Todd Morgan: Candidate For Frankfort Village Trustee

FRANKFORT, IL — The consolidated election, which features several local races, will be held on April 1, and early voting already started on March 17. As a way to help keep voters informed, Patch offers candidate questionnaires for all candidates in local races.

One of those races in Frankfort is the race for Frankfort Village Trustee. There are four candidates running for three 4-year Trustee terms. Also on the Village Board: there is one candidate running for Village Clerk, and two candidates running for Village President.

One of those candidates is Todd Morgan, who is running for a 4-year Village Trustee term. Morgan recently filled out the Patch candidate questionnaire, and his answers can be found below:

Your name:

Todd Morgan

Campaign Website/Facebook/Email: www.Frankfort4Morgan.com
Facebook - @toddmorganfrankfort

Office sought:

Seeking re-election Village of Frankfort Trustee

Town/City of Residence:

Frankfort

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

No

Occupation. Please include years of experience:

Financial Advisor/Branch Manager at LaSalle St. Securities, LLC for over 35 years. I hold a Bachelor of Science Degree in Marketing/Economics and Financial Certificates Series 7, 8, 24, 63, & 65.

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office:

14 years as a Village of Frankfort Trustee from 2004 – 2016 seeking re-election.

The most pressing issues facing our (board, district, etc.) are _______, and this is what I intend to do about them.

Our most pressing issues are that we continue to lose and or attract quality developments to other communities, besides losing the children's museum which happened right from under our feet, the Village still struggles with empty plaza space in the Kohl’s Plaza for 8 years now and has turned away or failed to develop quality proposals in our Downtown.

In the 8 years since I have been off the Board the Village hasn’t brought in 1 quality development either commercial or industrial to move the needle to help our citizens offset our high tax burden.
What we have brought in is Bargin Mania, Freddie’s Frozen Custer, 3 Adult Care Nursing homes and the recent additions to the Downtown in a Sushi restaurant and the updates to the bowling alley which are fantastic took 6 years and 3 years respectfully in development.

Our reputation for development is horrible and our process is even worse, both of which need to be addressed with urgency. Many other issues like our relationship with the park district and complacency with progress and patting ourselves on the back remain in addition.

If you are a challenger, what would you bring to the board or plan to change?

I don't consider myself a challenger because I served over 14 years/4 terms as a Village Trustee and my total years of dedication and achievement are more than the three incumbents combined. My track record and my accomplishments are visual to the community every day.

I am seeking to rejoin the board so that I can finish what I started. What I bring is 14 years of proven experience, knowledge and history that is so lacking, all the past leadership is gone in great minds like Cindy Heath, Dick Trevarthan, Mike Stevens, Jim Holland, etc. That historical vision and perspective are gone. With that lack of depth decisions and policy are like a rudderless ship. I plan on bringing back stability and clear leadership to the board.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform:

Besides the failures in development to help our citizens drive down our taxes are the complete dismantling of transparency, communication and public input or involvement need to be addressed. I spent 14 years on the board working with past Mayors Ray Rossi 4 years and Jim Holland 10 years and during that time we always allowed our citizens to come to public meetings and address the board at the podium to allow them to express concerns and we provided as much feedback as we could in addressing those concerns publicly on camera. Today you are allowed to come to the meetings to speak in a one-sided presentation, but the board is not allowed to make any comments in response to your concerns. In my 14 years of service, we never treated our citizens like that. We always tried to engage with them as much as possible to address their concerns immediately, not just letting them talk, say thank you and shoe them off. We all like to use the words transparency and communication. The current board did away with our citizen committees, doesn’t allow for input from Trustees universally, keeps communication as to prospective developments restricted to a few who give the thumbs up or down without public involvement or debate.

I want to bring back old fashion small town inclusion not continued propaganda on how great we are.

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

Besides my personal life accomplishments, I was first elected to office in 2005 when Route 30 was still two lanes, we just got the Jewel food store, and we had a McDonalds and Burger King but not much else. I spent the next 14 years working with many talented Village of Frankfort staff, Trustees and Mayors to build out 80% of what you see today, we redeveloped all the downtown in new business, Francesca’s, Fat Rosies, Trails Edge, the always open Plaza, etc. Rebuilt Breidert Green, developed Prairie Park, added new landscaping, streetscapes and lighting to downtown. We brought in Mariano’s, expanded both Phillips chevy and Currie Motors to help with our tax base, redeveloped Rt 30, changed all the ordinances in town to allow only quality development that was acceptable, led in developing over 1500 homes annually that are the highest quality neighborhoods in the entire south suburbs. Helped in the creation of the Falcon’s football program, lead the effort to build Grand Prairie grade school for our kids, helped bring bathrooms to Commissioner’s Park. We accomplished the goal of setting the standard for what Frankfort is today of being the jewel of the south suburbs and I plan on building on what was established through years of dedication.

