Riverside Party Stresses need for revenue, business Platform is ‘reality-based’ approach to the future.

With nominating petitions due for the village election this spring, the candidates slated by the Riverside Community Caucus are officially running under a political banner as The Riverside Party and have released a platform that emphasizes the village’s financial security, revitalizing business districts and protecting Riverside’s historic heritage.

While those goals are also shared by the rival slate from the Riverside Community Alliance (RCA), the path to achieving them is markedly different.

Kevin Smith, the Riverside Party’s candidate for village president said that the members of the slate do not all share the same perspective, unlike those of the RCA who have declared that their slate speaks with one voice.

The party’s candidates for village trustee are David Lesniak, the chairman of the village Plan Commission; Kelly Navarro, an attorney who works in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s sex crimes division; and Tony Miezio, vice president of an insurance brokerage company.

“We are offering people with a spectrum of experiences and backgrounds rather than one point of view,” Smith said. “Our candidates run deeper than just being against something

“This is not the four musketeers approach of the RCA. We’re individuals who will work with whoever is on the board and build a consensus without preconceived notions.”

Both parties have as a principal goal, writing balanced budgets that maintain services. The RCA has suggested that cutting spending by examining every line item can achieve that goal. Part of that group’s platform is a review of personnel and a belief that the village may be able to get similar service levels with fewer or less-experienced staff who are more affordable.

To Smith, suggesting less-qualified staff can deliver quality services is impossible.

“We’re not talking in code about getting rid of people we don’t like or get less expensive people,” Smith said. “This notion that you can provide better levels of service this way is a fiction. We’re trying to be reality-based. When you have departments with one person, you’d better have someone who is very competent.”
Smith, who is a member of the village board as a trustee, was the architect of Riverside’s 2009 budget, which included cuts in funding to the recreation department and the village’s historical museum.

The budget also cut a position in public works and eliminated a building inspector position. It also did away with automatic cost of living increases for non-union staff. The budget, which was passed by the board in December saved police and fire staffing levels. Some trustees had advocated cutting funding to the recreation department and historical museum completely.

“The other trustees signed on to the budget I proposed,” Smith said. “That’s very different than the RCA. They had no suggestions for the ‘09 budget.”

Going forward, Smith said that the village must find new revenue streams. The party’s platform states that it wants to avoid future property tax increases to do that. Smith said he’d like to explore the idea of home rule for Riverside, a position he advocated in 2008 as an alternative to a property tax increase.

“I feel we need to go back to home rule,” Smith said. “It will be a long process that would take two years minimum before we could take it to the voters. We’d have to do the education and show residents why it’s a better option.

“Realistically, going forward, we’re going to take a huge hit in 2010 … because of increases we need to pay in our police pension levy. That will cut back on what we can pay for operations. We can’t just sit around and grouse. We have to be engaged and moving forward.”

The Riverside Party’s platform calls for a revitalization of the business district by working with the Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development Commission to help recruit and attract businesses. Additionally, the platform calls for a village staff member to be assigned duties related to economic development.

Smith said that other options the board could consider in the future is creating a façade improvement program or creating a sort of revolving fund that can provide loans to small businesses.

Restricting businesses to ones that serve local residents first, as the RCA has suggested, is unrealistic, according to Smith.

“If there was a need in town not being met, I’m sure someone would have met it,” Smith said. “We need to work with the chamber and through the EDC to reach out and see if there are those who want to move in and fill the store fronts. We’re looking for a practical approach, not a theoretical approach.”

Source: Riverside Landmark January 20th 2009
By: Bob Uphues, Editor