Peter Gariepy: 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: ChicagoWebsite: peterforcookcounty.comTwitter: @GariePeterFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/peterforcookcountyOffice sought: Cook County Treasurer Age: 34Family: My wife, Karishma toddler daughter, Reshma and rescue dog, Baloney.Occupation: Certified Public Accountant (CPA)Education: Northwestern University, Master of Science (Civil Engineering) Fordham University, Master of Science (Taxation) and Bachelor of Science (Public Accounting)Civic involvement: Volunteer for Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi's 2016 campaign (primary and general). Treasurer and Board Member of the East Village Association, Treasurer and Commissioner of Special Service Area No. 29 (the West Town Commission), Associate Board Member of the Center for Economic Progress, and Auxiliary Board Member of Christ The King Jesuit College Preparatory School in Chicago's Austin neighborhood.Elected offices held: This is my first race for elected office. Prior to this race, I have worked as a CPA and for Amtrak (5+ years), most recently as the Infrastructure Planning Manager for the Chicago Union Station Master Plan.Questions Answers Why are you running for this office, whether for re-election or election for the first time? Is there a particular issue that motivates you? If so, what?As a non-legislative office that is the most direct point of contact between taxpayers and the local layers of government, I am running for Cook County Treasurer to transform the office from one that is primarily administrative to one that focuses on providing property taxpayers (both owners and renters) with more clear and useful information on how a specific household is being served by the most local services and amenities that are funded by property tax bills that continue to grow and grow with no added value for the taxpayer. While I believe that I have the right skill set to reinvent the office and bring new value to taxpayers as the Cook County Treasurer, it is unfortunate that very few people seek this office. In a county of 5.25 million people, my opponent and I are the only people from either party to seek the office and that minimal interest is concerning when one considers that I am the first Democrat to run against my opponent for this office in 20 years. The reason that this office has not been regularly and seriously sought is because it has not performed to a level that would routinely attract strong candidates. I am not running to comfortably sit in office for the next 20 years. I am running to boldly shake up an office that has not scratched the surface of its enormous potential to demonstrate how all of Cook County's taxpayers should be treated and empowered.If you are an incumbent, describe your main contributions. Tell us of any important initiatives you've led. If you are a challenger, what would you bring to the board and what would your priority be?If elected, I will implement an itemized taxpayer receipt that goes beyond the current property tax bill's limited breakdown that stops at the taxing district level. I will deposit county tax dollars into local financial institutions with a record of serving traditionally underserved areas, and will work with the General Assembly to end the punitive practice of selling the tax debt of impoverished Illinoisans to private collectors who have no interest in the health of our communities. A recent joint report of ProPublica and the Chicago Tribune on Cook County property taxes revealed a systematic issue rather than one that falls solely on the shoulders of the Cook County Assessor. The fair taxation of the county's 1.8 million parcels is also the responsibility of the treasurer, who is optimally positioned to catch any unusual trends in assessed property values. ProPublica and the Tribune cited multiple parcels whose assessed values had not changed over multiple reassessment cycles. The treasurer, could have, but did not, have controls in place to detect abnormalities. How could the Cook County Treasurer not have a basic quality control system that would have raised a red flag years ago? While no one can perfectly assess all 1.8 million parcels, if elected I will put in place a publicly accessible system to show that the Cook County Treasurer, the elected official in charge of the office that prepares and issues the county's tax bills, is not blindly billing taxpayers without first reasonably checking for unusual trends.You would take over a fairly unknown office. Do you see any potential for collaboration with other local governments to get people more in tune with what the treasurer does and resources available?The treasurer's office has a lower profile than it should because it has not been a resource to taxpayers by regularly creating and delivering value, choosing to act simply as an administrative pass through. Every office led by an official who is accountable to the voters, should be operated in a bold and visible way to deliver for taxpayers. The Cook County Treasurer's office being perceived as fairly unknown is a shortcoming that falls on the shoulders of the person elected to lead the office. I will never have every good idea, so if fortunate enough to be elected, I will convene an independent, volunteer advisory panel with representation from suburban leaders, organized labor, clean government advocates, community activists, academia and others groups representing large constituencies. Among the feedback, I'll request from the panel will be the type and depth of information on property tax deliverables that is most helpful to the interest they respectively represent, advice on criteria for strategic and thoughtful deposits of county money in financial institutions based in Cook County, and how to prevent and ultimately stop the displacement of our neighbors throughout our county who are vulnerable to the sale of property tax debt to