Danville Mayor Candidate James McMahon Answers Community Questionnaire

These questions were created by Danville community members during the Democracy in Danville event on March 4^th at the Danville Public Library.

1. What are your short term and long term strategic plans for Danville?

Quality of Life, Economic Growth, Public Safety.

Short-term, I want to stabilize our budget by carefully examining our spending priorities and planning to go forward without trying to raise taxes. Long-term I have three major strategic objectives that need to operate together. First, would be the quality of life. This involves removal of blight and improvement of neighborhoods, and long-term maintenance of our infrastructure to avoid costly repairs in the future. It also involves emphasizing the opportunities right here to enjoy life, whether it is a summer downtown events or other events. There is always something going on and we need to advertise that both to residents and visitors. Sprucing up neighborhoods and getting out into the neighborhoods and visiting I think will help our self-image.

Next, and going hand-in-hand with and part of the quality of life, is to develop plans for economic growth. That involves a professional marketing and business plan to do two things: 1. Develop ideas of how we can draw people here to visit and pump money into our economy. We have great parks for camping, hiking or just day visits. We have a scenic river. We have a unique baseball field and team. Once you start thinking about it, the list goes on. We have some regular tournaments hosted by DACC or other institutions. We can look at finding ways to make Danville a convention center location. The marketing plan may reveal other possible niche’s for us to develop, if we all work together. It might take years but we have to start breathing some new life into our community. We have some fantastic assets. How do we maximize them? Those seeds need to be planted now. 2. Continued development of traditional manufacturing or other types of businesses that provide stable, satisfying jobs. As mayor, I want constant interaction with our business community to identify ways to help them sustain them and help them grow. I want their ideas on how we can add businesses here that would complement what we have and be a natural and sustainable extension of our economic growth. We need to partner with our neighboring communities to leverage our combined assets to draw business and jobs here to our County. A rising tide does lift all boats. We are all in this together. And that includes our neighboring counties. Can we partner with them as a region to make this area a convenient hub for business? We are a half hour from the University of Illinois, 2.5 hours from Chicago and the neighboring suburbs and within easy reach of Springfield, Bloomington, Decatur, and also Indianapolis, Indiana. Again, this takes a unified marketing study and business plan to fully mine all of our resources as well as just keeping communication lines open with business. All ideas about economic growth and jobs require us to think out of the box and be constantly on the look for possibilities.

Finally, the last leg of a combined strategic plan is public safety. That is discussed below as well, but in summary, we need a police chief who can partner with the Sheriff’s Department and all other law enforcement agencies that touch or operate within our boundaries, to find the right community-based plan to fight violence, gangs and drugs. There are successful models out there employed in other jurisdictions to develop a community policing approach to win back our neighborhoods. Blight includes the deterioration of neighborhoods from crime and drugs. It drives good residents away. It has to stop. A consistent approach with a realistic plan is needed. That will involve using all of our tools from law enforcement to code enforcement. Homes will be maintained. Drug activity will be driven out. Problems affecting the ability of a resident to feel safe will be identified and attacked. We will go neighborhood by neighborhood. Some areas around schools, churches, and DACC will be especially watched. The previous administration took us a long way, but as with any change, it is an opportunity to get the next step and build on that progress.

2. Sell someone in 3 minutes why they should live in (or come back to) Danville.

Danville has the best of two worlds – rural and urban. We are 2.5 hours from downtown Chicago, a half hour from the University of Champaign/Urbana, an hour from Indianapolis. We have easy access to Springfield, Bloomington and Peoria. So, we are in a nice center hub.

While still maintaining many small town attributes, we have quality health care from clinics to hospitals and a Veteran’s Administration facility right here in Danville and also in Champaign. Access to quality health care is easy and, in an emergency, very responsive and quick. Our fire and police departments are second to none and have the track record to prove it.

We have a strong rural economy and community with smaller towns nearby with unique shops and food establishments. State and County Parks are of the highest quality for camping, hiking or just hanging out for the day. We boast a scenic river, great fishing, and the space for quiet times. You can take in a ballgame at a unique stadium with our Danville Dans, a team of young athletes who often end up going further in their baseball career.

We have a small town downtown that is still growing but has great food restaurants and unique shops to visit, an incredible library, and a history that includes a nearby museum where Abraham Lincoln stayed at when it was a private residence. The room is nicely preserved.

We have some vibrant industries, new and long-term, that supports a growing economy. And there really is room to grow. Our community college, DACC, offers many avenues toward success and is just a great, extremely accessible and pleasant place to learn.

