Matthew Gopin: 2023 candidate for Bannockburn village president

Bio

Town: Bannockburn

Age on Election Day: 45

Occupation: Security, Governance, Risk Management & Compliance Executive

Employer: Self-employed

Previous offices held: President, District 106 School Board

Q&A

Q: What do you consider the primary responsibility of the community's "chairman of the board?"

A: The Chairman/President of the Board's primary responsibility is to effectively and transparently govern the Village's resources, assets, and strategies to help ensure that the Village is serving the current and future needs of its residents.

Q: What is the most serious issue your community will face in coming years and how should leaders respond to it?

A: The Village's policies/rules/codes are and have been overly burdensome. This burden will discourage new residents from moving to the Village and instead choosing nearby communities with similar characteristics that do not have the same burdens. Eventually this will have a negative impact on home values and therefore the tax base that the village relies upon to operate.

Further, these rules are creating other challenges for the community, such as non-compliance to village processes, which can result in building code violations which can risk life and property. Another example is the loss of native plants/trees due to the policies that encourage property owners to leave invasive plant species such as buckthorn, to flourish.

Q: How would you describe the state of your community's finances?

A: The Village's finances appear to be sufficient for the short-term operation of the Village.

Q: What should be the three top priorities for spending in your community during the next four years?

A: 1. Redesign village policies, processes and governance to be more efficient, effective and timely; remove unnecessary bureaucracy; and only require the Village Board for major exceptions.

2. Continuous investment in infrastructure projects to help ensure homes and businesses are protected from flooding and to help ensure utilities are highly available to all areas of the community, which may include better protecting power lines and transformers from storm damage.

3. Invest in projects that will make the Village an attractive place to work and/or live, such as bike/walking paths that run throughout the Village and connect to surrounding villages, clear the roadways of buckthorn, beautify Village owned/managed properties, and attract restaurants and entertainment type services to better serve the community.

Q: Are there areas of spending that need to be curtailed? If so, what are they?

A: The Village can use technology automation and process redesign to create more efficient and effective Village processes which would free up significant resource to focus on other important issues and/or cut back on Village salaries, which are currently it's greatest expense. Additionally, the Village should explore greater partnerships with surrounding cities/villages to provide services to the Village at a lesser cost than it can provide on its own.

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 project(s) can be put on the back burner?

A: The most important infrastructure project facing the Village today is the maintenance and upgrade of the water systems: water supply, sewer and stormwater drainage/retention systems.

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

A: I have spent 20+ years helping organizations design, implement and manage effective and transparent governance, developing and executing on strategies, as well as process redesign.

I plan to utilize my experience and leadership skills to help the village:

1. Improve the existing governance, including policies/rules, processes, and oversight; 2. Implement more efficient and effective processes that will improve the experience and reduce costs, while reduce non-compliance;

3. Define a meaningful strategy that has the support from the Community to prioritize Village investment in core infrastructure projects alongside other improvement projects that the Community has been asking for.

I have proven as the President of the School Board for the past couple years, that I can be an effective leader that works with the other Board members and the Community to prioritize what is important and focus on getting those things done, like getting kids back in school safely during COVID.

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

A: As noted in the Village's Community Survey (bit.ly/BannockburnCommunitySurvey), residents think the best things about living in Bannockburn are:

1. the convenient location;

2. open space/nature; and

3. schools.

If this is what the Community thinks is best, why are we not focusing more time and resource on maintaining and improving the open space/nature and working more closely with the school district?

Also noted in the survey, approximately 50% of residents surveyed are "unsatisfied" with the permit and building processes. If that is the case, and has been for many years, why have we not redesigned them?

And if the survey indicated that Community members want to see more restaurants and entertainment, why has the Village been focused on office space, industrial space, and other multi-family developments?