Kendall County Board District 1: Matthew Prochaska

Name: Matthew G. Prochaska

Office sought: Kendall County Board, District 1

Party: Republican

Town of residence: Bristol

Age: 32

Education / training:

Bachelor of Arts, Loras College, Dubuque, Iowa

Where are you currently employed? What is your title?

Strive Strategies Group, Director of Operations

Have you ever held elective or appointive public office before? If yes, please list those offices.

Kendall County Housing Authority: 2011-Present

Kendall County Board: 2012-Present

Kendall County Forest Preserve: 2012-Present

What are the 3 biggest issues facing the county?

The current 3 biggest issues facing Kendall County are the State of Illinois, the County debt, and economic development. The State of Illinois is by far the biggest obstacle facing the County, the sheer number of unfunded mandates coming from the State has cost Kendall County hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Illinois General Assembly in their wisdom has also opted to take funding from the County to fix their own budgets. This ranges from a 2% now 1.5% processing fee for sales taxes, to reducing the local share of LGDF revenues to the County.

The County Debt is currently for repayment of bonds needed to build a new Courthouse and Health Department. These were needs to meet state standards, particularly for the Courthouse. The current bond plan is much predictable now than when I took office thanks to the refinancing of the County Debt. These bonds will be paid off late in the next decade. Until that happens the County will need to be very cautious at budget time. The third is economic development, Kendall County needs to do a better job working with the municipalities to create plans to attract more companies like Wrigley to the. Unfortunately, the County has in the past been more of a roadblock than a help to the municipalities. This needs to change, and I believe putting more pro-economic development minded people on the board are what is needed.

What do you see as the role of the Forest Preserve District in county government? Should the Forest Preserve District continue to invest in the Ken Pickerill home and the Ellis House Equestrian Center? Or should the focus be on acquiring more natural land? Or both? Neither?

The Kendall County Forest Preserves main focus should always be the preservation of natural lands and maintaining the properties we have. With the Forest Preserve being almost at the end of its latest expansion, that was able to be accomplished thanks to the voter referendum for bonds in 2007. With the last couple of expansions, the Forest Preserve entered into grant agreements requiring the Forest Preserve to complete land and infrastructure improvements. Any funds currently for set aside for capital improvements need to be used to complete the grant agreements, with all other items coming in as a second priority.

What is the best policy for funding the county’s Health Department, particularly its benefits and salaries? The past and current policy has been to require the department to contribute money to the county’s General Fund – is this the correct strategy?

The current strategy that the County has used for the Health Department in terms of benefits and salaries is to only have the Health Department contribute directly for the benefits for positions accrued from grants, not from the levy. However, this policy is not sustainable for the long run, and the Health Department will need to roll back services if the current policy were to continue. We need to find a new plan for funding the Health Department by working with the Board of Health to find a solution we can both live with.

If elected, would you accept any county-provided health insurance benefits or mileage reimbursements?

The County Board this past year voted to abolish in county Mileage reimbursement, so that issue will be going away in the future. However, until that happens I will not take mileage reimbursements for in county meetings. As for Health Insurance, I currently do not take County Health Insurance and have not for the past four years. However, I might take it if my current personal situation changes.