Richard Dunne: City Council Candidate
Bottled water awaits candidates at a forum on March 16, 2009 (Photo by The Elginite).
Richard Dunne, a fire lieutenant for the City of Elgin, is a candidate for city council.
Mr. Dunne is a former Elgin Fire Marshall, and an active member of the city’s civic organizations. He was a founding member and first President of the Near West Neighborhood Association, a member of the Columbine Homeowners Association, the American Legion, Elgin Veteran’s Memorial Commission and the Veteran’s of Foreign Wars, where he served as Commander and is currently a board member. He has for 28 years been a member of the United States Air Force Reserves
He has a bachelors degree in Fire Service Management from SIU.
You can read more about his background on his campaign website.
Mr. Dunne completed a questionnaire that was prepared by the Association for Legal Americans. The entire text of his responses can be read on their site. The below are selections.
Question 4 – Do you believe Elgin has a housing occupancy problem? If so, how do you suggest we proceed to correct it?
As a firefighter the issue of housing occupancy is very important to me. This issue is about life safety and quality of life. The city recently adopted the International Code Council
(successor to the Building Official and Code Administrators- BOCA) Property maintenance code 2006 ed. The Code Enforcement Division must be given the latitude and resources to adequately enforce this ordinance.
Question 5 - Do you believe Elgin has an on-street parking problem? If so, how do you suggest we proceed to correct it?
Several neighborhoods in the city have an on-street parking problem. Many streets were not built to, or were granted a variance from, current street width requirements. As stated in question 4, I view this as life safety and quality of life issue. If streets are congested to the point where emergency vehicles cannot maneuver or public works vehicles and crews cannot remove leaves and snow then I consider this a life safety and quality of life issue. I feel that the City needs creative solutions to address this problem and the odd-even parking scheme is one example of this creativity.
Question 6 - Do you believe Elgin has an assimilation problem? If so, how do you suggest weproceed to correct it?
I feel that Elgin reflects the national problem of assimilation of immigrants. In the past this assimilation was dealt with over long periods of time. There needs to be periods of reduced immigration to allow the existing immigrants to properly assimilate.
Question 7 – How many city council meetings have you attended in the last year? Have you made any public comments at the meetings?
As Fire Marshal I attended two City Council meetings in the past year and have viewed many more through the televised proceedings (Planning and Development Commission and the Zoning and Subdivision Commission). However it would have been inappropriate to address the council directly and my concerns were presented by the Fire Chief. Additionally, I have attended numerous Liquor Commission meetings during this time. Before my tenure as Fire Marshal I attended several meetings as president of the Near West Neighborhood Association and addressed the council often regarding the concerns of this association.
Question 9 – Are you in favor of a geographic ward system of representation or do you prefer the current “at-large” councilman method?
This is a matter that should be left to the Citizens of Elgin to decide by referendum. I feel that a combination of a ward system and member’s at large system might give better representation to all Elgin citizens.
Question 12 – How do you feel about annexation/expansion of the Elgin city limits?
Prior to the last several years the City had built out an excess capacity in its infrastructure. Annexation agreements and the subsequent expansion are a natural occident. My concern is with how these developments are managed and whether or not the City is exceeding its capacity to provide adequate services. I feel that the City is in a difficult position to further develop the services needed to support its growth commitments.
Question 20 – Should the city continue to spend money on green initiatives?
As long as a thorough cost/benefit analysis shows that a green initiative benefits the citizens of Elgin, I will support them.
I know I expressed reservations previously about a city employee sitting on the council, but Mr. Dunne is such a strong candidate that I’m willing to overlook that. He strikes me as being a reasonable and intelligent person who can potentially be an effective reformer.
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I am starting to warm up a lot to Rich Dunne. I believe he and John Prigge would be strong councilmen. I do not get any sense of hopelessness with them like I get with the others. I think together they compliment each other’s talents. Dunne has the technical end of things nailed down with his experience as a firefighter and Prigge seems to have a strong personality and some problem solving skills even I recognize. They both know Elgin is not doing well.
This is an e-mail I had sent to my friends in my address book. I felt this would be a great place to paste it also.
Do you want to help the city of Elgin? Then we need to get out there and vote for someone that doesn’t back Schock and his wasteful spending. Do you know that the only reason Schock was re-elected is because he received around 3000 votes out of only about 5000 that voted. This is of a City with a population of over 100,000 people. I would like to change those numbers by asking the people of Elgin to get out there and take our city back by voting. For starters, I have been a neighbor and friend of Rich Dunne since 1989 and our oldest daughters have grown up together since they can remember. We have our differences about some things, but over all we agree on a lot of things and mainly about where our town is going. It isn’t good! Our city board is spending too much money on beautifying the town and less on the internal structure. The way to switch our city council’s way of thinking is to replace the people sitting in those seats.
I’m voting for Rich Dunne!
http://dunneforelgin.com/
P.S. Did you know that the City council passed up a population census update in 2005? You have to wonder why! Could it be that it would qualify us for up to four more council seats which would then take power away from the Mayor and his partners? Or is it because a new tally of the population would grant us more federal money and the city doesn’t feel it needs more money for the people of Elgin and it’s infrastructure?
What shame the Herald copped out and claimed that they couldn’t support Rich because he was the current Fire Marshall. That position doesn’t even exist anymore. Anyone that has spent time with Rich, and the Herald spent plenty, knows that the elimination of the marshall’s position is an attempt to streamline development in the city without compliance to the letter of the law in regard to occupancy safety. Developers and the city want things to go quickly and cheaply. Rich knows from experience which corners will be cut and which incentives were ill-advised. The Herald did us all a disservice by abondoning their objectivity and embracing knowingly false information to support a misguided conclusion. As councilman, Rich will find it necessary to recuse himself a lot less than the current members that have relations with petitioners to the city. This includes clients of seated lawyers.
Hi guys, great points, I have heard through city folks I know that Mr. Dunne is a strong candidate with his background. Prigge is also. Remember to think of our future with Robins on the council. He is a great source we can use. With political issues with these three, and agendas changing, it will require numbers when they cast votes. The other two year candidates don’t have the plan on matters as Robins. He has visions and methods that work with Dunne and Prigge’s ideas. Therefore the three can bond as a unit for change which needs votes! Dunne will get less done in the future if he just has Prigge.