Kathleen Mahony: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Kathleen Mahony

City: East Dundee

Office sought: East Dundee Village Trustee

Age: 57

Family: Michael (Spouse) & two pups Clancy & Beaux

Occupation: Design Director - Seasonal, Home & Outdoor Living at Sears Holdings

Education: University of Wisconsin (BS), Fashion Institute of Technology (AAS),

Civic involvement:

2005-2007 Village of East Dundee - Planning & Zoning Commissioner, 2007 - 2009, 2015, 2017 - present Village of East Dundee - Trustee Appointed, 2010 - 2016 Dundee Township Visitors Center Board

Previous elected offices held: Trustee & Commissioner offices previously held were appointed positions

Incumbent? If yes, when were you first elected? Currently serving as an appointed Trustee to fill the seat vacated by Alan Skillicorn who moved to an elected state position. Sworn in March 2017.

Website:

Facebook: @KathleenMahonyEDVT

Twitter:

Issue questions

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

Balancing new commercial or residential development with the needs of the existing business and residents. New development is key to diversifying our revenue stream to cover village services and keep property taxes in check. Engaging with residents and businesses to understand concerns with how proposed new development will hinder or benefit our community is key to ensuring sensible and complementary growth. In order to attract growth, we need to continue to foster a vibrant community that people want to visit. The summer week night events, Octoberfest and Dickens in Dundee are a great at showcasing our village and promoting our businesses. We have weekend opportunities, in the Saturday Depot Market run by the Dundee Township Visitors Center (I served on the board for 6 years) to recruit farmers and local fresh products and promote the market. I would also like to see reoccurring Sunday events. The village is open to working with community groups to run events that would benefit the village and residents, a good example of a successful partnership is the St. Patricks' Day Parade.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

I chose to live in the East Dundee 18 years ago, because of its proximity to I-90 and the Fox River, the historic downtown center, and the recreational opportunities the area provides. I bring a perspective from living in communities for what is possible for the future while preserving what is unique and special to East Dundee. While I appreciate the positive attributes of the area, I am also am realistic about the challenges we face with the competition from surrounding communities to attract new businesses and retain businesses. I have a record of investing my time in the village in on the planning & zoning commission for 2 years and the village board for 4 years. There is a learning curve in understanding how to most effectively work with the board within the legislative process, and while I have more to learn, the base of knowledge from my past six years will serve the residents well.

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.

In my professional life, I lead teams to create new products that have emotional pull or practical purpose for people's lives. I accomplish this work through communicating a vision, fostering collaboration and execution of an end product. I am described as a being a diplomatic voice of reason during conflict, secure in the fact that more can be accomplished by working together to find the best solution to an issue. I have and will challenge the status quo if it doesn't make sense for our future, with the goal of continual improvement to our process or policies. I bring these characteristics to the village currently and would continue to bring this style of leadership to the board and our residents.

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 budget balanced and improving, we have a plan for reserves for the first time in years. The biggest challenges all communities face are the new requirements for funding of pensions, because of new actuarial calculations and state requirements. We have a road map is in place to meet those requirements. After research & careful consideration the refuse pick up fee was added to the utility bills last year in order to balance the budget and ramp up the pension funding. We are looking at options with the refuse contractor for alternative levels of service to reduce the fees. East Dundee has major public infrastructure services that are run by the village which is unusual for a village this size. This puts the cost of providing these services to our residents within the villages control, but we have the ability to offer extra capacity to neighboring municipalities to build economies of scale to and provide revenue for maintenance and future improvements. Again, New development is key to diversifying our revenue stream to cover village services and keep property taxes in check.

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

A crowd sourced, compiled and searchable list / map of recreational destinations, walking & bicycle loops through our neighborhoods that can be enjoyed by residents and visitors. A tool for creating an afternoon or day of exploring the are and then visiting one of our restaurants, boutiques, events. The village has natural resources in the river and bike path that you can't buy! It's time these features are shared and marketed.