The Results Are In

Not a long post tonight, I have been sending out emails to friends and supporters.  For those who haven't been following the Lake County Clerk's website breathlessly this evening, I placed fifth in a the field with 12.70% of the vote.  That is 374 out of 2,944 votes cast.

Not bad for someone who was a complete unknown just a few months ago.

Congratulations to Al Hill and Lloyd DeTienne for their wins tonight, and also our hope that they will serve the City of Zion well for the next four years.

I will probably have some final thoughts on the campaign, but not tonight.  I have to go back to work in the morning.

To everyone who cast a vote in this election, thank you.

Sincerely,

Christopher Fischer

Election Eve and the Power of Ideas

Today is April 8th, and as I type this I can see the sunset through our back window as the day draws to a close, it is now Election Eve. 

With Election Day just a few hours away now, I must take care of one order of business right off the bat; if you haven't voted yet, remember that the Polls in Illinois will open at 6:00 AM and close at 7:00 PM. If you don't know your polling place go to my website www.fischerforzion.com and look at the special Get Out The Vote page, there is a link to the Lake County Clerk's website where you can look up your polling place.  Voting is not just a right, it is a responsibility, so don't let the opportunity to exercise your fundamental right go to waste.

Now that the public service segment is out of the way, I would like to express a few thoughts about this campaign that is now drawing to a close.

Above all else this has been a campaign of ideas, and the power of ideas to move people to action.

I know that sounds like the standard power of positive thinking line, but consider where I was when I started on this path.  When I first contemplated running for the City Council about two years ago, I was completely unknown, with no ready network of friends and family to support and work for me on a campaign.

I just had an idea that I could bring a fresh perspective to the city government.  So, I spent a lot of time thinking, researching, and talking with people about what needed to be done.  Then I sat down and started drafting a platform, a set of proposals for what I think the government can accomplish.

I created this blog and the website, put the platform up and started writing posts about the campaign. Then when I filed my nomination papers, I sent out a press release inviting people to come look at what I was proposing.

I started getting emails. Just a few, but the people writing me wanted to know more, and then they wanted to meet me. Then they wanted to help me.

This past Saturday, I did my last four hour shift standing outside the Post Office handing out flyers, and I had more than one person tell me that they had voted for me, and other people who went to early voting and then came back to tell me that they had voted for me.  I've had people tell me that they like what I have written, and the answers I gave at the candidate forums.

It's wonderful, and humbling all at once to get that kind of validation.  To see how my ideas, have moved people to action.  I can only hope to be worthy of their trust if I am elected tomorrow.

In the meantime, I want to thank everyone who has contributed in any way to this campaign; handing out flyers, putting up signs, talking to people, and giving me advice and support.  Truly, I could not have come this far without all of you.  Thank you.

Sincerely,

Christopher Fischer

Final Stretch - Voter Outreach

Just to bring everyone up to date, we are now down to the last few days before Election Day on April 9th.  Here is what I will be doing for the final push to the finish.

Saturday April 6th, I will be greeting voters and handing out flyers in front of the Zion Post Office from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM.  Stop by and say hello if you like, and if you want to take some flyers to pass out anywhere you can, I will have some available.

After the Post Office closes for the day, I will be going to City Hall to early vote, and then I will be doing door-to-door flyer distribution in the area south of Shiloh Park for the rest of the afternoon. If you have time, and can cover even one block, it would be a big help. Email me at fischerforzion@gmail.com to volunteer.

Sunday morning, I will be planting more signs wherever I can, if you want a sign for your yard, let me know, I still have plenty available. Sunday afternoon I will be doing more door-to-door, so see the link above if you can help out.

For Tuesday April 9th, I have posted an information page on the Fischer For Zion website that has information on polling places, how to locate your polling place, and electioneering etiquette. The last is most important because we don't want lose votes by annoying anyone.

Finally, I want to thank all of you who have been out there putting flyers on doors and windshields and talking to people one on one, your hard work is making a real difference.  Together, I believe that we can bring real change to the city, and I hope I do you proud.

Christopher Fischer

Remarks to the Zion Township Republican Committee

This evening I participated in a candidate meet and greet with the Zion Township Republican Committee.  I am happy to report that all of the candidates for Commissioner attended, and the question and answer session I think was lively, and hopefully gave the Committee members a better picture of the candidates to share with others.   Special thanks to Marti Korpi for being our host.

Each candidate was given a ten minute window to present a statement about themselves, why they are running and what they hope to achieve if elected.  What follows is the text of my presentation as written.

Good Evening.

To begin, I wish to thank Mrs. Korpi, and the Committee for inviting us here to speak with all of you. Hopefully it will prove to be a useful and informative exchange for everyone.

Some of you may have attended the Candidate Forum held here at the Library a couple of weeks ago, or watched the videos provided by ZBGuide.com.  So, I don’t want to bore you too much by re-hashing my statement from that event. 

