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Donald Adler: Candidate Profile

Oak Brook Village Board (4-year Terms) (Republican)

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:BioKey IssuesQA Bio City: Oak BrookWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Oak Brook Village Board (4-year Terms)Age: 60Family: Married, two adult daughtersOccupation: Accountant - Current: Adjunct Professor Accounting/Tax - Governor's State University. Prior: Tax Officer for several large, publicly-traded companies; Principal/Manager w/PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Arthur Andersen; and Auditor w/Milwaukee County,WIEducation: BBA- Accounting - Spencerian College - Milwaukee MSM - Accounting - University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee MS - Taxation - DePaul University Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Certificate-Management Accounting (CMA); Certified Internal Auditor (CIA)Civic involvement: Village of Oak Brook - Chair- Citizen's Finance Advisory Committee - 2009-11 - Member - Ad Hoc Legal Services Audit Committee - 2004-05 Bd. Member, President and Treasurer - York Woods Community Association - 2008-11 Bd. Member - Oak Brook Historical Society - Current Member - Oak Brook Chamber of Commerce Referee for Oak Brook American Youth Soccer Organization 1997-2002 Board Member - Better Business Bureau of Chicago/Northern Illinois - 1997-98Elected offices held: N/AHave you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: NoCandidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 The new school proposed to be built by Butler District 53 at the Village Sports Core is the most prominent issue impacting both the Village and the School District. I believe that given the huge environmental and financial impacts of this proposed project, the District 53 School Board needs to present thorough analyses of all considerations (financial; traffic flow; achievement of desired facility capabilities and utility, etc.) of the alternatives of rehabilitating the existing Butler Junior High to acomodate a K-8 school and building a new school at the Sports Core. With this information, the community will be able to come to the decision that is in its best interests.Key Issue 2 The Village needs to continue and expand its efforts related to revitalization of the Oak Brook residential community. Just as the the Village Board rightly undertook efforts to revitalize the Village commercial community, we need to do the same for the residential community which has experienced population declines in recent years. Our community has excellent resources and amenities, and efforts to promote and raise awareness of all that Oak Brook offers are appropriate.Key Issue 3 The Village Board needs continued focus on the effectiveness and efficiency of Village operations. Due to sales tax collection declines during the 2008-10 recession, significant reductions in the Village's workforce were required. The Board needs to provide the leadership and oversight to assure that costs are minimized and, where possible, revenues are enhanced and protected - e.g., assuring the Sports Core Golf course revenues are maintained or increased by making appropriate capital investment in a flood control system.Questions Answers What makes you the best candidate for the job?I believe that my career leadership and management experience in finance, accounting and tax in the private and public sectors combined with my previous service to the Village and Oak Brook community would allow me to be an effective member of the Village Board in addressing and resolving issues.Given the delicate balance between the need for revenue and over-taxing local businesses, what is your opinion of your community's present level of local sales taxes? Is the tax just right, too low or too high? Explain.Oak Brook's current level of sales taxes appears appropriate. Currently, the Village's level of cash reserves is increasing as the result of increasing sales tax collections from an improving economy and new retail store openings. Based upon these positive developments, there does not appear to be a need to increase the Village's sales tax rate, which is generally lower than that of its neighboring communities.Talking with your friends and neighbors, what seems to be their biggest public safety concern? Explain the concern as you see it, and discuss how you think it should be addressed.I don't believe that my friends and neighbors have particular safety concerns and think that it is true generally in Oak Brook. I believe that our public safety functions - fire and police departments - are effective. While there have been instances in some isolated neighborhood burglaries, these have not been an ongoing problem.In these tight economic times, municipal budgets have to be prioritized. Where, if anywhere, could the current budget be trimmed, and conversely, are there areas the budget does not give enough money to?I believe that the Village needs to place ongoing focus on cost control. Given that the vast majority of its cost are employee compensation and related costs, the Village Board needs to assure that these costs are properly managed. Progress has been made in this area. For 2013, a salary plan was adopted which is based on performance-based merit compensation adjustments vs. the former cost-of-living adjustment based system. Efforts to implement this system took a couple of years and it is a positive development. The Village's unfunded pension liabilities for the Fire and Police pension plans it sponsors aggregated nearly $27 Million as of 12/31/11 based upon actuarial assumptions used. This is an area that requires detailed focus by the Board in order to properly manage the Village's funding obligations. Making increased contributions in the current economic environment, as some private companies are doing, may be a good use of some of the Village's excess cash reserves.What's one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?A lot of efforts have been made to attract new commercial residents to the Village with some notable successes - e.g., the Hub Group's new corporate headquarters on York Road. These efforts are important and must cointinue. However, I believe that it is equally important that we retain our existing corporate residents and the Village Board should be putting forth efforts to make sure that Oak Brook is responsive to their needs and opportunities to accommodate changes in their operations. We are fortunate to have several large employers like McDonald's, Advocate Healthcare, Inland Realty, and others that employ several hundred to several thousand employees in Oak Brook. It is always good to have new corporate residents, but the loss of any of these current employers would be hard to make up for.

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