Vince Ackerman: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Vince Ackerman

City: Bloomingdale

Office sought: Village Trustee, Bloomingdale

Age: 44

Family: Wife, Suzanne; Children, Alyssa (14) and Zachary (11)

Occupation: Global Product Management Leader for Deloitte Tax and Legal

Education: Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering, University of Iowa

Civic involvement: Youth Softball and Basketball Coach for 10 years; former board member Bloomingdale Baseball and Softball Association. (2009-2017)

Previous elected offices held: Board Member, Community Consolidated School District 93 (2011-2915)

Incumbent? If yes, when were you first elected? Yes, elected in 2015

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Issue questions

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

Over the last four years, we have seen considerable growth in our Bloomingdale community. With the addition of major developments such as Mariano's in addition to the creation of family centered events such as the fireworks display and Old Town improvements, Bloomingdale offers considerable experiences for its residents and visitors. We must continue to stabilize the retail base and be the business friendly board that continue to make an attractive community to live, shop and own a business.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

Over the last eight years of public service, I have always done what is best for my stakeholders whether that is the nearly 4,000 students in CCSD 93 or the 20,000 plus residents of Bloomingdale. I'm proud to call Bloomingdale home and will continue to do what is right to make this a great 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 or city council.

I am an integrator. I seek out and consider opinions across multiple stakeholders and look to build bridges across groups in order to move items forward. I'm a relationship builder in the community and make sure our business owners and residents are connecting to take advantage of everything Bloomingdale has to offer.

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?

Our current budget is strong. After surviving the economic downturn from a decade ago, Bloomingdale has now been able to move into a growth period - reinvesting in itself to better the community. Projects such as The Old Town Revitalization and family fireworks would not have been possible without a fiscally responsible village board and the support of our community partners.

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

I'd like to create better partnerships with our local school districts and governmental agencies to get ahead of situations before they become significant issues. One such example would be creating a task force with the police department and DuPage Health Department to educate students on the dangers of vaping. As the parent of two children, my wife and I hear many stories of young adults using these devices and think it's important for these young adults to understand what they are doing is illegal and can cause significant long term health issues.