Anthony Ortiz: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Anthony Ortiz

City: Elgin

Office sought: Elgin City Council

Age: 29

Family: One daughter, one brother and sister, my mom and dad. We all live in Elgin.

Occupation: Administration assistant, Kane County States Attorneys Office at the Elgin Branch Court

Education: Loyola University Chicago — Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice and Criminology; DePaul University — Paralegal Certificate

Incumbent? No.

Facebook: facebook.com/anthonyortizecc

Issue questions

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

One of the many issues in our community is the youth and their developmental growth. I intend to get a nonprofit organization started, to help financially support the kids with their sports fees or any other activity they may be interested in. To jump start the funds for this nonprofit I will donate my first years City Council salary to this program. Keeping our future leaders busy will help keep them away from the streets. In addition to the nonprofit I plan to work with current organizations to form programs to help strengthen our kid's social skills, interviewing techniques, and help them prep for college if they wish to pursue college after high school. These skills will help our youth succeed in life and have a greater chance at landing a job or getting accepted to a college or university.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

I believe I am the best candidate for the City Council job because I bring tested leadership from the toughest environments on Earth. I have been a leader while in the Marine Corps and never let my Marines down and ALWAYS put their well-being and morale first. Which is what I will continue to do while on Elgin City Council. This job is not for a person that wants individual success, but for a person that wants to better their community and has the leadership to bring change. Which I believe I have.

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 am a caring understanding person, that understands residents' concerns. I developed great leadership skills while I was active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps. Marine Corps leadership is founded on a 14-letter acronym. JJ DID TIE BUCKLE. I still and will always follow these leadership traits for the rest of my life. Some of the traits I resonate with the most are COURAGE, because that's what it takes to stand up for our residents in Elgin. When they are affected by negative actions of others or policies that only target certain individuals. Another trait is INTEGRITY, because as a leader in a community. People need to know they can trust you and you have their best values at heart. Leaders that have integrity and practice it will then rub off on others, which will by itself help better our community. This leadership style from the Marine Corps is what I will practice while a City Council Member in Elgin and teach others how to adopt it in their lives. Therefore, I believe my leadership style will be effective while on the Elgin City Council.

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?

After looking over the 200 plus pages of our 2019 City Budget plan, I feel it is on track to save our residents property tax increases for now. This is because 8 million is going to be used from reserves. My only question and concern could be is after the three year plan, will our residents be hit with a huge tax increase or it only go up slightly? I also, feel that the budget should offer more than $50,000 to Youth Sports Grants. Where most of the money goes to fixing the city-owned properties the sports teams play on and not to help the low-income families cover the costs for their child to play on the team. Our community wants our kids out of trouble and we as a society need to focus more on the kids. Without our youth being successful, we as a city will not thrive, focusing on our kids could curve future criminal activity in our city. This is because we will keep our at-risk youth busy with sports and other activities they enjoy but cannot be part of because their families cannot afford the fees. Therefore, we need to have more than the $50,000 budgeted for the Youth Sports Grant.

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

One good idea I have is a discounted Elgin Rec Center membership plan for Veterans. The Dundee Township has it free for the first year, then discounted after that. Elgin doesn't have any discounted rate according to the 2019 Budget plan. I would like to see a discounted rate for veterans based on their disability rating from the VA. Just like how Kane County does for veteran's property tax. The higher the veteran's disability rating the bigger discount they get. The Veterans supported us, now it is our turn to help support them.