Patrick John Dunham: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Patrick John Dunham

City: Lindenhurst

Office sought: Village Trustee

Age: 52

Family: Francine (spouse), Debra and Daniel (children)

Occupation: IT Project Manager, Siemens Corporation, Master Chief Petty Officer, U.S. Navy Reserves

Education: Bachelor's Degree Business Administration, Associates Degree Political Science

Civic involvement: Lake Villa Township Lions, VFW, American Legion, Boy Scouts of America, Navy Enlisted Reserve Association, Association of the United States Navy

Previous elected offices held: Village Trustee, 1997-2001

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

Website: www.LindenhurstBestChoice.com

Facebook: Lindenhurst Best Choice

Twitter:

Issue questions

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

1. Maintaining common-sense approach to budget - Since joining the board again in 2007, we have reduced the budget by almost $1.8mil without reducing services or raising taxes. We have been fiscally responsible and innovative, by creating efficiencies and cutting expenses; effectively looking at the village operations from a corporate stand point. Our tax rate, including the Police Pension fund is just 2.5% of the resident's entire property tax bill. We have also reduced our dependency on the income tax revenue from the state so as to have a more certain budget plan. 2. Continued Economic Development - Upon returning to the Board in 2007, we started to aggressively pursue new businesses to the Village even during the recession that began in 2008. Adding Lake Michigan water now allows the Village to offer a clean and reliable supply which is aiding in attracting new businesses. 3. Road Repairs - Being innovative in finding new revenue sources to fund road improvement due to declining MFT funds such as grants. We must continue to be innovative in our thinking and operations, find new revenue sources to help fund the operations and improvements, and most importantly, continue to be aggressive in pursuing new business opportunities to come to the village.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

I believe that my 16 years of experience on the Village Board has provided me with the necessary skills to understand village operations and my years of working in the corporate world as well as having to manage Naval units provides me with the ability to offer alternatives to the standard way of running a government entity. When re-elected to the board in 2007 I was part of the team started to look at operations from a corporate perspective. We streamlined operations, offered incentives to our employees to get cross-trained and certified and reduced the budget. I have been in leadership roles in the Navy for over 30 years and have been involved in not only operational units, but training and support units giving me a well-rounded extent of experiences which I have applied to not only my civilian job, but my role on the Village Board and Chair of the Village Finance Committee. I think outside the box, consult with my peers and residents and work with staff in order to lead the Village finances in the best, most optimal way possible. While it's hard at time, we always strive to do the right thing for 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 lead by example and take a consultative approach. In the Navy, I listen to my subordinates, peers and superiors, getting their input and then formulate the best advice for my commanding officer. I believe everyone has a valid opinion as to the best approach and I use those ideas to make the optimal recommendations and decisions. I don't know everything, but I know who to ask or what instruction to reference for guidance to get the answers I need. I bring this same type of leadership qualities to my role on the Village Board. The result is that the board and staff work together to provide the best possible decisions for our residents. Additionally, I live by the Navy Core Values at all times, HONOR, COURAGE and COMMITMENT. With honor is integrity and being transparent; with courage comes the willingness to make the tough decision, not necessarily the popular one; with commitment comes my desire to serve my fellow residents and the local community.

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?

The Village budget is well balanced and consistently in the black. We have trimmed almost $1.8milion in the years since I rejoined the board in 2007 without reducing services or raising taxes. This has been accomplished by creating efficiencies and cutting expenses. We identified opportunities to outsource services that were crucial to our residents, allowing us to redeploy our resources into capital improvements. We invested in technology, especially with our police force, which has increased efficiency and safety. And we accomplished all this while maintaining one of the highest-funded police pensions in the state. This dedication to fiscal responsibility has allowed us to weather several tough fiscal environments including the recession. Our tax rate has remained about 2.5% of a resident's tax bill over the last 16 years, which includes village operations and the police pension fund. We also have strived to reduce our dependency on the state income tax which can fluctuate dramatically and unexpectedly based on the decisions of the state legislature. We continue to strive for new revenue sources with increase economic development, such as the Ziegler dealership. More importantly, we need to continue to find addition efficiencies (IE: partnering with other municipalities to reduce costs) and to continue to find grants for capital improvements.

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

As part of our effort to find efficiencies, we have frequently partnered with surrounding municipalities or other government entities to share resources to reduce costs. I would like to see us do this more often because it's easier to reduce costs and improve the economies of scale when it comes to purchases and operations.