Activist Toolkit

1. What motivates you to seek this office? What skills, experiences, and perspectives would you bring to the Township, and why would those contributions be valuable in the role you are seeking election to?

I believe in the Township, as a model of effective government, focused on community-level social services delivery and support to local non-profit agencies and programs. As an incumbent on our five-member Board, I understand how to get things done as a collaborative team. I have a track record of accomplishment (for which I have won two awards from Townships of Illinois) and sound financial management, all in support of lifting up some of the most vulnerable members of our community.

2. What are the three biggest challenges or opportunities you expect Oak Park Township to face in the coming years, and how would you work with your colleagues to address these challenges or realize these opportunities?

1. I think we have a challenge to grow and expand our existing successful programs, because I see a greater need than ever from at-risk youth, people struggling with mental health challenges, seniors wanting to age in place, and those with substance abuse challenges – we do good things but we need to do more of them. To address this, I have been advocating for greater collaboration with our sister agencies and seeking more funding for our programs from the Village, from grants, or from other government agencies.

2. I think we need to re-imagine the good things the Township is doing through a lens of racial equity. I think our work can be a force in that effort, helping level the playing field for individuals and their families who have been marginalized, underrepresented, or whose needs have not adequately been acknowledged in the past. To help with that I support the work our Board is already doing to acknowledge systemic issues and put policies in place to improve how the Township reflects the need for equity in our daily operations.

3. Somewhat related to my #1 above, I see the need for the Township to do more to engage our sister agencies, to see how what we are already good at can help them achieve their missions more effectively. Things like using our bus services collaboratively to support other agencies’ needs during periods when, for example, seniors have less need for them, to promoting events and programs at the library or parks, for example, to the youth and seniors we serve, to finding more ways to share “back of house” administrative costs. It isn’t glamorous but it can make government more impactful and yet also more cost-effective.

3. How will you balance competing interests, such as your own values and opinions, input from Township staff and fellow Trustees, and diverse views from the community? How would you describe your leadership style and your decision-making process generally? 

I think that finding a balance, in serving in elective office, is a skill that has to be learned, one which I think is part of the value of being an incumbent. Governing is a thing. There are other people at the table, who care just as much as you do but just may look at things differently. I have found ways to work with fellow Trustees that I may have disagreed with and that fostering a climate of mutual respect is key to achieving that. I think a willingness to take the time to learn, to listen, and to ask even at times uncomfortable questions is a key skill set. I have found that if that is approached with an appreciation for one fellow officials, for our fantastic Township staff, and certainly for our constituents and those who need our services – our purpose for existing as an agency – is essential. My experience has also shown that sometimes you have to be willing to say no, even to a good idea, if the agency has more urgent priorities, or if the funds simply are not available. Seeking good data, exploring options, and valuing one’s own instincts are all a part of success in this role.

4. What values would you bring to the budgeting process?  What changes do you favor in the process by which the Township conducts its budgeting and fiscal planning?

I like to think that the success of our budgeting over the three terms I have served (from 2005-2013 and from 2017 to present) demonstrates my values. We have kept our overhead low, we have kept our annual growth in our levy low, the Township keeps winning awards for our services – not to mention an ever-expanding pool of individuals and families we have helped – and we also keep winning the benchmark GFOA award every year for the quality of our budgeting. Even at that, we recently convened an outside financial oversight group, of dedicated and qualified citizens, to provide advice and examine key issues in greater depth when needed.

5. How will you balance the community's desire to decrease the property tax burden with the Township’s mission of providing an array of services and supports to the community, including youth and seniors?

I have made my statement of how to do this in the Wednesday Journal. I would also note that, when faced with a recent opportunity for the Township to claim significantly more TIF funds, I voted against doing so and instead led toward a consensus for the Township to limit that increase in our levy, avoiding what would have been an allowably larger increase in our share of the tax burden.

6. How do you define equity? Have recent discussions in the larger community informed or changed your thinking? 

Equity is about fairness; the recognition that some need more help than others in order to have equal opportunities. Both in Oak Park and in my day job for Cook County, I am glad to have been part of a series of conservations, translating into policies, which promote equity. The Township conducts peace circles at the middle schools, for example. This is from a recognition that, even as kids at the high schools have some monumental challenges, helping children in the middle schools, transitional years, especially black and brown kids, can be even more impactful. The circles are about options, they are about openness and mutual respect, they are about fairness – and in that I think they also reflect what we’ve been working towards as a Board during my service.

7. How do you plan to solicit feedback from people who may be experiencing this community in a different way than you? What barriers do you believe may exist in this process?

