Name: Brian Sager
What office are you seeking: McHenry County Board Member, District 7
What is your political party?
What is your current age? 73
Occupation and employer: Retired McHenry County College Professor and Administrator
What offices, if any, have you previously held? Councilman, City of Woodstock
Mayor, City of Woodstock
McHenry County Board Member, District 7
McHenry County Representative to Chicago Regional Transportation Authority
City: Woodstock
Campaign website: No
Education: BS in Animal and Plant Science; University of Illinois
MS in Agricultural Economics; University of Illinois
MA in Instructional Strategies; Rockford College
PhD in International Development; Louisiana State University
Community involvement: First United Methodist Church of Woodstock
Volunteer Auctioneer for numerous charity events throughout the county
Marital status/Immediate family: Single, one Godson
What are your top three priorities for this district?
1. Continuing a strong stable financial position and outlook for the County by providing sound oversight of expenses, maintaining quality services, and ensuring reasonable, justifiable property tax levies.
2. Protecting local zoning authority against inappropriately mandated siting of solar farms and ensuring local business and light industry siting is compatible with municipal planning areas.
2. Maintaining County Highways in good condition, upgrading County Bridge infrastructure, and assisting with Township Bridge improvements.
The county board chose to allocate $500,000 in RTA sales tax dollars for squad cars in the current budget. The county historically has used RTA sales tax money for transportation, but can use the funds for public safety as well. Do you believe the county should keep those funds for transportation? If not, what transportation projects or initiatives would you be willing to postpone or cancel? What sort of public safety initiatives should those dollars fund?
The County has major infrastructure improvement needs and should follow its current policy of using RTA sales tax dollars to fund infrastructure. While RTA funds are allowed to be used for public safety needs and it is occasionally appropriate to do so to balance the County’s annual budget, as with the use of $500,000 to purchase Sheriff’s squad cars in the current fiscal year, such diversion from infrastructure improvements should be rare. Doing so only puts the County farther behind in costly infrastructure needs and results in greater future costs of improvement projects.
What should be infrastructure priorities and projects over the next four years?
1. Completion of major highway improvements, including the Route 31 corridor;
2. Improvement of County and Township Bridges;
3. Forwarding the Metra Rail Yard Project northwest of Woodstock; and
4. Improvement of safety at County Road Intersections.
What is your position on data centers? Should the county be open to their development?
Data Centers are becoming the ‘unnecessary evil of modern society.’ Arguably, their location is and should be driven by underlying available resources, such as power grid provisions, and regionally increasing data demands. On the other hand, there are undeniable unknowns from environmental, nuisance and health impact to increased power costs to local consumers.
So what is the draw? Money. The largest companies have been pouring billions into the construction of huge resource drawing facilities of data digestion and offering not only jobs, but millions of revenue dollars for locally strapped units of government. It’s tempting, especially when residents are property tax weary. I would be open to a conversation with residents about a data center.
The county board is expected to have another tight budget season this year. If you’re an incumbent, please explain your vote on the current fiscal year budget, or, if you’re a challenger, how you would have voted. Looking ahead, if you must decide between raising the property tax levy or cutting programs, what would your choice be? What specific areas of spending would you seek to find cuts?
I voted against the majority proposal to levy new growth and increase the levy by the allowable CPI, but I support that majority vote. Very simply there are three choices when budgeting, whether family, business or government entity: 1) cut expenses, 2) increase revenues, or 3) a combination of the two. Further, you can never cut your way to financial stability, especially in a service entity. Additionally, you cannot increase revenues to the point people can no longer afford to pay. This is the point at which we find ourselves today. People cannot afford the level of aggregate property taxes being imposed.
So the question presents an inappropriate and false dichotomy. It is not a this or that question, cut or increase the tax. It must be a combination of the two. We must find appropriate cuts in expenses, combined with a reasonable, acceptable levy increase.
In the recent budgeting process, weidentified$6.9 million in cuts. In the future, we should continue to closely monitor personnel costs, the highest cost among service providers, and further eliminate or reduce overtime costs and full-time positions when and where feasible and use freezing of positions where appropriate.
One financial stressor is the end of COVID-19 relief dollars. What should the county do with programs funded by federal COVID-19 dollars?
The County was careful to focus the use of COVID-19 Relief Funds on one-time cost projects and projects which could ultimately become self-sustaining or easily transferred to non-General Fund revenue sources. That planning commitment was financially solid and we need to stay the course.
McHenry County is limited in its ability to regulate solar farms under state law. What is your stance on solar facilities on agricultural land? Does the risk of lawsuits factor into your stance? What about battery storage?
I am firmly committed to the precepts of personal property rights and believe a landowner has the right to lease their agricultural property for a solar farm under parameters of current State Law. If, however, a landowner with land zoned anything other than agricultural or industrial wants to change zoning to take advantage of the State allowable solar farm opportunity on agricultural or industrial zoned land, I am significantly opposed to such rezoning.
The risk of lawsuits that utilize the people’s resources to defend or compensate always factors into my stance.
I will not generally support battery storage facilities due to unknown environmental, health and safety impact. The State of Illinois is working rapidly to investigate these concerning areas to provide possible yet questionable mitigation guidelines and parameters.
What is your stance on slaughterhouses in unincorporated McHenry County? What regulations should the county place on them?
Depending on the State or Federal Inspection privilege of the slaughter facility, the Illinois or United States Departments of Agriculture have jurisdiction over the plants once established. The only control the County has is in zoning. If proper zoning exists and relevant variations, if requested, are approved, I support local business development of which slaughterhouses would be a part. The only time I would oppose such location is if the petition proposes a facility in the County which is also in the mile and a half planning area of a municipality which officially objects to the petition.
County board members receive a $21,000 base salary and are eligible for benefits, like medical and dental insurance. Should the county board be eligible for benefits? Should the board raise its salary?
No, I do not believe County Board Members should be eligible for health benefits since service and compensation are on a part-time basis. Further, I do not believe it necessary to increase the part-time salary.
Due to my participation as the McHenry County Representative to the Chicago Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) Board of Directors, I receive compensation for that service through RTA and by State Law am ineligible to be compensated for additional service as a McHenry County Board Member. When my term on the RTA Board expires at the end of September this year, I will no longer receive RTA compensation and the restriction on County Board Member pay will be lifted. However, I will not request the County Board base salary in deference to my public service commitment.