Debby Sosine: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Debby Sosine

City: Algonquin

Office sought: Algonquin village trustee

Age: 63

Family: Husband of 37 years, 3 children, 4 grandchildren

Occupation: Accounting manager

Education: College

Civic involvement: Served on the Algonquin Plan & Zone Commission, Algonquin Economic Development Commission involved in the development of the Business Park Plans, Business Retention Visitation Program and the Business Award Program that are still active today, Graduate of the 1st Ted Spella Leadership School, active member of MCCG, member of MCCG Transportation Committee, Member of Downtown Revitalization Committee, Parent Facilitator for School Improvement Teams: Lakewood Elementary (4 years), Algonquin Middle School (7 Years), Dundee Crown High School (6 years) Member Jacobs High School Improvement team (4 years). Member of many D300 committees including FACE Committee, DCHS Building Trades Advisory Committee, D300 Communication Council Member, D300 Foundation (7 years), DCHS Boosters, Fundraising Chair for the Dundee Junior Charger Program (5 years), substitute teacher at St. Margaret Mary Religious Ed, Treasurer for CORE Community Political Action committee (4 years), Volunteer of Cub Scout Troop 155 - chaired various troop committees and assistant den leader.

Previous elected offices held: Algonquin village trustee

Incumbent? If yes, when were you first elected? Yes, 2007.

Website: www.debbysosine@weebly.com

Facebook: TrusteeDebbySosine

Issue questions

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

Keeping the budget balanced while still providing the community with the high quality of services, managing the pensions that are continuing to grow and working to ensure our downtown business have programs in place to attract the public to Main Street, promoting the Village to enable commercial growth through out - especially on the Eastside and the corporate campus.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

With my background in accounting, extensive community service for the past 30 years and the numerous years of involvement with the village, I have the knowledge to continue to steer the village in a positive forward direction to keep the Village's real estate taxes level, making sure all the quality services of police protection, roads, water and sewer and recreational programs are the best for all our residents.

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 believe in developing relationships with people and talking with them about the issues. I have a great rapport with the current village board and staff. Without being confrontational, I'm able to ask questions and get answers to questions to all the issues we are facing. I make sure I'm knowledgeable about the issues we are working on and voting on so I can discuss them and get consensus from my peers. Leading our staff of an award winning Public Works Director that is always striving for excellence, a Police Chief that has been able to keep Algonquin safe while always being prepared for the worst, and an knowledgeable office staff that's able to convince developers to keep to our high standards has been rewarding.

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?

Algonquin's budget is awesome. The village has had a balanced budget for the past 12 years I've been on the board and have won numerous awards with our budget process. We have been able to keep the real estate taxes at a level rate for the past 10 years. We need to encourage more business development to ensure our sales tax base grows and lobby our representatives in Springfield to make sure all our tax money continues to come back to the community without any further decreases.

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

Programs for the downtown area.