Ed Hull: 2023 candidate for Wayne Village Board

Bio

Town: Wayne

Age on Election Day: 64

Occupation: Attorney

Employer: Cutler | Hull Law

Previous offices held: Wayne Village Board trustee (1994 to present)

Q&A

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

A: Traffic safety and speed reduction on all our roads. All our roads are functioning residential streets - not just pass thru arterials. As such they should be policed as residential streets and policing speeding should remain a top priority for the Wayne Police Department.

We must fully support and fund a professional and independent Wayne Police Department to accomplish this. All our residents live along these streets, walk their dogs, children play in the yards, etc. We must consistently work to provide safe residential streets for our residents. Part and parcel of this is to preserve, protect and enhance Wayne's rural ambiance and heritage along with its many historic buildings and open spaces. Traffic safety, speed reduction on our roads and our ongoing efforts to preserve, protect and enhance Wayne's rural ambiance will all help keep Wayne the place we all love living.

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

A: Wayne's finances are in good shape thanks to years of relentless careful management and stewardship of our resident's hard earned tax dollars by the village president, Eileen Phipps, and my fellow village trustees along with our very experienced village treasurer and the village staff. It is, has been and will continue to be one of our highest priorities - safe, careful and frugal management of our residents hard earned tax dollars - as we continue to provide a first class Wayne Police Department, good roads and a host of other village and public works services.

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

A: The top three spending priorities during the next four years should be 1. Providing and maintaining a first-class independent Wayne Police Department. Something we currently have and are 100% committed to keeping. 2. Continuing to take care of our roads - resurfacing, crack sealing, repair, and replacement as needed. and 3. Preserving, protecting, and continuing to enhance Wayne's rural ambiance and heritage along with its many historic buildings and open spaces.

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

A: Fortunately, under our stewardship Wayne has always been frugal with the village monies, Wayne has never borrowed for any village expense and has always made its required police pension contributions. We were named the Most Frugal municipality in DuPage County in 2018. We will continue to be good and careful managers of our resident's tax dollars. Fortunately, I along with our Village President Eileen Phipps and Trustee Peter Connolly all have both the experience and the proven results to continue to deliver careful, focused stewardship of the village finances.

Q: What do you see as the most important infrastructure project the community 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: In addition to maintaining, repairing, and improving our roads the next most pressing infrastructure project is to address the problems we are facing with the existing village hall and police department building. Our current village hall is in an old cobbled together lumber yard building that is at least 80 years old and has lasted far longer than anyone could have imagined. There are now enough serious issues with the building coupled with significant questions about whether it can be rehabbed to meet current ADA accessibility standards and the state of Illinois requirements for municipal buildings that it would be irresponsible for our village board to not start the process of evaluating our alternatives.

We have begun that process to get ahead of the problems we see and evaluate both the problems and the potential alternatives now, so we are properly prepared. We have chosen to conduct this process through a series of town hall meetings so all residents can attend. Our plan is to pay for this project with a grant from the state that we have received a Notice of Award for and to use reserve funds. If anything, else is required we will advise our residents in the town hall meetings and put the question on a ballot so that all residents can vote on it.

Q: Describe your experience working in a group setting to determine policy. What is your style in such a setting to reach agreement and manage local government? Explain how you think that will be effective in producing effective actions and decisions with your village board.

A: I believe that the village and its residents will benefit from having me continue to provide my experience, knowledge, and in particular my fact based and collaborative reasoned approach to village matters. I am a listener first and foremost and a collaborative worker on whatever the issue or problem is. I approach my service as a village trustee as well as life in general that way because I want to make sure I obtain all the facts and talk with as many residents/people as possible on whatever the issues might be. I promise to continue to do that if I am reelected.

In that vein I intend to push for and make sure we have more in person town hall meetings (with Zoom attendance options) as I think that format allows for more interaction between residents and those of us who have both the privilege to serve the residents and as well as help protect the Village of Wayne we all love. In addition, I bring a great deal of knowledge and experience to my village trustee position from all my work over the years preserving, protecting and helping to improve Wayne.

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

A: In short, my knowledge and experience gained over the years on the village board and as an attorney. I have lived in Wayne for 34 years and my wife grew up here. We both know and love Wayne. I have gained a great deal of invaluable experience and knowledge from my years on the village board and from the many battles we fought (and continue to fight) over the years against airports, road wideners, developers, and others and all our relentless ongoing efforts to preserve and protect our rural environment, heritage, and open space.

As the trustee in charge of Development/Historic and Rural Preservation, I have been involved in and focused on preserving open space, historic preservation, keeping our roads two lanes and residential, working with the many generous and kind individuals that have donated so much open space to the village for the enjoyment and benefit of all our residents, negotiated/finalized those donation agreements, established relationships with and worked with the DuPage and Kane Forest Preserves to facilitate the establishment of open space forest preserves in Wayne, and always worked alongside my fellow trustees to preserve and protect Wayne. In 2013, I was selected and named Citizen of the Year. It is one of my greatest honors.

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

A: As technology has developed, we now have many new ways available to us to improve communication as well as make village information available and more accessible to residents. My idea to better the community of Wayne is the development of a Village of Wayne App that all residents can download and use. In conjunction with that I have been and will continue to work on modernizing the Village website.

All of this will help bring our residents and many people who selflessly give of their time to serve on the Wayne Village Board, and other village committees and commissions closer together and facilitate the flow of information from residents to those of us that have the privilege to serve in village government and also facilitate the flow of information to the residents. All of which should lead to an even better Wayne and a better "living in Wayne" experience for all our residents.