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DeKalb County Board District 10 member Mary Cozad answered Shaw Local’s election questionnaire for the DeKalb County Board primary election.
Voting ends for the primary election on the evening of June 28.
Full Name: Mary Cozad
What office are you seeking? DeKalb County Board Member, District 10
What offices, if any, have you previously held? School Board Member, DeKalb District 428
City: DeKalb, IL
Occupation: Professor Emerita, Northern Illinois University (i.e., retired college professor)
Education: AB University of California, Davis; MA University of California, Berkeley; PhD., University of California, Berkeley Campaign
Website: No, though information available through DeKalb Democrats
The DeKalb County Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, a public facility owned by DeKalb County government, is under financial distress, according to county officials. Budget constraints brought to light in 2021 made it difficult for the center to maintain its financial independence. The county board last year dissolved the center’s operating board, and hired a consultant to help determine the future of the facility: Whether to sell it (current county leadership says that is not the preference), or how to maintain its financial autonomy. If elected, what would you want to see become of the county nursing home?
My preference would be to retain the County Nursing Home if there is any way at all to make it selfsustainable. However, I am not planning to make any final decision as to how I will vote on this matter until we have complete reports from the consulting firm (which seems to be very good, by the way).
How would you address financial constraints at the nursing home as a county board member?
Obviously, the best solution would be to increase the number of patients living there. That might be difficult as more and more people with chronic conditions are opting to stay at home with a health care aide or aides (e.g. Home Instead). It would be important to make the County Home appear as the most attractive option compared to other nursing homes in the area. Also, Brian Gregory, our County Administrator uncovered lapses in billing, Medicare submission, etc. on the part of the home’s previous management company and is trying to recoup those funds.
What are the three biggest challenges facing the DeKalb County Board?
1. The DeKalb County Nursing Home; 2. Solar Farms; 3. The backlog in cases in the county courts and public defender’s office--includes the problem of resignations and salaries.
Please provide specific ideas for how you would address these issues if elected, or solutions you would offer?
We are addressing the nursing home question with the help of the consulting firm exploring options--as well as with consultation with nursing home staff, administrators, count board members’ discussions meeting as a committee of the whole and at the regular monthly meeting; Several solar farm projects have been approved. We should wait and see how well they work out, and if the outcome is positive, approve even more to try and get the county less dependent on fossil fuels. The quickest solution to the county courts’ backlog would be to hire more personnel, at least temporarily, and to increase salaries. Since that is probably not possible, we have to be patient as the COVID crisis subsides and things get back to normal. Admittedly, that might take a while.
What makes you specifically qualified to run for DeKalb County Board? What would you bring to the table, and how would it benefit the board? Please provide specific examples.
I have had 2 years of experience serving on the board, as well as past experience serving on the DeKalb School Board. I read over very carefully every bit of information I receive in preparation for Board meetings, look in to matters I am not familiar with (thank heavens for the internet!), and try to think through carefully every matter brought before the board. One of the advantages of being a retiree is that I have plenty of time to do all those things. I also am available to receive input from my constituents and in the past have passed along their observations and inquiries to the board as a whole and to the County Executive.
In 2021, the DeKalb County Board took up votes for several solar energy farms of significant size. The projects, which were approved amid some lengthy debate, spawned a significant amount of community feedback, some negative, some positive, some related to county board regulations for future farms. Where do you stand on the topic of solar energy, and what role do you believe the county board should play in that?
I am very much in favor of solar energy-- among other reasons because it isn’t noisy or dangerous to birds, unlike wind energy. I believe the county board should carefully monitor how well the companies we approved to establish solar farms are doing, and if they appear to be successful, approve even more solar farms.
The DeKalb County Board’s budget was passed for Fiscal Year 2022 at $96 million. Would you advocate to change it or make cuts? If so, where? Why or why not?
No, it seems a reasonable budget, and I have every faith in Brian Gregory, the County Administrator, to oversee the budget and report to the board if there are any problems.
Inflation across the nation has greatly impacted the price of gasoline, food and supplies. Recent rent hikes also are affecting local communities, forcing relocation for those reliant on subsidized housing in DeKalb County, according to a recent Daily Chronicle report and the DeKalb County Housing Authority, which is a branch of county government. What can the DeKalb County Board do to address relief of everyday expenses, and reduce the tax burden on local residents?
