To inform voters and to help the baiduhai Editorial Board make endorsements, the board posed a series of questions to the candidates running for alderman. See their answers below. See how other candidates answered here.
Name: Paul Struebing
Ward: 41st
Current job: Attorney – Amundsen Davis LLC
Previous political experience: Community Representative – Ebinger Elementary Local School Council
Education: BA – Miami Ohio – 2010; JD – Loyola University of Chicago School of Law – 2014
Spouse’s occupation: Attorney – Tomasik Kotin Kasserman, LLC
Sources of outside income: None other than our employment as an attorneys.
The rise in violent crime remains a top priority for City Hall. Homicides, shootings and carjackings are all unacceptably high. Tell us how city government can be innovative in combating crime, and explain what measures you would propose if elected.
Achieving a sustained decrease in violent crime will require a multipronged approach that focuses on improving policing and addressing long standing issues facing at-risk communities.
In this campaign I have called for the city to fill officer vacancies and fully staff the police department as quickly as possible. This would increase deterrence, improve response times, and ensure appropriate staffing citywide while decreasing the need for mandatory overtime, which has overburdened officers and their families in recent years. Additionally, more officers should be promoted to detectives, lessening caseloads and increasing clearance rates by allowing sufficient time for investigation. The department should invest in technology, like license plate readers to assist in the tracking and arrest of carjackers and other violent criminals.
I also support improving officer training, improving mental health services citywide, and to the extent possible, safely transitioning mental health crisis response to mental health providers and multidisciplinary teams that can connect people in crisis with appropriate services while allowing officers to focus on deterring and solving crime.
Policing alone cannot solve this problem, however, as the city also needs to address the longstanding issues that fuel violence by appropriately funding violence interruption programs; improving employment opportunities for young residents of underserved communities; providing CPS students with the education and training necessary to compete in the 21st century economy without a college degree; and ensuring that sustainable job opportunities can be accessed from any neighborhood through reliable, safe, and affordable public transportation.
The CTA, one of the nation’s largest transit systems, remains a troubled agency grappling with issues ranging from violent crime and ghost buses and trains, to flagging ridership. Give us your thoughts on what specific measures CTA should take to make train and bus service safer, more reliable and more equitable for Chicagoans.
The severe understaffing of the CTA is a major contributing factor to unreliable service. To improve reliability, the CTA must fill nearly 1,000 operator vacancies and return to pre-COVID-19 service levels as quickly as possible. To address the ghost bus and ghost train problem, the CTA must improve its tracker systems so that these systems provide accurate information of expected arrival times and allow customers to plan trips and make adjustments when service issues inevitably arise. It is also critical that CTA services are available, consistent, and reliable in every neighborhood across the City.
Lastly, the CTA must address crime on the system. The rate of violent crime on the CTA is double pre-pandemic levels and anti-social behaviors, like smoking, seem to have increased. These actions, big and small, understandably result in passengers feeling unsafe and promote decreased ridership. To improve safety, I would support an increased police presence throughout the system and the creation of an ambassador and/or conductor program staffed by individuals trained in social work best practices who can connect riders with social services, provide assistance, and deter anti-social behaviors on the CTA.
Ten years ago, enrollment at Chicago Public Schools was 403,000 students. In September, enrollment stood at 322,000 students. Enrollment at CPS has dropped for 11 consecutive years. What specific measures should CPS undertake to reverse the trend of ever-dwindling enrollment?
Although there are demographic factors fueling this decline, COVID-19 closures accelerated this trend in recent years. This is particularly clear in areas of the city, like the 41st Ward, where many families could afford to send their children to private schools which remained open through the pandemic. Our local neighborhood school, Ebinger Elementary, where I serve on the Local School Council, lost more than 100 students over the course of the pandemic. Although enrollment is improving, returning to pre-covid enrollment levels in these areas will take time, and requires that CPS provide a better educational experience for students, stability for families, and fund all schools in a manner that does not necessitate overcrowded classrooms to maintain school budgets. As enrollment recovers, CPS should continue to hold schools harmless for student enrollment lost during the pandemic, as cutting resources to these schools now will only compound these losses. In addition, to improve safety and to minimize the risk of needing to return to e-learning in the event of a future pandemic, CPS should take steps to retrofit school buildings to improve ventilation and filtration.
