Village Council Forum: Question 9

Geoff Neustadt
The role of our Downers Grove Village Council and government is to work with our excellent business agencies, the Downtown Management Corporation, which I am the council liaison to, the Downers Grove Area Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which I’m a civic member of, and the Downers Grove Economic Development Corporation, which I'm a great supporter of because they've done a lot of great work in our town.

But what we specifically need to do as a council is to set the policies that give those groups the tools to attract and retain, specifically retain the great businesses that we have here in Downers Grove. The attraction and retention of those businesses increases our sales tax base and increases our services, our commercial areas. Downers Grove is in a luxurious spot because we have commercial, retail and sales, and business office space available. Not too much anymore, but we have space available. Giving them the incentive and tools to help reach out and attract these new businesses is something that we've done well here in Downers Grove and we need to continue to keep that policy going. 

Sean Durkin
Yes, real quick, the role of the government in the business community is having a seat at the table, not only with the Downers Grove Economic Development Corporation, but also with the Downtown Management Corporation along with the Chamber of Commerce. When we do that, we are all working together for the same cause, and one of the areas that I think we need to see great benefit by doing that is bringing in the new sales tax revenue to this village.

With the EDC we've had a great success with car dealerships. I think going forward, and since we are in that area that the dealers want to be in, we need to continue focusing in that area because the car dealers bring in significant dollars, and those dollars help us with our general fund. It's a basic need—people need cars, they need refrigerators, electronics, and we have it here and we just need to continue promoting and going from there. Thank you.

John Page
The village properly has two roles. One is to facilitate location and expansion of business, and the way to do that is to set processes that are consistent and transparent and, most of all, predictable. If you're going to attract business to Downers Grove, they are going to want to know what is it going to take to relocate my business here?

The second piece is we have to make sure that this village is a great place to live and work. Why? Because businesses relocate where their employees want to live. Why don't people grab the money that Gary, Indiana, is offering right now? Why? Because people don't want to live in Gary, Indiana. The reality is, if you have a great place to live and work, you will be able to attract business. The village needs to facilitate that, and needs to draw people here to Downers Grove.

Gregory Hosé
First and foremost, we need to work with the Economic Development Corporation and the Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Management Corporation to ensure that we have policies in place that will allow them to go out and recruit new businesses to come to Downers Grove. And we've seen the Economic Development Corporation do a great job with that, as candidate Durkin mentioned with car dealerships.

Very recently, the village approved a sales tax rebate with Pugi and also with Packy Webb Ford, and I believe that this is principle among the things that the village must do. We need to provide the economic tools to the Economic Development Corporation and these other institutions so that they can attract those businesses. Simply put, 50 percent of something, in terms of sales tax revenue, is better than 100 percent of nothing. 

Becky Rheintgen
I think, as a village and as a council member, I hope that we would do our best to attract and retain a wide variety of retail, commercial, business and industrial uses in our town. And like many of the folks up here have said, that the Downtown Management, the Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development Corporation are great tools in that.

And we need to reduce the burden on our taxpayers by generating more sales tax, and we can do that by bringing new business into town. Even in this uncertain economy, our Economic Development Corporation has done a great job bringing some great new car dealerships into town, so I applaud their efforts.

Dominic Scalzetti
I think the role of the government and businesses is basically to work with them.  We need to partner with them. We need to see if there's new businesses that are willing to come to Downers Grove, and what incentives we might have to give them to relocate here. We need to show them our demographics, we need to show them the highways that run through Downers Grove, the hospital, the Level I trauma center that we have here in Downers Grove, and the high schools that we have. We need to promote Downers Grove ...to any new businesses that want to come to town.

Mark Thoman
I agree with a lot of what Commissioner Neustadt said. Businesses like a calm and steady environment with some amenities and no surprises. Through the past mayor and the present mayor, and I expect through the next mayor, will keep those policies in place. They've been there, they're successful, the EDC working in concert with the Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Management group; they've coordinated and succeeded in bringing businesses and jobs to Downers Grove because of the policies that have existed for 12-plus years.  So, I'll continue, if elected, to support those policies, as well as the business groups that work on the village's behalf.

Craig Skala
I believe that we have to continue working with these other agencies within the village. If they bring a business to the board, and they are asking for some incentives, we've got to look at that with an open mind. What type of business is this? What's it going to do for the village?

We shouldn't raise sales tax in the village because that may deter some businesses from coming to town, also some of them could leave the town. I believe that we could work with these agencies to advertise the village more in certain publications.  Everybody gets mailed a downtown Downers guide, but you're not seeing those in Chicagoland magazines. Downers Grove, come here, shop. We have to take a campaign initiative and have a shop Downers Grove campaign.