Peter Garrity: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Peter Garrity

City: Libertyville

Office sought: Village Trustee

Age: 70

Family: Married with two grown children

Occupation: Retired Executive - Last company worked for Snap-on Inc.

Education: BS Marketing - NIU MBA - NIU

Civic involvement: Currently Village Trustee for Libertyville. Coached youth soccer, baseball and basketball. Member Libertyville MainStreet and event volunteer. Board member of Libertyville Save Brainerd Committee. St. Joseph church ministry food pantry/soup kitchen volunteer. Serve on a variety of committees and commissions at NIU. Currently President of the NIU Alumni Association.

Previous elected offices held: Current position of Libertyville Trustee

Incumbent? Yes. First term. Elected in 2015

Website: None

Facebook: Yes

Twitter: None

Issue questions

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

Taxes are a "top of mind" issue for the residents of Libertyville. As a fiscal conservative, I have worked to keep an appropriate balance between the demands for Village services and the costs involved. It is particularly challenging when local municipalities receive "unfunded mandates" from Springfield that require action on our part, but are not reimbursable. We have major areas to address in regards to our infrastructure. Stormwater, streets and sewers all need to be addressed. I have spent much of the last four years educating myself on these issues to prepare as we develop and propose creative solutions.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

My degrees are in business, and my background includes 40 years in the corporate world. I feel that I bring an analytical, bottom line approach when working to evaluate and address issues. We have lived in Libertyville for 37 years and have a deep appreciation for the Village and its unique character. A big part of the role of our Village Board is to provide "high level direction" to our Staff, and then get out of the way and let them do their jobs. Our tie to the Village became even tighter last year when our daughter and family moved to Libertyville. She provides a very good "perspective" on what our young families need from the 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.

I have never been a "me" person. I have always been a "we" person. You get things done by working with talented people and using ideas from all. Ultimately, a decision or a vote needs to be made, but working as a team generally provides the best solutions. As I indicated earlier, the Village has a great Staff. They are open and willing to answer questions and help provide background and understanding to the complex issues facing our Village. Doing research. Getting as much background as possible. All these things help develop appropriate decisions to our issues.

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 budget is balanced. We have appropriate reserves. All that said, we have issues going forward. We need to make decisions in terms of how we are going to address our stormwater issues and pay for it. We have made major progress on repaving the worst of the streets in the Village, but we have stretched the bond revenues as far as we can and now need a funding source so we keep up with repairs and don't go far behind again. We can't rely on the State for additional revenue, and the majority of our sales tax dollars come from vehicle sales. The industry model is changing to different modes of transportation. We need to have a vision and be prepared for the future.

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

As Libertyville's representative on the Lake County Solid Waste Board (SWALCO), we need to be looking at how we dispose of things and how we can recycle and reuse items. We reinstated an electronics recycling drop off site several years ago. The problem of how to dispose of waste and items that are no longer useful or needed is going to continue to grow and become more expensive for all. We can't continue to "dump" stuff somewhere else. We need to work at the local, state and national level to develop comprehensive, cost effective solutions.