38yrs)Education: A.A. Triton Community CollegeB.S. Northern Illinois UniversityM.S. Benedictine UniversityCivic involvement: During my 22 years as a resident of Sugar grove I have actively coached youth sports, been an active booster of Kaneland schools, active in Church activities, served 7 years on the Village Public Safety Committee, 5 years as the Chair of the Board of Police Commissioners, 4 years as a Sugar Grove member of the Aurora Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, and 8 years as Village Trustee.Elected offices held: See above civic involvement.Questions Answers What makes you the best candidate for the job?I believe every member of the Village Board should bring something specific to the position in order to work as a cohesive team to ensure great quality of life issues for the citizens of the community. What I bring to the table is 38 years experience in emergency services, both doing it, and teaching it, at the College level. In addition, I have a Masters Degree in Management and Organizational Behavior which allows me to understand how to work well with all of the various departments within the community, and the neighboring communities. I believe that along with my experience and educational background, my honesty, integrity, and commitment to the community over the 22 years that I have lived here make me the best candidate for this position.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 feel the present level of sales tax and property taxes are in line with surrounding communities. The last time I did a comparison we fell right in the middle of the scale. That being said, I understand that nobody enjoys paying taxes. I can assure you that your current Village Board works very hard to maintain a balanced budget and stretches the funds as far as possible to improve roads, water supply, emergency services etc, with the funding we get. We have managed the money so well over the past 8 years that our bond rating increased two levels to A++. This means we can borrow money cheaper to complete necessary projects than communities who have not managed their funds as well. What a number of citizens don't understand is that a very small portion of their tax bill actually goes to the village. The largest portion goes to the schools followed by the various other governmental agencies. The village actually gets a smaller percentage than the fire department, but has to budget for public works functions of water, roads, road salt, sidewalks, parkway trees, police services, community development etc.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?Although I feel we have an excellent Fire Department, I can't comment on the Fire Department as they are a Fire Protection District and fall under a separate taxing body, along with a separate board. I think the Village of Sugar Grove Police Department is doing an outstanding job with the budget that is in place. Chief Pat Rollins has been with the department for about 3 years now and has updated a number of things on the department in terms of training for officers and equipment. We have a number of highly skilled officers and I believe they work well with the community in making it a safe place to live. Instead of saying they are prepared for the next ten years I would say they are preparing for the next ten years. Police work is fluid. Things are always changing and communities are usually growing. As circumstances change, Police Departments have to change with those circumstances. As an example, I could ask, do you think Police Departments were ready for computer fraud and identity theft 10 years before home computers were on the scene? How about social media bullying before Facebook was released? I am proud of our department and feel they have the skills to handle what will come their way in the next decade.Where, if anywhere, could the current budget be trimmed, and conversely, are there areas the budget does not give enough money to?The past eight years I have been on the Village Board has been one of the toughest financial times our country has faced in many decades. We have worked hard to trim the budget while maintaining a high level of service to our citizens. We have reduced employees, frozen salaries, outsourced some services and managed our checkbook so carefully that our bond rating increased twice, as stated above. Although a budget could always be trimmed, I believe we are at a level where it would be nickel and diming it. There are two areas that I see facing future board members to allocate more funding to. The first is infrastructure. As our roads get older they will begin to fail. We are working hard at getting the most life we can out of them by crack sealing, patching etc. but roads typically have a specified life span. There is a formula for putting a certain dollar amount away each year for the 60 miles of road that the village maintains. Currently we are unable to put that amount away with the revenue coming in. Hopefully, with continued growth and additional revenue coming in we can adjust that to address the situation before it becomes critical. The second area is police services. As a community grows there is a higher demand for police services. We will need to add additional officers and provide additional equipment to meet these demands to keep the level of safety our residents have become accustomed to.What is one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?I am not sure if anyone outside the current village board is talking about it but there are two things facing us that will have a significant impact on the citizens of Sugar Grove. We are working hard to bring fiber optics to the community which will speed up internet connectivity and encourage company's to choose Sugar Grove to build in. This would help provide a better tax base and more jobs to the community. The second thing that may not be known to a number of people is that we have been working hard the past three years with various agencies to build additional exit and entrance ramps at RT 47 I-88. This will allow easier access for residents and encourage growth of businesses.What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?I would like to see the village continue focusing on controlled sustainable growth, affordable housing, and their investment in new technology to enhance the efficiency of the services the village provides.Please name one current leader who most inspires you.It is a hard decision given our current political climate. I would say Governor Rauner for his efforts to balance the budget against all odds.What is the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?Work hard for what you want and you can achieve it.If life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?I wouldn't do anything different. I am fortunate enough to be blessed with a great family, great friends, a fulfilling career, good health, and happiness.What was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?My favorite subject was history. History repeats itself and prepares you for what is to come.If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?Sign the work you do every day like an artist signs a painting, it shows you're proud of your efforts and have done your best.