Coverage of Riverside Community Alliance’s Town Hall Meeting

No new taxes, RCA says
Party says it will ‘tear apart’ budget to find efficiencies

By BOB UPHUES
Editor

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Emphasizing that they can maintain or enhance services without resorting to a tax increase, candidates for president and trustee on the Riverside Community Alliance slate vowed Sunday to “tear apart” Riverside’s budget and work to attract new businesses downtown.

The candidates made their pitch at Riverside Township Hall to a standing-room only crowd of 60 to 70 people that included residents and local officials, including opposing candidates and the sitting village president.

“Everything is on the table,” said Michael Gorman, who is the Riverside Community Alliance’s candidate for village president. Also speaking at the two-hour town hall meeting were RCA trustee candidates Mark Shevitz, Lonnie Sacchi and James Reynolds.

While the candidates didn’t break much new ground during the meeting, which included a short presentation by the candidates and then a question-and-answer session with audience members, they did provide a few specifics regarding their plan to reduce spending without raising additional revenue.

But they fell short of specifying programs or people they might cut to balance an operating budget that projects deficits in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in coming years.

“We’re just going to tear it apart and start over,” Gorman said of the village’s budget.

The party’s platform seeks to match village services with the amount of money available to it.

“We’re going to figure out what are the services we want and then we’re going to look at the money we have,” Gorman said. “We’re not going to worry about who’s in what department. We’re going to find efficiencies. It’s all about matching services to the money you have.”

Two areas that the candidates vowed to continue funding were the recreation department and historical museum, both of which had their funding cut in half by the village board in 2009.

The party’s vision for the recreation department, however, appears to be one focused on programming alone and not on sponsoring costly special events or spending its money maintaining park lands.

“I’d like to think we could find $100,000 in the budget,” Shevitz said. “We shouldn’t be punishing the rec department for running efficiently.”

Sacchi said that park maintenance should be funded through the public works department and that if the goal was to have the recreation department become a self-sustaining entity “then it’s incumbent on us to provide the assistance while that’s happening.”

Gorman repeated the party’s platform of making sure the village had the right staff in place for the job, but fell short of giving insight into which village staffers might be looked at in an effort to economize.

“Are we going to lower salaries? I don’t know, but we’re going to look at it,” Gorman said. “It’s a question of whether you have the correct people in the correct job.”

Pushed to show how the party could reconcile their promises with the village’s financial projections, the candidates did offer some insight into bridging the financial gap.

Sacchi said that if the RCA gains a majority on the board and finds through its line-by-line audit that the numbers still don’t work, they would advocate using cash reserves. Citing the $1 million the village board in 2007 moved from the general fund to the capital projects fund, Sacchi said, “We have that if the process falls short of what we intend to do.”

Reynolds added that reducing village staff hours could also result in a savings to taxpayers and avoid layoffs.

“I don’t think we’re trying to evade this question,” Reynolds said. “It’s going to take a lot of work.”

With respect to attracting businesses to Riverside, the candidates reiterated their pledge to hire a consultant to recruit businesses to the village, if the budget allows such an expense.

Reynolds said that Riverside needed to trade on its uniqueness as a historic community, which, he said, could offset the size of the village. Businesses “will come if we showcase our village as something unique,” Reynolds said. “We have to be welcoming. We have to encourage each little merchant we get.”

Asked how the village might be able to use its influence to spur the reclamation of the Arcade Building, RCA candidates stated that although the building was in private hands RCA would push to put together a group of residents who might understand how best to approach the problem.

“It’s the heart of our village,” Reynolds said. “If we don’t care about that, we don’t care about anything in this town. We have to get together a consortium of residents with expertise and money. It’s something we have to advocate for.”

Coverage of platforms in Suburban Life

Platforms announced for April village elections

Tue Jan 20, 2009, 02:32 PM CST
Candidates have released their platforms for the April election, where three trustee and village president positions are up for grabs in Riverside.

With an independent looking to focus on business and tourism, and the established parties indicating fiscal responsibility will be a core focus, money issues appear to be in the forefront of all candidates.

The Riverside Community Alliance, a slate including Mike Gorman, candidate for village president, and Jim Reynolds, Lonnie Sacchi and Mark Shevitz as candidates for trustees, announced their platform with fiscal responsibility ranking first.

“I think everything starts with the budget,” Shevitz said. “That is why it is the No. 1 thing. With the increased spending over the last six to seven years, there is room and need to do a line-by-line audit and make sure everything is spent accordingly.”

The goal is to identify efficient options for services with the hope of increasing the current service level, Shevitz said.

The next important issue on the RCA’s platform is creating sustainable businesses in downtown Riverside. Shevitz said the goal is to have businesses the residents are excited to support.

“All of our opponents are counting on people from La Grange or Naperville to shop in our downtown in order for it to be successful,” Sacchi said. “Riverside Community Alliance is the only group of candidates that wants to create a downtown that can and will be supported by Riverside residents.”

A final issue is open and transparent government, which is critical, Shevitz said. The government should be transparent and accountable to residents and voters. Examples such as putting the village’s checkbook online or having board meetings online will help communication between residents and the village, Shevitz said.

Alex Gallegos, running as an independent for a trustee position on the Village Board, said bringing business to Riverside and opening the village up for tourism are his top priorities. Introducing more live entertainment and restaurant options will bring people off the train and encourage them to stay, Gallegos said.

“Where trainloads of people from La Grange, Naperville and other towns come for the live entertainment and they’ll stay and eat in our restaurants, drink our martinis and shop in our stores,” Gallegos said in his platform.

