Mayor Pradel has a new challenger at his hands. City Councilmen Kenn Miller announced his candidacy for mayor on September 1st. Councilman Miller has served for five and a half years on the Naperville city council, and is a small business owner himself. He feels that with his past experience in the private sector he knows how to get Naperville’s economy going again. “I feel I have something to offer to the city on a different level,” Miller said, adding, “If I were to run for mayor then I don’t want to wait eight more years.”
Councilman Miller believes that the number one priority of the city needs to be the economy. “We aren’t taking on new initiatives, we have postponed projects, cancelled projects and unfortunately we’ve had to cut personnel. Those are dire things we’ve had to do and it’s all related to the economy,” Miller said. He feels that his experience working for over 30 years in the private sector, gives him a different perspective as mayor. The city has seen property values collapse, businesses shut their doors, and citizens be put out of work. This Miller says, is what is affecting the city the most, and he believes is the key to economic growth is job creation.
“Over the last two years, we have cut the city budget by 20 million dollars and cut 100 jobs, so we can’t continue to cut personnel,” Miller said, acknowledging that the city has much to do to bring its budget into clear waters. “We’re required by law to have a balanced budget…so that’s why we are focusing on business and job creation,” He said, saying that his economic policy would be one that would, “spend most of my time working with businesses that are already here… and secondly going outside and finding new businesses to come to Naperville.”
Bringing new businesses to Naperville Miller said is vital to bringing the city’s economy back. “There are two properties that over the next two years will be developed. One is called Naper main and because of the economy the developer couldn’t go through with it. But that will be built in the next few years.” The developments will bring new businesses to Naperville and along with them more jobs to the city which is currently running an unemployment rate of around 8%.
Jobs, Miller said, are the most important issue that City council needs to address if they truly plan to bring the city’s economy back. Miller believes that if the city wants to be serious about job growth, they need to create an environment that allows for economic growth, by not raising taxes. “I don’t want to raise taxes. I don’t want to raise sales taxes and I don’t want to raise property taxes,” Miller stated, adding, “There may be a combination of fees and small tax increases to help balance the budget,” leaving open the possibility of new tax increases, specifically a targeted sales tax. However, Miller reiterated that is needs to be a, “combination of cost cutting and revenue increases.”
Councilman Miller reminded voters that this is a campaign that is about the people of Naperville and the economy, rather than Mayor Pradel and himself. “Mayor Pradel and I are good friends,” Miller said about his opponent. The two have served together with Mayor Pradel as the head of city council for his entire term. The election is not until April, but it may be that for the first time in 16 years, a new face could be the mayor of Naperville.
Tom Rowland, Entertainment Editor