Disinvestment on the South and West sides is a decades-long problem with myriad causes. Give us at least one innovative idea that you believe could play a role in reversing South and West side disinvestment, and explain why the idea is realistic and feasible.
Although the City has made substantial investments in neighborhoods and entrepreneurs on the South and West sides through the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund, the Invest South/West program, and federal funds that have been allocated to the city, many of the projects funded by these grant programs have failed due, in part, to a lack of institutional support and knowledge among grant recipients in areas of business management like taxes, compliance, permitting, and marketing. To address this issue and make sure that grant money has the desired effect, the city, partnering with private businesses, successful small business owners, and local universities and colleges should create a business management mentorship program that recipients are required to participate in for at least the first three years after a grant is awarded. Such a program would include required business management courses and pair grant recipients with successful entrepreneurs and small business owners in their chosen fields. The program could be implemented at a cost that pales in comparison to the amounts committed to the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund and Invest West/South programs, with funds potentially coming from money already allocated to these programs. A program like this would better position grant recipients, these programs, and these neighborhoods for success while leading to more sustained economic development and increased opportunities for neighborhood residents.
Do you support giving Chicagoans property tax relief? If yes, please explain how you would accomplish it. If no, please explain why not.
Yes, I support sustainable property tax relief that does not cut vital city services or underfund pensions earned by city workers. To accomplish this, we will have to consider other revenue sources, focusing on those that lessen the burden on working families, like the revenue for pensions created by the Bally’s Casino project, while also seeking additional federal support to fund projects that are vital to the national infrastructure and economy.
Give us your take on the city’s use of tax increment financing districts. Do you feel they have been useful, or do you feel that the problems associated with them outweigh their usefulness? What if any reforms would you want to apply to the city’s usage of TIFs?
While TIFs remain controversial, they also remain a vital tool for economic development. As Alderman, I would work to ensure that any TIF funding goes towards the construction of public utilities and infrastructure that will promote equitable economic development in our neighborhoods, improve our schools, better connect our neighborhoods to high paying jobs, and help fund affordable housing for those who need it. I would also support efforts to increase oversight, to make TIF funding more transparent so taxpayers have a better understanding of how those funds are allocated and allow potential abuses to be identified and dealt with expediently. Additionally, we need the ability to sunset TIFs earlier than 20 years and the ability to transfer excess TIF money back into the schools and parks to lower the residential real estate taxes that are crushing homeowners.
Lead in drinking water is a major health concern for the city. It is estimated that in Chicago there are roughly 400,000 homes and small apartment buildings with lead service lines. So far, the city has replaced less than 300 lead service lines. Do you feel the pace of lead service line replacement should be expedited, and if yes, what is the best, most feasible way to accomplish that?
The pace of service line replacement is unacceptably slow and must be drastically accelerated. Lead service lines adversely impact the residents of the 41st Ward, where, according to the Guardian, nearly half of all drinking water tests performed were positive for lead.
Despite the prevalence of lead service lines in our neighborhoods, my opponent voted against the lead service line replacement program in the City Council, choosing to do nothing about this critical public health problem that continues to negatively impact the health and development of children throughout the 41st Ward.
Every Chicagoan deserves clean and safe drinking water and I will support efforts to expand and accelerate this program. All options for increasing the rate of replacements should be considered including, but not limited to, raising the income cap for participation in the equity (no-cost) lead service line replacement program, providing graduated assistance to help cover costs for those with incomes above the current income cap, and implementing more efficient and cost-effective methods for performing replacements. To expedite this process further, the city should consider allowing approved private contractors to perform replacements under the equity lead service line replacement program. These contractors would handle permitting with the city, replace service lines and coordinate the city’s inspection, as a contractor would do in any other home improvement project, with the contractor submitting the invoice for their services to the city, instead of the homeowner. The city should also consider replacing lead service lines as a matter of course when replacing water mains.
