DuPage County Board incumbent Larsen, challenger Dobosiewicz tackle topics at forum

Though they won't officially be squaring off on the ballot until November, the two candidates vying to represent communities on the northwest corner of DuPage County on the County Board got the chance to sound off on some of the area's biggest issues over the weekend.

Republican incumbent Bob Larsen of Wheaton and Democratic challenger and IT professional Michael Dobosiewicz of Warrenville each took part in a Feb. 27 candidate forum at the DuPage County Administration Building run by the Wheaton and Glen Ellyn Leagues of Women Voters and Wheaton and Western DuPage Chambers of Commerce.

The two will run against each other in the general election for the four-year term for District 6, which covers parts or all of West Chicago, Carol Stream, Bartlett, Wayne, Wheaton, Winfield, Naperville, Aurora, Hanover Park, Bloomingdale, Roselle and Schaumburg. Candidates for the four-year District 4 term also participated in the event.

While both District 6 candidates were congenial during and after the forum, the two tried to distinguish themselves – Dobosiewicz, the middle class dad with a needed fresh perspective, and Larsen, the incumbent with compassionate experience in the issues that matter to the county.

"I'm a hardworking member of the middle class, and I believe there should be accountability to the taxpayers," Dobosiewicz said. "I will make sure that your taxpayer money will not continue to go in the hands of career politicians."

Throughout the debate, Larsen frequently pointed to work he had done on the board when answering questions, including heroin prevention, affordable housing, consolidation and public transportation.

"I see the need of the people in our community, and I work very hard to provide good government, fiscally responsible government, while caring for those people who need our care and our service," he said. "Good government requires constant vigilance. We as a County Board, I believe, have done a very good job of that."

Both largely agreed on many subjects, including government consolidation, saying it needed to be done but also needed to have a true impact on residents without compromising service.

"If it's good for the taxpayer, let's do it. If it's not, then it becomes a talking point," Dobosiewicz said.

Larsen touted his experience in combining DuPage and Kane counties' youth detention services.

"There was a lot of resistance to the notion of consolidating those services, but we did it and because I fought for it," he said. "And we've been saving about $2 million a year because we won that fight."

Dobosiewicz said the county needed to be doing more to connect people to public transportation as well as give people better options for bicycle travel for economic opportunities.

Larsen specifically pointed to the need for carrying people "the last mile," transporting them from their house to larger scales of public transportation. He also said he worked with Pace, Metra and the Regional Transportation Authority through the board's Public Transit Committee.

One of the more popular topics during the election, the future of the DuPage County Fairgrounds, also was presented for comment. The sitting board member said he appreciated the fair as a driver of tourism and for its role in the community, but said there may be higher uses for the property the county needed to consider. Dobosiewicz stressed the importance of involving the taxpayer in the decision.