Richard 'Rocky' Caylor: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Rocky Caylor

City: Naperville

Office Sought: Mayor

Age: 62

Family: Married with three children

Occupation: President/CEO Transportation/Technology/Logistics

Education: Los Angeles Community College Overseas: electrical engineering; Indiana University: School of Public and Environmental Affairs - Environmental policy/Hazardous Materials Management

Civic Involvement: American Legion-Life time member; Warriors for Life and Marines for Life, mentoring veterans of all service, ages, genders and backgrounds leading them to gainful and productive employment and careers; Naperville Downtown Rotary; Loaves and Fishes; I-80 Coalition

Previous held offices: None

Website: rockyformayor.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rockyformayornaperville/

Issue questions

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

Taking Care of Our Residents.

I've become increasingly aware that, even in Naperville, there are far too many youth and adults dealing with drug addiction, mental health issues and disabilities, as well as those who don't feel totally welcomed by the community. If elected, I want to make these issues a priority and ensure that our social service dollars are targeted to those areas and our public safety responders are trained and always ready to meet our resident's needs.

Managing Our Housing Stock.

I want to look at what the city can do to help seniors stay in Naperville as well as helping young families move into Naperville.

Ensuring Wise Development.

Another major concern is how new developments impact residents. Going forward I want to ensure that any new development is compatible and complementary to nearby residents, which is something that hasn't always happened in the past. We suffer from significant traffic congestion today. We must try not to make it any worse.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

I'm passionate about serving the people of Naperville and am committed to representing every citizen of Naperville and finding solutions that benefit everyone. Far too many people feel the city doesn't work in their best interests. I want to change that. I will work collaboratively with the council and not attempt to impose an agenda on them.

I'm fair, I'm empathetic, but I am also a business owner who knows how to build a business and understands finances, and I understand that team building is a continuous improvement process.

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'm a team builder, always working on process and actionable, responsible solutions. I am always looking for new and innovative ideas. I'm not interested in pushing my vision on the city. I'm interested in working with residents, council and staff to build a community vision. I want to take council deliberations to a higher level where everyone is comfortable expressing their views and learning from each other. It will be a more relaxed and deliberative body than what we have today.

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 current budget is balanced and provides a good level of service to the community, using diverse sources of revenue. The biggest unsolved strain on the budget continues to be pension obligations, which is an area that must keep our attention and an issue that needs action from Springfield.

Even though the largest cost of the operating budget is salary and benefits, I think we can still find some savings while continuing to provide high-quality services. I would institute the same process that I used in my prior management positions and current business to find operational efficiencies that save costs in ways other than cutting personnel. They are there to be found.

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

From my experience on the land use committee for the Fifth Avenue Project, I suggest that the City establish community resident/business working groups for other locations in Naperville such as an Ogden Corridor Group, a 95th Street/Route 59 Group, and a Wheatland Industrial Park Group. We should be pulling together residents and business owners that will be most impacted by issues into the decision-making process for those areas.

The groups would be similar in meeting and operation to the Downtown Advisory Commission known as DAC. The groups would be a mix of city officials, property owners, business representatives and residents who would apply to be appointed to serve with a commitment of valuable time to meet and assess the needs/wants of the area in a useful, reasonable and purposeful manner early in the process. I'd hope to build teams of representatives from each group to bring issues, best practices and successes together to connect and keep the city informed.

Similarly, I'd like to see the creation of a Young Residents Task Force. Like the Senior Task Force, they can speak to the particular needs and value that they contribute to Naperville.