Jim Tinaglia: 2025 Candidate For Arlington Heights Mayor

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL — Ahead of the April 1 consolidated municipal elections, Arlington Heights Patch provided questionnaires to all candidates on the ballot.

With Thomas Hayes not running for reelection, current Arlington Heights Village Board trustees Tom Schwingbeck and Jim Tinaglia are vying to be the next mayor of Arlington Heights, along with Jon Ridler, executive director of the Arlington Heights Chamber of Commerce.

Eight candidates are vying for four seats on the Arlington Heights Village Board on Election Day. Candidate Jim Bertucci is the only current trustee on the ballot. Each seat on the Village Board carries a four-year term. The other candidates are: Martin Bauer, Colin Gilbert, Michele Hunter, Anargyros Karafortias, Bill Manganaro, Carina Santa Maria and Greg Zyck. Each seat is for a four-year term.

Arlington Heights is publishing all responses submitted by candidates verbatim

Jim Tinaglia

Campaign Website: https://tinaglia4mayor.com/

Age (as of Election Day): 63

Town/City of Residence: Arlington Heights

Office sought: Mayor

Party Affiliation (if a partisan race): Non-partisan

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government? This includes any relatives who work in the government you're running for.

None other than my son who is a Fireman in Wilmette

Education: Bachelors of Arts in Architecture – Iowa State University 1985

Occupation. Please include years of experience.

Architect and Business Owner since 1991 (34 years)

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

Appointed Design Commissioner by Mayor Arlene Mulder for 11 years; Elected Village Trustee for 12 years (3 terms)

The most pressing issues facing our (board, district, etc.) are _______, and this is what I intend to do about them.
The redevelopment of 326 acres of prime real estate, previously known as Arlington International
Racecourse, currently owned by the Chicago Bears Football Club. I intend to use all of my professional skills as an architect to help steer the dialog and decision making toward a win-win development solution that will benefit and support our entire community and surrounding area.

As Mayor, I intend to be at the table offering advice and suggestions in order to avoid potential missteps toward safety, economics, traffic, and infrastructure. If these goals are achieved, we can expect a wonderful redevelopment for all to enjoy and benefit from.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

I am a lifelong resident of Arlington Heights since 4th grade (more than 50 years), I am an Arlington Heights business owner for the past 34 years, I have been a community volunteer and appointed Design Commissioner for several decades, and most currently I am an elected Village Trustee for the past 12 years (3 terms). I have the expertise, skill set and experience to work with developers, as I have professionally for the last 34 years. No other candidate can match these qualifications.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community (or district or constituency)?

Arlington Heights has been blessed to have two of the finest Mayors for the past 34 years, in Arlene Mulder and Tom Hayes. I am honored to be endorsed by Tom Hayes and 11 other elected past and present Trustees in my campaign to be the next Mayor.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform

The two top priorities are ensuring our public safety remains top notch, and that our taxes stay as low as possible.

For public safety, we need to have our police and fire professionals fully equipped with the latest technology and tools in crime, and fire prevention, respectively. We also need to provide ongoing training for them in dealing with mental health incidents in town, due to growth in the south, central and north parts of town, and for the west side of town at the former racetrack once a development comes there. Mental health has been one of the bigger issues as of late and vital training on it includes de-escalation techniques for all of our first responders to know how to appropriately deal with residents who are mentally or emotionally challenged - so that they can help to defuse any potential incidents anywhere in town. We also have a shortage of people seeking to join the law enforcement profession, so we must remain competitive and attractive to those who choose to serve and protect us.

How do we maintain all the services the Village provides without raising property taxes?

This happens by encouraging growth in our sales and property tax base through supporting our commercial and retail partners. As a Village, we must be united in emphasizing that supporting all our business by shopping and dining in Arlington Heights whenever possible is crucial to keeping our taxes low – this helps to keep our proverbial engine going. As Mayor, I would reinvigorate and establish important education campaigns about the true impacts of supporting our local businesses and why it matters so much to all of us; to keep our businesses thriving, our business community vibrant, and to keep our taxes as low as possible.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

Over the past 5 decades, I have been heavily involved in all things Arlington Heights. My professional career, owning an architectural design firm for 34 years, has positioned me perfectly to step up and lead difficult conversations with any developer for any project in town. For the past 12 years specifically, I have been unwavering in my focus and commitment toward promoting and voting in favor of projects, developments, and financial matters that have come before our Village Board. I recognize good fiscal responsibility in all cases, and I have been willing to support new ideas that might be less clear to others.

