Steve Chirico: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Steve Chirico

City: Naperville

Office sought: Mayor

Age: 58

Family: Wife and seven children

Occupation: Mayor of Naperville

Education: 3 years college

Civic involvement: Current - Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce, League of Women Voters Naperville; Past -

Naperville Development Partnership; Naperville Responds For Our Veterans honorary board; 360 Youth and Family Services Board

Previous elected offices held: Naperville City Council 2011 - 2015, Naperville Mayor 2015 - 2019

Incumbent? Elected to Naperville City Council in 2011, elected Mayor of Naperville in 2015

Website: www.chiricoformayor.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Steve-Chirico-1976964362609245/

Twitter: @SteveChirico

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

Naperville has come a long way in four years, but there is still much more work to be done. If re-elected, there are several challenges I would like to address including:

• Infrastructure investment; as the next generation of telecommunications and data access (5-G) is rolled out we will need to adapt to this new technology and leverage the city's vast dark fiber asset.

• Transportation, especially our train district, must improve so our commuters have a better experience and workplace options that add to quality of life.

• Populating outstanding vacancies, including The Schuman (former Office Max) and the Nokia building.

• Housing for our recent graduates and empty nesters, two very important parts of the demographics of a well-balanced city.

Not only do recent graduates attract the next generation businesses, but they add to the economy without adding students to the school district. The same is true of the empty nesters. Providing desirable housing for these two groups will help our economy, our schools and give Naperville a better balance.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

A combination of my civic board experience, coupled with my government board experience and my business background make me the most qualified candidate to lead Naperville into the next generation. I am the only candidate that has served on both Naperville non-profit and City of Naperville Boards and owned/operated a business here in Naperville for 37 years. These diverse community-based experiences have provided me with a very good understanding of how a great city like Naperville thrives and I am committed to continuing our work together as a community to prepare us for the next generation.

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.

By nature, I am a stabilizer. While I believe in healthy debate, I also work to maintain a high level of decorum that keeps our council respectful and professional at all times. I encourage Council members to stretch their goals, and I allow space for their ideas to blossom. That said, I do not confuse effort with results, so I am very comfortable to hold people accountable if they do not reach the city's goals.

As Mayor of the fifth largest city in the state, I am committed to being a present and involved leader. In fact, I am a full time Mayor. I work at City Hall every day and have not missed one City Council meeting since being elected in 2011. In addition, I have made all but one City Council workshop in the last eight years. I have taken very few vacations since being elected and none of my travel has been at the taxpayer expense. I strongly believe that Naperville deserves a Mayor that is not only committed to the residents but to the level of leadership that is required to move our city forward.

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 city's budget is in the strongest financial position it has been in many years. We are once again a AAA rated community. In fact, over the last four years we have:

• Reduced our general obligation debt by over 20 million dollars

• Replenished our cash reserves back up to about 23% of our annual operating budget

• Increased our maintenance budgets back to pre-recession levels

• Lowered the municipal portion of property taxes by 15% over the past four years

• Reached the lowest number of employees per 1,000 residents that we have had in 50 years

• Secured the lowest municipal tax rate that we have had in 50 years (this means if a property owner's municipal tax was $1,000 in 2015, it is about $850 today)

Continuing to focus on economic development to broaden our tax base is the best way to secure the financial future of our community. Attracting businesses to Naperville is becoming more and more difficult as other cities offer incentives to lure businesses to them. Naperville needs to maintain a healthy business district if we are to provide long term reliable funding for our schools, parks and public safety.

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

Infrastructure investment; as the next generation of telecommunications and data access (5-G) is rolled out we will need to adapt to this new technology and leverage the city's vast dark fiber asset. The City of Naperville already owns a fairly extensive network of fiber in the ground that can be leveraged to provide a financial benefit to our residents. We are currently looking at opportunities for a public-private partnership that would allow Naperville the potential to expedite our 5-G roll out and possibly monetize an investment that has otherwise been idle. Moving Naperville forward on 5-G technology will give us a competitive advantage when trying to attract the next generation of businesses.