Activist Toolkit

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

2. When in the past have you had to balance competing interests? What process did you use? What did you learn?  

3. What does transparency in government mean to you?  How would you put it into practice? 

4. As more of our local discourse happens in social media, what is your view on how local elected officials should communicate with and respond to constituents? How will you engage with the breadth of the community, and not only those on social media?

5. What barriers do you see for community members who wish to engage with Memorial Park District? How would you work to reduce or eliminate those barriers?  

6. What do you feel are the three biggest issues facing the Park District, and how do you intend to address them? 

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

8. 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?

9. Name an influential local community member. How did this person’s influence change Bellwood? As an elected official, what do you imagine your influence will be on the community?

10. Park districts make use of many different sources of funding, including property tax revenues, fees, and grants. Do you feel the Park District maintains the right balance of free and fee-based facilities and programming for financial sustainability and equity? What do you see as the tradeoffs?

11. Pass-through funding from the State of Illinois has been much less plentiful in recent years due to fiscal issues at the State level. What plans do you have for continuing to fund programing and facilities improvement?