Instead, since I have a more generous time limit today I would like to provide a little more in depth background of myself. Then I want focus in on an item in my platform to help illustrate my conception of how the city government can help Zion grow, and develop for the future.

I was born in Kansas City Missouri, 48 years ago.  I am the eldest of four boys, my brothers Mark, John, and Matthew. My father said later that if he had planned it out, I should have been named Luke.  In those early years we lived in the suburbs on the North side of K.C., and did the typical suburban kid stuff of the time; banana seat bikes, idolizing Evel Knieval, and tree forts.

Now, my father always had this idea of getting into self-sustained small scale farming, so we moved out to a farm that we rented for a couple of years. We had goats and chickens, so I and my brother had chores every day, taking care of the animals, gathering eggs, and milking the goats. Later, we moved to another place, a pre-civil war Federalist style home located on a wooded hilltop. To be honest, it was not in the best condition, and since the primary heat source was wood burning stoves, my brother Mark and I became pretty handy at splitting wood with an axe, sledgehammer, and steel wedges.  It’s a pretty direct proposition, if you want to stay warm, split that stack of wood first.

When we moved to Indiana, the property covered about seven acres, with two ponds and a stream. Taking care of that, and the fowl, and the four head of dairy cows we boarded was a lot even with four boys to help out. Cows can’t wait to be milked, so I would have to get up at 4:00 am and take care of them before going to school.  I will say that spending a few years shoveling manure makes me more appreciative of working in an office today.

Now, at the time, I didn’t enjoy going out to the barn on a dark winter morning that much, but the lessons I learned about being self-reliant, responsible, hard-working, and honest have been the basis for everything else that I have undertaken in my life.

After High School, I joined the Army. I was a Signals Intelligence Analyst, with a Top Secret Codeword Clearance, and that is a lot of responsibility for any 19 year old. I was sent to West Germany, and to the 103^rd Military Intelligence Battalion.  There, I worked with some of the smartest people I have ever met and forged friendships that endure even today. The most important of which is my wife Christie. Who took notice of me in the motor pool when I almost hit her with a 75 lb bag of camouflage I tossed off the top of a truck. She was from Indianapolis, so she often says that she went all the way to Germany to meet the boy next door. 

After our enlistments ended, we were married, and then moved to Illinois on a job offer. The job didn’t work out, so we found other employment. That is when I went into the Security business. With my military experience, I was soon put into management positions, and over time I learned some important lessons on how to be a good manager. One of the most important is that it’s easy to be a hardass; it’s a lot harder to be a leader, and a mentor.

Eventually, I took a position supervising the security staff at the American Medical Association; this was not long after we had bought our home here in Zion. Three years later, I was offered a position with the AMA in the Human Resources Division.  Where, for the last 13 years, I have had the unique opportunity to observe, and learn how a large organization functions, both good and bad.  Obviously, I can’t cover everything I have experienced and learned in the time available here tonight, but I do believe that the sum total of my experience will serve the people of Zion well if I am elected.

We face many challenges here in Zion; the housing crisis, crime, the economy, and high taxes that burden all of us.  The prescription for many of these challenges, as they concern the city, is to either cut services, or increase alternate revenue to offset the taxes on homeowners.  Rather than get caught up in the nuts and bolts of where to cut and how to raise revenue, I want to talk about how we might create a broader vision for the future of the city.

A couple of weeks ago, at the invitation of Township Supervisor Cheri Neal, I went to a candidate meet and greet with the residents at Carmel House.  We gave our presentations, and answered questions from the ladies who attended.  As things were winding up, and I was getting ready to leave, I spent a moment chatting with a Mrs. La Belle, who is 96, if I remember correctly.  She said something that has stayed with me; “I would just like Zion to be like it was back when I was a little girl.  We all knew each other, and did things together, it was nice then.” Now, obviously we cannot return to that time when everyone knew each other but, maybe we can recapture that sense of community through developing a plan for what we want Zion to become in the future.

One part of my platform proposes creating a new Comprehensive Development Plan for the city.  One of the great things about our time is the availability of information. If you have an idea, you can bet that someone somewhere has had a similar idea and actually put it into practice.

One of the examples I found, is the Southern Illinois town of Pinckneyville.  The citizens there decided to take control of the development of their town, establish a vision for the future, and created the mechanisms to carry it out.  The primary means to establish this vision was the creation of a non profit Foundation that combines the efforts of the government, the business community, and the citizens.  Through their efforts, guided by a strategic plan, this small city was able, among other things, to establish the Illinois High School Basketball Hall of Fame, which has become a destination for visitors to the area.

Zion should take advantage of examples like Pinckneyville. To learn to develop destination drivers, to involve people using techniques like crowd sourcing; developing an interactive communication with the public to create community initiatives to promote the city, and to make it a more desirable place to live and work.  Above all, if the public has a substantial role in conceiving a new development plan, it invests them in the community and gives them a greater stake in working to achieve the goals that have been set forth.

