:quality(70):focal(836x988:846x998)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/7DCFK7PD45CHXDXHXNAGZ2X6F4.jpeg)
Name:
Christopher Curtis
What office are you seeking?
Mayor - City of Kankakee
What is your political party?
Republican
What is your current age?
56
Occupation and employer:
Mayor - City of Kankakee and Principal - Nugent Curtis Real Estate
What offices, if any, have you previously held?
City of Kankakee 6th Ward Alderman
City:
Kankakee
Campaign Website:
Not provided
Education:
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
- BS, Advanced Technical Services
- AAS, Architectural Technology
Bishop McNamara Catholic High School
Community Involvement:
Kiwanis Club of Kankakee - member
Kankakee Drug Free Inc. - board member and past president
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church Endowment Committee
Kankakee Development Corporation - board member and past president
The Hundred Club of Kankakee County - member
Kankakee County NAACP - member
St. Paul’s Grade School cross country coach
Illinois Municipal League - board member
Will-Kankakee Regional Development Authority - board member
Marital status/Immediate family:
Married to Lori Curtis for 24 years.
2 children: Connor Curtis, 22, and Zachary Curtis, 20
Questions:
What makes you the most qualified candidate?
My experience as mayor, an alderman, a business owner and the ability to collaborate. My track record the past four years makes me the most qualified candidate. I pledged four years ago for public safety & safer neighborhoods, fiscal responsibility, jobs and economic growth along with fostering unity for the community and the city council. This pledge four years ago was delivered.
As an alderman for nine years, it allowed me to understand the intricacies of our city. As a business owner in real estate, it allowed me to bring my financial background and sales knowledge to provide for growth and prosperity of the city. Finally, my business background, leadership and professionalism allowed me to bring unification with other governmental leaders locally, statewide and to the community.
What would you rank the greatest weakness and strength of the governmental organization you’re running for?
The greatest weakness of our city government is the connectivity and communication between departments. We are currently investing in new software to bridge this gap and improve our functionality and performance.
Our greatest strength is our entire city team from the top leadership to our newest hire. Their diversity and desire to put the extra effort in during challenging times is reflective of our city.
Should local law enforcement cooperate with ICE to identify and deport immigrants who do not have legal status to be in the United States?
The City of Kankakee police department will follow and has followed the federal and state laws in place. The police are not actively seeking to deport immigrants within our community. We understand that families have immigrated to our city for many years and we are proud of our diversity. If an immigrant is causing or participating in crimes within our community, then we would expect that the individual could be arrested and prosecuted, which could lead to deportation.
What are your top three priorities for our city, and how do you plan to address them?
Public Safety: This was the No. 1 priority four years ago and will always remain the top priority. We will continue on the same path as the past three years, as it has been effective. Major crimes have been reduced by over 15% and shootings have been reduced over 53% the last four years. An Office of Violence Prevention has been established to address long term cause of crime. Police patrol was increased by 15%, fire staff by 8% and the fire fleet has been modernized. We will continue to add resources for our police and fire and expand our Office of Violence Prevention and resources for the community.
Lowering the Cost for the Residents: Over the past four years we have eliminated the vehicle sticker fee, reduced the city tax rate nearly 50% since 2018 and levied over a half million dollars LESS for property taxes over the previous year. This has provided real financial savings for residents. We are committed to providing further relief by continuing to lower the tax rate, self funding capital expenses versus borrowing the money, reducing and eventually eliminating the public safety fee, while still providing additional resources for each department and the residents.
Increase Residential Housing City Wide: Residential projects have already begun and we are working with three developers to bring new housing to Indian Meadows, Prairie Walk and downtown Kankakee. The administration is initiating incentive agreements for construction, infrastructure and expansion of housing in an effort to be proactive.
How do you intend to balance economic development with environmental sustainability in the community?
