Pair seek supervisor position
By DIANA SROKA - dsroka@nwherald.com
RICHMOND – Richmond Township Supervisor Tamara Valentine-Garza hopes that she will be re-elected in April so she can expand a transportation program for seniors and continue to be a resource for residents hit especially hard by the tumultuous economy.
Township Board trustee Adam Metz is challenging Valentine-Garza in the April 7 election. His main concern for the township is fiscal conservatism.
“We spend way too much money compared to the amount of money we bring in,” Metz said.
Metz has been on the Township Board for four years.
Valentine-Garza insists that she has stayed true to her Republican roots in all her financial decision-making during the past five years as township supervisor.
“I am fiscally a conservative,” she said. “Although it might appear at first blush that [my budgeting] is liberal, it’s not.”
Valentine-Garza touts her record of not asking residents for an increase of funds and said the township had operated on a “save and then spend” basis.
“As long as I’m in office, I would not ask a taxpayer to pay any more additional funds,” she said.
Evidence of that is a rain garden program that she’s been considering for the township, she said. So far she’s been unable to secure grant funding for the endeavor, so she hasn’t pursued it.
“I really believe that can happen, but it’s a matter of how and when,” Valentine-Garza said.
Metz said whoever voters select as the next township supervisor needed to make transparency and communication with residents a top priority.
“A lot of people have no idea what township does for them,” Metz said. “We need to find a way to communicate better to the township residents.”
He also said that as supervisor, he would do a better job managing programs that Valentine-Garza has spearheaded.
One such program provides transportation for seniors to doctors appointments and other daily needs. Metz said the program could be run more efficiently. He suggested looking to McHenry Township’s transportation program as a model program because he believed it operated better and with fewer resources.
“I don’t want to remove those programs,” he said. “We just need to do a better job running it.”
Valentine-Garza said, if elected, her priority would be to build upon and grow the existing program.
“Keeping the program that we have in place today but then expanding it and enhancing the services,” she said.
Both candidates have familial ties to the township.
Valentine-Garza is the granddaughter of a former Richmond Township highway commissioner.
Metz is the son of a former township assessor.
