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Northwest Herald Campaign Questionnaire
Name: Debby Sosine
Age: 63
Town: Algonquin
Office sought: Village Trustee
Occupation: Accountant
Education: College
Elected offices held: Algonquin Village Trustee since 2007
Website: www.debbysosine.weebly.com
Social Media: Facebook: Trustee Debby Sosine
Questions:
1. What is your largest priority for Algonquin if elected?
Keeping a balanced budget is my number one priority. As our pensions are increasing and we are employing less people, we need to make sure we can provide the same quality of services with subcontractors as we were able to with employees. We need to promote Algonquin to businesses enabling us to increase our sales tax base which helps us keep the real estate tax levy the same as we’ve been able to for the past 10 years. Making sure our downtown stays viable is also a very important priority to me.
2. What changes should Algonquin make in the future?
Algonquin has been very successful with the plans and vision that are in place. With that said, finding more ways to keep the citizens aware of what’s going on in the village will continue to be a challenge. We need to be continuing to expand our work with all state representatives to ensure the LDGF funding stays in place and continue to expand our marketing program to sell Algonquin to businesses. Algonquin has made it to the ‘middle’ cut for the USDA future headquarters office location. Keeping my fingers crossed! This would be a great addition to our business park. We need to get our homeowners associations on board to environmentally best practices on all the open spaces they are responsible for. It’s a delicate matter, but the village has been one of the leaders in the area in environmental practices that we want expanded in the village when possible.
3. What are your thoughts on video gaming in the village?
I voted to approve our video poker ordinance that prohibits standalone video gaming stores. The ordinance we have in place I believe is fair to the village to keep the high standards we encourage in place, yet enable business to expand their income base. We only currently have 18 businesses with video poker machines, so I don’t believe we are overloaded with the machines in the village. The percentage of the gambling money the village receives is earmarked for our parks, giving us another source of income for those expenses.
4. What makes you stand out compared to the other candidates?
I am a conservative accountant that has a history of staying on budget and looking to the future to make sure we are able to keep the high quality of services we are giving citizens in place within our budget. With the history and knowledge base I have in the village through my past involvement in the Village EDC and the Plan and Zone Commission, in addition of all my involvement in D300 School district, and me always looking at the village as a whole, I believe I can make the best decisions for Algonquin. An example is: I required a bid to go out when Groot came in to the board to renegotiate the contract for the garbage program. We now have a 15% decrease in the services starting with the contract September 2019. I will always do my best to make sure we get the citizens the best in all the services we provide.
5. What else should voters know about you?
My best moments in the past 4 years have been the birth of my 4 grandchildren and finding out my daughter is due with her first child the week after the election!
Despite these great times, I still am able to spend the time needed to serve the community on the board. I will continue to do my best for our village. My web site has much more information on me than is in the questionnaire here.
6. What are your thoughts on how the village has handled downtown construction, Longmeadow Parkway, attracting businesses to the east side, etc?
I think the village is on the right track. Unfortunately, some things take more time to come to fruition than others. I have been working on the downtown revitalization since 2012 when I was the board liaison for the committee. I was very supportive on the construction process the village used for the first portion of downtown. I am again very disappointed in the non-action of ATT to get their stuff moved in a timely basis, they only had over 18 months notice! This is the third major street project we’ve had to extend into a second construction season because wires weren’t moved since I’ve been on the board, I have been and will continue to press our Springfield representatives to pass a law requiring the utility companies to perform the required utility movements in a much better response time than Algonquin and all other communities have had to deal with – saving thousands of dollars in construction costs for municipalities and taxpayers. We have hired a marketing company to give us additional tools and connections to help attract more business to the East side, downtown and corporate campus. We need to make sure we continue to use these additional tools.