Palatine Township Trustee Candidate: Bill Pohlman

Palatine Patch will be helping you get to know the candidates for the upcoming special primary for Palatine Township. Meet Palatine Township Trustee candidate Bill Pohlman, who is running against 10 other candidates in the February 26 special primary election. 

1) Name, office being sought, professional background, community affiliations, experiences that you feel qualify you to run for this office.

Bill Pohlman, Palatine Township Trustee

• Partner at AP ltd. an advertising agency and Internet development company
• Volunteer blogger for Palatine Patch on community events
• Member of the Palatine Jaycees (Awarded honor - Lifetime Member)
• Member of the Sons of the American Legion Post 690 in Palatine
• Past President of the Palatine/Inverness Arts Council
• Communications Director for the Palatine Township Republican Organization
• Precinct Captain and Area Chairman for a number of precincts in Palatine
• Past President of the Chicago Chapter of the Business Marketing AssociationWorked at Palatine’s Fourth of July Festival for nearly 30 years
• Co-Chair of the American Legion’s Memorial Day program and parade
• Co-Chair of the wine booth at StreetFest
• Worked at the Rotary’s Oktoberfest for the last four years
• Helped run the Palatine/Inverness Arts Council’s Art Affair Around the Square art fair in Palatine for 4 years
• Worked at a variety of fundraisers over the years to raise money for the food pantry, Journeys the Road Home, Little City, PHD among others

I moved to Palatine about 35 years ago and have never wanted to live anywhere else since I moved here.  Once I moved here, I became involved in the community.  I joined the Jaycees not long after I moved to town and became involved with many other community groups over the years. My experiences with these organizations have shown me the importance of serving the community and the people within the community.

2) How long have you been a Palatine Township resident?

31 years (My wife and I moved from Palatine to McHenry for four years in order to buy our first house.)

3) What are the reasons you chose to run for office? (for the upcoming election)

I have always been involved in giving back to the community through all the organizations I have volunteered for or been a member.  When the opportunity presented itself for me to run for Trustee, I decide to run as another way for me to give back to the community.  As a business owner and a fiscal conservative I am also concerned over government spending.  As a Trustee for Palatine Township, I would use what I have learned in the community and through managing my own business to be able to give back to the community in an efficient and effective manner and help control spending.

4) List 2-3 top issues-and how you plan to address them-that you believe are important to residents living in Palatine Township.

I feel as does the rest of our team that there is no communication within Township offices and from the Township with the community. We need to create a strategic plan with the input of the community and establish a budget to meet that plan.  At the same time we need to look at our expenses and cut the budget without diminishing services.  We plan to make a 5% cut by looking at salaries and bringing them in par with other municipalities, avoiding overtime where possible and making sure that expenditures are only made for worthwhile projects.  Our goal is to create a plan that makes sure that all taxpayers are benefitting from Township services and that tight cost controls are kept on that plan.

5) What improvements, if any, would you like to see in the way that Palatine Township is run?

I would like to move away from the philosophy of “that has how it’s always been done” and find out from the community what services are important to them and build a long term plan on how to implement those services.  While building this plan, I would also look at Township spending, work to eliminate excessive spending and develop a financial plan that covers our expenses while serving the needs and desires of the taxpayer.

6) Additional comments.

I am running with the slate “Doing Things Better for Palatine Township” because we believe that for far too long government hasn’t had the proper respect for the public’s tax dollars.  We believe that it is the taxpayers’ money that we are spending and we must spend it wisely and conservatively.
Township government has taken to the refrain “but we’ve always done it this way!”  I pledge that I and the the Doing Things Better slate will never use this excuse to avoid making progress.  We will promote commonsense reforms and innovations in order to be more efficient, transparent and accountable to the people we serve.

7) Biographical information, family, children, upbringing, religious beliefs, etc. (optional).

I am a divorced father with a 21 year old daughter.  I grew up in Berwyn, Illinois in a blue collar family with a sister and a brother.  My father worked for the post office and Jewel Food stores.  My mother was a stay at home mom.  I attended Catholic grammar school, public high school, a community college for two years and then graduated from Northern Illinois University.