Christine Murphy: Candidate profile

BIO

Name: Christine Murphy

City: Villa Park

Office sought: Village trustee

Age: 60

Family: Single

Occupation: Retired from AT&T

Education: Bachelor of Science from Elmhurst College

Civic involvement: Religious education instructor at St. Alexander's Parish; Rainbows facilitator and coordinator (Support program for children of divorced and widowed parents sponsored by St. Alexander's Parish; Wish Granter for Make-A-Wish Foundation of Northern Illinois; past member and elected board member, Kiwanis Club of Villa Park

Previous elected offices held: None

Incumbent? No

Website: www.VoteChristineMurphy.com

Issue questions

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

Positive progress on the following issues will be instrumental to the economic and environmental stability, impact on property values and fiscal integrity in Villa Park.

• Infrastructure maintenance and funding appropriation.

• Economic development.

• The future of Lufkin Pool.

• Senior housing.

• Community input and involvement.

Drawing upon my 22-plus years of professional project management and process improvement experience, I will work hard to acquire relevant information as it relates to each issue, evaluate current conditions, identify opportunities for improvement, seek qualified professional guidance from multiple resources - including but not limited to, stakeholders, vendors and residents - establish solid implementation plans, oversee (to the best of my ability) the implementation of those plans for timeline, budgetary and quality adherence and ensure post implementation assessment of the impact of the change to facilitate future efforts to continue positive progress.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

First and foremost, I am a lifelong, 60-year resident born in Elmhurst and raised in Villa Park. During this time, together we have grown, prospered and changed. I have come to know and support its people, businesses and history.

Second, I have acquired more than 20 years of business and process improvement engineering experience, both domestically and internationally, with a fortune 500 company (AT&T). I have led, as well as supported, a multitude of teams working on large and complicated projects with substantial budgets aimed at implementing positive change effectively, efficiently at (or under budget) within closely managed time constraints. Given the opportunity, I look forward to sharing the depth of my knowledge for the betterment of my village.

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.

My leadership style has evolved over time, tenure and life experience to exclude (or minimize) autonomous decision making recognizing the critical importance of encouraging and including input and opinions of all residents and stakeholders, concisely and effectively communicating the pros and cons of all issues to promote positive discussion for evaluation and decision making by the majority of the board members.

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?

I would suggest that the perspective of the condition of the community's budget varies by each village department that is allocated a proportion. There always seems to be more places to spend the money than the amount of funds to be allocated. The budget of a municipality requires careful and ongoing evaluation to successfully balance the fine line between maintaining core infrastructures, meeting the service level needs of the residents and ensuring fiscal viability of each funded department as well as the village employees.

Securing input from the residents regarding services and level of service is key to making every effort that their opinions are heard and needs are met to the best of our fiscal and physical ability. Developing and evaluating ongoing budgets, funding appropriation and annual maintenance funding allocation to ensure, short of unforeseen circumstances, functionality and financial viability of core resources and amenities until future replacements can be facilitated.

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

While several of my top priorities for Villa Park might be shared with others, there are two areas that are particularly close to my heart.

First, I want to be sure the residents have a voice in what is taking place in the day-to-day activities and funding of our village (i.e. allocation of their tax dollars). To accomplish this, I will promote efforts and channels to encourage this involvement and dialogue. Secondly, there is the issue of senior housing. When our seniors need to transition to assisted alternatives, there are limited (if any) options in our community, requiring them to leave Villa Park after a tenure of, in some cases, lifelong residency. As a trustee, I would pursue efforts to improve this situation through the encouragement of business development to fulfill the needs for top quality senior care.