Ray Lang: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Ray Lang

City: Village of Wheeling

Office sought: Village Trustee

Age (on Election Day): 59

Family: Married to Deb, 25 years. Children; Lauren, Andy & Nick

Occupation: Marketing Print

Education: Southern Illinois University, BS Communications. Journalism/Political Science

Civic involvement: Village of Wheeling Trustee, Chicago Executive Airport Board of Directors and Scholarship Assistance Fund/Dollars For Scholars Board of Directors

Previous elected offices held: Village of Wheeling Trustee

Incumbent? If yes, when were you first elected? Appointed 2009, elected 2011, re-elected 2015

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Issue questions

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

"Continue to grow Wheeling amenities and businesses to stabilize property tax levels. Wheeling competes with surrounding communities for sales tax so it is important to secure top businesses to keep sale tax here. Capitalize and expand on the town center growth. We have more open real estate to fill and need to keep the momentum going. Expand or NOT expand Chicago Executive Airport runways. Once the Airport Layout Plan has been professionally concluded, we will have the facts to determine is there a benefit for Wheeling? If Wheeling has nothing to gain, it would make no sense to expand a runway, especially if it came with a loss in business and property tax revenue or it creates a greater burden on our community. To me it is most important to determine if a runway can be moved or shifted to take flights away from residents rather than expand. Funding is secured and professional contractors will provide actual noise relief to those in Wheeling most affected by noise in the upcoming year. Although the FAA solely regulates flight, is important to me that CEA becomes a good neighbor in areas under our control. CEA is one of Wheeling's assets that have not been studied in more that 30 years. As village leaders in the past sought to purchase and control the airport grounds, it is equally important today to continue to manage this asset to maximize its value to the community".

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

"I am a positive, forward-thinking person who looks for opportunity to grow our community and tax base as no good comes from negative thoughts or complaining. As a lifelong Wheeling resident, former part time Wheeling Public Works employee during college followed by 20 years as a volunteer on the Wheeling Zoning and Plan Commission and 10 years as a Wheeling Trustee, I know Wheeling very well! I am not indebted to anyone and show fair and equitable treatment to all stakeholders living or doing business in Wheeling. I am simply giving back to my community to make Wheeling a better place to live".

Describe your leadership style and explain how you think that will be effective in producing actions and decisions with your village board.

"It is extremely important to listen to both sides of the story before making a decision on the Village Board. Those strongly on one side of an issue tend to push their beliefs hard. It is important to listen to all factors of an issue and ultimately do what is best for all of Wheeling. Offer solutions and leads to keep our business community prospering. When a business becomes available, I am right there suggesting companies our top-notch economic development team can call to fill the location. It took me 3 years to convince Boston Fish Market to come to Wheeling; our staff made it become a reality. Teamwork is important, and I am proud of our current board as we are getting a lot accomplished. As of today, more than $300 million in growth and construction is occurring in our town center area and we are not done yet. What neighboring community can boast that kind of growth? In addition I have built stronger relationships with village departments, especially police and fire and have actually worked in their boots to better understand their challenges to bring back to the board on how we can work even better together".

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?

"Working together as a team and relying on our staff to control spending and debt while adding tax producing businesses is key to Wheeling's success. My family lives within our means in our own household and yet we still have a great life. We are thankful for what we have while growing and striving for more. And we've saved for our children's future so they will have an equal if not better life. This totally applies to municipal budgets. In both cases you spend what you can afford to build a better community but you do so based on staying out of debt and keeping an eye on growth for your future. We are fortunate to have first class police and fire departments along with equally professional public works, community development, human service and financial all managed by a dedicated, knowledgeable village manager to stay on top of potential issues and keep our village running smoothly. They are all very proactive to assure our community avoids public safety issues before they occur. And, as a team we kept our core services at 100 percent again this year, not sacrificing any services simply to pass our annual budget".

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

"To be positive, professional and to position Wheeling for a strong future as your Trustee for the Village of Wheeling. We need forward-thinking leaders in our community to address ALL the important issues we face, not just the single issues some are passionate about. When we build and expand our amenities such as the Wheeling Town Center and Restaurant Row, we do so to create those services for our community as well as a way to capture sales tax dollars from those living in other communities. We need to properly allocate TIF funding to support strong projects and bring in additional revenue while reducing the need to levy more funds from our residents. And, we need to continue to balance our housing demographics that will lead to an improved commercial and retail environment".