Here is a partial transcript of the event featuring the candidates for Aurora Mayor held by the League of Women Voters at the Santori Public Library. The questions generated by the League are included and some from the audience members with consideration for length and duplication. If you want to catch the whole forum, click here.
The last day to vote is April 1.
“The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan organization founded in 1920 that encourages informed and active participation by citizens and government. We do not support or oppose any candidate for office. The league sponsors events such as this one, so that voters are educated and informed about where candidates stand on issues,” moderator Barbara Young, a League member and LaGrange resident, announced at the start of the forum.
Opening statements
Irvin: I'm born and raised in Aurora. I bleed this city. I ran for mayor eight years ago and I was elected because I wanted to make a difference.
I made a promise to myself, made a promise to God, when I was in the first Gulf War, that if I made it out — I almost died with a Scud missile coming my direction — that I'd spend the rest of my life in public service. And of course, I did not die. I made it out of that war, but immediately upon leaving the military, I immediately started working to make sure that I gave back to the community.
I immediately started working make sure I was a public servant — first as a community —based prosecutor, right here in Aurora, and second as an alderman for 10 years, and then as mayor, [the] first Black mayor in 185 years.
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.
Irvin: This will be iconic for the city of Aurora. And yes, this is going to be a $100 million development, and we in Aurora are worth that. The question is, “how do I pay for something like this?”
Well, we pay [with] four or five of the revenues that we generate based on this facility running. There will be revenues for ticket sales, food and beverage alcohol, hotels -- all the revenue streams that come in and pay for things like this.
Now, we did a study, from a company that does these things around the country, and they said that it would be successful in the City of Aurora. Now, I can't speak for other cities and why they're not successful, but here in Aurora we are successful with everything we do.
Our Paramount Theatre is the number one [subscribed] theater in the entire country, and we believe, we know, that this will be successful in the city of Aurora. And we deserve something just like this.
What is your vision for continued development in downtown Aurora?
Irvin: My vision for continued development is just what we've done. Over the last eight years, we've added $2 billion worth of value to our EAV [equalized assessed value]. Everybody that owns a house here in Aurora is now worth more. And at the same time, we've reduced our property tax rate by 20% over the last eight years. We're able to attract 3,000 brand new jobs to the city, 3000. On top of that, we've increased the level of revenue, the income that the average person makes, by almost 20%.
We have to keep developing our downtown. It has been dead for decades. It's been dead for generations. This is the first time in generations where you can walk, you see people walking their dog downtown, jogging, having a good time, just enjoying it.
I was down here Saturday night at the new restaurant Giardino [Trattoria and Pizza]. It was packed with a waiting line, and that's how it is for every brand-new restaurant. We bought five new restaurants, and we got, we've got another three in line to open up. And in fact, we just did a ribbon cutting for brand new apartments today. We have to keep moving the Aurora forward, taking us to the next level. And all this does expand the tax pace so we're able to reduce your property tax on your home.
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.
Irvin: We’re wholly undercounted in the 2020 census. So, I immediately commissioned a recount for the city of Aurora. And to do this recount, we've got to be very effective and surgical about how we make it happen. We went out, myself personally, knocking on doors, making sure people answered the census questions, and making sure that we got what's due to us.
In fact, it was the middle of COVID, and the census takers weren't knocking on doors. They were going up to houses, not actually counting individuals that were inside. We recognized that was wrong and immediately stepped up and said, we've got to do more. And we've done everything we need to do to make sure we get the census rolling.
Now, we have a new administration with new leadership, and I've already called Washington, DC and made sure that we were in line to make sure we get our census going again very soon.
I'm going to be flying to DC in May to make sure that we get what's due to us. The fact is the governor doesn't give us federal funding. The federal government gives us federal funding, and we've got to have a relationship with both our federal and state government to make sure that we give what Aurora needs.
What measures will you take to increase the amount of affordable housing in Aurora?
Irvin: About a year ago, I commissioned an affordable housing study, and this study says that there are different types of affordable housing. There's public housing like a Rural Housing Authority, there's affordable housing through HUD, and there's housing that's affordable just because the average person can afford it. Of course, market rate housing. So, the only way to build affordable housing is to get housing tax credits from the state of Illinois, from IHDA [Illinois Housing Development Authority].
