Stephen Thompson: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Stephen A. Thompson

City: Glen Ellyn

Office sought: Glen Ellyn Village Trustee

Age: 55

Family: Married, No Children

Occupation: Sales Executive

Education: Bachelor of Arts, Political Science, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska

Civic involvement: 2017 & 2018 President of Glen Ellyn Chamber of Commerce,

2015 & 2016 Vice President of Marketing Glen Ellyn Chamber of Commerce,

President of Baker Hill Condominium Association - 11 years,

Glen Ellyn Rotarian, Sacred Heart Parish Member and German Fest Volunteer

Previous elected offices held: None

Incumbent? No If yes, when were you first elected? NA

Website: No Candidate website

Facebook: No Candidate Facebook

Twitter: No Candidate Twitter

Issue questions

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

There are significant challenges and opportunities facing Glen Ellyn. We need to continue the careful planning and oversight of a possible new train station with an underground pedestrian tunnel, the management of the CBD street scape project, parking garage(s) and Civic Center improvements. All these projects will take careful oversight by the Village Trustees. We need to make progress and build consensus on these issues, contain costs and then try to limit the interruption to our daily lives during construction.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

My experience with the Glen Ellyn Chamber of Commerce has given me a chance to work and listen to the entrepreneurial business community of Glen Ellyn. This has also given me the opportunity to hear from our residents at many of the community events in our Village. I will listen with an open mind and want to hear from all corners of Glen Ellyn before carefully deliberating and then voting for the best decision for the people of Glen Ellyn.

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 believe strongly in listening to and gathering input from all levels, voices, constituencies in the community with an open mind and then building consensus to attain the best solution for the good of Glen Ellyn.

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?

Glen Ellyn is well funded and has adequate reserves to provide essential services. We should avoid any increase to property taxes. The Village staff, Village Trustees and the community need to continue to work together to find ways to cut costs, share services and streamline rules and regulations to meet our future needs.

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

I would like the citizens of Glen Ellyn to have a greater say in the needs of the community particularity with respect to economic development. We need to define the wants and needs of the community with greater clarity, so we encourage economic development in the right direction. This can only be accomplished by reaching out to citizens who are not responding to social media and email surveys for their input on projects in the community. I would propose personally inviting citizens to participate with our boards and commissions to capture a greater sampling of the views of our Glen Ellyn residents. This focused input should help direct economic development the people of the Village will support.