That’s a tough one, because a lot of the problems driving inflation are out of our direct control. The best I can do at the moment is advise careful management and oversight of spending on gas, supplies, etc., cut back anywhere else in the budget that it is possible without inducing financial hardships on the county population and perhaps encourage increased construction of housing, especially multiple unit construction (apartment buildings, duplexes and 4-plexes, etc). I believe there is already some movement not to increase property and sales taxes to the max that would be possible due to inflated prices.
According to the 2020 U.S. Census, DeKalb County’s population dropped by about 4,000 people over the past decade, mostly concentrated in the DeKalb area. Population sizes can directly impact revenue streams for municipal budgets such as local sales tax and motor fuel use, and economic development. How would you rank economic development as a priority within your campaign, and what, if elected, would you do to ensure DeKalb County progresses into the next decade?
We need to keep encouraging companies to locate in DeKalb County, like the Ferrara Candy and Amazon warehouses south of town. The current tax incentives seem quite reasonable--companies pay 50% of taxes in the first year; then they go up every year. The companies tell us how many jobs they will create , and unless they create at least half that number of jobs they must go back to paying 100% of their taxes. The availability of clean energy is evidently also an incentive as is the availability of good public transportation. Both of those could be improved. In a parallel development, not controlled by the county, perhaps NIU’s new strategic enrollment management plan may attract more students to DeKalb and as enrollment increases perhaps more faculty as well.
Assess the DeKalb County Health Department’s actions to combat COVID-19? What changes, if any, need to be made related to the pandemic?
The County Health Department has responded reasonably well, with vaccination clinics widely available, though there is room for improvement. Health Department and pharmacy vaccine clinic hours could be more widely publicized. There should be some kind of encouragement for employers to allow their workers to be vaccinated during work hours (maybe even to incentivize them), and perhaps once again bring vaccination clinics to businesses. Obviously the Health Department should monitor new outbreaks and strains of COVID, as I believe it is doing.
How would you encourage economic and employment growth within DeKalb County?
As I said previously, give companies reasonable tax incentives. Also, publicizing in the media and to companies the many advantages DeKalb County has to offer- the university, affordable housing compared to the suburbs, etc.
Do you think there is a local crime problem? If so, what needs to be done about it?
The crime problem in DeKalb is not very high compared to other parts of the state, so I would say we should keep on doing what we’re doing. Also, the County Sheriff could look into the county equivalent of “beat cops,” constantly patrolling, to help.
What local road and bridge projects should be a priority to get done in the county?
Every DeKalb County bridge is inspected each year and rated by the NTSB. The county prioritizes road and bridge work based on that rating. The county has done a good job of getting state and federal grants for improving existing roads, particularly upgrading more and more roads to the 80,000 lb truck route weight limit. Every year the DeKalb County Highway Department issues a detailed report on completed and pending bridge and road work On reading the report, I was impressed by how much resurfacing and other work the county is able to do on its own using its own equipment. Current projects are concentrated on the Waterman Rd., Suydam Rd., Chicago Rd. and the Twombly Rd. upgrades.
Do you support decreasing local property taxes? If so, how would the county make up the difference?
We have not raised the tax rate in the past couple of years. The assessment has gone up a bit, but this year we were able to cut the tax rate enough to make up for the increases in assessment. It’s always a balancing act--services needed vs. the cost.
Do you support stronger county government ethics laws? What measures do you support?
We already have strong ethics laws. All county board members (and other county officials, I believe), sign an ethics agreement and complete a disclosure form. There is an ethics officer, as well as training in the meetings act and the FOIA (Freedom of Information) act.
What are your thoughts on the Illinois Freedom of Information Act?
I approve.
Please state your plan to maintain government transparency.
All our meetings are open to the public. In addition, during the pandemic it was possible for anyone to access count board meetings by way of zoom. In the interests of government transparency, I think it would be a good idea to restore that access.
What would you push for as a member of county government to boost local businesses?
Tax incentives, publicity about what the county has to offer in the way of useful businesses, perhaps more festivals and fun activities centered around local businesses.
Should government employees and officials be allowed to sign nondisclosure agreements with private businesses?
No.
Would you push for or against government officials and employees being allowed to sign non-disclosure agreements with private businesses?
I would push against.