1. Why are you running for alderman of the 29th Ward?

I’ve been active in my community for a long time, working with a variety of organizations
as detailed in my answer to question 2, below.

Now I want to make my involvement official, and take my experience and my skills down
to City Hall to work for the people in my ward, and for the 29th Ward itself, and for the city
of Chicago as well, to improve all our lives, and make all our streets more safe, and to give
our children a brighter future.

2. Why are you qualified to be alderman?

I attended John Marshall High School, and graduated from DePaul University with a BA in
Business Management and from Lewis University with an MA in Organization and
Leadership. These fields of study are uniquely suited for aldermanic office and for
community leadership as well. I apply what I’ve learned, both at school and out in the
world, and as a result I’ve become known for the high quality of work I perform.

I am already politically active in the community, working alongside my husband Thomas

as he fulfills his duties as precinct captain in our ward, in addition to working at the
election polls. My involvement in the community extends to block clubs as well. I am
currently a member of the 100 S. Waller block club, and served as Vice President of the
4100 W. 21st Place block club for three years. As Associate Director of the Loretto Hospital
Foundation, I built and continue to enjoy strong relationships with members of Austin’s
business community, as well as with residents in and around Austin. These relationships
would serve me well as alderman of the 29th Ward, and would allow me to build on the
successes I have enjoyed in my current position. As a community volunteer, I’ve worked
hard to improve the quality of life for community residents by participating in the Austin
Back to School program, the Scholarship Committee, the Austin Tree Lighting Parade, and
the annual Visit with Santa. I am currently promoting a breast cancer screening program
“Mammograms for Moms” in my ongoing effort to improve both health and healthcare. I
am a past board member of the Sister House women’s shelter and a current board
member of the Central Austin Neighborhood Association (C. A. N. A.). I’ve volunteered and
worked on various committees in the 29th Ward, including the Austin Back to School
program, and the Scholarship Committee. I actively advocate for more and better schools
in the ward, and I’m researching ways to give the schools in the 29th Ward back to the
children, so they can go to school without fear of gangs, and get a quality education that
will help them become upstanding citizens and the brighter future of the community.

3. What, if any, is your relationship with former alderman Ike Carothers?

I supported Isaac Carothers when he ran for alderman of the 29th Ward. I
canvassed and worked in his campaign office during the election process.
4. What do you believe to be the 29th Ward’s assets? Its weaknesses?
 The biggest asset the 29th Ward has is the people who live there. The residents of the 29th
Ward are like a bundle of kindling, waiting to be set on fire, to burn brightly and bring a
brighter future to the ward. They are good and decent people who want the best for
themselves and their families, and I want to help them fulfill their dreams. When I look at
them, I see hope, and a better future.

There are several weaknesses in the 29th Ward, all of them linked together. There is a lack
of gainful employment for everyone who wants to work. There is a high crime rate caused
in part by idle hands. There is a hunger for and a lack of good education, and our children
are afraid to walk to school because of the crime in the ward. Our health overall is not as
good as it could be; stores and businesses are difficult to attract.

But the solution to all of these weaknesses lies in the strength of the people in the ward.
We can make all this better; I know we can.

5. How do you envision the 29th Ward changing under your leadership?

I envision the 29th Ward changing in many ways under my leadership, and all for the
better. I see more residents of the ward gainfully employed. I see improvement in city
services, including resurfacing streets and cleaning up empty lots and parks and
playgrounds. The ward will be safer, and the improvements we make will attract new
businesses to the ward, giving the people who live there jobs to go to and places to shop.

I see children and their parents participating in community programs, and fresh
vegetables growing in community gardens that were once garbage-strewn lots. I see
people becoming neighbors, and neighbors watching out for one another. I see the
boundary between Oak Park and the Austin neighborhood becoming invisible, because
Austin will become more like Oak Park, and the differences will no longer be able to be
seen.

In short, I see the 29th Ward becoming a true neighborhood, brighter, cleaner, safer. And
isn’t it a wonderful thing to see?

6. What are your top three priorities as alderman? How will you accomplish them? Please be as
specific as possible.

To increase police presence and help make it the city a safer place to be; to improve
public schools by insuring their guidance is taken from the mayor’s office and placed with
the school system and with those who actually utilize the schools; to create jobs in my
ward and all over the city.

JOBS:
 I firmly believe that crime is as big a problem as it is because of the lack of gainful
employment in our community. If I don’t have a job, I have no income, and a lot of time on
my hands. That’s rarely a good combination.

So how do we fix this problem? Where do we begin? We start by keeping our kids in
school, at least until they graduate high school. A high school diploma is probably the
biggest educational step a person can make. It’s the great dividing line between
employability and joblessness.

We continue by making our schools AND ourselves accountable for the quality of
education our children receive. Our children – no child – can be totally responsible for
himself or herself. They need our guidance and our help, every single day.

We go even further by inviting trade schools and career colleges to establish a presence in
our community. Not everybody wants to go to a 4-year college, but they want to learn a
trade or a skill. We can make that happen.

