Palatine Village Council: Wagner Faces Challenge From Kozlowski

Three village council seats are up in the April 5 election. The only contested race, however, is in District 5 where incumbent Jack Wagner faces a challenge from Kollin Kozlowski.

Kollin Kozlowski

Biography: A life-long resident of the Northwest suburbs, I grew up in Elmwood Park and attended Holy Cross High School in River Grove. At Northern Illinois University, I earned a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Public Administration and a minor in Business Administration. I continued on to Roosevelt University, earning a Masters in Business Administration with a major in Finance. Currently, I work in risk management and contract negotiations for Accenture, the leading global management consulting, technology services, and outsourcing company which helps clients become high performing businesses and governments.

Prior to Accenture, I held positions at Motorola and British Petroleum, both Fortune 50 companies. My roles included Financial Planner, Controller (over $500 million budgets), Procurement Manager, Global Category Manager and Commercial Director. In these roles, I was responsible for budgets, forecasting, supplier negotations, personnel, and leadership development.

I have lived in Palatine for the past 11 years with my wife, Marjie, and 3 children, Gabriela, Luke, and Grant.

Questions

1) Palatine instituted a property tax levy increase of 3.99 percent this year. Was the increase justified?

The property tax increase was ABSOLUTELY NOT necessary!

Every expense in the budget is in itself its own line item. Although the dollar amounts for each expense can range greatly, decreasing any one of them decreases the total liability for the Village budget. So, when everyone points to the pensions and their mandated expense, it is not the only expense that contributes to the overall budget demands.

Where the Village did make great strides to eliminate the shortfall, they stopped right before the finish line. I picture a kickoff returner running for the endzone, making great moves all the way down the field, only to spike the ball at the 5 yard thinking he made it into the goal line. And then complaining after, that he wanted the 6 points for the effort.

2)  What is the greatest challenge facing Palatine?

Overall, the Village does a great job providing base services and extended services. We need to ensure, with these bad economic conditions, that we continue to strengthen our core services within the Police, Fire, and Public Works departments.

Now, we do need to pay special attention to our aging water supply/distribution infrastructure. Major repairs are needed to ensure a continued supply of clean water. Water main breaks are happening too frequently which cause diversion from public works resources, money, and time away from daily activities.

3)  Should Palatine continue to have village council districts, or should council members serve as at-large representatives? Why or why not?

I am in support of the council approach. It allows representation to the village as a whole from very distinct areas. It ranges from downtown business, to large commercial businesses in different districts. It ranges from medium income homes, to upper income homes, to condo and apartment renters – all within different district. This ability to create a different district makeup allows the council to function in a diverse manner and represents the whole. The last thing I want to see as a resident is our local government controlled by 3-4 friends who live within 2 blocks of each other.

4)  Is Palatine doing enough to encourage development downtown? Is the village doing enough to support downtown businesses?

It boils down to 3 areas for me: Location, Economy, and Identity.

I would like to see our downtown area grow and become the stop for all our residents. But, I point to 3 areas that are slowing its progress, 2 that can be addressed and 1 with a hurdle that will always be present. The first issue that will always be there is its location. If you look at our neighbors, they have all decided to create their downtown district along the NW Hwy corridor. This allows greater access and visibility.  I do believe the widening of Palatine Rd will help traffic and visibility to our downtown stores.

Secondly, the economy crash that hit us all, also hit the development ramp up we started to see in the downtown district. As we begin to see slight improves, we should also see development start to kick up as well.

Thirdly, I truly think there is an identity issue with our downtown district. It needs to be determined whether it’s going to be retail, store front destination or an entertainment district. Until that is decided from the leadership of the council, prospective new business will be slightly hesitent to move in. Currently you have the retail folks complaining about all the smokers blocking the sideways which limits access and you have the entertainment individuals arguing there is not enough parking in the early evening hours when the retail stores are still open.

5) Overall, has the village done a good job of managing its finances?

Coming from a finance background, I can point to many areas where our finance group excels. Most importantly how it handles the TIF districts and the administration of the funds. But, I would like to see a little more transparency to the public regarding the funding and expenses for everything. Where the approved budget does lay out each fund account, it doesn’t go down to the subaccount level detail. It would also be beneficial for each of the expense funds to have a bridge accounting to show where the offset revenue is coming from - whether it’s the general fund, TIF funding, gas tax funding, utility fund. When elected, one of my first actions will be to sit down with the Finance department to understand their processes, systems, and forecasting models and hopefully bring my expertise to bare possible improvements.

6) The village will likely have to make some tough decisions regarding village hall in coming years. Maintenance and upkeep costs are rising. What do you think the village should do about Village Hall?

Village Hall is showing its age. It was the original Palatine High School, when in the mid 1970’s it was determined unsuitable for use. I do believe within the next 2-4 years a decision will need to be made. Moving forward there are many options, but all have to be taken in step with the Park District, to whom we share the facility with. It comes down to a cost-benefits analysis and the law of diminishing returns. We can, stay put and continue the maintenance and upkeep. We can spilt with the park district and go our separate ways. We can stay tied to the Park District and redesign the current building or create a multi use facility. There is also ample space available between Ost Park, Community Park, and the existing Village Hall and Park District to afford us options without disrupting businesses or commercial spaces.

7) If elected what would be your top priorities as a council member?

