Donna Johnson: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Donna Johnson

City: Libertyville

Office Sought: Village Trustee

Family: Divorced with 2 children-Austin Johnson and Tyler Johnson

Occupation: Corporate Attorney

Education: Juris Doctorate and Bachelor of Arts Degree

Civic involvement: Representative on the Village Comprehensive Plan Committee, Prior member of the Planning and Zoning Committee, Member of the fire and Police Committee, Chair of the Streets Committee, and member of the St. Joseph's Liturgical Ministry.

Previous elected offices held: Village Trustee

Incumbent? Yes

Website: No

Facebook: No

Twitter: No

Issue questions

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

Most of our roads are aging and eroding at the same time and to compound the problem bad weather, salt and heavy snow removal have accelerated the erosion with cracks and pot holes. These roads and streets are estimated to need costly repairs at the same time and once completed because of normal wear and tear and the impact of cold weather the shelf life of the repairs is shortened and will require more maintenance. Based on our success with a prior referendum to address road repair, I recommend seeking resident approval for another referendum to complete the remaining road repairs. Stormwater management has become a high-level concern in our community, because of more frequent storms and increased impervious surfaces resulting from tear downs and larger homes, impacting routing patterns for ground water causing flooding. Develop a stormwater management plan working with consultants on how to best address the issue for our residents mindful of the cost which has been estimated in the millions. Because of labor relations laws and collective bargaining agreements it will be a constant challenge in the future to balance retaining quality civil servant staff, like police and fire, with mandatory pension funding and merit increases. This challenge will require strategic negotiating to maintain quality services and balance the budget.

As we become more land locked and developers approach our community for development, the challenge for preserving green and open space becomes more difficult.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

My professional background as a corporate lawyer in a regulatory industry makes me one of the best candidates for this job because it has prepared me to communicate effectively with residents, to identify issues, analyze both sides of an issues based on the facts and make decisions that are in the best interest of the community and its residents. I have experience in litigation, advocacy, public policy, human resource and personnel matters, zoning issues, project management and marketing. I am engaging and approachable and willing to listen and consider other points of view which is important in this role. I am able to translate complex issues into plan English making residents feel more comfortable interacting with the Board and the village. As a female leader, I think I bring a unique prospective because I am comfortable engaging residents of other backgrounds and gender. I am actively involved with my neighbors and my local church community. My parents are both seniors that live in the community, so I am sensitive to their unique issues and the issues of our senior residents.

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?

My leadership style is confident, but yet understanding of how intimidating it is for applicants to present in front of the Board. I have learned to listen and keep an open mind to other points of view and other proposed solutions while weighing the facts, this has been effective in producing action from the Board and making decisions to help address residential concerns. My leadership style has served me well in my role as Trustee, because of regulatory and legislative restrictions and budget constraints we are generally not dealing with simple issues and simple solutions. I have the ability to identify issues and summarize information presented and come up with compromise solutions. When a compromise solution is not an option, because of legal restrictions or budget concerns, I can explain it in a way that our residents understand even if they do not agree.

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 work hard to maintain a surplus in our General Fund, maintain the legal minimums and balance the budget. However, as car sales tax revenue and state funding decline, it makes our ability to maintain this surplus in the General Fund more challenging and requires that we come up with creative ways to maintain the same level of quality services with increasing expenses and declining revenues. We also have the continued debt load of the Sports Complex, so we continue our efforts to sell some of the property at the Sports Complex to address this debt. We may have to retain some existing utility fees and implement with residential approval some referendums for road improvements, to offset the declining revenues and increased expenses, allowing us to maintain quality services.

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

We need to have more informational “Town Hall” meetings where we invite experts and principle stakeholders. These representatives would use their expertise to inform our residents and generate discussions on topics that will impact our community going forward in the future. The goal of these Town Halls would be to get ahead of issues instead of just reacting. Potential topics could include: decline and closing of brick and mortar stores, the flight of local corporations out of Illinois effecting the housing market and sales tax revenue and development that retains some green and open space.