We start guiding our youth and setting up jobs for them to learn from. Lord knows we have
a lot that needs to be done in our community. Take a look around the next time you drive
down the street. Couldn’t we use some landscaping in our neighborhood? Couldn’t we use
some nice green space instead of the garbage-strewn empty lots you see? Couldn’t we
use a resale shop? Or a bakery? Or a Starbuck’s? Couldn’t we?

The answer is, of course we could.

We could set up entrepreneur’s clubs in our high schools. We could have on-the-job
training for our teenagers who could work after school each day, in that deadliest of times
between school’s end and when dinner is put on the table. We could entice restaurants
into our ward so we’d have more places to dine out and more jobs for our youth to take.

SCHOOLS:

Charter schools – are they a good idea? Should they be expanded? Should there be more of
them in the 29th Ward?
Why are so many of our schools underperforming? What can be done to bring them up to
speed?

Parents have to get involved – but poor, undereducated parents may not see the value of
education, or be able to get involved in their childrens’ lives. What can we do to make our
kids want to go to school and succeed? Let’s use our schools to fight crime. Let’s educate our
children against crime, from pre-school on up. Stop “social promotion” as a way to move
children out of the education system. Create and/or increase opportunities to build “social
capital” by involving students in extracurricular activities that build social skills needed in the
working world. Keep our children in school and stop drop-outs. See what our black educators
and leaders had to say earlier this month:

Panelists call for action on struggling schools; Black educators, leaders call for
'a revolution of priorities'

By Joel Hood, TRIBUNE REPORTER 10:14 p.m. CST, January 6, 2011

The problems facing Chicago's struggling schools on the South and West sides may be
complex and profound, but they are not hopeless. This was the message that resonated
Thursday as hundreds packed a college auditorium in one of city's toughest
neighborhoods to listen to an esteemed panel of African-American educators and leaders
debate the most pressing issues confronting urban education.

The problems of poverty, crime, peer pressure, illiteracy, shortages of money and
resources, and family turmoil have plagued underperforming schools for generations,
panelists said. The question is: What should be done about them?

"We have to wake up," Garrard McClendon, a television personality and the forum's
moderator, told the standing room-only crowd inside Kennedy-King College, in the city's
Englewood neighborhood. "We all do. We have to wake up in this community."

Addressing a mostly African-American crowd, the panelists, led by Princeton University

professor and activist Cornel West, said the failures of public education begin with the
failure to instill confidence and a pride in learning for minority students. "We've got to get
our priorities in order. We need a revolution of priorities," West said to a round of
applause.

West was talking about the priorities of government funding for schooling, which
chronically lags behind in poorer communities. But he, like a lot of panelists, was also
talking about priorities on the home front, where all too often parents are failing to keep
their children interested and engaged.

"What parents must do for their child in the third or fourth grade is no different than what
they must do for a child who is a freshman or sophomore — show support," said Wayne
Watson, a longtime Chicago educator and president of Chicago State University.

The far-ranging discussion became the most heated on the topic of "social promotion,"
advancing students who fail to meet academic standards for fear they may fall behind
their peers in school. Though not widely used, critics say social promotion is a reality in
many Chicago Public Schools as educators look for ways to deal with underperforming
students.

"We're cheating the people when we give a social promotion," said Timuel Black, a noted
historian and a professor emeritus at the City Colleges of Chicago. "It takes away
incentive, challenge. It makes him or her believe anything can be free. They must be
prepared for the reality in the world in which we live."

Che "Rhymefest" Smith, an activist and hip-hop artist who is running for alderman in the
20th Ward, admitted he was a product of social promotion in his own high school when the
school's principal simply wanted to get rid of him. Smith said he had fallen so far behind
his fellow classmates that by the time they were preparing for graduation, his academic
record was close to that of a freshman. Smith said he dropped out of high school before
turning his life around in college.

"Are these students failing, like I was, or are they being pushed out (of the school system)
by circumstances that are impossible to meet?" Smith asked. "How many of our children
are asked to figure out their own issues?"

These and other questions posed by the panel appeared to strike a chord with many in
attendance. Barbara Jackson, a retired social worker and teacher, applauded the event's
message but remained skeptical that real-world solutions might come of it.
 "What have we found that has made a difference in any of these schools?" Jackson asked
after the forum, which was sponsored by community nonprofit groups. "The most
important question that I didn't really hear addressed is 'What are we doing that's working
and can it be repeated?'"

Paraphrasing a line she had read recently, Jackson called education "the civil rights
movement of the 21st century."

"The thing that probably makes the most difference in anybody's life is getting a high
school education," Jackson said. "That's where we need to focus."

7. What is your position on the creation of a new Austin High School? If you believe one should
be opened, where do you think it should be located?

I’m torn about this possibility. Do we build new schools, or fix the old ones? What do we
expect from a new high school? I can see the benefit of a new high school IF we make it
better than the old; if we use it to solve problems instead of perpetuating them. I’m not
against a new high school, but I need to be convinced and assured of the benefits it will
bring. If it’s the same old thing, why bother building new?

