Jim Steigert: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Jim Steigert

City: Algonquin

Office sought: Village Trustee

Age: 73

Family: Daughters: Carolyn, Ange, Carrie, and Judy.

Occupation: Retired

Education: Harrington College of Interior Design.

Civic involvement: 5 years on the Algonquin Economic Development Commission, 4 years on the McHenry County Economic Development Corporation's Board of Directors, 9 years on the McHenry County Retention and Expansion Committee, 3 years on the McHenry County Transportation Committee, 3 years as president of Communities Against Gangs, 3 years as President of the Algonquin Coalition of Community Organizations, 11 years with the Alg./LITH Rotary Club during which time I served as President and Secretary, along with several other activities that helped with the Downtown revitalization. In 2014 I prepared Space studies and construction drawings for the Algonquin/Lake in the Hills food pantry on a gratis basis.

Previous elected offices held: Algonquin Village Trustee

Incumbent? If yes, when were you first elected? 1999

Website: N/A

Facebook: N/A

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Issue questions

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

Transportation, Business park expansion, Downtown re-development, and the East side growth. Each of these issues are currently being addressed: Transportation will be improved with the completed construction of the Longmeadow parkway and the improvements to Randall road, The business park with new fiber optic infrastructure serving the 500-acre Algonquin Corporate Campus off Randall Road. This will provide turnkey high-speed internet to new and existing businesses. The network, along with the improvements to Longmeadow Parkway and Randall Road, are attracting interest from high-tech, bio-medical, and financial firms. Downtown re-development is already underway with an infra-structure investment of 20 to 30 million over the next 5 to 8 years and finally the East side is attracting developments from O'Reilly's, the expansion of Stop and Store and a $5,000,000 investment in the renovation of the Town Center and the new Donkey Inn in the former Nero's possibly spurred on as a result of the Downtown commitment.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

A shared philosophical approach to governing with my fellow board members.

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.

A similar response as that given to the above question.

How would you describe the condition of your community's budget

Exceptional.! Algonquin occupies a unique financial position in the State if Illinois. It is one of only a handful of municipalities to have a AAA Bond rating. For 15 consecutive years Algonquin has received the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award from the Government Finance Officers Association. 2019 Property Tax Levy Below 2008 Levels. Algonquin was honored to receive the second ever "Local Transformer Award" from Transform Illinois, a collaborative of local elected officials, civic organizations and research institutions dedicated to promoting and supporting local government efficiency efforts in Illinois. Transform Illinois' members include the Taxpayers' Federation of Illinois, Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, Better Government Association, League of Women Voters, and the Illinois Chamber of Commerce. These taxpayer advocates selected Algonquin's example as a winning model for how to make Illinois government more efficient. Specifically, the Village was recognized for embracing a business-like mentality of providing services through sharing staff and pooling resources with neighboring communities to create more effective operations.

What are the most important specific actions the town should take to assure providing the level of services people want?

Continue to monitor the concerns of our residents though our annual community surveys and utilize performance metrics and analytics for the evaluation and assessment of infrastructure, equipment, and service delivery. This performance management program aids in cost reduction, program prioritization, and quality improvement

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

Proposing condominiums/ apartments for the East side. Why? To increase the residential density to attract more commercial development. 3/4 years ago a consulting firm told us that we didn't have sufficient available property which would impede development, keep rental rates and property values low, That was assuming construction of single family homes.