Sara Sadat: 2021 candidate for Lisle mayor

In the April 6 consolidated election, Lisle Village Board Trustee Sara Sadat is challenging incumbent Mayor Christopher R. “Chris” Pecak and fellow trustee Stephen A. Winz in the race for Lisle mayor.

Bio

Age: 38

Occupation: Project Management Office Senior Manager

Civic involvement: Lisle village trustee since 2019. Lisle Woman's Club; Lisle Partners of Park Foundation; Studio630; Unity Partnership (building bridges between law enforcement and the community); DuPage County Strategic Committee (speaking on minority empowerment issues); representing Lisle at the Citizens' Climate Lobby meetings, working to form Lisle's first green committee with residents and elected officials; organizer of community events. For example, in 2020, I coordinated a nonpartisan voter registration drive in conjunction with College of DuPage and when the pandemic first hit, worked with local business to provide coffee to our front-line heroes.

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: I do not believe in passing the buck, and I believe the best decisions we make for our community come from listening to and empowering our residents. When the pandemic began, I organized virtual seminars focused on job loss for our residents who were hurting and needed help deciphering unemployment and the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. The platform, now known as Illinois and Indiana Unemployment guidance, continues to assist its nearly 3,800 members, and now members are helping each other. That's empowerment I believe in.

When you empower, you set yourself up to be criticized, something I do not shy away from. My work with Unity Partnership, an organization dedicated to building bridges between the community and local police, which your paper has covered, has opened me up to criticism, but also opportunities to dialogue. I truly believe that trust comes from this open and unencumbered communication. It's not always pretty, but it's a discussion that needs to happen, and people often leave having a better understanding of each other.

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 Lisle personnel served our residents exceptionally, not because of the current mayor, but despite him.

Lisle Police demonstrated a model that deserves recognition. Early in the pandemic, when domestic disturbances were rising, I personally witnessed Lisle's finest diffuse a situation. In a circumstance of immense stress, during a pandemic, on our police maintained their composure and communicated with parties, culminating in a peaceful resolution. In another instance, our own Officer Bill Wise demonstrated true heroism when, without skipping a beat, he helped rescue a child from a burning home in the dead of night.

Now the negative — our mayor. When we all needed to do more, he did less. He canceled a village board meeting, and by doing so, he halted urgent business of the village. He questioned trustees about holding virtual meetings to make a political statement. It was witnessing this callous disregard of village business, when people needed their local government the most, that I decided I can, and will do, a better job as mayor.

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: Lisle deserves transparent, timely and accurate information from the mayor which it often lacks. Since 2019, I have produced online seminars for our residents, which have become a model for our local leaders to interact with their constituents. I want to create similar seminars on the village level, bringing experts in the public health field to proactively communicate with residents, so they have guidance and comfort in a time of need. I also want to amend our disaster recovery plan to ensure village business continuity. This would include guidelines for staff and trustees to participate in village business remotely and how to then release information to residents efficiently and proactively.

Q: What cuts can local government make to reduce the burden of the pandemic on taxpayers?

A: When we're asked how to reduce the burden on taxpayers, we should look at how we as local leaders can do our part. Witnessing the economic struggle in our community, I made a commitment to forgo my trustee stipend and divert those funds to the community. My stipends are currently going to the Lisle Township Food Pantry, but I've directed staff to create a plan to make it easier to donate those funds to the Lisle Business Relief Program.

Supporting my community with my village stipend will continue when elected mayor and for the duration of the pandemic. I'll encourage other officials to do the same.

We also need to stop fighting costly legal battles on principal. I cast a vote for deannexation to exit costly litigation as well as ensure residents get life safety protections in a federal settlement. It was the right vote though not necessarily popular. We need to be more sensible in our spending.

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: The most important infrastructure project is to address the ongoing flooding concerns. This has been a problem for our residents and very little has been done to address this. We have been working with other governing bodies to prioritize and apply for grant funding. The first of such initiatives are identified in the St. Joseph's Creek Watershed Plan.

The village also needs to update their IT infrastructure, including an integrated software system to provide online and app-based access to the residents. Although a priority, because of these uncertain times, this is a project that can be placed on the back burner if adequate funding isn't available.

Q: Do you agree or disagree with the stance your board has taken on permitting recreational marijuana sales in the community? What would you change about that stance, if you could?

A: I voted for recreational marijuana sales in the Village of Lisle. I believe adults are capable of making their own decisions. Before casting my vote on this issue, I spoke extensively with our law enforcement partners and members of the medical community. The board, unfortunately, went the other way on the issue.

To me, this was an example of not looking at the long-term economic impacts. We lost a source of revenue, and now surrounding communities will benefit economically. To add insult to injury, one of our neighboring municipalities, zoned dispensaries on our border, so we still will have to deal with possible impacts, but will not derive any economic benefit from them.

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

A: Enacting a “Green Committee” to propel Lisle — The arboretum village to achieve its promise of environmental symbiosis. Unfortunately, Lisle has dealt with the consequences of irresponsible environmental hazard mitigation from the time of the Lockformer ground and water contamination. To date, requests to review sites and monitor progress of “No Further Remediation” progress has held back development without accountability and recommendation to move Lisle forward.

We need a committee to make recommendations to the village board and further help us capitalize on the beautiful resources available that make our village a gem. Our proximity to the Morton Arboretum and beautiful village with open space and ample parks offer opportunities for bike and walk paths which would be assets to our residents. This committee can also be tasked to work with other governmental bodies to help move forward cooperation for a more green enjoyable village. Maybe even attract a bike share program one day for extra village revenue!

Q: What makes you the best candidate for the job?

A: My family-driven perspective. While all candidates say they want what is best for Lisle — I evaluate my decisions through a different filter — how do they impact our families who call Lisle home? I'm a mother of three and my children are my greatest inspiration. As a project manager and a current trustee — I take ideas and make them reality, and will continue to do so as mayor. I am active in many community events and groups and have a pulse on what our community needs.

Public service is a commitment. I've shown that by directing my trustee salary to the community instead of my bank account and will continue do so until our businesses no longer are financially impacted by the pandemic. My strength is fixing broken processes. So, when I learned my stipend couldn't go to the business relief program, I started to fix that. My mission is to build upon a great community and help Lisle reach its highest potential.