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CANDIDATE INFORMATION Name on Ballot: Jesus “Chuy” Garcia Office Sought: Mayor District Name/Number: Chicago Citywide Home Address: 4226 W 25th Place, Chicago, IL 60623 Employer: Cook County Commissioner Phone: Email: [email protected] Candidate signature attesting to the truthfulness, accuracy, and authorship of this Questionnaire: _February 5, 2015___Jesus “Chuy” Garcia ___________________________________ Date Print Sign CAMPAIGN INFORMATION Campaign Manager: Andrew Sharp Phone: 312.207.0152 Email: [email protected] Address: 651 W. Washington St, Chicago, IL Website: www.garciaforchicago.com a. Have you run for public office before? Yes, please see my answer to (e) below. b. Have you been appointed to any public committees, commissions, task forces? Yes, after he was elected Mayor in 1983, Harold Washington named me Deputy Water Commissioner. c. Have you, are you, or will you be accepting funds from any mayoral candidate or PAC, eligible for campaign use by February 24, 2015? N/A d. Please list top 5 largest campaign contributors SEIU Healthcare Illinois Indiana American Federation of Teachers Chicago Teachers Union Amalgamated Transit Union Cook County College Teachers e. Why are you running for this office? What makes you the best candidate? Across Chicago, families are suffering from shootings and violence, education cutbacks and a lack of opportunity. I believe it is time to set a new course for our city, and I am the best qualified candidate for the job. I have extensive experience in elected office, as a Committeeman (22), Alderman (22), State Senator (1), and Cook County Commissioner (7). My leadership style would represent a drastic departure from the current mayor’s top-down approach. I would seek community input and take it into account before making major decisions that will impact residents’ lives. f. Describe your vision for your constituency. Rahm Emanuel has failed the working families of Chicago. It is time for the people of Chicago to take back the fifth floor of City hall. I will work to improve the lives of everyday Chicagoans by working with neighbors to create safer streets, better jobs and outstanding local schools. g. What policy, legislative, and/or service goals will you focus on achieving during the 2015-2019 term? My main focus will be reducing gang and gun violence. I will strengthen our local public schools and make them the center of neighborhood life and activity. We will work equally hard to create new jobs and opportunities for our fellow Chicagoans who want to work. Finally, my administration will back fair and equitable pension reform and reduce the city’s massive deficit. This is the kind of leadership the people of Chicago deserve. h. Who are your role models and the most important advisors and mentors you access for guidance in business and service life? My mentors have included, but are not limited to: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Cesar Chavez Harold Washington Karen Lewis Tim Black Alice Palmer Rudy Lozano i. List the community and civic service experiences that have prepared you for this office? In addition to my years of service as an elected official, I also have extensive public service experience as Executive Director, Little Village Development Corp (now Enlace Chicago); Co-founder, LIRI (Local Industrial Retention Institute); Assistant Director, Little Village Neighborhood Housing; and as a paralegal at the Legal Assistance Foundation. j. Do you support term limits for the office you are seeking to hold? No. k. Would you commit to helping mentor a field of successors? Yes. l. Ballot Referenda yes – paid leave yes- domestic violence yes- election funding yes- ban petcoke yes- TIF advisory council yes- elected school board m. What reforms to campaign finance laws are you willing to support? Our city needs politicians that listen to voters, not ones that are beholden to big special interest money. As mayor, I would call on the City of Chicago to fix the way we do elections by creating a new system that will not only increase political participation, but will also help ensure voters have diverse, yet viable candidate choices at the ballot box. An ideal system would match small contributions of regular people so that Super PACs and Dark Money don’t drown their voices out. New York and Los Angeles now have similar systems, and in NYC’s last election, every winning candidate used it. It’s time for Chicago to join this movement for a more accountable democracy. n. N/A o. What plans have you made to ensure that your constituents feel heard and heeded? My leadership would represent a drastic departure from the current mayor’s top-down approach. I would seek community input and take it into account before making major decisions that will impact residents’ lives for generations to come. I would support the creation of TIF Advisory Councils and I support the use of Participatory Budgeting. In addition, as Mayor, I would restore community