3. How will you regularly engage your community? How will you keep lines of communication open?

With my private business, Illini Skateland, I learned early on how important it was to communicate with respect and show cordiality to a customer. I taught my staff that same thing, particularly when someone might seem to be upset. Everyone has a bad day and I needed to help make it better. I carried that into my time as County Board Chairman. We radically changed the budget process when I was elected, so with the first budget, I personally went out to each 27 board members and delivered and discussed the budget one on one. I tried to stay open to all. I changed our committee assignment process to include both sides of the spectrum and collaborated with the so-called minority party on committee assignments. That process has now been institutionalized. Over time, people saw it was my approach was OK and we had a very productive six year run with little opposition because we tried to work with everyone. In the meantime, we ran for six years with no tax increase. I took the same attitude toward the public. I would always meet with them, listen and try to find middle ground if that solved the issue and was the right thing to do. One-on-one conversation got a lot done.

That same approach will work here, both with the elected officials, department heads, employees and the public. A large part of what I want to accomplish requires partnership with the community as well as business. For the community, I or key members of my staff will be at neighborhood association meetings to listen or talk. We will have opportunities for citizens to meet with ‘problem solvers’. That means they won’t go department to department being confused. Someone will help them solve their problem by helping them make connections. It may not be quite a one stop shop idea, but we will be as customer friendly as possible. We will be here to help.

On a larger scale, we will be frequently surveying neighborhoods to determine what their concerns are and trying to find how we can partner to solve those problems.

With the business community, I want to have a semi-regular meeting to discuss their concerns or frustrations. I also want to hear about ideas for growth and how we can help economic development.

I enjoy personal one-on-one communications with all and I enjoy solving problems – big and small. That is the best feeling you can get in public service.

4. What personal experiences have prepared you for office?

First, raising a family. Sometimes it was scary, sometimes challenging, but it was always rewarding. There were no real handbooks as the saying goes; you had to learn to be responsible for the growth and success of the people you love. Responsibility is the key word there.

The same goes for running a small family owned business. The ups and downs of revenue and the need to constantly adapt to changing situations, developing new ways of offering quality entertainment and family time with always limited resources was and is a challenge. But I needed to succeed because it was up to me to make it happen so my family could grow and one day take over. I wanted and still do want a good life for them. This experience constantly molded me to be responsible, creative, and learn to never give up. I might not always have succeeded in every business idea, but long-term, it worked because I never gave up. You cannot walk away from responsibility.

While at the county I managed over 400 employees, worked with all department heads and delivered a balanced budget all six years with no tax increases. This summer I negotiated a 1 million dollar deal with ASCAP to benefit all the roller rinks across the country. I want to be able to do those kinds of things for the City. I have spent a lot of time watching and learning, seeing how others did their jobs and how the County and City operated. These experiences will prove to be invaluable to me if I am elected Mayor.

Other than government service, family, and work, I also volunteered for some years to visit our VA as a representative of our church. Seeing those who have served and trying to help them a bit by distributing communion on Sundays, helped keep me humble and alive to the need to serve others.

5. How would you help improve the relationship between the police and the community (particularly minority groups in the community)?

To be honest, I think the thing that helps the most right now with communication is having the school resource officers. They are developing a relationship with our youth and hopefully those relationships can carry on outside of the school. I would want to keep that communication level and relationship in high gear with more community outreach and presence in the neighborhoods. I and my immediate staff will connect with community groups and listen. We will pay attention to important events like the Martin Luther King celebration and use that as a time to really reflect and review the issues people face, particularly those who can feel marginalized or treated unfairly. MLK Day is not just a parade, it is a time to reflect and talk.

Part of that communication with all groups and neighborhoods is about how we can help you be safer and comfortable in your neighborhood. So we want to open lines of communication with every neighborhood. The police are the first responders in times of need as a rule. I want to foster a positive relationship between the police and community by being seen as a point of assistance. Once you see someone as a person, you can share thoughts and concerns more readily. I want to connect with the public in positive ways at meetings or events.

We want to support the neighborhood and community groups we have right now and become a part of their daily landscape to the point that, when there is a problem, the police will be a partner toward a positive resolution. All people are tired of violence and the fear that comes with it. All of us deserve a peaceful home and a good quality of life. If we can continue to partner with all minority and neighborhood groups, we can achieve that.

