Mayor-elect for the city of Champaign Don Gerard visited The Daily Illini on Sunday to talk about his victory in last week’s election over incumbent Jerry Schweighart and the ideas he will bring to the position.
Gerard described himself as a “complete underdog,” after being told in November he had only a “five percent chance of even competing.”
Gerard ran his campaign by getting involved in the community by going door-to-door, making phone calls and going to churches and community meetings.
He said he plans on being a non-partisan mayor who will try to be more involved with the community.
Gerard described his plan as “night and day” from how Schweighart led the city for the past 12 years. Gerard is a University graduate and has been a resident of Champaign for more than 40 years. Next month, Gerard will take office as the new mayor.
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On students and the community
“We’ve never had a mayor in Champaign who’s been excited about the students; I’m excited about the students. It has been a long time since the city and the University have been truly integrated …”
“Grad students should be able to afford to live here and we’d like to keep you and have you be a part of the city. There’s a lot of you and you need a voice.”
On the budget
“We want to try and cut from the top down. The administrative levels and the bureaucratic levels aren’t taking any furlough days, any cuts or any reductions in staff.
“Where they are making the cuts are the services of the taxpayers and I’m not OK with that. They need to learn to do more with less, combine positions, maybe lay someone off and they’re not doing any of that. They are fully staffed and some have even added jobs. I want those departments held accountable, and not the citizens.”
On Unofficial
“I think I want to look at it from a standpoint of practicality. I think Unofficial is civil disobedience and that’s what it’s all about and you don’t address that by trying to legislate it to death. You address it by trying to make it safer. I want to give respect to those who have the right to sell alcohol and those of legal age.
“I want to work together with them to have a safe environment. If we have 20,000 people migrating to town, for the rest of us who don’t party or don’t participate, it should be an economic boom.
“For those who do, it should be safe. It should be more of a festival atmosphere as opposed to the cage match and riot atmosphere which I think the administration has sort of let it (become) in the last decade.”
On safety in the community
“I think it all starts with dialogue. I’ve gotten to know the citizens in the community over the past six months and worked on earning their respect instead of just demanding it because of a title.”