This is the first time Gallegos has run for position on the Village Board. He has been on the Chamber of Commerce for five years. He said the theme of his platform is “enough is enough.”

The Riverside Party and the RCA are dividing the residents, Gallegos said.

“We can not move forward with these two bitter groups playing tug of war with the village residents,” he said.

The Riverside Party, a slate including Trustee Kevin Smith as candidate for village president, and David Lesniak, Anthony Miezio and Kelly Navarro for trustees, believe in the individuality of each member and setting the village apart from other municipalities.

“Each candidate has a different emphasis and things they would like to accomplish,” Smith said. “We aren’t speaking in a monolithic voice.”

The Riverside Party noted protecting the natural beauty of the village, preserving financial security in an unstable economy, revitalizing the village business district, increasing public awareness of village government, maintaining public facilities and maximizing their values as the most important issues for the village.

Preserving the financial security of the village is of utmost importance and if that is not tended to, nothing can be done for the village, Smith said.

“We are different that the Riverside Party comes from a base of having actually dealt with budgetary issues,” Smith said. “What you are getting with the RCA, they will reinvent the wheel.”

Platform coverage in the Riverside Brookfield Landmark

RCA announces ‘09 campaign platform
Would review staffing, put major spending to a vote

By BOB UPHUES

Editor

Candidates from the Riverside Community Alliance released their platform for the 2009 campaign, calling for an end to local government dominated by the Riverside Community Caucus and promising fiscal responsibility, a viable business district and a more transparent government.

“We see the role of trustees as people elected to do responsible things,” said Mark Shevitz, who is running for trustee along with Lonnie Sacchi and James Reynolds. Michael Gorman is the RCA’s candidate for village president.

“It’s up to trustees to set the proper priorities and be watchdogs.”

Playing up the idea of the Riverside Community Caucus as having a stranglehold on “one-party rule” in Riverside, the RCA platform states that village spending increased 47 percent from 2001-07, a trend that can only be limited by “a top-down, line-by-line budget audit to identify areas of cost savings and better efficiency.”

That analysis would include a review of village management and department staffing and would result in, according to the platform document released by the group last week, “providing a better level of services to residents without having to spend more of the village budget.”

Asked if Village Manager Kathleen Rush’s job was on the chopping block, Shevitz responded simply that “we’re looking at everything.”

He did make it clear that the RCA would not be opposed to attracting less expensive village staff who may not have as much as experience, giving the former Public Works Director Michael Hullihan as an example. Hullihan, a licensed engineer, was public works director until August when he left to become public works chief in Oakbrook.

Among other things, Hullihan oversaw the transformation of the village’s water delivery system from gravity to a pump-based operation. He also guided the construction of a new public works building in Riverside Lawn.

“Maybe his level of expertise was needed at one time,” Shevitz said. “It’s a question of would residents rather have the same level of services provided by someone less experienced and save money?”

The platform also calls for village-wide referendums on major expenditures, “any time we will be spending a significant portion of taxpayer dollars,” said Shevitz.

The restoration of the water tower and the construction of the public works building could be examples of such spending, Shevitz said. Neither project required the village board to ask voters for a referendum to move ahead.

“If it’s a good idea, taxpayers should have a say in that,” Shevitz said.

The platform also suggests that the village could cut down on the use of consultants by seeking resident volunteers to take on some tasks. The group, however, does believe that the village could hire a consultant to work on economic development for the downtown business district.

“We feel that whatever we’ve been doing has not been working in terms of the downtown,” Shevitz said. “As the budget allows we can work on finding an expert in bringing businesses to national historic communities like ours.

“Maybe he would work with a panel of residents, but we need to do something to get the ball rolling.”

While the RCA would like to capitalize on the historic nature of Riverside, the group is looking to attract businesses “which our residents will support.”

“We can’t rely on people from Downers Grove to get off the train,” Shevitz said. “We have to be the ones.”

In order to promote transparency, the RCA also wants to videotape all village board and commission meetings and require two opportunities for public comment before an ordinance is voted on. They also would contemplate eliminating committee of the whole meetings, which are held for trustees to hash out issues without fielding questions from residents present.

“I’d rather have them as part of the regular meeting with open comment,” Shevitz said. “We have a problem with lack of participation by residents. Putting more restrictions on comment is not the way to deal with that.”

Slate Announcement in the Suburban Life

Community Alliance group announces slate for 2009 election

Riverside’s president and three trustee positions are up for election for April 7 and both parties have announced their candidates.

New this year, the Riverside Community Alliance group announced Friday its slate for the elections.

The candidates are Michael Gorman, village president, and James Reynolds, Lonnie Sacchi and Mark Shevitz, trustee.

Mark Shevitz said the RCA started out as a loose issue-based group in 2007. The tax increment finance district was the first issue with which the RCA got involved and voiced opinion. In November, the tax increase referendum was an issue its members were strongly against — along with 80 percent of the voters, Shevitz said.

“We decided the best way to stop fighting it is to run for Village Board and work to create positive changes in the village,” Shevitz said.

Shevitz said the RCA candidates want to offer residents a real choice, a real difference and a real change to policies voters have declined in the past.

The candidates for the Riverside Party are: Trustee Kevin Smith, for village president, and David Lesniak, Kelly Navarro and Anthony Meizio for trustee.

The Riverside Party candidates have been selected by the Riverside Caucus, which serves as a recruiting and screening process for potential candidates. Candidates were informally announced Nov. 24.

Smith said the goal of the caucus is to come up with the best candidates possible for the Village Board.

“The individual candidates may run as a slate and form a party or they can run independents,” he said. “The name of the party changes from election to election. This year is Riverside Party.”