For example, I was one of very few that supported the first dispensary in our community, and it has proven to become a wonderful tax generator, similar to a car dealership, without any negative
community impact.

Why should voters trust you?

I’m a home-grown guy – I’ve spent virtually my entire life here in Arlington Heights, I did go away to college but came back with my wife Cindy – who was also raised here – and here is where we chose to raise our four children. I had a dream to start a business and there was no question I would have it be here in the town that I love and am deeply committed to.

When our kids were young, I was heavily involved in volunteering through youth soccer coaching and serving on a park district advisory board, along with several more years volunteering for Frontier Days.

These experiences helped me to understand how much I love this community, and as a result, created deep connections.

About 24 years ago, former Mayor Arlene Mulder appointed me to the Village’s Design Commission, and I served there by utilizing my professional background as an architect to help guide future developments related to design - to ensure their look and feel would fit with our community’s identity. It was an excellent learning experience for 11 years. Then, I was strongly encouraged by more than a dozen local leaders to run for Trustee, and I am now serving in my third term.

Being a Village Trustee has been a truly enlightening 12-year experience and one where I have learned a tremendous amount about how this Village runs. So now, I take this rich history and background, deep community involvements and a true desire to leverage my professional expertise for the benefit of our community by running to become our next Mayor. I am 100% committed to Arlington heights and to the betterment of this community as its next leader. I have a unique and unmatched balance of understanding our past, serving in our present and I am in possession of the experiences and expertise to lead our community into the future.

For all of these reasons and all of my history, I can stand firm and be trusted to step up and lead our community in the most professional and responsible manner.

If you win this position, what accomplishment would make your term in office as a success?

Clearly, the greatest challenge that I believe we all will face during the next four years is the careful redevelopment of the Arlington International Racecourse property. If it can be done as a true win-win for the developer, and our residents and businesses, then I will look back on my term as Mayor as a success. My professional and political career has prepared me extremely well to lead the discussions exactly in this manner.

However, there are four very critical issues that must be addressed in conjunction with one another, and those are safety, economics, traffic control and infrastructure. If those 326 acres of land are developed in accordance with respect to all of those, it will be a tremendous asset. Being able to look at these issues takes individuals who understand the world of development, and we need those people on the Village’s side of all discussions and negotiations. I would bring that expertise to the table through my 34 years working as an architect and working with developers.

We need to have extremely strong collaboration with all involved stakeholders. I would share, leverage and utilize my deep understanding of these necessary considerations, which I’ve gained through my profession, as well as my experiences on the Village Board and the Village Design Committee to lead those discussions so that we have a full menu of options. The goal is to come to a final development that will be a true benefit to our community – and one that does not compete with, or detract from, our current downtown. We must strive to make it a win-win and I would be honored to competently lead in that effort.

What are your views on fiscal policy, government spending and the handling of taxpayer dollars in the office you are seeking?

We have a great new opportunity to relook at everything because of so much change that is happening with our staff, including our finance director, as well as our elected officials. That said, we as a Village Board went for five years prior to this year, and did not increase our levy, which is a testament to how our Village watches our spending to ensure we are investing in only what is needed - so as not to put any additional burdens on already high tax bills. We did increase our levy this year by 2.46% due to rising costs which all of us have experienced – we increased only what we needed to, so we could ensure that services provided by the Village remained at their current high levels.

I was on the Village Board with Trustee Scaletta and Trustee Farwell when we worked hard to change our yearly budget to match the yearly taxing season, so we could be working with real numbers to budget correctly and be more accurate in computing our budgetary needs. We work off of this more accurate system today, and it has served us well. We have these real-world costs and with this information we are now available to use it at the appropriate time for budgeting. As far as areas to cut spending, I don’t believe funds are wasted on anything frivolous and I do not believe there is anywhere we can cut without having to reduce our level of services.

What are your thoughts on the crime rate in your community, and what more can be done to combat crime — especially violent crime — in town?

We are blessed to have a top-notch Police Department and Fire Department, let by Chief Pecora and Chief Harris, respectively. In order to have any chance at being a great community with thriving residents and businesses, we must always maintain the highest level of service toward public safety. Arlington Heights has always made this a priority, and I will continue to encourage the best candidates, the best equipment, the best training, and the best customer service from all of our first responders. It is interesting to note that we keep a close eye on statistics for all areas of public safety. Two very important findings that I can share are that since 1974, traffic accidents have been reduced by 22%, and general crime has been reduced by 342% during the same period.