I think the times we live in have amplified the challenges we face in this area. Part of the role of a local elected official is to seek opportunities to connect, which is even more difficult during the pandemic. That is why our Board has worked with our outstanding staff in Senior Services, for example, to pivot toward pushing more services (food, for one) out to our seniors who cannot, or are understandably afraid to, reach out or go out. That need to reach out is why I’ve connected with our service area directors, to have the conversations about what they are hearing, recognizing that voices come from lots of directions and no one has access to all. I also think sometimes that means reading things in social media, for example, or comments to Letters to the Editor, from people with wildly divergent viewpoints, even those whose opinions may be…unhelpful, because those can come from a place of pain, or because we are not getting enough good information out. So, one thing I want the Township to get better at is public information. We need to balance our responsiveness with pushing information out to the wider public. I think the wider collaboration I noted above will also help with this.

8. Residents often express confusion about the disparate roles of the Village and the Township, particularly in the wake of the advisory referendum on consolidation in 2018. What steps would you take to increase the visibility and community awareness of the Township’s mission and programs?

Again, that is why I proposed what I proposed in the Wednesday Journal. The current administration pushed the divisive referendum, based upon misinformation, to (I believe) distract voters from their own shortcomings, and so we need instead to engage with the Village’s new leadership, as co-equal elements of local government, not just as supplicants on a three-minute clock in their Board Room.

9. What relationship do you believe the Township should have with the other local taxing bodies? How can the Township and other government bodies work best together?

Again, that is why I proposed what I proposed in the Wednesday Journal. I think once we have that conversation with the Village, it is appropriate for us to have similar conversations with the Library Board, the Park Board, and the school boards.

10. What lessons learned from the adjustment of service and program delivery during the pandemic do you believe will be applicable going forward, even after the pandemic abates?

One area we need to expand upon is helping seniors get or stay connected across the digital divide. I would like to engage with the middle schools, for example to see if we can develop a program where tech-savvy kids can, with proper training and supervision, help older Oak Parkers (once the pandemic abates) not only stay connected but take greater advantage of the digital world. I know my mother, who died this past year, struggled with this. I also know my sons were sometimes better able to help her than I was. I think if we can provide better access, then we can provide better service delivery.

In terms of youth, I think we need to meet younger Oak Parkers where they hang out – also online. I think that means that the Township needs to get serious about a social media presence, and not just social media as experience by the older Trustees and staff but in online venues (Snapchat, TikTok, etc.) where kids actually go. A Facebook page or email listserv is better for older people but is irrelevant for young people.

11. Private fundraising for a proposed Community Recreation Center has begun. What resources do you believe the Township can or should bring to such a project? How do you see the Community Recreation Center leveraging existing local facilities and programs?

The Township has been working with the Community Mental Health Board to successfully partner with the Park District, as a founding tenant of the Center, and to do so in a way that is financially sustainable for the CMHB. We have worked to ensure that Township Youth Services and Township Senior Services can have a footprint in the Center as well.

12. What concerns you most about the state of service availability in Oak Park? Is there a particular issue that motivates you to serve?

I think it is incumbent upon, well, incumbents like me, who better understand how local government works, to keep working to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of what we do and how we do it, to seek more ways to collaborate with other agencies. It takes a while to learn the specifics, but each unit in our local government has “that which is ours to do,” and as we work together better, I believe we will also find better ways to push a more unified and collaborative message out to the community about what we do and how we can help them.

13. How will you collaborate with neighboring communities? Discuss a specific initiative you would wish to undertake. What benefits and challenges would you anticipate?

We are already doing this. Staff of Township Youth Services, Senior Services, and the CMHB are all already engaged with their peer agencies in our surrounding communities, sharing best practices, coordinating with regional agencies like Age Options to optimize services delivery. As I’ve said, if we are able to leverage more support from other local agencies, we will be able to do more of it.

14. Give an example of a time when you worked to understand a situation or view different from your own. What helped you to move through that process? What hindered you as you moved through the process?

Without getting into the specifics, that has happened several times in my twelve years of service so far. What I have found is that the human connections with my Board colleagues, with our staff leaders, helps me to see and importantly to hear those perspectives that often I simply was not aware of. At the end of the day, if you can approach this role from a place of respect, you can make the necessary adjustments.

15. Two advisory referenda were added to the ballot in Oak Park in November of last year through a process at the Township. Do you believe non-binding referenda such as these are a useful tool for governance and civic engagement? Why or why not?

Such referenda can be an important way for our citizens to express righteous indignation, to clarify for those elected officials who may not be listening that course corrections are needed. Too often, however, they are used for political axe-grinding, in ways that do not help and do not advance our ability to do our jobs well. I think the process can and should be improved, to yield referenda, when needed, that help advance our civic conversations. Painful or frustrating as it may be sometimes, I think we need to err on the side of democracy, to provide open access by citizens to express their desires to their elected officials.

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[The above answers were supplied on 2/17/21.]