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?

What motivated me to seek this office is being a mother of four school age children and having a son that has Autism and seeing the lack of special programs that exist. I am passionate about our seniors in the community. My perspective is to bring special recreation programs for children who have physical or intellectual disabilities as well as technology training for our seniors. Technology offers seniors opportunities to connect with friends and family. 

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

The best example I can give is at home when two of my kids fight over the good piece of chicken. In getting them to compromise, I teach them the importance of fairness, sharing and taking turns. If taxing bodies worked together more, we could share our resources rather than suing each other and wasting money. Again, its about fairness, sharing and taking turns. 

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

Transparency in government is important to me because it promotes accountability and provides information to our citizens (residents). 

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?

Social media is definitely the way to communicate with the current and newer generation. Because we still have those that are challenged by technology, we still need to include old school phone calls and door knocking to get information into the hand of our residents. 

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

Currently there is no easy way to reach out to the Park Director or Board members. I have only seen one Board member at community events representing the Park and that has to change. I would make sure that I inform residents of all events that we would be participating in and make myself available to the public. I would attend the events of the other taxing bodies to ensure that I am known in the community. Anytime you represent the community at large, you need to be seen in the public and that's just not happening now. 

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

The three biggest issue facing the Park district faces is the following: 

1. Lack of special recreation programs

2. Activities and programs for seniors

3. Transparency

The easy fix to these three issues is to develop and implement new programs for the special need community and the senior community and dissolve those that aren't working. To be more transparent is to let the public know what is actually taking place at the Park. What is the health of the finances, what programs do we have planned for the future and what improvements to the park are being planned.

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

An equitable community is one where everyone is included in the full benefits of society. A community where everyone is treated with fairness and empowered to participate fully in social, cultural and economic lives. 

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?

Being visible in the community and available to ask and answer questions that residents may have. Residents currently don't feel as if their voice or opinion counts and I would see to it that this negative feeling changes. 

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

Mayor Katrina Thompson is one of the most influential local members in Broadview. Mayor Katrina Thompson is dedicated to promoting a strong neighborhood, and a high quality in life. She believes Broadview strength comes from being a balanced community. The Mayor is so hands on when it comes to our community and helping our seniors. I have not seen a mayor so dedicated as she is. 

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?

No I don't. I think with the current budget, a lot more can be accomplished for the community. Having been a former employee of the Park District, I see a lot of wasteful spending and underutilized facilities. My running mate and I have discussed future plans to increase the usage of our facilities and our current resources. We look forward to further detailing these plans after the election on April 6, 2021. 

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?

My plans to cut wasteful spending and increase the efficiency and usage of the resources that we do have are a start. Working with our elected officials to increase rather than decrease available funding would be the second part of our efforts. 

12. The Park District Board is responsible for oversight of the Executive Director. What criteria would you use to evaluate performance? Do you feel the Executive Director is doing a good job?

1. Quarterly budget reviews 

2. Semiannual review of Programming efficiency 

3. Review of staff performance and training. 

4. Quarterly status reports on capital improvements

13. Do you see opportunities for the Broadview Park District to collaborate productively with other local taxing bodies? What could hinder those efforts?

Yes, I see opportunities for the Broadview Park District to collaborate productively with other local taxing bodies to define a vision for the future and identifying the actions to be taken to realize the vision. 

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[The above answers were supplied on 2/24/21.]