Candidates Tell How to Preserve Village Services Without Increasing Costs

Editor's Note: This is the seventh in a series of articles Lake Zurich Patch will provide about Village Board candidates' views on key issues within the village. All five candidates were given a questionnaire and had the same amount of time to prepare and submit their answers. Their answers are presented in their own words. The order of their responses will rotate with each article so that each candidate is fairly represented.

Five candidates are seeking to fill five available posts on the Lake Zurich Village Board in the Tuesday, April 5 consolidated election. 

Incumbent Tom Poynton and former Mayor John Tolomei are running as independents. Mark Ernst, Dana Rzeznik and Jennifer Talley are running as part of the LZ Vision party along with incumbent Kathleen Johnson, who is running unopposed for village clerk.

Following are their answers, in their own words, to the question:

How best can the village continue to provide necessary services without increasing the costs to residents?

Tom Poynton

First off I support no new taxes. The village board and staff will continue to fine-tune our budget balancing process. Recently the board and staff, with public input, collaborated on a new strategic plan to which future budgets will be tied. We will spend your money in furtherance of the strategic plan.

We have improved our frugality and money management and we will need to become even more frugal. Additional cuts may, at some point, have to be made. Re-tooling operations, combining functions and even outsourcing where practical will need to be considered to further lower the cost of delivering the services our residents have come to expect of the village.

There are not too many sources of revenue remaining that we haven’t tapped. Revenue growth will come mostly from new projects and an upturn in the economy that will help fill empty storefronts and generate increased sales taxes and new project property taxes.

Dana Rzeznik

Village of Lake Zurich residents are enjoying a high levels of services in all areas of the village life. Before any service cuts are considered, the residents need to have a voice and an opportunity for providing input to the elected officials.

I and my Lake Zurich Vision running mates would propose a series of meetings with the residents before any cuts that would result in lowering or eliminating any services are approved. I believe that any cuts in services can be avoided through pursuing collaboration with other communities and share services to realize the economies of scale. Outsourcing of some services should also be analyzed to see if it can offer additional savings.

Jennifer Talley

I feel the village needs to look into every alternative and get the public’s opinion on options for increasing revenues versus increasing costs to residents.

I support exploring cooperative agreements with neighboring villages to share services such as police, public works, etc. We see there are economies of scale that can produce savings for all participating villages. Lake Zurich has a substantial amount invested in infrastructure that can be leveraged for the benefit of all.

John Tolomei

The best way for the Village to do this is by increasing the non-residential tax base in the village through in-filling of retail on Route 12, development of the downtown, and getting more or expanding businesses in the industrial park. In addition the Village needs to find creative ways to provide services at less cost. Pooling services with other communities is an example of how this can be done.  Another good example is the combining of forces with other service providers, such as joining with the YMCA in providing recreation programs.

Mark Ernst

The village should determine the level of necessary/essential services it needs to provide. It should communicate to the residents the level of services that will be provided. It should then examine non-essential services to look for reductions and savings.