Kane County Board candidate Robert Getz talks Edgewater issues

EDGEWATER – Perhaps the only field Kane County Board candidate and Edgewater resident Robert “Ragman” Getz is not versed in is partisan politics.

A veteran, Getz’s experience includes two tours of Army duty in Vietnam, during which time he earned the Combat Infantryman’s Badge and Honor Medal, first class, as well as two bronze star medals.

Getz’s business experience includes working as superintendant of operations for the University of Illinois at Chicago from 1976 to 1993, then physical plant director at Harper College in Palatine from 1993 to 2008. Since 2003 he has brought his expertise to Elgin Community College to volunteer as a trustee.

Getz is running for Kane County Board’s District 22. He sat down with the Sun Day to discuss his positions, thoughts on politics and issues around Edgewater. The one thing he did not reveal? The origin of his nickname, to which he is sworn to secrecy.

Sun Day: What was your motive to run for Kane County Board?

Robert Getz: I’m just frustrated with the [representation] we’ve had at all levels. I can do full-time and support my community here. This will work for me, and I can maybe make enough of an issue about being honest and straightforward in government that maybe it’ll pass on.

SD: I was reading on your website that you want to work with both sides.

RG: [Refers to pictures taken with President Obama and Illinois Republican Rep. Joe Walsh]

They’re all there. Somehow they get on these two sides, the democrats and republicans, and they are so adamant about what they want for themselves that they forget that you have to come together in the middle and not bang heads but form some sort of a union.

SD: You mentioned how there are no politics within the ECC board. Do you feel there is room for partisanship on the county board level?

RG: All too often, and it’s both sides…when they get down as far as [Kane County Board candidates are] going to be on the ballot, we’re almost at the bottom. And they’re hitting their numbers; they go into, is it a democrat or a republican? It’s not whether the person is going to support me or not.

SD: Yes, you don’t hear that much about those candidates, because they don’t have the means to promote themselves.

RG: I spoke before the County Board on this. A lot of the people in this community supported this. [The idea is] to get the money out of politics.

SD: On what level?

RG: Every level. I’m not seeking contributions, and I’m not seeking endorsements. And the reason I’m doing that is, I don’t want to be a paid agent of somebody outside this community. And with this, that’s what happens.

SD: Have you been approached about contributions or endorsements?

RG: I had two people offer to give me money, and I refused it. The Democratic Party has a policy that they give you 100 signs, so I took the 100 signs from the Democratic Party because I’m a part of the Democratic Party. Other than that, I haven’t done anything with contributions. I’ve got one unsolicited endorsement, and that was from the Elgin Trades Council. And the Herald invited me over to their offices for an interview with my opponent, and I don’t know if they’re going to endorse either one of us.

SD: Can you tell me about your ideas on the township level of government?

RG: Townships were formed in the 18th and 19th centuries, and there was a reason for them: people were in horses and buggies. It would take you more than a day to go to the county. Township was right there locally¬ – you could go there in an hour or two, maybe less, and you get your business done, [and then] you go back home.

You can do everything today over the Internet [or] telephone that you need to do without any problem at all. You don’t need all these local offices, so I take a look at it, and I say, 16 assessors, 16 supervisors, and 64 trustees. And I think they’re all getting paid some type of salary. Do we really need more than one assessor? If we need more than one assessor, okay we have one in the middle, one in the north, one in the south. Think of the money we would save in staff. And we would be able to eliminate 13 to 15 assessors.

SD: And those assessors that are still around would be operating for the county?

RG: The ones that are around now, the one that we have here in Elgin township operates out of McLean Township.

That’s the other thing; each of them has an office with a staff in each of their individual townships. You know how much it costs for the HVAC, the custodians, all the support that you need to keep those offices going?

SD: But the counterpoint is what happens to all those jobs?

RG: You assimilate them into the county.

SD: All of them?

RG: Sometimes you’re going to lose a job or two. You do everything you can to save everyone their position, but if you get to the point where you have to lay somebody off, then you have to lay somebody off. But you’ve got a way of bringing them back when positions become available. I’m not in favor of ever putting someone in a position where they’re losing their job, but why should we be paying for someone that’s not needed?

SD: What do you see as the advantage in the long term of doing away with the township level?

RG: Okay, first and biggest change you would see immediately is there should be something in the vicinity of a 50 percent cut in what they require in their real estate taxes.

If we bring that all into the county, we don’t need any of those trustees, so that’s 94 positions that we could eliminate – political positions that would be gone immediately.

SD: What has your experience been like running for office?

RG: It’s fun. Since I don’t have the money, I don’t have a way of paying for ads in the newspapers and all that other stuff. So whenever I can around, 4:30 in the afternoon I go pick a neighborhood, and I just walk from door to door and I talk to people. I just walk and I talk to the folks. Ask them for their email. I’ve got about 900 email addresses right now, which is pretty big for a district this small. And the first and the 15th of the month I send out where I stand on a particular issue.

The one thing our representatives have never done is to ask what they want to have done within their community. In this community alone, there are three issues:

College Green. That roadway started with the community to our east, and they gave them areas that they needed to have retention ponds and what have you so when the water flowed through, they had some place to go during the rains because they were doing all the construction. Then they improved Randall Road, and Randall went up a little bit higher then it was. Then they built Edgewater, and they did retention ponds and the things that you need to do around Edgewater. And Randall Road went up a little bit higher because they’ve needed to do improvements on that. What’s happened is when there’s a rainstorm, the water comes down from Randall Road, the retention ponds that were originally developed to take the water from Randall Road are not sufficient, because Randall Road keeps on going up, so now there are torrents of water that come down, overflow the retention ponds and in between the two communities, it’s flowing left and right. And we’ve got a good chance that people are going to start getting some difficulties with flooding.

The other problem is here at Bowes they’ve been fighting this. We had one person that really got hurt pulling out onto Bowes from Edgewater. Part of the problem in the accident was the sunlight: they were looking to the east; it was sunrise, and all they saw was sun, and they didn’t see the car coming. But the problem is bigger than that. Because I’ve worked with ECC and I’ve worked with the city, they tell me what they’re doing is taking all of the bike paths that come from the north and the west and bring[ing] them through Edgewater and cross[ing] at Bowes to get to the library that they just built. It’s a very logical thing, especially for the kids to be able to just ride their bikes across. All they’ve got there is a warning signal. If we start putting all these kids and families going across there, they’ve got to at least get those flashing lights on there so people are made aware.

The biggest problem we’ve got is a special assessment. This wetlands area that we have. Normally you would think the wetlands is turned over to the Forest Preserve; the Forest Preserve accepts them and they maintain them. It appears that somewhere around 2002, 2003 there was some agreement made that there would be a special assessment made on the homeowners here to maintain the wetlands. I don’t think that’s right.

You don’t charge the people in the reserve extra money for the library to maintain itself, same for the wetlands. The land for the fire station was turned over to the city; Edgewater doesn’t pay for the fire station to be maintained. Why should they pay for the wetlands?

I plan on going to the forest preserve, talking to the folks who have control over what’s going to happen here, and find[ing] out, are you really going to do an assessment?

SD: How does being an Edgewater resident affect the ideas you would bring to the board?

RG: People here, if they’ve got a problem or a question, I’m going to be there to support them or help them.

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More info: www.getzforkaneco.com

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