The greatest asset we have for economic development is our water supply (Kankakee River) and sewer treatment facility. They allow us to pursue manufacturing and high-paying jobs that are dependent on water like pharmaceutical, food and plastic companies. We need to protect our water resources by making sure we have a state of the art wastewater treatment plant that can handle and treat new EPA requirements for ammonia, phosphorus and other chemicals before being discharged back into the river. Additionally the city is refurbishing the hydroelectric plant to provide clean energy from the dam to the wastewater treatment plant, Stone Street lift station and other entities.
What are your plans for enhancing public transportation and infrastructure in the city?
The City of Kankakee has a solid public transportation system run by a separate organization named River Valley Metro. The City of Kankakee partners with them, and they just recently built a new multi-million transfer station in downtown Kankakee. They provide a quality public transportation system that includes serving as a warming and cooling center with free rides on the buses when the weather reaches significant temperatures.
In reference to infrastructure, the city has more than $200 million being invested in infrastructure throughout the community, and a lot of the funding has come from the federal and state levels. Projects include both Interstate 57 interchanges, 312 and 308 being rebuilt, the reconstruction of Illinois Route 50 (Indiana and Harrison avenue)s from Grinnell Read to Jeffery Street, West Avenue redesign and Hobbie Avenue. Infrastructure for flooding has been initiated or completed at Francine Drive, East Eagle Street/Country Club Drive and Woodlea Lane.
Additionally the city has and is investing over $2 million in the sanitary sewer system to prevent the infiltration of ground water. Groundbreaking for the East Riverwalk along the Kankakee River just occurred allowing for public access and amenities and for the public to the river.
What role should the city council play in supporting local businesses and economic growth?
Simple answer is city council should play a significant role. As a city, if you are not supporting the marketing and procurement of business and providing incentives for economic growth, then your community will be stagnant.
Successful and growing cities are marketing their attributes to industry, developers and businesses at trade shows and a city needs to provide a budget for such. Also, if a community doesn’t offer incentives and development zones, they will struggle to attract new business because other communities will be offering incentives and businesses will seek them out.
One the biggest factors a council can provide for economic growth is making sure that its finances are strong and the real estate taxes remain affordable to attract prospective businesses.
What are your top public safety concerns for our community and how would you propose addressing them?
As mentioned previously, public safety will always remain the top priority for my administration. Illegal firearms shootings and victims shot are our top concerns each day. Shootings have been reduced by over 53% the last four years, but we need to reduce it more. We also need to reduce victims shot, and one victim is one too many.
We will keep our initiatives in place, which includes the substantial technology provided to assist our brave men and women working daily to reduce crime in our community. We are expanding the Office of Violence prevention to continue addressing and assisting young men, women and families that have been affected by shootings. Additionally we are providing more resources to help with trauma and assist with preventing our youth from thinking about carrying a weapon.
Our firefighters call volume is at an all time high, and we will need to provide more help for our residents daily with better equipment and staff to handle the call volume. Both of these items are being looked at in our upcoming budget.
How will you ensure that city policies promote inclusion for all residents?
The ECDA office within the City of Kankakee offers seminars, training and guidance for all residents to be involved and be a key member of the city. They provide forums, events and training seminars that allow for growth and education. The ECDA team, volunteers and alderpersons walk and canvasses over 6,000 homes on an annual basis promoting opportunities for residents.
For the past four years the administration has made a conscious effort to uplift areas of the city that haven’t seen infrastructure and development and making sure that all seven wards are a “City Rising”.
Do you support requiring government officials to publicly disclose potential conflicts of interest, and how would you enforce this?
The answer is absolutely. All government officials should provide transparency and disclose potential conflicts of interest. The city code provides such language and often we encourage our elected officials to error on the side of caution and disclose and/or abstain from a vote even when there isn’t a conflict, but the optics may appear as such. In the past I have recused myself from decisions that may lead to a potential conflict and disclosed.
How will you make sure you are accessible to your constituents?
Four years ago I committed to being accessible to the constituents by having an open door policy. I will continue that policy and make myself available when not in meetings. I also provide my cell phone on my business card. Additionally, I attend as many community events as possible each week and make myself accessible at each event.