I must admit I’m not up to listening to the three candidates for Crystal Lake Mayor, but if you are, here’s where to find a video of the event.

Analyzing the League’s questions are almost as interesting as the candidates’ answers.

One candidate, Donald Kountz, did send what he said and that is below:

A short summary of my answers to the questions.

I’m an engineer so I can always find things I could have done better. 

We all knew the first 8 questions in advance. 

I tied to make sure I answered the question as asked. 

A short summary of my answers to the questions.

1.       Q: What plans do you have to implement to ensure the municipality is welcoming to a diverse population? 

A: Go and survey where the diverse individuals reside. 

Ask School Districts 47 & 155 what the students need. 

Ask the employers what the employees need.  Look at the city itself and check the City of Crystal Lake’s internal hiring.

Reevaluate the advertising of Crystal Lake considering the potential for more stay at home work since the commute may no longer be an impact.

2.       Q: Some residences have stated that we are “landlocked” and have very little, if any land to annex for either residential or commercial development?  Is that correct? 

A: I focused on redevelopment of existing commercial parcels. 

Slight modifications through full redevelopment along the Route 14 corridor using Mariano’s as an example.

3.       Q: How do you plan to keep the momentum going or to gain momentum behind new affordable housing in the city? 

A question I was weak on with limited time to research options to understand both the law and how these are funded.

4.       Q: How do you plan to work with our surrounding communities to explore shared services? 

A: First I talked about structure and ground rules and then I offered an example like garbage collection because that can benefit everyone.

5.       Q: What financial challenges do you see for Crystal Lake and how do you plan to address them? 

A: City budget is around $115M, both revenue and expenditures going in the wrong direction. 

Money from General Fund Balance Reserves continues to be used to keep the city’s real estate levy flat. 

However, unsure if recovery of revenue after the pandemic will allow this to continue.

6.       Q: What part does the Mayor play in connecting with residence of Crystal Lake? (area meetings, more newsletters?) 

A: The mayor plays a huge part. 

I don’t believe the five minutes before City Council meetings allows time to fully listen to problems. 

I would create listening sessions to learn about concerns from various groups or topics. 

Seniors, teens, religious, recreation, city services, nothing is off the table. 

We have to take the time to listen.

7.       Q: While the City has a City Administrator, how often do you plan to meet with various public service departments to evaluate effectiveness of services and resident satisfaction? 

A: I expect that all the departments have a set of critical performance metrics they are reporting to the city manager. 

I would expect these are being reviewed monthly and I would review them at the same time. 

Significant metrics out of tolerance or problematic to our residents will get more frequent review.

I believe at least quarterly the department heads should meet with the mayor to discuss the performance and needs of their departments. 

Being retired, I can attend regular meetings during normal city business hours making for efficient, full and honest discussions.

8.       Q: How can a resident be more involved and gain knowledge of the workings of the City? 

A: The city has to meet residents half way and change some of its behaviors. 

When the pandemic broke out the city held zoom meetings. 

As soon as the safety measures were put in place in the council chamber, zoom was cancelled. 

Shutting out individuals who didn’t feel safe attending. 

When asked why I was told this is what the council wants. 

The agenda package comes out at the very last minute not allowing for an in depth review. 

This is one of the reasons I’m running. 

No one on either city staff or city council caught NIMEC raising the fees citizens pay for their electricity through electrical aggregation from fifty-three thousand dollars to over one hundred and forty-one thousand dollars for no increase in effort. 

I caught it and when I brought it to the mayor, the city decided to take no action since it’s the residents paying the bill. 

Major portions of agenda packet are not machine searchable. 

When you watch remotely and listen to the questions you realize the public packet is different than the members’ packet.

If the city keeps closing the door on its residents then they stop being involved.

There were four additional questions on

• resolving disagreements,
• Downtown business district
• public transportation and
• what would you do with $1M. 

For the Million Dollar question I would focus it on job creation to look to the future and strengthen the community. 

Haleblian would use it for infrastructure, which makes me wonder what else I don’t know about the health of the city budget.

My closing statement was, “To the League of Women Voters thank you for hosting us today. 

I am the best candidate running for mayor because I’ve been both a member and leader of teams tasked with solving difficult and complex problems for over three decades. 

Trained as an electrical engineer, I bring these skills with me. 

I understand being elected carries with it responsibilities. 

That is why I pay attention to the details. 

That is how I found Crystal Lake did not coordinate with the county and school districts when it enacted the municipal utility tax and improperly received over $80,000 it wasn’t entitled to from Districts 47 and 155.  

I dig to find and anticipate the problems before they happen. 

I trust but verify to ensure the information is correct and complete so the job is done right. 

I understand every dollar Crystal Lake takes in ultimately comes from its residents and I will work to be a good steward your money. 

I understand senior citizens face challenges and I will be an advocate for them. 

Thank you to everyone who participates in our representative democracy by voting. 

I do hope I have earned your vote.