In Aurora, Alderman John Laesch upset incumbent Mayor Richard Irvin.
Irvin conceded the race late Tuesday evening, ending his bid for a third term.
In a candidate forum held in March, Laesch responded to questions related to how he would lead the city:
Laesch: I'm a former East Aurora school board member, former naval intelligence analyst who served in the Middle East, a graduate of Illinois State University and a community organizer and union carpenter.
I'm the one alderman who's voted against the $58 million casino TIF and numerous pay-to-play schemes.
I want to share my vision for Aurora. My administration's top priority will be bringing better paying, living wage jobs to our city. I will be a full-time mayor working towards continued success downtown by supporting the Paramount Theatre and small businesses. And I will work immediately to restore civility and ethics in City Hall and improve communication with Aurora residents. Aurora is stronger when we're working together and that will be my focus as our next mayor.
Please state your position on the proposed City of Lights Center. If you support it, how would the city fund it?
Laesch: I have supported the expansion of downtown River Edge Park, and I want to see that succeed. I want to continue to support the Paramount [Theatre] or other theaters.
I am currently not supporting the City of Lights Center, and I voted against the Phase Two distribution of money. And the reason is, if you look at it, for those who are not familiar, this is a 4,000-person concert venue that will be on Lake Street. And it's going to cost roughly $120 million. I assume it would cost a lot more, but right now, the other 4,000-person concert venue in the state of Illinois is looking at selling because they're not making enough money.
And I figured that if they're right off the interstate, adjacent to the [Chicago O'Hare] airport and close to 2.6 million, that 2.6 million residents, in the city of Chicago, and they're not making it, I think we need to better analyze that plan. I'll be making data driven decisions to continue to support downtown entertainment increase foot traffic in our city.
What is your vision for continued development in downtown Aurora?
Laesch: I’m going to continue to support the events and entertainment that are bringing foot traffic downtown. As I've already said, I don't support the City of Light Center. If Rosemont isn't making it, I find it hard to believe that we would too. We need more parking. So, the area north of River Edge Park needs to be parking. We're expanding River Edge. There's going to be more people looking for parking spaces. I will scrap the West Bank Apartments and keep that parking lot open because we need it.
I would like to see the old post office, SciTech, become a multi-use art space, potentially with a wine bar and gallery similar to Batavia Water Street Studios.
I also think that instead of luxury apartments pricing people out of their homes, I want to keep the riverfront open and go back to a plan to turn that area north of that into a nature center.
Additionally, I think that instead of the multimillion-dollar TIF deals that favor politically connected developers, I’ll support more local downtown businesses and people that are from here because I believe our community is more likely to support them.
How will you prioritize city services if federal funding for current programs decreases significantly?
Laesch: So first of all, we're going to have to look at the budget and assess where things are. This is also important — a lot of people probably don't know this, but we're currently losing $4.3 million of federal funding because our census was undercounted. And because of the current president and ICE on our streets, it's going to be hard to make people feel safe and to be recounted, but I'm going to pursue every federal and state grant dollar.
I want to maintain a positive relationship with the governor of the state of Illinois, to work to fight for every dollar that we can bring to our city. I'm a big advocate for green building. I want to pursue funding in the climate bank to help make people's homes more energy efficient. And again, I've already mentioned the census recount. I think that's very important to make our community feel safe and go after those dollars.
What measures will you take to increase the amount of affordable housing in Aurora?
Laesch: Some of it's going to be dependent on the CDBG [Community Development Block Grant Program] funding that's coming in from the federal government.
I want to work with a nonprofit builder — Habitat for Humanity. They are the banker, the developer, and they're also the builder, and they work to make sure that people can get in a house at 30% of their income. I think that this is very important. They have a very high success rate, 97% success rate here in the Fox Valley, we have a lot of small, open lots in our city that our city-owned, that we could turn into affordable, tiny homes. This is something that I'm going to continue to look at, but I've also talked a lot about green building and tapping into the Illinois climate bank. That'll help us pool more resources into this effort to make more affordable housing.
