Roberto Sepulveda: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Roberto Sepulveda

City: Hanover Park

Office sought: Village Trustee

Age: 43

Family: Married, Father of 2 school age children.

Occupation: Human Resource Professional

Education: MBA with Human Resources from Dominican University

Civic involvement: I have been on boards of nonprofits and enjoy volunteer to help individuals seeking employment by helping them with their resumes and elevator speech. I've led training and workshops for Hanover Park CIDC members as well as Hanover Park residents. I am a youth basketball coach.

Previous elected offices held: None

Incumbent: If yes, when were first elected?

Website:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/together4HP/

Twitter:

Issue questions

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

Transparency on Fiscal Responsibility: Our residents are being spun a false story of fiscal responsibility. The incumbents have voted to increase taxes on gas and electricity. Residents are now charged per transaction when paying with a credit card for their water bill, or any transaction. Under the tenure of a couple of the incumbents, there have been multiple property tax increases. The 2017 budget is an example of when property tax increased. Past behavior is a reliable indicator on future behavior. How long before these elected officials vote for another increase?

I will NOT support raising taxes and address the revenue issue by creating a greater focus on Economic Development and assuring that additions or replacements in headcount are revenue generating and not administrative. In 2016, the Hanover Park board of trustees decided to create the $130,000 a year NEW position of deputy village manager. This was an opportunity to hire someone that would have helped with bringing in new businesses or assuring that we are making the best decisions on real estate deals. Instead of hiring a person with expertise in real estate, marketing and development, the village decided to hire the existing police chief, who lacks that experience. We need to be fiscally responsible and transparent with our taxpayers.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

I am already working hard to improve the quality of life for Hanover Park residents, as a Trustee I would do so as an independent and fresh voice to a board that needs to better adapt to the changing needs of our community.

I have experience in the private sector with budget management and business development. My education, professional career and community service highlight the qualifications of an elected leader making decisions on a multimillion dollar budget. Like many of our residents I know what it is like to have a working-class family. My mother worked in a factory for over 30 years to provide. I loaded and unloaded trucks as a dockworker to pay for my college education, continued to obtain my MBA while working full-time and contributing to my family.

More importantly, I am a father of two young kids. Our eldest will start college in four years and managing our family budget relies on Hanover Park being an accessible community. Our youngest is two and my wife and I want her to grow up feeling hometown proud. I am most vested in the long-term success of Hanover Park as a fiscally responsible and family friendly 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 Connector, Advisor and Influencer with experiences in the nonprofit, government and business world. These experiences have given me diverse perspectives on how different organizations function and how to execute on visions by having an understanding of your available resources and maximizing them for positive results of all stakeholders. I have already advocated on behalf of Hanover Park by calling representatives of other bodies of government to gain support for initiatives that positively impact our residents. For example, advocating for the Education & WorkNet Center and the use of Metropolitan Water Reclamation District land for youth sports activities. I have already attracted new vendors to Hanover Park, such as A5 who has brought us the Global Village concept. I will help make the concept authentic thru active engagement of all our community to bring about true inclusion where diverse representation has a seat at the table. It is important that all residents feel included in the decisions of elected officials.

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?

We need to look at the budget from both a short-term and a long term, sustainable perspective. A budget that is adjusted midyear is not a balanced budget. I think our reserves are too high, but this needs to be monitored with caution given the state's recent history of instability. We need to think about being lean and reducing operating costs and we need to get out of real estate deals where we lose money such as the shopping center on Barrington Rd.

The present budget reflects the current thinking on municipal budgeting, which does not consider future costs or shrinking the total operating budget. The bulk of operational expenses are on staff costs. I would look to compare these with other similar communities to determine if they are too high. I am concerned with recently created new positions and how they are providing a return of investment to the Village and specifically to residents. There are also some contracts and relationships that I would question. Residents need our elected officials to have more public discussions on these issues so we can understand why certain decisions are made by our staff and supported by our elected officials.

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

Community town hall meetings at various family favorite businesses such as an ice cream shop, juice bar or barbershop.

When I first moved to Hanover Park I started hosting my own town halls that have come to be known as "Saturday Morning Smoothie Socials". I have invited community members to have conversations with leaders and elected officials, such as Senator Cristina Castro, State Representative Fred Crespo, Trustee Herb Porter, Trustee Sharmin Shahjahan and Library Board Member Eva Porter. There is a thirst for environments that encourage the exchange of ideas and Hanover Park has to provide those opportunities in the community where residents feel comfortable to attend and to speak up.

Years ago I attended a Saturday coffee with the board meeting and spoke to the need to have a Summer Job program that engaged our youth in the workings of village government. This would expose our young kids to opportunities of leadership and career advancement in government. Furthermore, this would improve our understanding of how we serve our residents, as most of our staff resides out of the village. Although it has taken a few years, I'm glad to see that the idea is finally moving forward.