Why should voters trust you?

The voters only need to look at my proven record of accomplishments, talk to former village officials, village employees in our village hall, police department, public works and our citizens to understand the respect I paid to all of them, the dedication that I worked for them in achieving our common goal of making Frankfort what it is today. Trust comes from earning it and I was reelected 4 times because when I said I would do something and I set goals for the community I delivered 100% on those promises, saying things and doing things are completely different. I am a doer.

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

Bring back citizen impute, transparency and communication. Forging a successful relationship with our park district to make a difference in this community, bring in quality development that really moves the needle in lowering our tax burden not just average development anyone can do and to make sure we are always going to be the premier community that both developers and people move to by stop missing so many great opportunities that we aren’t even being considered in the conversation today.

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

My first goal is to bring back the Village of Frankfort tax rebate program that I was a part of years ago that rebate ½ of the Village of Frankfort’s portion of your taxes when we ran a surplus in revenues. It’s not a lot per resident but it shows that we all understand the tax burden, as a former Trustee for 14 years we ran a balanced budget and lowered the Village of Frankfort of portion of your tax bill every year. In an effort to save taxpayer money I lead the effort to purchase the current public works building that was a former match factory in bankruptcy that was 30,000 sq ft on 11 acres for 600,000 instead of building a 10,000 sq ft addition for a cost of 1.5million. Acquired the land west of the new village hall with over $600,000 savings so we could build a new addition for our citizens, rebuilt our Breidert Green stage using our own public works, people saving over $800,000 that a commercial contractor wanted, and continue to look for innovative ways of getting more for less. Just because its government money it can't be treated like it’s some piggy bank that you just spend you must treat it like your own before you say yes to any expenditure.

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?

Safety comes from a good, responsible, professional and supported police force, I came from a community that allowed their surroundings to decay and with it came crime. It’s an everyday battle that you must always be aware of, everyday focus. The village has struggled in holding onto and hiring new and old officers for a variety of reasons, we don't pay as much as some surrounding communities, and I don’t think the leadership in the community makes it more of a priority for the people. We need to be more proactive than reactive. Many more police tools need to be integrated into our valued people for them to have the most advanced tools for protecting us.

What is your view of the city’s/village’s approach to commercial and residential development?

Commercial and residential development in the past 8 years has been average, we haven’t brought in one high quality/impactful development in both categories. In development you must go out and get it if you want it, things don't just happen because you want it to happen. The surrounding communities are bringing in innovative business and developments that are making a difference and as a former trustee who did that work it’s frustrating to see the complacent of being happy with the crumbs we get. We used to be the ones that had the first choice, but our reputation and our process have turned away or tarnished potential opportunities.

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?

I hear a lot about the need to bring Park-like amenities to our community that we are lacking in comparison to other communities, while the park district is a separate taxing body we must find innovative ways of bringing and developing the types of things the community deserves. We need to fill in our vacancies both downtown and around town, we need to get quality development onto Laraway to service our residents to the south, we need to be at the table when quality developments are out there and not continued to even being asked to be included and looked over at our expense.

Is there any reason you would not serve your full term of office?

Not only do I plan to serve out my full term, God willing but I know how much work goes into making thing happen and while I plan on making a big of an impact as I can immediately it might take more than one term to achieve all my goals for our citizens

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

I am a 30-year resident of Frankfort, married to my beautiful wife Cindy of 35 years and we have 3 grown children Brittany, Alex, and Devon. We own and operate 3 businesses in downtown Frankfort, LaSalle St. Securities, my financial advisor company, Studio C our event space and 1 North Decor/Bokay Flowers my wife's design company.

I have always been committed to making Frankfort the best it can be since the very first day we moved here, worked on the strategic planning committee for District 157-C for 10 years building out Grand Prairie school was a part of establishing the Frankfort Falcons football program, was head of Frankfort girls softball running 6 teams for 4 years, worked with boys baseball in developing better fields, raised thousands of dollars to help support the children's museum, spent over 1 year working with Village of Frankfort staff in rewriting all of the village ordinances to protect it from low quality development, currently serve on our Homeowner’s Board Architectural review committee. We are big dog lovers with 2 Hungarian Vizslas, avid outdoors person, faith-based belief system, love our community and very proud of our Village employees who do the real work to make us all look good.

(If you are a candidate in the upcoming April 1 election, please email andrea.earnest@patch.com for a candidate questionnaire to share your positions with readers)

Frankfort Election Guide: What’s On The Ballot, What To Know

Here are the candidates for:

Village of Frankfort

• Village President (vote for one)
  • Keith Ogle (incumbent)
  • Justin Ozinga
• Village Clerk
  • Katie Schubert (incumbent)
• Village Trustee (vote for three)
  • Michael Leddin (incumbent)
  • Daniel Rossi (incumbent)
  • Eugene Savaria (incumbent)
  • Todd Morgan