1. Business Attraction & Retention: The second largest revenue source for the Village is the sales tax it generates. It is currently at 22% of the total revenue. The concept is very simple, the more the Village is able to rely on sales tax generation, the less it demands from every resident in their property tax bill. We need to stop the current trend within our business community of leaving town. As of the Jan 2011 Available Property Report, the village had 221 units/stores ready to move in at 89 different locations. This also follows a 3 year trend of more businesses closing rather than opening in the ‘brick & mortar’- store front businesses. I would like to see included in the Comprehensive Plan a detailed action plan of how we are going to reverse this trend, attract and retain our current businesses, and the  goals must be  specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and the associated timeline. There needs to be that accountability link establish.   

2. Pension Administration Shared Service: Where our hands are tied regarding the funding requirements, we can still leverage size and pooling efforts to reduce costs. I would like to investigate a centralized Police and Fire Pension program which includes neighboring communities. Currently, each town administers their own Police and Fire pensions. They each have their own actuary to perform the number crunching and their own staff to handle pension payouts. IMRF (Illinois Municipality Retirement Fund) is a perfect example where towns, villages, and cities pool their pension funds. This allows greater rates of returns from a compounding interest standpoint, eliminates redundant activities, and streamlines process. In a pooled pension process, we could easily cut 15% off the existing budgets for the administration of funding the pension and the pension pay outs.

Jack Wagner

Biography: (Editor's Note: The following information came from the Village of Palatine's web site) Jack Wagner has served on the Village Council since 1987. He moved to Palatine' south Winston Park area in 1968 with his wife Diane of 42 years and has two grown children.

Wagner served on the Palatine Board of Health and as a Commissioner for the Salt Creek Park District. He is the President and CEO of Micro-Scientific Industries a leading developer, producer and distributor to the health care industry of specialty chemicals used for the control of infectious disease causing microorganisms.

Questions

1) Palatine instituted a property tax levy increase of 3.99 percent this year. Was the increase justified?

This increase was simply instituted due to the requirements sent down to us by the state. It was not by the Village of Palatine’s choice. This is another one of those State mandated programs. Our budget was balanced without this mandate. We made significant cuts to stay within our means. We just could not cut anymore without jeopardizing the level of services the Village provides including police, fire, paramedic, snow plowing, street maintenance, street lighting, street cleaning,  water system maintenance, tree trimming and replacement and other public works programs and projects. We held a number of public meetings and asked for input and advise from residents. A handful came up and told us to  ”do whatever necessary to continue to provide these services”.  It would be irresponsible for us to take money from our back up emergency funds for these purposes.  If there was another way I sure would have been  be willing to consider it.  By the way, the information put out by somebody and reported in some of the press that our Village manager make $300,000 per year and belongs to some country club and drives a Village owned luxury car is a lot of baloney.

2) What is the greatest challenge facing Palatine?

Maintaining the above listed services while keeping taxes down. These are tough times.

 3) Should Palatine continue to have village council districts, or should council members serve as at-large representatives? Why or why not?

The people of Palatine have voted twice on this issue and they have made it clear they want equal representation from all neighborhoods.  In an at-large system,  all members can be elected from within a block of each other. This way all neighborhoods elect someone to equally represent them at the Council. I remember years back when almost the entire Cook County board lived in the same neighborhood. Do think they got the gold? I think the people have wisely spoken.

4) Is Palatine doing enough to encourage development downtown? Is the village doing enough to support downtown businesses?

These are tough times for all businesses. We, as a unit of government need to walk a fine line so as to support all businesses including existing ones.  Remember that if we favor the businesses in a certain area (such as downtown) we are using  money paid in by the businesses in other areas such as the Rand and Dundee area. We also have to be careful that we don’t try to attract new business, just for sake of attracting new business and forcing other out of business. I do agree with my fellow Councilmen Lamerand and Del Mar in that we need to continue to evaluate  a means of attracting new business while supporting those already here.

5) Overall, has the village done a good job of managing its finances?

Absolutely. Just look at the study put out by another suburb that came to the conclusion that out of 13 suburban towns  with similar services, Palatine is the most cost effective per capita. They even said we were one step above them. We get the most bang for our buck!

 6)   The village will likely have to make some tough decisions regarding village hall in coming years. Maintenance and upkeep costs are rising. What do you think the village should do about Village Hall?

I wasn’t here when the decision was made , so I am not going to be a “Monday Morning Quarterback” and second guess those that made the decision years ago to move the seat of Palatine government to the old Palatine High School. I can only say that it is almost a nightmare in regards to what we pay to maintain the building. We certainly need to put all the facts together (good and bad) including all costs and I think this is an issue that needs to go to the residents as a referendum. They are the “stockholders, and this is an issue that needs their direct  input.

 7)   If elected what would be your top priorities as a council member?

A) To continue on our path to provide the services  the people have learned to expect.

B) To update our plains for the downtown area and other areas within the Village.  After all, things do change, we live in a dynamic times and we need to be flexible enough to change as needed.

C) To keep our costs in order. I am still very interested in learning how the $19-20 million the Village of Palatine sends to Cook County every year is spent.

D)  We need to stay cognoscenti that some of our “hidden” infrastructure is getting older.  For instance our water system (the pipes that deliver clean potable and safe water to our homes) needs to be monitored and in some instances replaced so that we don’t suddenly wake up some day without water to drink, make coffee with, bathe in, use the bathroom or cook with. Just imagine a situation where the water system suddenly fails.