Village Board Candidates Get Down to Business Issues

Editor's Note: This is the fourth 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 two questions about attracing businesses to Lake Zurich:

1) Should the village develop a marketing campaign to attract businesses to the village?

2) Should businesses looking to relocate to Lake Zurich be given any incentives?

Jennifer Talley

Marketing Campaign: Yes. We need to be competitive in the market place when looking to fill vacant buildings. I feel strongly about getting the “right” businesses in the vacant buildings. One area we lack in is a good place for teens/young adults ages 11-17 to frequent. I would consider offering incentives to attract new businesses. 

Being both a resident and a business executive in Lake Zurich; this topic is very important to me. If we want to grow and get the village revenues up; we need to support our local businesses.

It is extremely important to consistently remind the residents of the local businesses.  A portion of every News Line, village board meeting, and the village web site should be dedicated to promoting local businesses.  I would consider setting up e-mail blasts, mailings, social media, etc. with coupons or events promoted weekly. 

Incentives: I feel that this should be a consideration, we need businesses to relocate here and I am willing to consider offering incentives for them to do so.

John Tolomei

Marketing Campaign: The village should develop a marketing campaign that promotes the strengths the village currently has for businesses. Such program would emphasize the village location at the intersection of two major highways and a consumer base with an above average disposable income.

A marketing campaign should also identify and target specific types of businesses that will fill niche needs for retail in the area. Another feature can include programs and materials that facilitate the development and integration of new businesses into the village.

Incentives: Yes, incentives should be offered to bring new business to the area.  Such incentives can include sales tax rebates, permit fee reductions and license fee waivers. To make such incentives fair to existing businesses, the incentives should also apply to significant renovation and/or expansion of such existing businesses.

Mark Ernst

Marketing Campaign: Absolutely, and coupled to the marketing campaign include incentives. Lake Zurich has many important qualities and benefits, and if we don’t communicate the benefits of Lake Zurich in a compelling way, not only as a place to do business, but as a community to raise a family, how will prospective companies know about them.

Incentives: Yes, we should consider incentives because Lake Zurich is competing with other communities for business and we must be able to compete for new businesses on an equal footing with other communities.

Tom Poynton

Marketing Campaign: Yes, within the context of an overall Economic Development Plan. Here are some suggested approaches for helping and enhancing economic development that I would like to see the village consider moving forward:

A. Establish an Economic Development Advisory Board. The goal of the Economic Development Advisory Board would be to assist and advise the Village Board and staff in the review and implementation of Economic Development efforts. By seeking the input from key business leaders, the Lake Zurich Area Chamber of Commerce and Industrial Park leaders included, the village can obtain a birds-eye view and first-person understanding of our strengths and weaknesses as it relates to business growth and attraction of new businesses. This input and perspective can be used to further refine our strategies to position the village with a more competitive edge.

The Economic Development Advisory Board  would be charged with:

• Advising the Village on the implementation of a Lake Zurich Business Plan. This would be the first step in an admittedly long-term process of recruiting new businesses to the Village.
• Recommending updates to the Plan as deemed needed
• Providing input to the Board on the needs of local businesses and the available Economic Development opportunities/resources.
• Identifing as soon as possible business expansion, contraction and closure plans which have a community wide impact.
• Focusing on stabilizing and/or increasing Economic Development
• Identifying strengths in the business climate
• Identifying weaknesses that need to be overcome

 B. Create a proclamation and a promotional campaign around the theme ”Buy in Lake Zurich.”

We have a diverse retail and business base; let’s promote it! We could offer on the Village Economic Development web page a comprehensive list of LZ retailers in every type of retail category. Then let people know how local sales taxes derived from the “Buy in Lake Zurich” supports Village provided services. By compiling the services that this retail tax base supports, people might think twice about heading out of town the next time they need a book or a birthday gift.

C.  One of the measurements of quality of life in a community is the convenience of having a retail market that meets the needs of its residents. The Village should consider identifying commercial incentives, perhaps tailored to each requestor, and facilitate partnerships for targeted retailers.

D.  A continuing education program between Village departments and various business leaders to educate them regarding Village processes, forms, fees,inspections and ordinances, etc.;  Similar to a program recently completed for the Lake Zurich Chamber of Commerce Government Committee.

E. Village Board members can and should pay “courtesy visits” to local business and industry leaders. The focus of the visit would be thank the business for its contributions to the community; identify needs and perceptions; identify opportunities and threats to our business partners thereby directing our resources more effectively toward solving business problems and improving the business climate of our community.

F.  Consider pooling our Economic Development resources with our neighbors, especially Deer Park and Kildeer … Route 12 corridor development, to create a regional,  non-mall area of shopping convenience.

Incentives: A collaboration of the village board and village staff has resulted in an Economic Development section on the Village web site. The site includes topics such as: The Lake Zurich Advantage; Community Information; Site and Building Information (with listings of retail and industrial sites currently available); Lake Zurich Area Consumer Research; Business License Information; Business Support Directory.

The role of the Village Board as “Development Ambassadors” needs to be expanded, to work with developers. Board members need to actively recruit new commercial occupants to fill vacant properties. The Board can also encourage increased occupancy by advocating for more streamlined permitting (which is being done) and by providing limited, well thought out, and fiscally responsible incentives, where appropriate, perhaps tailored to each requestor.

Dana Rzeznik

Marketing Campaign: Yes.

Incentives: The board of trustees as the legislative body needs to establish a policy to offer incentives for business to either relocate to Lake Zurich or to stay here. This could be a short-term policy to help us through the difficult financial times or a more permanent solution.

The Village Board and Administration should rely on the expertise of the Chamber of Commerce and the Industrial Council to foster this cooperation (this is exactly the answer I provided to the LZ Chamber of Commerce on this issue).