6. How will you create community partnerships to engage the youth?

There are already a number of groups out there that try to engage our youth. I would want to listen to them all, find the best ideas from their experience and form a collaboration group that would help be sure these good ideas are available to all youth. As I said elsewhere, the solutions may differ from neighborhood to neighborhood. But if we bring the current leaders together and find out what works, we can strategically offer it to more people. It doesn’t take money to bring together some very dedicated people and say, how can we help further your goals and our goal of helping youth make good decisions and be a blessing for their families and friends. The tools are right there, we need to facilitate it.

7. What new ways can city resources be allocated to serve youth?

If I can identify the local people who know what resources and opportunities are out there, I can move mountains. I do not need the speech-makers or policy people; I need the hands on workers who know what can actually be done and where to squeeze the funding from. Those folks are the treasure of a community. Like I said already, there are dedicated, capable people out there and we need to help facilitate their work and from time to time help them find the right tools. From experience I know that if we work through the 708 Community Mental Health Board and existing service providers, we can achieve a lot by just listening to them and helping as we can to organize efforts on a City-wide or even County-wide basis, in a consistent, planned way.

8. What ideas/plans do you have to address the violence in the community?

There are two approaches that must be done in conjunction with one another. First, to anyone who wants to get out of the world of violence and drugs, we will find a way to help. We have to show people that there is a better life possible. Hopelessness and anger can drive people to violence and crime. So we have to address some root problems in concrete ways with education and opportunities. DACC just announced a new program to help get job skills as part of their continuing efforts to develop training and education opportunities at all levels.

Second, to those who do not want to change, we will hound you and your associates until we see you all in jail or just plain out of our community. The families tortured by violence in their neighborhoods will not accept less. Our police force will deliver on public safety by careful, best practices within the law enforcement community. So a police chief who can study the different successful models for effective law enforcement is critical. I know there are different programs that have been successful. We need to find one for our community and be consistent. I am not a police officer, so I won’t pretend to come up with any plan. I want the professionals to do that, brief me until I am convinced that is the way to go, and then I will approve it. Then the key is consistency and a firm commitment to support every officer who does their job, give them the right tools to be safe and succeed.

9. How will you use code enforcement to improve the condition and affordability of property in the community?

Part of my overall plan for both public safety and economic development is to go neighborhood by neighborhood and survey the issues in each. Code enforcement, public works, law enforcement, I and my staff will be involved. On the one hand, to the extent we can get State and Federal grants, every last dollar possible should be going to improving our image in each neighborhood and helping those unable to do so maybe spruce up their homes. Helping now before it becomes a demolition issue might be cheaper and more effective. Too many empty lots on a city block due to demolition will not attract buyers. Obviously the City cannot just fund all repairs as a matter of course, so those able to do it on their own will be encouraged by code enforcement to do so. It takes time, but we will have a strategy. For instance, the Main Street corridor that leads you to DACC is important and should look great and inviting.

One way we can help is reinstituting the neighborhood clean-up days. These were very successful in just getting the old toys and furniture to the curb instead of on the porch.

We will be on the lookout for residences that are clearly hotspots for crime and that weaken the neighborhood’s sense of safety and we will address these properties. I want to see some crime free lease provisions to make evictions for criminal activity easier. A lot of older people who made their neighborhoods wonderful places to grow families are now distraught with how run down and sometimes dangerous their neighborhood has become. But they cannot just up and move due to financial or other reasons. They cannot afford to start over. They invested their life and money here. For them we need to try hard to protect and preserve their neighborhood and try to change and turn it around.

10. How will you attract good jobs to the community?

First, there are some good jobs here already, and DACC’s new and continuing training programs will help get you there if you want to work at it. DACC offers education on many levels from training to full-fledged college education. Having said that, we do need to develop more economic growth to establish a diverse and satisfying job market. I want to see a thriving downtown and nice neighborhoods. So we need to develop a plan to grow.

Second, I want to work with every individual business here and find ways to help their business grow and develop more jobs or find new businesses that will complement them or be a good addition. Marketing is a key and the business people we have now are a great pool of talent and information to draw on. They will be invited to my office from time to time to talk about how we can be partners in growing their business. To be clear, I want to support current local business. I will always want more businesses and jobs, but I will not trade one old business for a new business. There is no net gain there and the old business has already made a commitment to Danville and we will support that commitment.

We need to be more business friendly and make sure that the people understand that the city is here to help and not hinder their growth and success. It takes time and constant attentiveness. As mayor I will be in the thick of it with my staff so we never overlook or underestimate the possibilities.