Village Council Forum: Question 1

Geoff Neustadt
I'm running for the Village Council to continue the good work that the council has done since I was elected in 2007. Over that time and we've seen our village change financially—we've all changed financially at home and in business and pretty much every facet of life. We, as a council, have made hard decisions to make cuts of $4.2 million in our budget and 45 positions from the employee ranks. I want to continue the good work that keeps the services that we provided exceptional.

Downers Grove is a place where you can pick up the phone and dial 911 and police and fire service comes, you turn on the faucet and water comes out and it's clean and able to drink. Those are services that we need to continue to have here in Downers Grove. Using my fiscal leadership, my knowledge of investment in our community, and my ability to work well with others I will continue that path that we've engaged in the Village Council.

Sean Durkin
I'm running to basically to continue what we have started the last four years. There's been some drastic cuts that we've made, there's been some unpopular votes that have been taken regarding the budget and our finances. As we all know this economy is not very good, and it doesn't seem to be getting any better, especially with the world disasters that we're well aware of in Japan. I'm running because there's still hard work to do to be done.

My qualifications are my political resume, if you want to call it that: five years of service on this Village Council along with five years in the City of Darien. What makes me unique is what I do for a living. I work exclusively with municipal finances on a daily basis, and again, I cannot stress enough the networking that I have done, the issues that I have heard and what I have brought back to this council to review to see if they were fits for us, separates me from the rest. Thank you.

John Page
Why am I running? I hear that all the time. Simple answer: I love Downers Grove. We chose to move here. I'm passionate about this village and I want to see us continue to grow and thrive. We can do it if we work together. We can grow our business base, and if you look at my background, my professional background is working with CEOs and business owners.

I’m a passionate person at heart, and one of the things that I really love to do is find innovative ways to lead teams of people. We are one village, and one of the things that we can do is work together to work through our problems.  Sounds pretty Pollyanna-ish, I know, but you know what, you've got to be an optimist. And I am optimistic about our ability to change, and our ability to grow, and our ability to keep Downers Grove the place that I chose with my wife and my daughter when we moved here.

Gregory Hosé
I'm running for two reasons. Number One: to improve the communication between the Village Council and the village. I believe that the role of an elected official is to listen. We need to go out and solicit comments from the residence, and not expect them to simply email us or come to Village Council on Tuesdays at seven o'clock. It's a matter of communication being a two-way street. And I've been doing this with my campaign through neighborhood listening parties and walking in every corner of the village. And I think my skills as an attorney help me with this,  and has taught me how to listen critically and think critically.

And secondly: to introduce more balance in our approach to village government. We need to balance the community needs as well as the budget. And we do that by focusing not simply on dollar costs, but on the value of the service to the community. Thank you.

Becky Rheintgen
My motivation for running for Downers Grove Village Council is to continue my role as a public servant. I really enjoyed working in government and making a difference in the community that I was working in. My qualifications are again my history in working in parks and recreation for many years, which gave me a very good understanding of how government works, how a board operates.

Also from my volunteerism in the community. I've met lots of folks in the community. I know the needs that are out there and that are unmet, and I as a council person would work to fulfill those needs. I think that one of my strengths in my career in parks and recreation and my career in our small business is being a careful and thoughtful decision-maker and I would continue that role on the village council.

Dominic Scalzetti
I'm running for a couple of different reasons also. As I said earlier, I worked for the village for almost 32 years and when you leave something after that long it's kind of like cold turkey and I thought, you know, I like what I do and I want to still continue to serve the residents in some capacity, and I thought this would be a good way to continue to do it.

I'd like to make a difference, I chose that profession to make a difference and I think that each and every one of us that sit up here has an opportunity to make a difference to the residents of Downers Grove. I also indicated about my vested interest. My family, my daughter, my children we've been here for, like I said, I’ve been here for 35 years, and we're going to continue to live here.

And I would like to be part of seeing Downers Grove continue to prosper and move forward. My strengths are the fact that I did work for the village and I have some insights, some thoughts where that I know we can do some things being an insider looking from the inside out.

Mark Thoman
I've worked on community issues for several years and have done research on those issues, stood in and stood up for people and ideas. For example, I spent a year fighting on behalf of the residents of Cameo Condos to keep the garbage-sorting facility from being sited immediately next door to them, which then became a clean-room manufacturing facility.

It didn't make me the most popular guy with the village government, but long story short Cameo Condos has a lot of seniors living there. My mother, who is 91, lives in Naperville in a similar kind of condo, and when I look at that situation I saw a bunch of moms being pushed around and I tried to do something about it.  I'm running and willing to work hard to get us back on track with balance, addressing the fiscal, business and community issues, and I'd like to get the village back because I do think they've strayed from what makes this a great place to live.

Craig Skala
I'm running because I saw the cuts we were making, the elimination of police officers, services and the raising of taxes. Working for 14 years in municipal government, I've seen the priorities that municipalities must take. I've worked for three different sized communities that have varied in demographics and know what the priorities that are needed for the local municipalities.