I've also voted against some of the luxury apartments where we as taxpayers have subsidized $12.5 million into the DAC development on the East Bank. Those are costing $1,700 to $2,300 per month. That is not affordable. It's not the direction that we need to go.
What is your position on tax incentives for development? How will you balance the short-term loss of tax revenue with the long-term potential for economic growth in TIF (Tax Increment Financing) districts?
Laesch: In general, I view TIF districts as a sweetheart deal for developers. For those people who aren't familiar, we basically draw a box called a TIF zone around a piece of property, and instead of the taxes going to the schools, going to the city, going to the library, they go into the developers' pockets to redevelop that property. They're sweetheart deals.
Unfortunately, it is going to require state legislation to fix it, because what developers do is pit communities against each other. And that needs to stop at the local level. I'm not going to be using TIFs because they siphon so much money out of our school districts. I voted against the River Vine [Tax Increment Financing District] and, of course, already mentioned a $58 million casino TIF and a Cross Street TIF. Instead, we're going to have to work with developers that will come in taking a building for free, perhaps. I'm okay with some incentive to develop first floor, start making a profit, and then slowly start to develop. We've seen other communities do this. We can do this here in Aurora and again, trying to give preference to local businesses.
What community-based initiatives would you support to reduce crime?
Laesch: Best crime prevention is a good paying job. Parents, if they're earning living wage jobs, will be home to spend time with their kids, and a strong local economy, in my opinion, is the best way to prevent crime.
We need a multi-pronged approach. One of the successful methods used by former mayor Weisner to move Aurora to a place of zero homicides, was to adequately fund Youth Services, and I will take the same proven crime prevention effort.
I want to see us start to pool together resources from the library, Fox Valley Park District, nonprofits, our schools and the city — all working together to build more overlapping after school programs, so kids have a safe place to go after school.
I also want to see us relieve the burden on police by working to make some of our unsafe intersections a lot better, like the dangerous S curves on Eola and Autumn Grove Circle and Bilter Road. I think that that will reduce the amount of call time spent on traffic accidents and provide more time for safety.
Questions from the audience: Do you support a limit to campaign donations in city elections?
Laesch: I absolutely support limits to campaign donations. I personally don't take any campaign donations from people doing business with the city of Aurora or corporate PACs or anybody seeking to buy influence from elected officials.
I worked this fall with other people to put a referendum question on the ballot that would have given the voters of Aurora a chance to answer this question, as well. Unfortunately, we did not get the required number of signatures. It was challenged and that referendum question was not on the ballot.
If elected mayor, I'll work to put it on the ballot. I'll also work with the Aurora City Council to determine what cap we want to use, but somehow, we've got to limit pay to play politics in the city of Aurora.
It exists at every level of government. It exists in both political parties and it needs to stop. If we want a government economy that works for everybody, we're going to have to reform how we run elections in the United States. And I'll start right here in the city of Aurora.
The Chicago Tribune reported that fear of ICE arrests is keeping immigrant customers at home and making it harder for immigrant-owned businesses in Aurora to stay open. As mayor, how will you support Aurora undocumented residents who are increasingly fearful due to new federal administration policy?
Laesch: I think that this is an important issue. First of all, I would want to analyze the data to find out if there's a downward economic trend happening in other communities, or if this is something tied to ICE and immigration?
I don't want to dodge a question at all, though the Trust Act in Illinois essentially makes the state of Illinois a sanctuary state, meaning that the Aurora Police Department cannot coordinate with ICE on their searches and seizures and arrests, It [the Trust Act] makes our city feel safer.
I've already mentioned that $4.3 million that we're all losing because of being miscounted. If it makes our city feel safer to pass a local ordinance, I would be in favor of meeting with both the community members, holding public meetings, meeting with our legal department to see what can be done, because we are all being impacted by this loss of $4.3 million and it's something that I will pursue aggressively.