David Paluch: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: David Paluch

City: Sugar Grove

Office sought: Village Trustee

Age: 53

Family: Married

Occupation: Sales - ATT

Education: BA Columbia College

Civic involvement: 8 years as Village Trustee, 2 years Police Commissioners Board- Sugar Grove, 2 years Planning Commission Sugar Grove, Volunteer Grove Corn Boil, 2009 to present,

Attends Village Bible Church

Previous elected offices held:

Incumbent: If yes, when were first elected?

Website:

Facebook: David Paluch

Twitter:

Issue questions

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

Currently, the need for a diversified tax base is needed. We have done a great job over the last eight years bringing in housing and retail opportunities that have brought a lot of value to our residents, and they have been great partners for the village. We have other businesses interested in making Sugar Grove their home, we need to keep looking for ways to take the burden off the tax payers and the high property taxes. I pay more in property taxes than I do on my mortgage, that's not good. The other key issue is ongoing infrastructure projects, and how to pay for them. With decreased funding from the state, reduced MFT payments, we need to look for ways to help pay for these projects. The 47/I88 expansion project is a good start to help foster commercial development, I don't think the Crown project is the right thing for our village. We need to work with the residents to bring in projects that make sense, and will bring in much needed revenues. We have always encouraged participation in our meetings, and making sure our residents have a forum to discuss their concerns.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

I have had the honor of representing the village for the past eight years. We have made great decisions regarding getting the spending in check, bringing in businesses that have benefited the village, doing our best to maintain the streets, and keeping the services to our residents. We have a strong credit rating, and have been recognized for the past decade of being financially stable. I will make sure we keep our budget in line, keeping the great level of services to our residents, and looking for ways to bring in sensible growth into our 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.

As an elected official, it is my responsibility to make sure that I have as much information as I need to make a decision, or to bring up a point. I like talking to other communities on similar issues, and getting an idea on what they're doing. Having other points of view, getting good practices, or knowing what to look out for are very helpful when making an informed decision. It's also important to listen to your employees, and residents. We want to make sure we keep an open forum for everyone to come to us with issues, concerns, ideas, etc. We are here to listen to our residents, and make the best decisions possible keeping everything in mind.

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?

With declining revenues from the state, we are doing the best to make sure our services are not impacting our residents. Financially, we're doing fine, with a surplus available we can help fund unforeseen projects or other needs. We have a strong credit rating which makes it easier to borrow money, and pay a lower interest rate. We recently negotiated a waste hauling contract that saved our residents money every month. We also initiated a program to help fund our street projects, which need roughly $1 million to complete every project in the village. So, we have to find ways to help pay for that. Plus, we have to fund our portion of the 47/I88 project which is $650,000, and we have a $150,000 contribution to the police pension fund. There are some big bills coming, and we need to work with staff to know where to spend, where to cut funding, and looking for ways to get revenues from other sources. We are fortunate enough to have a great finance director, and staff, who are doing their best to keep costs under control, and avoiding massive deficits that other nearby communities have.

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

I would like to see us televise our board meetings on public access, so our residents who can't make it to a meeting can watch from home. Unfortunately, we don't have the equipment, staff to record, and edit, and send to the various media companies who serve our residents