Dave Vogel: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Dave Vogel

City: Wheeling

Office sought: Village trustee

Age: 67

Family: Married to Becky 47 years, Children Cathy & Laura, 2 Grandchildren Taylor & Austin

Occupation: Retired/Part Time Tax preparer and Consulting

Education: University of Wisconsin - Whitewater BA Accounting & Finance, Minor in Economics

Civic involvement: Member of Village of Wheeling 125th Anniversary Committee; Founding Member and Treasurer of Wheeling Helping Hands, Tax exempt organization founded to assist the needy citizens of the Village of Wheeling; 25 Year member and 3 Time Past Grand Knight of Knights of Columbus; Past member of the Wheeling Police Pension Board; Member of the Wheeling Police Academy Alumni Association; Past Member and Officer of The National Association of Accountants

Previous elected offices held: Village trustee

Incumbent: If yes, when were first elected? Appointed 2009, Elected 2011, Re-elected 2015

Facebook: Dave Vogel

Issue questions

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

Maintaining our existing revenue sources and attracting new retail and commercial businesses. This will enable

us to continue to provide the necessary security and safety measures as well as infrastructure improvements

for our residents and lessen the property tax burden on them. This will take a concerted effort from Village staff and the Village Board to continue our policy of being business friendly and selling ourselves as a good place to be.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

My prior experience as a Trustee as well as my financial background. As a Director of Accounting Services for a multibillion dollar Corporation I was involved in not only the Accounting Operations, but also Purchasing, Risk Management, Banking and Investments and Government Reporting. Also the fact I am not indebted to anyone and feel it is my obligation to represent all the residents and businesses of Wheeling equally.

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

My leadership style can best be described as follows: I thoroughly examine issues that are brought before me and weigh the pros and cons before making a preliminary decision. I than listen to what others have to say, least I missed something before I make a final decision. Once a decision has been made, I allow those who are responsible for implementing the agreed upon objectives and goals to do their job and assist them by giving them the tools to be successful. Success comes from teamwork, and our current board has proved that time and time again.

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?

After several lean years of declining revenues, we as a board made difficult decisions, cutting staff and expenses,

while still maintaining a high level and quality of services. With the economic rebound we have experienced the last few years, our actions have left us in a better financial position than we were in five years ago. We must continue to look for cost saving opportunities and as I stated earlier maintain our existing revenue sources and continue to attract new retail and commercial businesses.

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

I would rather not make a comment at this time.