There is no other way to build affordable housing -- to build affordable housing to cost the same exact amount of money to build market rate housing, exact same. No developer is going to come in and build unless there is some incentive. And the incentives are these tax credits. My team and I went down to speak with HUD and IHDA just three weeks ago, and we said, “Aurora is the second largest city the state. We need to make sure we are in line for these tax credit deals.” Now, normally, the city our size only gives one deal a year. I said, “that's unacceptable. We need three deals or more a year, because we've got a demand.” The Aurora Housing Authority did a wonderful development that I supported where [they built] 70 homes for seniors, because all our baby boomers are retiring at the same time, so we need housing. And 1000 people are in line for those 70 houses. So, that lets us know we have a demand.
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.
Irvin: A TIF is like a tool. It's like a hammer. If you use a hammer incorrectly, it's a weapon. But if you use it correctly you can build a house. If you use a TIF correctly, you can build progress, you can build prosperity. If we had not used TIFs, [the] Hobbs [Building] would not be redeveloped in beautiful apartments and restaurants. If we had not used TIFs, 110 Cross would have not been developed. If we had not used TIFs, the Terminal Building and the Keystone Building would not have been developed. Now these are very important developments, because it goes to the tax base.
Now, affordable housing is very important, but affordable housing doesn't drive our economy. Market rate housing does. We need people with disposable income that actually make a difference in the long-term economy, so we can reduce your taxes and give us extra dollars to be able to build affordable housing or at least give incentivized incentives to build affordable housing.
The reality is, we've got to use our incentives. There are many mayors that have the same philosophy -- let's just not use anything. And guess what? We didn't have any development in this city for generations.
What community-based initiatives would you support to reduce crime?
Irvin: Well, we focused on three pillars in the city: S-E-E: safety, education, economy, and all those things working together to reduce crime. We have the strongest and largest police department in our history. Not just paramilitary police riding around waiting for something to happen, being reactive.
They're out, community-based police officers being proactive in how they address crime. Get to know our community members and because of it, we've got the lowest crime rate in Aurora that we've seen since the 80s. Year after year after year, consecutive.
We're the second largest city in the state of Illinois, and last year, we only had one violent murder. And that was domestic that we couldn't control. It wasn't gang violence, and we immediately made an arrest. We will continue to support our police department, which our opponent says is corrupt. We'll continue to make sure we do what we need in the neighborhoods and start community groups throughout our community to address our issues right now.
Years ago, the issues used to be how many murders we had in a week. Right now, the issues in Aurora? — speeding and traffic. I'll take that over the murders that we had years ago. We're better today, and we're going to get better as we grow.
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.
Irvin: There are limitations on campaign donations. The state has rules. Matter of fact, the only way you even know that there's campaign donations, because we have to file it with the state of Illinois Election Commission. So, whenever someone says the Irvin campaign received a donation, that's because we tell it to the world — there is no pay-to-play.
The reality is this. The Constitution of the United States of America, the Supreme Court said that it was a person's and a business constitutional right to be able to donate to campaigns. It's their first amendment right to be able to do that. So, someone that says that they don't want someone allowed to do that, that means that they don't believe in the Constitution of the United States. That's un-American. The reality is if you know someone that worked in Springfield -- I didn't, my opponent did -- he could have made those changes there in Springfield. We have ample rules.
Inside the city of Aurora, we have checks and balances. We have a purchasing process that goes through employees, then it goes through the alderman, then it goes to the alderman-at-large, committee of the aldermen, the alderman-at-large, and the mayor doesn't even vote on it. So, if you're suggesting that there's some type of pay-to-play going on, that means it starts with the city employees that have worked there for years. It's the job of the aldermen and Committee of the Whole.
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?
Irvin: As mayor of the City of Aurora, there's no determination of what a person's status is. Everybody [that] lives in Aurora is a resident of the City of Aurora. We’ll continue to support businesses and individuals in the City of Aurora as we always have -- making sure we look out for their best interest, making sure we do what's necessary to make their quality of life is good right here in the City of Aurora.
Matter of fact, I was [voted] the Small Business Mayor of the Year in 2019 by the, by the US Conference Mayors because of my support for small businesses in Aurora. That means small Latino businesses. We support our Latino community, and we make sure that they have what they need.
But as far as the jurisdiction of ICE, ICE has jurisdiction that has nothing to do with the City of Aurora, nothing at all. What we can do is just continue to do what we've always done, and make sure that we provide services that every resident deserves and requires from the City of Aurora.
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.
