Scott Waguespack RVJ-Inside Survey Response – Page 1 of 3

Roscoe View Journal – Inside Publications 32nd Ward Aldermanic Candidates Survey

Survey deadlines were 11:59 p.m., January 20, 2011. A complete list of surveys can be found at www.roscoeviewjournal.com/32ndwardcandidates Candidate: Scott Waguespack Candidate Birthdate: 06/02/1970 Home Address: 1939 N Wilmot, 60647 Campaign Phone Number: 7734130032 Campaign Contact: scott@scottforchicago.com 2061 n Ashland, 60647 info@scottforchicago.com www.scottforchicago.com Campaign Manager: Tom Fendley Marital Status: Married Spouse: Jade Your Occupation: Alderman Education: BA, JD Please list civic, professional, fraternal or other types of Organizations to which you belong. St. Hedwigs Church, Chicago Area Peace Corps Assoc. Have you held elective or appointive political office or have you been employed by any branch of government? Alderman only Please list jobs or contracts you, members of your immediate family or business partners have had with government. none What, in your view, is an alderman’s job?

Scott Waguespack RVJ-Inside Survey Response – Page 2 of 3

To assist residents and businesses in their day to day needs at the ward level while working on legislative initiatives that better their lives. If elected, what would be your immediate priorities for your ward? Continuing to find ways to reduce the heavy tax burden on taxpayers while redirecting those taxes to services that the taxpayers need, such as better schools, more police, and better infrastructure. If elected, what would be your immediate priorities for the city? to pass the Asset Lease Ordinance that will prevent future privatization debacles, pass legislation to create council approval of city contracts, and push for an independent budget office that will create more oversight of government budgets. Should Tax Increment Financing districts be eliminated? Why? No. TIF's can work well if they operated correctly. If a TIF is reviewed ad we find that it has succeeded earlier than expected we could terminate it. At the end of a cycle we should do a review of each TIF to make sure it has been worth the freezing of those taxes. If a TIF is not working as it should and there are surplus funds, those funds should go back to the taxing bodies. In what way can the City Council improve its oversight responsibility for government? Pass the Asset Lease Ordinance, the Council oversight/approval of city contracts, run an audit to root out fraud and poor performance and have stronger Inspector General oversight. I have proposed or co-sponsored all of these ordinances. Would you hire family members for staff or a city government job? Explain your answer. NO. Would you support a property tax increase? Explain. NO, unless it were necessary for the public safety. City and teacher pensions are underfunded and city revenues are down. Do you support moving worker pensions from defined benefit to defined contribution plans? No, but there needs to be pension board reform and perhaps consolidation of pension funds. The mayors commission on pension made several recommendations, but no action has yet been taken. The Lincoln and Belmont intersection is vastly underdeveloped and the development for old LaSalle Bank building is bankrupt while the PD is set to expire in 2011. What would you do to improve the area’s prospects? The PD expiration will help recraft a new plan for that site, that will need to meet realities of today. I think the TIF funds for that area should have been spent at the core of the intersection, including revamping the signals and crosswalks for traffic and pedestrians. The draft plan does address those issues and the city needs to find more federal funds to support the limited TIF funds.

Scott Waguespack RVJ-Inside Survey Response – Page 3 of 3

Would you support a Walmart in the Ward? If one was to come, what would be the best site for a proposed Walmart in your community? There are locations in the ward that Walmart could move into now without requiring Aldermanic approval. We have big box stores such as Costco that run very community friendly operations and we should support such stores. The Belmont Avenue corridor has lost most of its antique stores and has many more vacancies than Roscoe Avenue. What would you do to improve the street’s prospects? Belmont from Western to Ashland has many different niches. There are groups of owners that have come together on the western portion of the corridor to wrk with us to beautify and increase the quality of the streetscape. In the middle section, the chamber of commerce has worked with the SSA on improvement to the streetscape. And on the eastern end, we haev worked with the the theatre community to find wasy to improve marketing of the area and cooperation with other businesses while reaching out to prospective companies to relocate to the area. We also work closely with the neighborhood organizations to make sure that any development that takes place is compatible and works well for the future of the corridor. Overall crime in Chicago is down, yet the 32nd Ward and the 19th Police District has one of the highest burglary rates in Chicago. As it seems likely that many sworn officers will be shifted from the 19th District to other areas in the city, what can be done to reduce crime in our community? I have frequently opposed possible reallocation of officers from the area, along with my neighboring aldermen. Because we do not like to see any crime happen to anyone, my staff and I go to CAPS meetings frequently, we host safety and self defense seminars, we talk about safety issues and crime prevention at community meetings, we send out email community alerts to thousands of businesses and residents, and target our message to individual neighborhoods. We also work closely with police officers in the field to follow up on crimes, assist residents and businesses with issues they may have and we do ride alongs with officers to understand their perspective on what is happening. Sharing this information with constituents has been an active part of what we do in our ward office on a daily basis.