Gary Fasules: 2022 candidate for DuPage County Board District 4
Bio
Party: Democrat
Office sought: DuPage County Board District 4
City: Glen Ellyn
Age: Not given
Occupation: Sales consultant, Fasules Consulting Group
Previous offices held: Current Village of Glen Ellyn trustee
Q&A
Why are you running for this office, whether for re-election or election for the first time? Is there a particular issue that motivates you?
With ten years of elected public service including five months as acting president of the Village of Glen Ellyn, I believe, that this provides me with a unique opportunity to understand what needs to be advocated for residents and businesses of DuPage County that is why I'm running.
If you are an incumbent, describe your main contributions. Tell us of any important initiatives you've led. If you are a challenger, what would you bring to the board and what would your priority be?
My elected public service at the local level provides me with the ability on how to make our county government a more effective and efficient body as I have in Glen Ellyn, which is my main priority. I bring to the board the experience in having to make decisions that balance investing in essential services, business incentives to promote economic growth, infrastructure improvements, and in the needs of our law enforcement to keep resident safe to the board.
Describe your position regarding the balance between county spending and revenues as it exists today, then describe the chief threats you see looming and how the county should deal with them.
We must always look at the long term, to maintain stability and solvency of the county's capital/operating budgets. One of the biggest long-term threats is to the County's Road Improvement Plan, where the present US trend of moving to more EV automobiles will have an impact on motor fuel tax and local gas taxes collected. These two taxes, make up approximately 85% of the revenue for annual road improvement budget. Any reductions in these taxes could have a major effect on the county's ability to adequately repair its 200+ miles of roads.
How do you rate the county government on transparency and the public's access to records? If it's adequate, explain why. If you think improvements are needed, delineate them.
I believe local government must always strive to improve transparency to its residents as we have in Glen Ellyn. The county's transparency portal is a good start, though, I would like to see a possible chat function added to the portal and the website. Also, we need to revisit making the navigation of the portal to quickly
get to the information the resident seeks by answering basic questions and giving advice as to where to go. We should also look at the possibility of adding the major departments and committees to the portal, so the user can go straight to that information in these areas they need or want, instead of navigating to them.
What, if anything, should be done to improve automation and customer service in county offices? What steps should be taken to make that happen?
The county has done a very good job at improving automation and customer service, but we need to continue to provide and enhance services that are more convenient and accessible to the residents especially since our residents are use to private sector website self serve functions. For example, in the development of the new website initiative, we should provide the residents with an online chat answer service, to help expedite their information requests. We should look at the possibility of having remote locations or even remotely through Zoom. These remote locations might be a partnership with the county's municipal libraries where some of them already process US passports.