8. How will you tackle the issues of crime and public safety in the 29th Ward?

I could support realigning beats to move police personnel from lower crime areas to higher
crime neighborhoods, as long as a close eye is kept on all areas so that crime rates don't
rise in areas where police personnel have been moved from. I think hiring new police
officers to bring the department's manpower level up to full requirement is a better way of
managing this problem. I believe the CAPS program should be brought back to at least its
original levels, and should be much more involved in the precincts overall.

9. How will you create jobs and encourage businesses to open in the ward?

I firmly believe that crime is as big a problem as it is because of the lack of gainful
employment in our community. If I don’t have a job, I have no income, and a lot of time on
my hands. That’s rarely a good combination.
 So how do we fix this problem? Where do we begin? We start by keeping our kids in
school, at least until they graduate high school. A high school diploma is probably the
biggest educational step a person can make. It’s the great dividing line between
employability and joblessness.

We continue by making our schools AND ourselves accountable for the quality of
education our children receive. Our children – no child – can be totally responsible for
himself or herself. They need our guidance and our help, every single day.

We go even further by inviting trade schools and career colleges to establish a presence in
our community. Not everybody wants to go to a 4-year college, but they want to learn a
trade or a skill. We can make that happen.

We start guiding our youth and setting up jobs for them to learn from. Lord knows we have
a lot that needs to be done in our community. Take a look around the next time you drive
down the street. Couldn’t we use some landscaping in our neighborhood? Couldn’t we use
some nice green space instead of the garbage-strewn empty lots you see? Couldn’t we
use a resale shop? Or a bakery? Couldn’t we?

The answer is, of course we could.

We could set up entrepreneur’s clubs in our high schools. We could have on-the-job
training for our teenagers who could work after school each day, in that deadliest of times
between school’s end and when dinner is put on the table. We could entice restaurants
into our ward so we’d have more places to dine out and more jobs for our youth to take.

10.How will you address the multitude of vacant lots and work to beautify the 29th Ward?

I don’t expect the city to be responsible for the beautification of the 29th Ward. This is
where we could put our youth – indeed, all our residents – to work, making our ward
beautiful, cleaning up the junk and debris, planting gardens and creating green space.

I do expect the city to be responsible for our infrastructure. Our streets need resurfacing.
Our trees need trimming. Our alleys need policing and regular garbage pickup. Those
things, the city needs to do.

But much of what can be done – much of what needs to be done – can be done by our own
residents, who in turn will build pride in their community, and reap the bounty of
community vegetable gardens planted in those once-empty lots.

It is here that TIF funds could be put to good use, among other places. TIF funds aren’t
supposed to be used for general operations – that is, costs that would be incurred whether
or not a TIF area was designated. Nor are they supposed to be used for new construction,
other than affordable housing and certain municipal projects.

But TIF funds could surely be used for beautification purposes and for cleaning up the
ward, so we could attract new businesses, and put our vacant lots to good use.

11.Do you feel the 29th Ward is getting its share of TIF projects? If not, how will you go about
bringing TIF dollars to the ward?

I do not feel that the 29th Ward is getting its fair share of TIF projects.
 Tax Increment Financing (TIF) is a special funding tool used by the City of Chicago
to promote public and private investment across the city. Funds are used to build
and repair roads and infrastructure, clean polluted land and put vacant properties
back to productive use, usually in conjunction with private development projects.
Funds are generated by growth in the Equalized Assessed Valuation (EAV) of
properties within a designated district over a 23-year period.

TIF districts are supposed to expire after a certain period, usually 23 years, with the full
assessed value of property in the district returning to the tax rolls and creating current
market-rate tax revenue for the city and the services it provides. At present, there are 158
TIF districts in Chicago, and they generated $519 million last year. Some people say there
may be a shade over $1 billion in unspent TIF money. I think our first step should be to
determine why these unspent funds haven’t either been used, or returned to the taxing
bodies involved. Next, I think we need to review the entire TIF process to see where we
can make it better and less costly to the city. We should also put a plan into place that
causes companies who benefit from TIF financing to repay at least 50% of TIF revenues in
the first 10 years after their development has been completed. That money could be
invested and the interest earned could be used to offset the loss of tax revenue.

We could also use TIF funds for beautification of the Ward, and to attract new business
into the area. (Please see question 11.)

12.How, as alderman, will you keep residents informed about what is happening in their ward?
(i.e., public meetings, website, Facebook)

I would definitely public meetings, and on a regular basis. My website and Facebook accounts
would undergo a change from a candidate’s point of view to an alderman’s point of view, and
both would include information about the ward, including any existing or upcoming programs,
any upcoming events, how to reach city services, emergency numbers to call if needed, and
any other information my constituents would find helpful.

I would also hold public events that would allow residents of the 29th Ward open access to
both me and my staff. Reading Night for parents and their children would be one such
opportunity. The more people have access to me and my staff, the more likely they are to
speak out about their problems and concerns, which I can then address and include
information about on my website and Facebook pages.

How much money do you expect to spend on your aldermanic campaign? From whom are
you raising funds? How are you spending the funds?

My campaign budget is currently $60,000.00. I am raising money from my family, friends,

colleagues, and businesses. I am spending these funds on office rent, advertising, street
workers, public relations, signs, printing, etc.