private collectors. The advisory panel's recommendations on all matters will be made public, so that should I not adopt one of their suggestions, the public will be aware and can ask me why.How do you assess the success of the treasurer's office on what you see as its chief duties? Do you see areas of the operation in need of improvement?In short, the higher purpose of the Cook County Treasurer is to make sure all of the county's taxpayers are comfortable with their level of awareness of how their household is specifically served by their property taxes -- not happy with the amount of the bill, but comfortable with knowing how well their tax dollars serve them. The function of the Cook County Treasurer should be performed by an elected official who is directly accountable to the voters as to whether the function of Cook County Treasurer should be merged with another countywide elected office, I support an independent audit of all county-wide offices to looks at streamlining functions that could save taxpayer dollars. The audit findings and recommendations should be shared publicly and presented to the Cook County Board of Commissioners. I believe that merging the offices of the Cook County Treasurer and the Cook County Clerk should be carefully examined as a step to address rising costs shouldered by taxpayers. Any measures recommended by the county board should be placed on the ballot as soon as reasonably possible so the public can ultimately decide. As I mentioned earlier, I am not running to comfortably sit in office for the next 20 years. Even it means supporting a merger that would eliminate the office to which I am elected, I am running to boldly shake up an office that should always be at the forefront of demonstrating how all of Cook County's taxpayers should be considered and empowered.Describe your position on transparency in the office and the ease of access to records by the public. How effective is the office's website and other outreach efforts in helping the public interact with the office and understand their government? If you believe improvements are needed, what are they and how would you go about achieving them?Today, a taxpayer who wants to see how their household is directly served by their property tax dollars will not find that information on the treasurer's website or through any outreach efforts. Rather than having to assemble data from multiple layers of government, taxpayers should see in one place how many of their tax dollars went to the county health facilities closest to their home, to their child's school, to the nearby park, to the police district that responds to emergencies, or to other hyper-local services and amenities. In other words, what exactly residents are specifically getting for their rising taxes. Our property tax bills should disclose and quantify the increase attributed to the existence of the county's 455 Tax Increment Financing districts (TIF) for all taxpayers, even those whose property is not within a TIF. Everyone of the $852 million taxpayer dollars absorbed by a TIF in 2016 had to be made up by a taxpayer who does not live in a TIF, thus we're all impacted and deserve a pro-active treasurer who believe every taxpayer should be aware of how much their of their tax bill is due solely to the existence of those TIFs. Making a tax bill easy to understand and usefully transparent falls on the shoulders of the treasurer, who is optimally positioned to empower people of all levels of education, income, and experience to better understand how their tax dollars, and the elected officials who allocate those tax dollars, align with their priorities.What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?Currently, the treasurer's office uses a casino grade camera system mounted in the ceiling to surveil every employee and taxpayer in the office. Employees and taxpayers do not know when they are being recorded or who is watching them. This camera system goes beyond what is appropriate and is an ongoing invasion of everyone's right to reasonable privacy in the workplace. Additionally, women who handle cash in the treasurer's office must wear a smock that covers their pockets out of suspicion that they will steal money. This practice is sexist and discriminatory because men in the same position do not have to wear the smock. No employee should be required to wear a garment as a mark of suspicion and distrust. If elected, I will eliminate both the excessive surveillance and the smocks. There are very specific problems I want to be a part of solving, and right now, the Cook County Treasurer's office is the most direct route to solving them. If I am fortunate enough to be elected, the best way to leave the office better than when I entered it, is to make sure that it is regularly attracting the most innovative and driven minds to run for it, which has not been the case for two decades.Please name one current leader who most inspires you.Barack Obama as state senator who navigated fatherhood and the Chicago area's political landscape, while he and his wife guarded and nurtured their young family.What is the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?It costs nothing extra to be nice, and everyone deserves respect and gratitude -- particularly those whose jobs are often taken for granted.If life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?I would apply to The United States Military Academy. I'm increasingly impressed by the polite confidence of those cadets groomed to selflessly lead and serve.What was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?English and U.S. History, which together taught me to articulate positions strengthened by historical context, both continue to be helpful in my daily life.If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?No one's better than you and you're not better than anyone. Manners, hardwork and compassion is how we're raising our daughter to set herself apart.