A conversation with Juan Silva, candidate for Elgin Township Board Trustee
The following interview excerpts have been edited for clarity and flow with Juan’s approval.
Tell me a little bit about yourself and why you’re running for trustee
I’m Juan Silva. I’m married, and I’ve got three kids. I’ve lived in Elgin for the last 45 years, and I’ve been involved in a lot of different things in regards to the community. But I wasn’t aware exactly what a township was for, and I was learning a little bit about it.
Vern Tepe was my inspiration to run. That’s a smart guy in my own opinion. I think he’s got a huge potential. He’s got the time. He does have the energy, and he’s a very positive person, and well educated, and always there to help. When he encouraged me to run, the way he mentioned it to me, it wasn’t too hard to convince me.
So I’m running as a trustee because I think I can make a little bit of difference in serving the community and bringing out the word about the township a little bit more. Especially to the Hispanic community. Introduce to them the services that that the township offers if they are unaware of it.
That’s the reason that I’m running for office.
If elected as trustee, what are your top priorities for your first year?
The top of my list? Wow! Pretty much everything. There’s not any specific topic on it. The first priority for me is to learn the system and more about what exactly the township does.
And from there I will go and prioritize committees – what’s the financial status, how it is, how funds get disbursed to it, and get an ideas on how we can improve. How can we serve the ones who receive grants, or anything like that, in a better way? And monitoring the ones who receive those funds to make sure that they use the money the proper way with what they applied for.
Senior services: I love my seniors here in the community, and I look forward to getting the best service for them, and also letting the community know what they do, how they serve, and hoping that more people join the seniors’ facility.
Mental health, there’s another topic I will focus on. Learn how it runs, probably join a committee, or if I can join a meeting, and see how those funds are distributed, and how the help is being given to the patients or the community members.
The kids. I wanna make sure that the kids get the education for those funds that they receive, no matter what organization received them. Invest those funds on programs that directly affect the kids. I will make sure that those funds [organizations receive from the township] are used to directly affect the kids in their programs. I’m not gonna choose the programs, but I want to see that they use those funds the proper way.
Do you have any ideas for community resources or ways to promote community engagement?
I don’t know if they already exist in the township, but one is to help the community to file the application for passports or renew the passports. The other one is to implement or improve programs for small businesses. Small businesses for me are the startups, not the ones who make a million dollar plus, that’s how they categorize the small businesses in the State of Illinois. I’m talking about businesses who are struggling, who don’t have money to pay the bills, to not have resources where to go. I want to enhance the data information for them and promote that the township has courses,101, to learn the process of building up a business. Helping people understand a little bit more on what they’re getting in and not spending too much money for companies who charge a rush to do a registration to go get the EIN numbers to get the assume names and all this stuff. I will create something like that to help the small businesses, the startup businesses.
I will see how I can get engaged in the SBA. There are people over here in the community that are already directly or indirectly working with the SBA to provide, say, the loans short, long term, or unforgivable loans to small businesses. I will orientate the people and try to cultivate that information. How can I engage or put people together to work with the SBA loans?
Then something to the small businesses for the kids. I believe that the Elgin police department has some activities for the kids. The Boys and Girls Club. Those institutions that get a little bit of funding from the township. I will create activities for the kids inside the township to bring families together. I did that once already as a petition for a previous chief of police from Elgin. I put a hundred, 175, or 220 families together.
That’s my vision.
If he’s there, enhance it, and if it’s not, implement it.
Picturing yourself in four years, if elected, how will you know if your term was successful?
If I see changes in the township. If I see more programs by the township. If I see happy faces. Landscape. And if I see people talking about the township I will say yes, I did a good job. If I don’t hear or see anything like that, I did not do that good job.
Why should people vote for you?
I want people to vote for me, not because I’m close friends of Vern Tepe, not because I’m a Democrat. I want people to vote for me because they trust and believe in me. That’s my presentation. I’m a person who doesn’t have a high education. My education, bad or good, is being through life, whatever life is, has been teaching me. And I want the people to focus on Juan Silver as a person. Not as a politician, not as a business owner, not as a Democrat, not as a friend of politicians.
Do you have anything else that you want people to know?
Yes, come out to vote. You vote counts. Make you both count, and if it’s not for me, doesn’t matter. As long as you come out to vote, that’s how we will make differences in this city, the State, and Federal. But let’s start here with our own town. I suggest you vote for me, but if not, vote anyways. That’s my message to the community
