To inform voters and to help the Chicago Tribune 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: Andre Peloquin
Ward: 48th
Current job: Real Estate Broker/REALTOR
Previous political experience: Previous professional campaign staff. I got my start as a field organizer for Tammy Duckworth’s 2012 winning race for Congress, next as call-time manager for Lieutenant Governor Sheila Simon’s 2014 race for Illinois Comptroller, and then becoming the deputy finance director for U.S. Rep. Bill Foster’s 2016 winning reelection campaign.
Education: BA – Political Science (California State University, Chico)
Spouse’s occupation: Youth Development Program Manager at Center on Halsted
Sources of outside income: Real Estate Broker work
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.
All people need to be able to feel safe in their homes and neighborhoods. If we don’t have public safety and accountability, we won’t have anything. Community policing works, however, how is the time to reinvent and retool what it looks like. Our CAPS program is a good start but we need the police department to be more involved, active, and present in our community. Losing our neighborhood-known beat officers was a detriment to the community and small business’ in our neighborhoods. As Alderman, I will support police to be able to focus on violent crime in our city while freeing them up by enacting “treatment-not-trauma,” allowing them to combat violent crime. We don’t need police to show up to every 911 call. I would have at least one officer there for the protection of any social worker or medical professional. Short-term, criminals that commit violent crime need to face the consequences and our court systems need to hold them accountable. Long-term, we need to invest in our underserved neighborhoods and provide opportunities that incentivize a life outside of the criminal justice cycle.
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.
Our public transit systems, especially the L, are the lifeblood veins of affordable access to opportunity across our city for all. Inexpensive, reliable, and safe transportation is what our city needs and should expect as a baseline fact of living in an urban setting. How we can make it safer is by holding CTA executives accountable by requiring them to come before the council quarterly for presentation of services and questioning, have a trained and sworn independent CTA police force (such as BART Police in California), or reinvent what the CPD transit police are in number and job functions. Transit security cameras need to be in real time, not just recording for after-the-crime viewing. Additionally, increasing the attractiveness of working for the CTA will help with the current employee shortage.
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?
Invest in schools overall, but not just based on per-pupil enrollment. CPS needs to fully fund our schools and give them the tools necessary to make them attractive again to our neighborhood residents.
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.
I do currently like the idea of the Invest SouthWest program, however, I would like to see more projects come to fruition. This program and issue at-large will take time, if not decades to reverse. When it comes to small business and entrepreneurship, I am a proponent of cutting red tape and making it easier and more efficient to start a business. Wether in a brick and mortar storefront, or out of your garage. The city should be encouraging more people to start small or home businesses with a “MADE IN CHICAGO” universal brand. It’s realistic and feasible because I believe a majority of folks want to have the ability for opportunity and upward mobility. Making it easier to start a business while having a sense of shared community would be a starting place to build upon.
Do you support giving Chicagoans property tax relief? If yes, please explain how you would accomplish it. If no, please explain why not.
I would consider supporting a property tax relief package based on what the proposed ordinance actually states and who it is helping and hindering. If items in our annual budget could be reconfigured and hard choices will need to be made, I would consider.
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?
The TIF programs have been useful over the years, however once they come to the end of their term and are potentially fully funded, they should be reevaluated and accounted for if they should continue to be in existence. More transparency and accountability with the program about where our property tax dollars are going is always needed.
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?
We should certainly quicken the timeline of how we can reduce the amount of lead service lines. However, cost wise, I am a realist in that it will take funding from the federal government to help alleviate this massive issue.
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.
My passion for seeing our neighborhoods succeed and my background both in Illinois and Chicago politics as well as my background as a Realtor are heavily intertwined. Being able to work daily within our community with folks from all walks of life and backgrounds, some with competing interests such as business and labor, allows me to see many sides of any given issue. I can bridge those divides as a pragmatic progressive and a conduit of the community and our many present and future issues.
What is the most pressing issue facing the people of your ward, and how would you address it?
The continuation of having efficient ward services being provided while property taxes go up is a big future issue. Plus, public safety/crime and the deterioration of our local small business corridors. I would be fully focused on efficiently and effectively providing ward services to my neighborhoods while my team and I would be the connectors to the bureaucracy of city government and services.
Sum up why should voters elect you and not your opponent(s)? (Please limit this to policy and approach, not a biography recitation.)
My approach to the job of Alderman of the 48th Ward would be done through careful thought in policy, direct investment in our neighborhoods, and my pragmatic ethos of getting positive things done through compromise over conflict. The community, businesses, and the city all need to work together to see our wards improve and our neighborhoods thrive. I am the only candidate that can bridge the divide between pragmatic and effective policies, city government operations, and a common sense approach.
