Ward 2 candidates support residency requirement
Aldermanic candidates want fair share of gambling revenue
POLITICS | Alan Kozeluh
Candidates for alderman in Springfield’s Ward 2 say they would fight for a residency requirement and to make sure their ward gets a fair share of money from video gambling.
The two candidates survived a six-way primary in February and now face off in the April 7 general election.
Springfield NAACP president Teresa Haley and Capital Township Trustee Herman Senor III both say they would vote for a requirement that all city employees live within city limits, but both would favor grandfathering in people who already work for the city and live outside it.
“If someone already has the job, I wouldn’t expect you to fire that individual,” Haley said. “When that person retires or moves away or whatever the case may be, when you re-post that position, then you would try to find someone within the city.”
Haley and Senor both said they were confident that people who live within the city and within their wards could take up management-level positions working for the city.
“There are a lot of educated people in Springfield that could be willing and probably would be willing to take those positions,” Senor said. “But you’d have to advertise those jobs and see who came forward.”
Senor pointed to his two daughters, one of whom will soon graduate with a law degree and the other who has a degree in biology and commutes to Decatur every day, as examples of people who would happily work for the city and live here.
Senor and Haley also agree on video gambling, saying they have no problem with it, as long as the revenues are divided fairly. Video gambling has been a contentious issue in Springfield, with the city council passing an ordinance last year restricting video gambling machines to businesses which make 60 percent or more of their revenue from food or beverages. The ordinance was an effort to curtail the spread of gambling parlors in Springfield.
“If people are already struggling to pay their bills, that’s just one more thing to throw at them – one more temptation – so we want to avoid that,” Haley said. “But if it’s going to happen anyway, I want to ensure that we’re getting our slice of the pie.”
Senor’s take on video gambling in Springfield hit a similar tone.
“If it’s here to stay, let’s embrace it,”
Senor said. “But most of all, let’s embrace the monies that we’re raising from that.”
Haley said that she would be in favor of proportionally allocating gambling revenues based on which ward they come from.
“If you have more video gambling facilities in Ward 2, I believe that we deserve more of the funds that come from video gambling,” Haley said.
Senor said that he would first like to see how much revenue is coming from video gambling in Ward 2 as opposed to the rest of the city.
Video gambling licenses are tied to liquor licenses, and current Ward 2 Alderman Gail Simpson has a longstanding policy of voting against any new liquor licenses in the ward. A map of liquor licenses in Springfield shows bars and liquor stores ringing Ward 2, with fewer than 20 actually in the ward. There are more than 400 liquor licenses in the city.
Both Haley and Senor seem to be more open to the possibility of new liquor licenses in their ward than Simpson was, but both are cautious about how they would approach new licenses.
“I don’t want to give a blanket yes or a blanket no,” Senor said. “I want to look at it individually for each applicant.”
Haley says she has some concerns about the number of liquor licenses in the district, but that wouldn’t stop her from voting to approve certain ones.
“It seems as if we have more liquor licenses in our community, in our ward, than others,” Haley said. “So I would look at them very closely, but I wouldn’t deny a liquor license if someone was deserving of it.”
Though the aldermanic races in Springfield are nonpartisan, that hasn’t stopped some traditionally partisan figures from making endorsements in the race.
The State Journal-Register reported Haley and Senor each getting endorsements from union groups. Additionally, Haley recently reported some contributions from the Basic Crafts Council of Mid-Central Illinois, which primarily gets its funding from other labor groups.
Former State Senator Larry Bomke, R-Springfield, told Illinois Times that he plans to endorse Senor.
“That would be an added feather in our cap if Senator Bomke endorsed me publicly.” Senor said.
Contact Alan Kozeluh at [email protected].
