Mary Frusolone: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Mary Frusolone

City: Carol Stream

Office sought: Village Trustee

Age: 47

Family: Husband Robert, 3 sons Anthony, Daniel and Dominic

Occupation: Financial Aid Counselor, Benedictine University

Education:

Civic involvement: Carol Stream 2009 Female Citizen of the Year, Carol Stream Police volunteer, CERT (Community Emergency Response Team), Carol Stream Woman's Club, Corpus Christi Catholic Church, Young Men's Service League, Carol Stream Christmas Sharing, Brittany's Trees, Carol Stream Citizen of the Year Committee, Glenbard North Music and Theatre Boosters, Carol Stream Community Wide Food Drive, Carol Stream Park District

Previous elected offices held: Village Trustee 2011-Present

Incumbent? If yes, when were you first elected? 2011

Website: www.maryfrusolone.com

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Issue questions

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

The biggest threat facing Carol Stream is Springfield. Like every other community, we are struggling with the challenge of recovering from state funds lost as they try to fix the state's budget crisis. As a Village Board we will work hard with our Representatives and Senators in Springfield to keep the lines of communication open and fight for the residents of Carol Stream. Another key issue that Carol Stream faces is continuing to attract new sales tax generating businesses to town. Our Community Development Department works with local business owners, property owners and property developers in round table discussions promoting our industrial park and many shopping centers. We will continue to work hard to promote our town as a destination for businesses to move to or expand their current operations.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

I care about the residents of Carol Stream. I use common sense, compassion, ethics and integrity in every decision I make. I spend countless hours each year volunteering in our community not only giving back but getting to know our residents. I answer their questions and address their concerns. I've taken on tough issues while on the Village Board and am not afraid to make the tough decisions. I am proud of the work I've done on the board the past eight years. There are still challenges ahead of us. Carol Stream needs strong leaders that understands our residents, fights for them and works hard every day to make our town a true Community.

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 hands-on leader. I'm not afraid to get in the trenches and get my hands dirty. Over the years, Carol Stream had experienced repeated flooding events. During many of these events I would volunteer for hours filling sandbags that were dropped off to the hardest hit areas of our town. During a dangerous storm that left a portion of our town without power during a heat wave for several days, I both helped man the central emergency command center and lead a group of volunteers going door-to-door checking on residents. I also believe it's important to understand the job that our Village staff does. I have spent many hours doing police ride-alongs to understand the challenges our police department faces. I have also gone out for a 16-hour snow plow ride-along from the beginning to end of a snow storm to see our snow operation plan in action. By doing this I have seen the needs of our community and can answer our residents' questions from firsthand knowledge. These have been invaluable experiences and make me a better educated leader.

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?

Carol Stream is a town that lives within its means, we are debt free and do not spend what we don't have. Every member of our board and our staff treats the towns finances as if they were our family's finances. We are one of the few towns that does not levy a property tax. As a Board we work hard collaboratively with our staff each budget year to not only pass a balanced budget, but to make it a sustainable one. This is not an easy process. We hold several budget workshops and make some very tough decisions in order to keep Carol Stream a debt free town. We are very reliant on sales tax and continue to work hard to attract new sales tax generating businesses to town each year.

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

For eight years, I've wanted to make the Village Board Meeting broadcasts accessible to residents that don't have cable TV access. We tried for a short period of time uploading them to the Village website, but at the time were still reliant on on-site server storage and an old website platform. It has remained a goal of mine based on requests from residents. Over the past two years we renovated not only the Village Hall building but upgraded our website and technology storage capability. I believe that in the 2019-20 fiscal budget year we will finally be able to make Village Board Meetings available to all residents using the Village website. As more and more residents are "cutting the cable" it is vital that we remain transparent and give them a new option for staying up to date on the important issues going on in our town.