advisory councils to the Chicago Commission on Human Relations representing the Arab, Latino, African, and Asian communities. p. Would you be willing to attend short, periodic CBCO-sponsored Legislative Briefings? Yes FISCAL/INFRASTRUCTURE 1. TIF Yes. The original design of TIFs in Chicago envisioned the TIF district being used to support development in areas where such development would not otherwise occur within a reasonable timeframe, and being shut down after the main projects in the district were completed. TIFs became a problem when they started being used to support developments that were not contemplated in the original creation of the TIF or commercially viable without it. To the extent that this continues to occur, the City, our schools, and our parks, are being denied important sources of revenue. I understand the impacts on overlapping districts from my work as a Commissioner, as Cook County is one of the affected districts. My TIF Reform Plan is to keep only those TIFs open that meet specific criteria: (1) The TIF is needed to complete a specific, planned project or development initiative (such as school construction), and (2) Financial analysis demonstrates that the project would not be viable without public assistance. Since Mayor Emanuel has failed to release sufficient information to determine which TIF districts currently meet these criteria, in my first 100 days as Mayor, I will initiate an independent forensic audit of the TIF program, and I will terminate any existing TIF districts that do not meet these two necessary conditions, regardless of whether the 23 year period has ended. Use of TIF revenues for specific projects which provide quality jobs and needed services in the neighborhoods and increase property tax receipts is smart fiscal policy. However, using TIFs to hijack money from other revenue-strapped local governments is unfair and unwise. We need to earmark more specific projects for TIF funding, such as support for new manufacturing, the development of affordable housing, and other projects that will improve the City’s economy and help residents live better and more productive lives, but the Mayor’s office should not do so unilaterally as has been the practice to date. It is inappropriate to use TIFs as an ongoing source of funding outside of the budget process to fund the Mayor’s pet projects like the DePaul Arena/Marriot Hotel, and I would bring an immediate end to this secretive, abusive practice. In addition, to increase transparency and accountability, I would require any redevelopment plans for future districts to contain detailed specifications for planned projects, not open-ended goals subject to the whims of politicians and administrators, and I would make sure that these form part of a broader city capital plan. Absent specific and publically supported plans, districts will be closed and excess TIF funds should be returned to the tax base of the schools and other taxing bodies on an annual basis, and used to increase the respective budgets through intergovernmental agreements that are not subject to tax caps under the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law. First 100 Days? Yes 2. Gramm Leach Bliley Yes. The damage caused by this law can be seen in every corner of this city in the abandoned houses littering so many of neighborhoods, the young workers overwhelmed by student loans, and in the anxiety of retirees whose pensions are at risk. As a longtime community organizer, I take pride in the fact that the “Mother of the Community Reinvestment Act,” Gail Cincotta, was a Chicago-based community organizer. The CRA needs to be protected. For these reasons, and many others, I would support a resolution to repeal Gramm Leach Bliley. First 100 Days? Yes 3. Independent Financial Audits Yes, I would support independent audits of all of the City’s public agencies and revenue streams. First 100 Days? Yes 4. CTA improvements Yes. No parts of Chicago or the metropolitan areas should be isolated from public transit. I believe the city, state, and federal government subsidies for transit should be increased, and the current formula for funding public transit should be revised. I would support increasing investment in transit locally and establishing a dedicated revenue stream at the county level to fund improvements and expansion. 5. Public Bank. Yes. The Mayor’s Chicago Infrastructure Trust has not delivered the results it was expected to produce. We need another approach. One of the more promising approaches that I think is worth looking at is a public sector banking system, like the one in North Dakota. A public bank would use municipal funds on projects that directly benefit our communities. So, in principle, I completely support the idea of a public bank and would set up an economic task force to consider this and other proposals to redirect our economic energies toward policies that are fair, accessible and uplifting for all of our people.

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