Issues

As an Alderman for 12 years and member of Aurora City Council, I have supported programs for struggling teens and at-risk youth. I served on the Aurora Plan Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals. I am on the Upper Illinois River Valley Development Authority Board which has created 8,627 jobs and 1.4 billion in investment in Illinois. My education and career are based in architecture and urban planning, combined with starting and running a small business in downtown Aurora, I have a background unique to our City Council. As an architect, I have worked successfully for 30 years with school districts and municipalities across Illinois. My goal is always to lead a cohesive unit toward setting realistic, achievable, and successful goals for their community. Orphaned at a young age, I was raised by my father who taught by example the importance of an honest day’s work. I personally understand the daily challenges and sacrifices that our immigrant community, our seniors, and parents like myself face to raise their children in a safe community. My career and life experiences lend themselves well to serving as a full-time mayor. I am devoted to keeping our neighborhoods vibrant.

There are many. Firstly, rising inflation and costs. Aurora should have already started some budgetary belt-tightening. Aurora is experiencing mission creep and duplication of youth and senior services which is why I voted against the two most recent tax levies and budget over the past two years. Aurora is a thriving city and has maintained a solid bond rating. The City has been very aggressive in offering economic incentives for redevelopment, paying short-term dividends especially in downtown which I hope to continue. The City needs a focused eye on budget expenses on our decreasing discretionary funds available, before enacting property tax increases. We need to be vigilant on how to proceed with our mandate to replace lead lines to provide healthier water, particularly for our children. We must re-establish trust in city government. This can happen by being fully transparent, communicating clearly, and being responsive to the public. As Mayor, I will work toward enacting policies similar to the State that bars any vendor from bidding or acquiring work who has provided large sum donations to elected officials or individuals within three years they have run for a city position. 

Stop unnecessary spending and raising taxes before we have budgetary tightening. We will enact a policy because the current administration doesn’t have one. I will ensure that we do not spend more on economic development than the amount received from gaming revenues. I will stop the reliance of our General Fund to pay principal and interest for borrowing on economic development projects. Developer projects will stop being reliant on multiple redevelopment requests due to miscalculated initial project development plans. We will work with the Aurora Civic Center Authority(ACCA) and On-Light Aurora to stop their growing annual deficits with taxpayer bailout reliance. I will support ACCA by resurrecting their fundraising efforts via stronger public/private partnerships and the Paramount Endowment Fund. On-Light is losing market share in our city during this administration. I will make sure On-Light becomes, once again, a self-reliant engine for business retention and attraction without relying on taxpayer dollars for fiber network expansion. We will stop diverting city council approved budget items and dollar amounts to non-budgeted items that add cost to the taxpayer. 

Through accountability, making sure administrators are held accountable for their actions and are transparent about the financial picture. Through communication, by engaging our community,commission,board members to provide their input toward the creation of improved public policy and decision making. Through responsiveness, using new technology to improve access to information and services. We need to place AI into Aurora but have to be careful to not be reactionary. We need to have an AI Bill of Rights for our city with community input and guidance in order to stay proactive. This will help with AI developments for the benefit of our city and our communities' future. I will pass a stronger ethics ordinance for elected officials and city department heads to eliminate pay for play politics. I will hold our administrative staff to standards where they work for us without pursuing additional opportunities to create/support a personal side business. Re-establish in-person community engagement by the Mayor’s Office and city staff toward building trust with the community and make sure that our Community Oriented Police  officers start coming to all of our community meetings once again.