Kendall County Board District 2: Scott Gryder

Name: Scott Gryder

Office sought: Kendall County Board, District 2

Party: Republican

Town of residence: Oswego

Age:

Education / training:

Juris Doctor DePaul College of Law

Bachelor of Business Administration University of Illinois-Springfield

Where are you currently employed? What is your title?

Near North Title Group - Vice President and General Counsel

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

Kendall County Board and Kendall County Forest Preserve Commissioner, Oswego Library District Trustee, Chairman Oswego Plan Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals

What are the 3 biggest issues facing the county?

a) Declining revenues from federal and state government, more money being siphoned from the county budget being sent to Springfield for no additional benefit along with unfunded mandates that create stress on our budget.

b) Need increased economic development in order to broaden our tax base to reduce the property tax burden on our homeowners.

c) We need to continue revising and updating our zoning ordinances now that we are one of the larger counties in the state to catch up with the changing demographics of our county.

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?

I have consistently voted against spending on these homes without having a plan in place for their future.  The bonds are now nearly completely gone that were used to grow the preserve. The focus now needs to be on opening our preserves. We have worked very hard to turn around the finances at the forest preserve and need to continue to work to make sure our operating budget is sustainable going forward as well.

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 "contribution" as it is called is a formula to simply require the health department to pay for the benefits of health department employees out of the health department levy rather than using the general fund to do so. If the forumla had not been created, the county would have been forced to lay off numerous employees in the Sheriff's Office and likely other county offices. No department has been hurt since this mechanism was put in place, including the health department. However, to assist the health department in their budgeting process I would consider fully funding the health department in its entirety by using the health levy which would require their board to budget within their means similar to how the county does now.

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

I have voted for repealing health insurance benefits and would support repealing them again. The board recently repealed mileage reimbursement simply for attending a meeting in county and I strongly support continuing this ban.