Larry Hug wins(unofficial until April 26) Joliet City Council District One Election

The Will County Clerk's election results webpage shows that Larry Hug is the unofficial winner in the District 1 City Council race, with 528 votes.  The next highest vote-getter was IIona Vaughn, who received 506 votes.

Check out two Will County New articles on Larry Hug's ideas for Joliet:

Joliet City Council District 1 Candidate Larry Hug wants companies to pay local resource use fee for each container that goes through local intermodals

and

Joliet City Council District 1 Candidate Larry Hug Tired of Career Politicians

Again, these results are unofficial, per the Will County Clerk: "UNOFFICIAL RESULTS

On Election Night, as precincts are reporting, you will see the results being tabulated. These results will not include the Absentee by mail, Servicemen or Early Voting results. We will upload these results at the very end of the evening after all 445 precincts have been checked in.

Election results will not be official until Tuesday, April 26, when canvassing of votes is completed and after absentee ballots postmarked by midnight, April 4, and provisional and grace period ballots are counted on April 19."

Joliet City Council District 1 Candidate Larry Hug wants companies to pay local resource use fee for each container that goes through local intermodals

Larry Hug is a candidate for the District One Joliet City Council Seat.  Hug is one of six challengers running against incumbent Joseph Shetina.

Will County News spoke to Hug at the recent Informate/Get Informed Candidate Forum.  When asked about his ideas to fill the city's budget deficit, Hug said he proposes charging a $50 local resource use fee on containers that pass through the intermodals within the boundaries of City of Joliet, such as the Joliet CenterPoint Intermodal.

Hug said if the Joliet-area is going to become "one of the world's closets", then the City should recoup money for the wear and tear increased truck traffic causes on area roads.  Hug said the City should also collect that money to be prepared to react if there were ever a toxic spill from a container.

Hug said if large corporations are going to enjoy all of the rights of individuals (a reference, I believe, to the Citizens United case), then the corporations should also have a right to pay their fair share in fees and contribute to the local economy.

Hug said he also wants to work on performance-based tax breaks for companies that create jobs in Joliet and do a line-by-line audit of the city budget.  Hug said the job-creating tax-break should reach out to mom and pop businesses in Joliet.

Candidates for the City of Joliet District One seat running against incumbent Joseph Shetina are:
IIona Vaughn
Larry Hug
Vanessa Romeo
James Lipinski
Donald C. West Jr.
Steve Cammack

Joliet City Council District 1 Candidate Larry Hug Tired of Career Politicians

Joliet City Council District 1 Candidate Larry Hug has released a press release stating that if he is elected, he will present a plan to eliminate health insurance for sitting council members as well as any and all retirement plans in addition to banning lifetime health insurance for former council members.

Joliet is facing a $27 million dollar budget shortfall in 2012.

Joliet City Council District 3 Candidate Richard Rodriguez started a website calling for an end to free lifetime health benefits for retired Council Members, and the Joliet City Council voted to end those lifetime benefits for future council members at a February 2011 meeting (see details here). 

"Call me old fashioned, but I believe that running for election is a call to civic duty," said Hug, "not a chance to force your fellow residents to pay for your personal benefits that many can't afford for their own families."

"When you are elected and compensated in dollars for your time you are answering the call of civic duty," said Hug, "but when you also receive health insurance and retirement, in many cases for life, you are involved in a career.  I for one am tired of career politicians on any level."

Hug has outlined a plan to eliminate lifetime health insurance  for former council members that would also eliminate health insurance for sitting council members and all retirement for any council members.  He estimates this would save the city over $300,000 a year and "end the insanity."

"Whoever originally enacted this lunacy should be ashamed," said Hug,  "There's no way it can be logically explained other than to say those people  were  looking out for their personal interests only, and not the interests of the people of Joliet."


Hug is one of six candidates for District 1 challenging incumbent Joseph Shetina.  The six challengers are:


IIona Vaughn
Larry E. Hug
Vanessa Romeo
James Lipinski
Donald C. West Jr.
Steve Cammack

If any candidate for elected office in Joliet (or anywhere else in Will County) would like to send in their press releases, email them to: willcountynews@gmail.com.