Election 2013: What Should Darien City Council's Top Priorities Be?

In its 2013 candidate questionnaire, Patch asked the candidates for Darien City Council the following questions:

What do you see as the top three goals for the City of Darien?

Here, in alphabetical order, are the candidates' responses:

Halil Avci, Ward 7:

1. Keeping Darien safe by maintaining a highly skilled police force, through cooperative educational programs with Schools, and by forward looking data analyses and intervention practices.
2. Development of a comprehensive infrastructure improvement plan, including the development of the city-owned property at the corner of Cass Ave and Plainfield Rd.
3. Development of a forward looking, sustainable, and balanced budgeting and planning process.

Marianne Batryn, Ward 5:

• Attracting and retaining quality businesses
• Maintaining the infrastructure of Darien
• Keeping Darien a safe and healthy place

Thomas Belczak, Ward 7:

1. Create an Economic Development
2. Develop Plainfield & Cass
3. Strengthen Police

Joe Kenny, Ward 3:

• Economic Development. Darien relies on too many big box stores to generate revenue.
• Maintain the superior service the residents have become accustom to.
• Keeping taxes low. With distressed properties on the rise the last several years it's more important than ever to be running as lean as possible.

Joseph Marchese, Ward 5:

• Darien leaders need to continue to prioritize our infrastructure maintenance and repair projects (streets, ditches, sidewalks) with an eye toward developing and implementing a long range capital development and spending program;
• Darien leaders need to continue to seek business and economic growth opportunities for our Darien community in an effort to improve services to residents while also increasing financial resources and revenues;
• Darien leaders need to continue to seek and grow the inter-governmental spirit promoted over the past three years in order to support the needs of all governmental bodies (schools, park, church) in providing the educational, social, religious and recreational needs of the Darien community in a cost effective manner.

Jim Minardi, Ward 5:

1. Maintain the financial health of the city. Only vital projects and expenditures should be undertaken and our financial solvency should always be the number one priority of the City Council.
2. Ensure that Darien remains "a nice place to live". I believe that with our new police chief and the addition of a criminal analyst, we our taking the appropriate steps to combat crime before it happens. 
3. Keep Darien exciting. There has been a lot of talk about what to do with the proposed land between Plainfield, Cass, and 75th. I know that Darien lacks the "downtown" feel of Hinsdale or Westmont, but we should still provide an exciting place for the youth of this town to enjoy.

Ted Schauer, Ward 1:

1. Business: This means to continue to attract the right mix of businesses to Darien that either generate tax revenue, or attract businesses that are a good fit for the long term of Darien. We recently had a discussion on the city council that we need to have “set guidelines” for attracting new businesses to the city, which I am not in favor of. What I recommend we do is establish a policy that “we as a city will work with ALL new and existing businesses to create and maintain a business mix that is mutually beneficial to that business and the city”. This is important because the needs of one business are different from the next, and in order for business to remain successful, we need to look at each business individually.
2. Maintaining the infrastructure of the city: Darien was incorporated in 1969, however many of the ditches and roads built were before that year. The reality is that in any middle age city there will be infrastructure issues that will need to be addressed for now and the future. We must continue a policy of protecting and fixing infrastructure in the city of Darien for now and long term. By doing so, we will keep the long term costs low.
3. Maintaining services using the least amount of taxes: Most people look at their property tax bill and see a payment in the thousands. However, on closer look the City of Darien tax portion represents an average of 3-4%. This means on a $5000 tax bill, the average homeowner pays less than $200 to the city. The reality is that Darien has always provided the best services with the least amount of money used. We must continue to provide the excellent services the residents of Darien have come to expect at the least amount of cost.

Whose priorities do you find most sensible? Tell us in the comments!