Shawn Killackey: 2022 candidate for Lake County Board District 2

Bio

Party: Democrat

Office sought: Lake County Board District 2

City: Mundelein

Age: 56

Occupation: Visual Artist and Stay-At-Home Dad

Previous offices held: Elected twice to the Fremont School District 79 Board of Education

Q&A

Why are you running for this office, whether for reelection or election for the first time? Is there a particular issue that motivates you?

This is my first time running for this particular office of Lake County Board Member. Since moving to Lake County 17 years ago, I have always been involved in the community either through some village committees or commissions or by being on a school board for a district, so I thought this was another way for me to make a difference in the area but this time on a larger scale.

Being a Stay-At-Home Dad I have always felt that Lake County was a great place to raise my family with the many parks and playgrounds. Now it is my turn to help keep it a great place to live in by making sure we keep its natural beauty with the parks, playgrounds and of course the forest preserves. I believe paying attention to the natural environment of Lake County and making sure nothing destroys it is a very important issue to me.

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?

Being new to the Lake County Board, I would bring my many years of serving different aspects of our community. By being on the Mundelein Centennial Committee in 2009, I learned how to bring the people of the community together for a celebration; when I was on the Mundelein Old Village Hall Committee in 2014, I learned about gathering facts and information that was needed to obtain certain goals; since 2018 being on the Mundelein Historical Commission, I've found you can learn so much from listening to the public because they've experienced things that I haven't; and currently in my second term on the Fremont District 79 Board of Education I've learned how to work with a group of fellow Board members in a professional way to get things done. I am a very organized person and I prefer collecting all the facts and listening to both sides of an issue before I make any decisions.

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.

Of course the COVID-19 pandemic created a lot of challenges for everyone and that was true for the Lake County Board also. It's hard to judge any entity of government on a situation that none of us had ever experienced before. What will truly matter and show leadership will be what is to be done by the Board with this new $602 million budget now created on the backside of this pandemic.

The problem, or threat, I have always felt for the future of Lake County is the very rapid population growth. In so many parts of the county housing developments are sprouting up continuously. More people are moving into the county but the roads are the same as they were decades ago. We have more cars on the major streets of Lake County that are still just two-lane roads so all that is happening is traffic is getting worse and worse. You have to either slow down the building of houses or expand the size of the roads. Either way that will definitely affect the budget and how it is spent.

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.

The Lake County Board seems to be very transparent on what they do via having their meetings on video in order to watch them when you want and finding out what decisions they acted on through the Lake County website. There's even a link to request a FOIA if the public wants access to any Board records.

What, if anything, should be done to improve automation and customer service in county offices? What steps should be taken to make that happen?

This may be a loaded question. Unfortunately issues such as long lines, waiting on the phone to get a live person, having to fill out tons of paperwork, etc. has always been part of the definition of any kind of “government.” Perhaps with today's advanced technology applied to the system there could be some improvement for customer service. There's always room for improvement.