Daniel B. Pace: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Daniel B. Pace

City: Gilberts

Office sought: trustee

Age: 63

Family: married 33 years wife Josanne son Casey daughter Mattie

Occupation: retired union carpenter

Education: 1 year college

Civic involvement: past trustee Fraternal Order of Eagles; Habitat for Humanity volunteer; ran for Gilberts trustee in 2017; Active vol

Previous elected offices held:

Website: n/a

Facebook: Daniel Pace

Twitter: n/a

Issue questions

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

Prioritized spending. Through discussions with residents the overwhelming concerns are the poor conditions of the roads and traffic. A professional physical inspection to establish a necessity based schedule along with a cost analysis to repair all the roads within the village must be made in order to form a comprehensive plan not just for next year but for 3 or 4 years down the road in order to present a realistic budget that will accommodate as many of the concerns and wishes of the people. The traffic on Tyrell and Galligan gets worse every year. This stretch of road has become a Randall Rd. bypass and I will investigate any and all options to make the village safer and more quiet and peaceful. Village Trust. People tell me they don't attend meetings because no one listens anyway. they feel like outsiders looking in. There should be no intimidation. I would make myself available before and after the meetings, all week by phone or e-mail to make sure their issues are addressed and discussed at the meetings and on record.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

I have lived in Gilberts for 30 yrs. I have been attending meetings regularly for the past 4 years. I am a retired union carpenter. I have been a carpenter-contractor for 45yrs. My father was a carpenter-contractor-developer. I understand the ins and outs of commercial and residential development. I have spoken at board meetings many times on behalf of myself and my neighbors. I am an advocate of the people. I believe residential development is inevitable but not essential. I have no personal vision of what the village should look like in 5, 10, or 20 yrs. If elected, any action of the board on my behalf would not be speculative but done with caution and solely in the best interest of the village I will an active trustee just as I have been an active and involved resident. Several years I made and spread blue and yellow signs around the village opposing the proposed fiber referendum. The referendum failed 4-1 and the fiber has been brought in privately at no cost to the residents. I would like to think my efforts had something to do with saving the residents $5,000,000.

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 always led by example. Discussion and interaction at the board meetings is scarce for some reason. I believe any activity or discussions by the board concerning the village should be played out in real time on record at the meetings. I am not easily intimated or afraid to put my two cents in. Hopefully this will encourage my fellow trustees to be more vocal, thus make the meetings more interesting and meaningful, leading to citizen interest and participation. I ran for this position 2 yrs. ago on a platform of transparency. Transparency is essential to gaining the trust of the village. If you want to brag about transparency, as I suggested last election, these meetings should be video-taped and broadcast live who apparently find the 7:00 Tue. meetings at village to be inconvenient. This action would surely promote interest and citizen participation.

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 condition of the roads in Timber Trails and Timber Glen is going to be a costly fix. Until we have a comprehensive plan and a schedule of completion dates to present to the village that suits their primary concern, it's hard to even consider a budget. I certainly wouldn't be contemplating handing out x-mas bonuses to village employees as the board is now before addressing the wants of the residents. I wouldn't consider any concessions, financial or otherwise to the developer of the Conservancy until the Freeman Rd. improvements are clarified and completed especially seeing as the 2-yr. completion date set by the board passed Jan. 31st. with no mention. there should be no additional spending plans other than what is essential until we get a grip on this road situation before it gets out of hand.

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

I feel so strongly about transparency that I am willing to forfeit my trustee compensation in order to purchase the camera necessary to tape the meetings. I am all in with the residents and committed to the village.