2025 Election Questionnaire: E. Renee Hill, Coral Township Trustee

Name:

E. Renee Hill

What office are you seeking?

Coral Township Trustee

What is your political party?

Independent

What is your current age?

64

Occupation and employer:

Owner/Manager Hill Tool, LLC

What offices, if any, have you previously held?

Coral Township Trustee – present

City:

I currently live in Marengo and have for 45 years.

Campaign Website:

Candidate did not respond.

Education:

After high school graduation, I continued my education and became a licensed Radiographer. Years later I obtained my Life and Health insurance license and worked in my family insurance brokerage business. During this time, I managed Hill Tool, LLC finances and administrative duties. I continue to advance my education by completing online courses that would help me in my endeavors to support my community.

Community Involvement:

As our family grew, I began participating in school volunteer projects. I helped to develop a before and after school program to serve the community and keep children safe. This is still an important and active program in Marengo.

Marital status/Immediate family:

My husband and I have three children and two grandchildren. Our children also live in the Marengo area and are employed locally.

Questions:

What is your stance on township consolidation as a means of reducing redundancy in local government?

Living in a rural part of the township and serving as a township trustee, I’ve considered this question before. I have personally seen how important it is to have our local township staff available for emergency services and situations. With 61 miles of roadways to maintain, and a population of only 3,600 spread out over a wide area, our township road workers, clerk and supervisor are familiar with the special needs of this township, and able to respond quickly to situations that arise. Consolidating with another township, particularly one with a larger population, may diminish the responsiveness of government to the concerns of our residents, and may actually lead to higher costs to our residents as we would be sharing the burdens brought on by the larger township. That being said, I am very much in favor of the use of agreements which would allow jurisdictions to jointly provide services if it leads to greater efficiency and cost savings on a case-by-case basis.

Does the township have adequate funds for needed roadwork? If not,’what would you do to address that?

Funds are always short, and the township has struggled with the budgeting finding enough money in the budget for road maintenance, no question. We look to county, state and federal grants and supplements to keep our roads in good condition. Road weight limits have much to do with degradation of our roadways. Planning and zoning needs to be considered also. An active Plan Commission is imperative to retain the standards of our township.

What are your top three priorities for the township, and how do you plan to address them?

Continue our excellent balanced budgeting history by keeping costs down with proper oversight.

Maintain our land use plan objectives and make sure new projects are in line with the 2030 land use plan.

Endeavor to keep our residents informed about the issues facing the township.

As a candidate for township office, I am eager to connect with our community, listen to their concerns, and work together to overcome the challenges and improve the quality of life in Coral Township.

How will you ensure that city policies promote inclusion for all residents?

I support going to where the people are and actively soliciting feedback when major policy decisions or changes are being considered. Having town halls, public forums, and citizen advisory boards would be ways for diverse voices to be heard. These sorts of events help in fostering transparency and accountability in the decision-making process as well. I am active in the community, attend the meetings of other local governments such as the County Board, meet with members of various groups, such as seniors (over a quarter of our township is over 65!), unions, environmentalists and farmers. I also support transparency via the township website.

Do you support requiring government officials to publicly disclose potential conflicts of interest, and how would you enforce this?

It is the law that township officials disclose potential conflicts of interest and recuse themselves from votes when there is a conflict. While board members file Statements of Economic Interest (SEOI) with the County Clerk, it is essentially an honor system when it comes to revealing conflicts. I support policies that would require officials to declare a conflict of interest before taking official action and recuse themselves in those instances. An improvement would be to require SEOI’s to also be filed with a local ethics officer, who would be responsible for informing an individual if they saw a conflict. Vendors should also be required to disclose if they have family, financial or other personal relationships with a government official responsible for approving contracts and bills.

How will you make sure you are accessible to your constituents?

I have an email list of constituents that I frequently email. My email and phone number are available on the Township website.