In essence, what I am proposing is creating an environment that encourages a sense of public service, not only in our elected officials, but in the community as a whole.  With a vision to guide us, and some good old hard work, I think we can get to know each other better, and do some great things for this city.

So, that is a little about me, where I am from, and where I hope we can go together.  If you share that vision, I hope that you will give me your support on Election Day.

Thank You.

A Public Hearing - An Empty House

In my writings, on the web page, facebook and this blog I often mention the level of disengagement between the city government and the public. Before I head out to stump in front of the Post Office today, I remembered something that I hadn't shared publicly yet.

On March 19th, at 6:00pm, there was a Public Hearing about the referendum on Electrical Aggregation held in the Council chamber at City Hall.  Briefly, aggregation means that the City would select an electricity provider and negotiate a price for all residents and businesses in Zion. Anyone who doesn't like the negotiated rate can opt out and choose their own provider.

Since it was a workday, I went right to city hall after getting off the train and arrived at 6:15 pm. I walked in and found the room empty, with the exception of the Council members; Flammini, DeTienne, Shantal Taylor, and Mayor Pro-Tem Jim Taylor presiding.  At the podium was a representative of NIMEC, Northern Illinois Municipal Electric Collaborative, the agency that will be brokering the aggregation process if the referendum passes.

I sat in the back as I usually do, just to observe.  I think one other person was in the audience.  The presenter finished answering questions from the Council members.  Mr. Taylor announced that the floor was open for public comment, and there being none, there was a motion to adjourn. That was it, the whole public hearing on a process that may determine what everyone in Zion will pay for electricity for the next two years.

Now, I can't fault the city for not providing notice to the public, the hearings have been announced at City Council meetings, posted on the city website, and published in the Zion Benton News.  All these notifications meet the requirements of the law on open meetings. The letter of the law is being upheld, but is the spirit?

The Sunday after that, I went to a gathering of some supporters of mine, and in the discussion I asked if anyone had been aware of the hearing about electrical aggregation.  None of them knew about the hearing, and these are people who are actively interested in the city and how it functions.  I think we have a lot of hard work ahead to get the public and the government talking to each other.

The next public hearing on Electrical Aggregation will be this coming Tuesday, April 2nd, 6:30 pm at City Hall. Self-governance requires us to participate in the process too. So, I encourage anyone who can to attend, even if it is just to listen and learn about what is being proposed. 

Get Out The Vote (GOTV) Information on the website

I've updated the website with information for GOTV as voting begins tomorrow.

Early voting starts March 25th, and we being the final push towards Election Day on April 9th. I've added a new page to the site, giving information on polling places and actions you can take part in between now and when the polls finally close. Go to: Get Out The Vote & Polling Places to learn more. If we want to bring change to Zion, we need to get voters to the polls. Every Voter is Important, and Every Vote Counts!

Outside the Post Office - A Candidate's View

As those of you who have been reading this blog, receiving campaign updates via email, or facebook are aware; today I was outside the Zion Post Office meeting voters and handing out flyer's. While the experience is still fresh in my mind, I thought it would be useful to record my impressions of the day.

The mission for today was, Basic Campaigning 101, meet the voters and get the message out.

You just need the stamina to stay on your feet for over four hours, keep your hands warm enough to not have to wear gloves (handling paper with gloves is nearly impossible), and greet every person coming out of the post office with the same enthusiasm as the first person who came out at 9:07 am. Luck was with me this morning, and I had a nice sunny day to be outside.

Physically, I think I did pretty well, though my left knee is sending me some nasty notes reminding me that I also spent three hours the day before going door to door.  Also, my face is now sunburned.

Overall, the impression I received was positive, and that makes me hopeful. For all the grousing about how coarse our society has become, at heart we are still a polite people. When greeted respectfully, most people will pause to listen, take the flyer, and say "Thank You" or "Good Luck" and then move on. 

Out of the 300 or so people I approached today, only two refused to talk with me because they had already decided to vote for another candidate. One man was so adamant that he had already decided who to vote for that he practically ran to his car to get away from me!

Some people did stop and talk with me; a gentleman asked how long I had lived here (17 years), a lady asked if I was related to the Fischer's in Winthrop Harbor (it's possible), and several asked if I am a Democrat or a Republican. I always remind them that it is a non-partisan election, and then I give them an honest answer. (If you want to know what that answer is, ask me and I'll tell you.)

Others expressed their frustration with how the city is being run, a few aired grievances over past conflicts with the Building Department, or a particular Commissioner. A few even said that they had read my Candidate Profile in the Zion Benton News and quite liked it. That last item makes me feel particularly good.

In the end, it was time well spent, and now I have a better appreciation of this time honored tradition; meeting people face to face, talking with, and listening to them is a requirement that must be met before anyone can presume to speak for them as their representative.
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Don't forget, early voting starts on March 25th, election day is April 9th.  I will be posting Get Out the Vote activities in the next few days, and if you believe that Zion needs a change, I am asking for your help to make it happen.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Christopher Fischer