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?

Part of my core values are to be a visionary and servant leader. I’m working class guy who grew up in a working-class household. During my formative years I seen friends and neighbors in less fortunate positions then my family. My mother often took in other families and children when they needed help. My parents instilled in me a sense of duty help others when you see them in need.  So, when my dad slipped on oil in the city bus depot and mess up his knee. We all assumed folks would lean in and help us too. We were wrong, since pops was our sole earner at the time, we had to rely on workers compensation for survival. Being a proud man, he did not like asking for help and we end up losing the family car. His union family came through and support us with rides to the store, cash benefits and other necessities during that time. It took a year for him to recover. 

I’ve since gone on to work in labor unions, sit on benefits funds, work for progressive causes that support working people. My work as a leader with seniors, nursing homeworkers and healthcare providers whom care for the most venerable has educated me on community needs. I bring those years of lived experiences with me to board if elected and I know that my voice will be a value added.

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. COVID recovery

2. Financial hardship to aging community members

3. Supporting the mental health challenges that are the result of post COVID experiences. 

Oak Park Township has already positioned itself to deal with many of the COVID related challenges. The task for a new trustee is to listen to the staff and support decisions that keep vital social services running.  

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? 

With equity in mind I will listen to the information and facts presented, seek counsel for others who are experts on the subject and include the guidance from staff. My leadership style is a mix of visionary and servant. Visionary because I tend to be process focused and inspirational while being a servant leader because I can seek to understand the needs of those I’m working for.

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 will approach the process with an equity lens and understand that we fulfill our duties to provide those in need while being good stewards of the taxpayer’s resources.  I will advocate for a participatory budgeting process that would engage those who are consumers of township services. Oak Park Township delivers services to people who can be overlooked. The duty of a good trustee is to combine the perspective of the people who need services with the experience of those who provide services, while being disciplined with existing resources and looking for new resources.

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?

The current board has doing a solid job of keeping their tax levy in line with needs of the community. In the last budget cycle when they could have captured more tax dollars, they opt not to pad the account as the other taxing bodies did. I will look to those existing members for guidance during the budgeting process as they have been able to meet the need of youth and seniors without being excessive.

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

Creating a supportive community where everyone has access to the services they need, with outcomes that cannot be predicted by race, ethnicity, gender identity, ability or socioeconomic background.

 Oak Park Township recently received recommendations from its consultant’s comprehensive township equity report. Those finding were shocking; I will work diligently on implementing and supporting solutions form that report to increase equity. 

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?

Communications have changed greatly in my lifetime. This is a both a challenge and an opportunity. In some ways, it's easier to get more feedback from more people than it ever has been. But in some ways, the people at the margins are even more excluded. Township government provides services to the marginalized and vulnerable. Township government needs to affirmatively reach out for meaningful feedback. What this looks like may change as communications and best practices change.

Gathering feedback can be labor intensive. I want to gather feedback, but there are balancing tests. Are we gathering feedback at a level of detail that it cuts into services? Are we gathering feedback beyond our ability to use the feedback currently or in the next year for planning?

Oak Park Township should get feedback on stuff that can be fixed now. But we also need to utilize research done by county and state government and research institutions. I want Oak Park Township to be smart about delivering services, but let's not reinvent the wheel on matters others have already studied.

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?

Elected officials have an incentive to explain what their taxing body does so they can get credit for stuff.

I will work with the community to educate and clarify. But for those people who don't utilize township services, they might have higher priorities for what they think about than learning the line between village government and township government. I'm OK with that.

The important thing is to let people who need services that township government can provide the services or can connect people with higher levels of government that can provide the services.

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?

I think the prevailing thought is that the township doesn’t have good relationships with the other five taxing bodies. The Township has a solid relationship with the other taxing bodies the Public Library through its Try-it Thursday/ Living History Project. The high school partnerships in intramurals and the Snowball program. District 97 with Irving SLAM, Longfellow Mentoring, and Mann Homework Helper Club. Township also partners with the Park District on its scholarship program. These taxing bodies are already doing great work together. The task going forward will be to build trust with the incoming village board and create new relationships.

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?

I love how they continued services during this unexpected global health crisis. The Township adapted and continued to provide seniors lunches with drive thru pick up and volunteer drop offs. The caseworker staff continued to meet the needs of the community in-person and remotely depending on the situation and individual circumstances. I look forward to seeing more innovation and adaptability from the elected leaders and staff as they strive to provide social services and maintain the social safety net.

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’s community mental health board is already working with Park District of Oak Park to bring services to the Community Recreation Center. Those will put resources in a place where the people are and hopefully willing to engage.

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

A few years ago, the Village leaders put a non-binding referendum on the ballot to combine taxing bodies if there were tax savings. But there was never a mention or conversation on how this would affect the community members who utilize Township services. My concern is that there will be a real attempt via the ballot box to eliminate the Township.  I am an advocate for protecting youth services, supporting seniors’ ability to age in place and community mental health.  The threat of these services being lost is what motivates me to serve.

Oak Park Township provides services to the marginalized and vulnerable. These are the very people most likely to be forgotten and neglected if township government is combined with village government.

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

The township already collaborates with the Village of River Forest and I think is working with Chicago and Berwyn. We could have youth programs and senior activities that are enriching to all involved.  Money will always be the biggest challenge.

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?

In the past I’ve struggled to under why cis gender straight males were so homophobic. The thought of disliking or hating someone for just being themselves always confused me. I grew up with a homophobic friend and he eventfully changed. He changed because he met out gay men that were as masculine as he considered himself to be and they didn’t want him. The light bulb moment for me was realizing the he treated woman bad, he hated same gender loving men because they would treat him the way he treated women. While I was able to understand his thought process I could not condone it. Some people come into your life to teach you a lesson, his mission was complete and so was our friendship. I learned my lesson.

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?

Yes, this is one of the purest forms of participatory democracy but citizens. These advisory referendums allow everyday people to use their power as community residents to pose questions and ideas to the broader public. I may not always agree with the question being asked but it doesn’t mean the process should be abolished or dismantled.

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[The above answers were supplied on 2/19/21.]