Glenn Adams: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Glenn Adams

City: Rolling Meadows

Office sought: 5th Ward Alderman

Age (on Election Day): 61

Family: My Wife, Carol. I have three adult children, Amie, Mike and AJ

Occupation: I work for a small company that sells water conditioning salt and ice melt salt products. I am Government Bid Manager. I am also involved with customer service, local logistics. I have also assisted purchasing and some light accounting functions

Education: Bachelor of Science in Business Management from the University of Wisconsin -Stout

Civic involvement: Chairman of the City of Rolling Meadows Economic Development. In the past I had volunteered with humane societies. I was a swimming official for park district teams which I continued to do for a few years after my children could not be on the team when they entered college. I was a soccer referee when my daughter was involved with the sport. I was chairman of the City of Rolling Meadows 50th Anniversary Committee. I also volunteered with the City's 60th Anniversary Committee. I currently volunteer with the Illinois Route 66 Preservation Committee. This group works on various iconic buildings along Route 66 in this state to make sure they are maintained and preserved for travelers along the mother road.

Previous elected offices held: I was 5th Ward Alderman from 1997 to 2011

Issue questions

What are the most important issues facing your community and how do you intend to address them?

Economic Development is the most important issue facing the City. This is a challenge due to the financial problems with the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago giving incentives for businesses to relocate to downtown Chicago. I am a member of the City of Rolling Meadows Economic Development Committee. Between this committee and City Council we have taken steps to create a positive business environment. A focus has been placed on making sure we keep existing businesses in Rolling Meadows. The Economic Development Committee also recommended the City participate in the Next Level Northwest which is an organization that helps evaluate small businesses and assist them with business plans to help them grow into larger companies that we hope will eventually move into larger facilities in our City and create additional jobs. We have worked with businesses on available incentives from Cook County. We are having discussions on other incentives the City may be able to offer businesses looking to move to our City. The other major issue is the former shopping center that is now vacant property. It's a challenge of finding the right development that makes a project financially feasible and pleasing to the neighborhood.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

I served as the 5th Ward Alderman from 1997 to 2011 so I have the experience of serving the residents in this area. During this time we faced a major recession that led to unfortunate circumstances for the City and tough financial decisions. I and other members of City Council learned some valuable lessons that we applied to City finances for the duration of the recession. With an uncertain global economic future, I can take the lessons learned from the past and apply them, if we see another economic downturn. In addition to this experience, I have volunteered, as mentioned above with the City of Rolling Meadows Economic Committee. I currently serve as Chairman of this committee. I was also a resident representative years back on an ad hock committee that was looking into the issue of keeping City Garbage Collection or outsourcing the service to try and save residents money. On a lighter note, I served as the Chairman of the City's 50th Anniversary Committee and volunteered with the City's 60th Anniversary celebration

Describe your leadership style and explain how you think that will be effective in producing actions and decisions with your city council.

The best approach to leadership in City government is to be a team player and work as a group with other council members and City staff. I have always tried to understand opposing opinions when discussing issues. More importantly, when I was on City Council in the past I would reach out to the people of the 5th Ward and got their opinions. On a couple of occasions, I changed my vote based on feedback from the people of the 5th Ward or the people reinforced my vote on a specific issue.

How would you describe the condition of your community's budget, and what are the most important specific actions the town should take to assure providing the level of services people want?

Overall I think the City Budget is good. The City of Rolling Meadows has always been known as a community that provides superior services. That has once again been demonstrated with recent snow falls. I pulled out of my driveway and the street was plowed. When I got on Algonquin Road and Route 53 the State Snowplows had not even plowed yet. Thankfully I have not had a need to use them lately, I have heard positive things about our fire department and police department. One major lesson I have learning from past experience as an alderman is having the right person as City Manager and Finance Director. It is important to have people with high integrity and honesty. I feel the City has that with our current Staff.

What's one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?

I have never been a fan of any taxes outside of property taxes. I did not vote for the electric tax when I was an alderman and did not vote for the gasoline tax as well. When a natural gas tax was discussed I said I would not support it. If you have a business that closes down you may faced lower property tax revenues plus you lose electric tax and now Natural Gas utility tax revenues which means triple deficits to the revenue streams. Once a tax is put in place it is very difficult to remove it. If we ever have a chance to repeal or reduce utility taxes I would love to make that move.