If you are an incumbent, please explain what is it about your service on the City Council that makes you most qualified for the job. If you have never served on the council, please explain what is it about your background that makes you most qualified.
I am the most qualified candidate because I believe in this city and the Northwest Side. I know that together we can overcome the challenges we face to build stronger neighborhoods, and a better city.
My opponent has given up hope, and it shows. Vacancies, crime, traffic deaths, and crumbling infrastructure are all more common in our Ward than they were eight years ago. The Ward is worse off than it was when the current alderman was first elected.
My family has deep roots in this Ward, and I chose to raise my family here. But, more importantly, I know what it means to put in the work. I am the son of a Union carpenter. I worked on the tarmac at O’Hare, repaired bicycles through college, and am now an attorney.
Since moving to the Ward, I have worked to improve our neighborhoods. I serve as vice president of the Edison Park Community Council and as a member of the Ebinger Local School Council. In these roles, I have advanced the interests of neighborhood residents. I led the effort to gather more than 800 signatures calling on the city to study how neighborhood streets could be made safer for all road users, and I fought against the proliferation of vape shops in our neighborhoods. I worked with the Chicago Region Trees Initiative to bring more trees to our neighborhood to begin addressing long standing flooding and heat island problems. I believe that local government can and should have a positive impact on the lives of city residents and will fight hard to make sure that city government works for residents of the 41st Ward.
What is the most pressing issue facing the people of your ward, and how would you address it?
Safety is the most pressing issue facing 41st Ward residents. Whether it be increased crime, unsafe street design, increasing traffic injuries and fatalities, lead in our water, the proliferation of vape shops that target our youth with addictive chemicals, or attacks on bodily autonomy – residents of the 41st Ward feel, and objectively are, less safe and secure now than they were eight years ago. While my opponent, the current alderman, talks a lot about crime, law and order, and public safety, he has failed to deliver results and do the simple things to protect our children, families, and neighbors. On City Council, he has voted against enforcing speed limits, voted against replacing lead service lines that poison our children, repeatedly voted against funding our police and fire departments, voted against condemning attacks on the right to choose, and failed to proactively address longstanding hazards posed by high speed roads which divide our neighborhoods, threatening the health and safety of residents. On City Council I will work proactively to address these problems and deliver results for everyone in the 41st Ward, by bringing more police officers to the 16th district, regulating tobacco products, utilizing best practices to install new infrastructure that makes neighborhood streets safer for all road users, pushing for clean drinking water for all residents, and fully funding our police and fire departments.
Sum up why should voters elect you and not your opponent(s)? (Please limit this to policy and approach, not a biography recitation.)
Over the past 8 years, our Ward has been left behind. Business vacancies have increased. Property crime has skyrocketed. Ward residents are indisputably less safe than they were when the current alderman was elected. Despite ever rising taxes, the services we receive, the roads that we drive on, and the business districts that anchor our communities have deteriorated.
Residents of the 41st Ward do not get nearly as much out of the city as they contribute to it. This is due in large part to the fact that our current alderman has given up on our city and governing, missing nearly a quarter of required meetings and failing to bring desperately needed resources back to the Ward. Despite talking constantly about public safety, he has repeatedly voted to make our neighborhoods less safe by voting against enforcing speed limits, opposing regulations on tobacco products targeted at children, opposing lead service line replacement, and voting against funding our police and fire departments. Although he claims to be fighting for city workers, the incumbent has voted to defund their pension funds to the tune of more than $3 billion. Alderman Napolitano has failed to deliver for the Ward while repeatedly voting against the interests, security, and safety of its residents.
Unlike our current alderman who prioritizes making political statements over delivering results, I will show up, work with, and work hard for everyone in the Ward to address the issues that we face. I’ve already started doing this by gathering over 800 signatures calling for safer streets, coordinating with the Chicago Region Trees Initiative to bring more trees to our neighborhoods, and working with community members to help prevent additional vape shops from opening. As Alderman, I will be laser focused on local issues and make sure that the Ward is better off tomorrow than it was today.