This is clearly due to the vigilance and professionalism of our law-and-order professionals, and the programs that they promote on a daily basis.

What is your view of the village's approach to commercial and residential development?

Business interactions with Village departments could be improved. It would be helpful to put people at the head of the table who understand the challenges that business owners face in simply starting a business. I understand what it means to invest your life savings in your passion to make it a business.

Our current processes can be time-consuming and costly - and we work harder to change that.
Right now, requirements for new businesses include very detailed drawings, plans, and specifications, all before the approval process – and this can come at a cost of tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. I would propose that we break it up into two separate processes – first, we could award a preliminary approval, where a business gets a green light that what they are proposing is worth doing and viable under our current guidelines. This step should have limited requirements and information needed, and should have directional procedures coming from it on how to gain final approval – it would be a roadmap to help them. It should state and make good on the promise that if you take care of these next several steps– you can gain final approval.

I also would propose that each potential new entitlement requestor be assigned a Village trustee who would work as their advocate - a guide to help “carry the ball” and to be a liaison between them and the Village Board, to give valid projects the support needed to gain ultimate approval.

When it comes to development, what are some key areas for improvement or additions you feel are most wanted by residents? What will need to be done to make this happen?

We first need to keep what we have now protected in all cases. We do not need another Arlington
Heights west through any proposed development at Arlington Park. We need to ensure that whatever happens on those 326 acres is complimentary – meaning sisterly or brotherly to our current downtown area, and that it supports our vibrant businesses that have built our downtown into what it is today.

We also need to look at growth on the east side of Dunton, between the railroad track and Sigwalt, and between Dunton and Arlington Heights Road. That entire area is untapped; the 1-story shopping centers with parking lots, and two very large 2-story banks are out of date and need to be reflective of the area built over the last 30 years in what is known as the Arlington Alfresco area – both in building and design to maintain our unique progressive character. The east side of town is very similar to what used to be on the west side of Dunton.

What do we need there? Redevelopment of all that land - we need a hotel, another parking garage, and “over road” pedestrian bridges that connect one block to the next block, like the bridge across the street for Dunton Tower, that will create easier connections in the downtown area. We do want to be careful where a parking garage goes; it would need to be in the downtown district just like the Vail parking garage.

We also need to ensure that we expand upon the success of Arlington Alfresco and create other
destinations at different times of the year. An exciting idea that I have discussed several times for the downtown area is to install a seasonal ice-skating rink at Harmony Park, that would draw residents and visitors to patronize businesses in the downtown, and our greater business community, over the winter months. There are solutions regarding skating rinks that could enable that to be active for more than a few months if the temperatures are below 50 degrees. This could be achieved through sponsorships and partnerships, including with the Arlington Heights Park District.

Is there any reason you would not serve your full term of office, other than those of health or
family?
None.

The best advice ever shared with me was:

Get involved. This means not being fearful of rolling up your sleeves and using the tools that you have acquired through past experiences, and sharing your knowledge with others that may benefit from that.

I have done this over the past several decades by volunteering with youth sports, and local committees like Frontier Days. I have used my professional skills by leveraging my architectural background toward an appointed committee called the Design Commission, initiated by Mayor Arlene Mulder. Lastly, I have taken the challenge of seeking public office as an elected Village Trustee for 3 terms, and I am currently asking for the community’s support in my bid for Mayor of Arlington Heights.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

If you want a mayor who is truly dug in, dedicated and plugged into everything Arlington Heights, I am your candidate. My deep community involvements that began when I was youngster after moving here in the 4th grade have grown and evolved over the years. By default, I have many deep connections, friends and relationships around this great community, as well as running a business here for quite some time. This deep involvement has been construed by some as “conflicting” – but I say it’s the result of being highly engaged and involved - I believe that based on my history here, my philanthropic and public service to this community, I am the only candidate for Mayor who understands the full impact of what it takes to lead Arlington Heights into the future. I will not only be at the table – I will be a highly competent leader at the table who has the deepest understanding of the past, the most engaged experiences in volunteering and serving in the present, and the clearest vision of where we need to go in the future.

Being a Village Trustee has been a truly enlightening 12-year experience and one where I have learned a tremendous amount about how this Village runs. So now, I take this rich history and background, deep community involvements and a true desire to leverage my professional expertise for the benefit of our community by running to become our next Mayor. I am 100% committed to Arlington Heights, and to the betterment of this community as its next leader. I have a unique and unmatched balance of understanding our past, serving in our present and I am in possession of the experiences and expertise to lead our community into the future. I humbly ask for your vote on or before April 1st.