Alex Clubb, Morris City Council 2023 Primary Election Questionnaire

Full Name: Alex Jon Clubb

What office are you seeking? 3rd Ward Alderman Morris

What offices, if any have you previously held? 3rd Ward Alderman City of Morris since May 1,2019

City: Morris

Occupation: A. Clubb Lawn Care & Landscaping, Inc, Clubb Racing Inc. City of Morris Alderman 3rd Ward

Education: Morris Community High School Class of 2010, Joliet Junior College Automotive Technology 2010-2012

Political Affiliation: Republican

Campaign Website: Alex J. Clubb for 3rd Ward Alderman

Why do you want to be on the Morris City Council?

I want to be on the Morris City Council to help make a difference and make the community a better place. I want to see our parks shiny and new. I want to see our infrastructure fixed as well as the removal of the paper mill and other outdated, dangerous buildings.

What experience do you offer residents that can help improve Morris?

I have a lot to offer the residents of the City of Morris. As Alderman for the past 4 years, I have been the voice making noise and voting no on things I believe are too much money. Even though the funds are there doesn’t mean they have to be spent. I come from a family that has instilled that, if it is broken, fix it. I have owned a small business in Morris that I have run for the last 9 years. I have taken care of scheduling and budgeting along with getting jobs done in a timely manner and keeping our 6 full-time employees busy. I am a great leader and motivator and I like to get things done the right way. I love budgeting and crunching numbers because, in real-world living, you can only spend what you have.

If you think residents don’t pay enough in taxes what should be increased and what should the city do with the extra revenue?

I believe taxes are too high across the board. If the government is doing its job correctly, taxes shouldn’t go up. I think as a whole we need to be smart with our money and not spend like we have an endless supply. People are tired and stressed more than ever and it is mainly for 2 reasons: inflation, making things extremely expensive, and taxes going up. People need a break!

The current administration has focused on growing the downtown area and improving the park districts. Is this a good use of government funds, and if elected would you continue to focus on the downtown area? How so?

It’s great what is able to happen with our city, and we are doing a great job with downtown, and I believe we need to stay on top of downtown, but what about the 3rd Ward? Like I said, 4 years ago the 3rd Ward is the forgotten ward and it still shows today. We continue to make updates to everywhere else in the city except the 3rd Ward. Our area needs so much attention. I like the new park’s plan but it just isn’t fast enough. In my first year, I had met with a company to get both of our parks completely redone for around $225,000. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen but we were able to put up a new Ice rink and a new sound system at city hall for our meetings. Both of these expenditures could have gone towards 3rd Ward parks. I believe we need to work on what’s old, broken, and often forgotten about. We need to improve that before we continue with downtown and the rest of the city. To answer the next question, I don’t believe we’ve properly used our funds. That is why, oftentimes, I am the no-vote on things. If re-elected, I want to continue working hard to bring change to the 3rd Ward. Our downtown is already beautiful, so let’s start working on cleaning up old buildings, repairing our streets and sidewalks, and our 3rd Wards drainage and sewer issues.

Morris recently has seen development companies wanting to build affordable rental communities. What impact do you think large development companies would have on the city and do you see it as a net gain or loss?

They would be great for tax revenue but they need to be put in the right locations. Many residents are worried about them being built and lowering property value. I think we should keep building houses in Morris and look into expanding north of 80. Growth is happening and I feel we need to go about it the right way to keep our residents happy, help the tax burden, and have good affordable housing in the area.

Morris has seen an increase in both violent crime and drug activity within the last year, what actions can be taken to support local residents and prevent these crimes from happening?

I think we have a great police force, but they need help. We have Flock cameras that read license plates in town currently, I believe we need to install more of those to better help them. There is a national database for the Flock system, if someone commits a crime in Joliet and their plate is on a Flock, it will ping in Morris if they come here. I also feel we need to have the budget for equipment including more officers, squad cars, body armor, body cameras, k9 units, and other necessary items to keep our Police force top of the line.

The city continues to develop and the Chicago metro area’s expansion continues to creep toward Morris. Do you think this will be good or bad for the city? What actions should be taken to encourage growth or slow it down?

I think growth is inevitable. In 2010, Grundy County had 50,063 people. In 2020, the number jumped to 56,904 and is projected to move to 63,245 by 2030. With these numbers that means we will continue to see more people coming to Morris. People have been moving here from the northern suburbs for a long time and I believe that will continue. We are in a great location on Interstate 80 and an hour south of Chicago. Overall, I believe, if done correctly, the expansion will be a good thing. We should see bigger restaurant chains, and more businesses moving to the area, we will also see more housing and jobs because of that. That is great because if properly managed it will be a great source of tax revenue that should take some stress off of current residents.

Morris experienced an industrial fire in 2021, that prompted the evacuation of more than 3,000 residents and resulted in a multimillion-dollar cleanup. What did the administration do to handle this situation correctly during that time, and what do you think was mishandled? Moving forward, what steps can the city council take to prevent something like this from happening again?

I honestly believe it was handled as best as it could be for the circumstances. We had a new administration that worked quickly and professionally to ensure the safety of our citizens. In a situation, like we saw in 2021, there is no perfect path, but as a city, we worked together with the help of local fire departments and police to get people safely evacuated. We reached out to as many agencies statewide that we could. The Illinois EPA was a great help. It was a horrible thing to deal with but it has helped update our fire codes and has helped departments across the US learn from what we were dealt. I think moving forward we need to update our ordinances for what businesses are doing and keep better track of what is being done with older, dilapidated buildings. Updating ordinances will help our building and zoning department stay on top of what businesses are doing at certain locations. Vacant buildings pose a risk to the safety of our citizens because old beat-up dilapidated buildings are attractive to criminal elements.

Do you support government transparency and what are your thoughts on the Freedom of Information Act?

Yes, I fully support the Freedom of Information Act. I am 100% for government transparency. I believe all of our committee meetings and city council meetings should be streamed live and be made available to the public via our city website and on social media platforms. I believe all recordings should be saved on these media platforms for easy public viewing at any time.