Phil Cuevas: 2021 candidate for trustee in Oak Brook
Six candidates are running for three, 4-year seats on the Oak Brook Village Board.
Bio
City: Oak Brook
Age: 50
Occupation: Attorney
Employer: I am a capital partner at Litchfield Cavo
Civic involvement: Current village trustee; pro bono work for seniors and special needs people; member of multiple bar associations
Q&A
Q. How do you view your role in confronting the pandemic: provide leadership even if unpopular, give a voice to constituents - even ones with whom you disagree, or defer to state and federal authorities?
A. All three are important and used as part of my roll as a current Trustee. Based on the past year of leading Oak Brook through the pandemic I have had to make many tough decisions. I have always put the safety and well-being of residents first when voting on issues. I agree that we should defer to the medical and science experts to guide us in dealing with the pandemic. We have seen the Federal and State regulations with the pandemic clash but that does not mean they should be ignored. The only way we will beat this pandemic is for us to come together and fight it as a team. Every resident has the right to be heard and to question an elected officials actions. At the end of the day I believe it is my role as a trustee to do my homework on issues and vote based on fact and data even if it is not popular.
Q. Did your town continue to adequately serve its constituents during the disruptions caused by the pandemic? If so, please cite an example of how it successfully adjusted to providing services. If not, please cite a specific example of what could have been done better.
A. The Village of Oak Brook served its constituents without interruption. The credit for this should be given to our outstanding Police, Fire, Public works, Building and Streets departments. Our Village manager and his staff worked beyond expectations to facilitate changes including several procedures to ensure it was business as usual. We streamlined permits for our businesses to adapt to state regulations such as outdoor dining, transitioned many services online, provided pandemic updates regularly to residents and we still held all scheduled board meetings by zoom so development projects were not delayed. Even the library adapted and had curbside pick up.
Q. In light of our experiences with COVID-19, what safeguards/guidelines should you put in place to address any future public health crises?
A. The best way handle future crises would be to have a united team plan. The plan should follow medical and science experts guidelines and recommendations. Citizens look to their elected officials for guidance. When the issues become politically motivated it ends up splitting the population and being counter productive. I think we can learn a lot from the handling of this pandemic. We can learn from our mistakes and ask the medical and science experts to generate a plan which provides guidelines to be implemented immediately when there is any threat.
Q. What cuts can local government make to reduce the burden of the pandemic on taxpayers?
A. Since Oak Brook does not have a property tax we cannot extend payments which are generated by DuPage County. We did give additional time on water bill payments. We have made several cuts to our budget to ensure that we have at least 11 months in reserves so there is no threat of interruption in Village services. We had village staff take some furlough days along with our police and fire command staff which allowed savings in salaries. Several capital projects where also delayed and made cuts to multiple departments eliminating nonessential services. Every department needs to be evaluated in these uncertain times with cuts being made when they are nonessential.
Q. What do you see as the most important infrastructure project you must address? Why and how should it be paid for? Conversely, during these uncertain economic times, what infrastructure project can be put on the back burner?
A. We just addressed one of our oldest water main lines. This line ran through and supplied our golf course which is a major revenue source. Due to its continued failures and associated costs we made the choice to replace now rather than delay it. If we did it at a later date we would have to close the golf course during replacement and that would also result in additional restoration costs. It was budgeted for and came from our general fund. We consulted our building manager and put several nonessential projects on hold. Most recently at our last board meeting we delayed adding additional concrete decking at our sports core. We have also altered several projects to address the essential issues and not any extra work.
Q. Do you plan to address businesses that don't adhere to the governor's order to close or restrict business?
A. This was a much discussed issue, based on the information I received we did not have the authority to force businesses to adhere to the governments orders. However, the information I received and observed was that our businesses followed all of the governor's orders.
Q. Do you agree or disagree with the stance your board/council has taken on permitting recreational marijuana sales in the community? What would you change about that stance, if you could?
A. I agree. Every citizen I spoke to prior and after our vote supported the stance we took, not allowing marijuana sales.
Q. What's one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?
A. Oak Brook is a very unique Village. We do not have a downtown gathering area, some of our students go to multiple schools in several other Villages, our entire town is made up of subdivisions, most only having one way in and out. I think that we need to do a better job of providing our residents the opportunity to gather and meet. This also can provide a forum to inform our residents about the services and amenities Oak Brook has to offer such as the Sports Core and bike paths which run through our village. This could be the best marketing tool to bring new families to Oak Brook resulting in higher property values.