Patty Gregory, candidate for mayor in Belleville, IL

Name: Patty Gregory

Political party (if applicable): Independent

Age as of April 6, 2021: 67

Campaign website or social media page: Patty Gregory for Mayor on Facebook

Office seeking: Mayor

Are you an incumbent? No

Previous offices sought: None

Occupation: Retired school teacher

Education: BS in education

Please list highlights of your civic involvement: I have been a volunteer with many philanthropic, cultural groups, educational and other working boards for over 33 years in the Belleville community. Over 20 years ago, I founded Art on the Square and have served, without pay, as the Executive Director of the nationally ranked art show. With an all -year long committee of 40 committee members and over 600 volunteers working the week of the AOTS, it has been a success which speaks to the backbone of our community, our volunteers. Because of volunteer service, I have been awarded recognition as a Saint Louis Woman of Achievement in Arts Collaboration, Chanel Woman of Influence, 1993 Kimmel Community Service Award from SIU-E, Commerce Bank Citizen award, (included a $10,000 grant which I awarded to 118 school district), Boy Scout Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008 & 2018, PNC Woman of Achievement, Life Member Junior Service Club, named first recipient of the Mo Dana Best Art Fair Director in the Nation awarded by Art Fair SourceBook in 2007, Basic Initiative and Chamber Citizen of the Year Award, Racial Harmony Phenomenal Woman. I am proud of my work as the co-founder, with Terry Schaffer, of the West End Promotional Committee where I served from 2004 -2019 and Oppose the Move to keep St. Elizabeth’s in Belleville. These awards reflect the efforts of many people that I have worked with over the years. Team building, motivation and appreciation, selecting talented qualified people to help can turn visions into reality.

Why are you running? I know Belleville can do better. We have a history of art, culture, and learning. For over 200 years, quality of life issues has been important. Home to the second oldest Philharmonic in the Nation, the oldest subscription lending library in the state, the #1 art show in the nation, three museums with development on the fourth, the Koerner Museum, should all make us proud to live in Belleville. Under the current administration, we have lost St. Elizabeth’s which has left 16 city blocks empty and took 1,200 higher paying jobs to a neighboring city. We should be questioning why after 142 years of loyalty to a hospital which never paid taxes, used city safety services, eagerly accepted donations from community members, businesses and organizations, chose to leave. Now we are suffering from the loss of Lindenwood University. Much of the economic development in the past several years has been storage companies that replaced big box stores. They currently pay no sales tax but use the city public safety services and recently have been approved to have outdoor storage for cars, RV, campers etc. Are we now a used car lot? Hopefully sales taxes will be approved on these services as has been brought up in recent discussions. According to a 2018 article on the Illinois Policy’s website, the city of Belleville has seen the level of population decline that tops Illinois 50 most populous cities. From 2010-2017, the city of Belleville’s population fell to 41,650 from 44,300, losing more than 2,660 residents, or nearly 6% of its population. Some people may cite figures from other articles but, in reality, we all know people who have left the city. Is losing a hospital, university, businesses and population moving a city forward in the right direction? That is why I am running for mayor.

Why should people vote for you? I am a person who likes to set goals and objectives and see them come to fruition. Being proactive with long-term planning, reviewing budgets and monitoring returns on investments, appointing qualified people and evaluating our progress on a continuous basis, is always my goal! As an educator for over 32 years, I will bring those skills to the office of mayor. Teaching students with emotional and behavioral issues has taught me how to be flexible. I know how to communicate with people from all different socioeconomic backgrounds. A teacher is always in the improvement business. They know the importance of measuring progress.

Being a volunteer for over 33 years has put me in contact with business owners, media and developers, both in Illinois and Missouri. This puts me in a unique position to bring economic development, and promotion to Belleville. I am also a small business owner. When I started Art on the Square, I ran it as a business too. In 2002, when the show began, our budget was just over $100,000, many years later our budget is over $550,000. This money is raised to support not only the three day show, but many of our yearlong out reach programs in schools in four counties, our Sculpture in the City Program, our High School Sculpture Program and murals and sculptures on the bike trail, scholarships and workshops. Today the show fuels our city with a $2.37 million economic impact. Art on the Square also brought and organized Delilah’s “Paint the Town” to our city. This was accomplished all by volunteers within our city. The show was a vision and became #1 out of 6,000 shows in the nation, in five years. I will bring team building, marketing and promotional skills, communication, collaboration, pride and respectfulness to our residents, visitors, businesses and volunteers.

What is the top issue in your race, and how would you address it? Public safety and crime should be our top issue. For the past several months, we have heard about crime, not only in Belleville, but also in the surrounding communities. What we have not heard is a comment by the current administration about the situation. Crime numbers may be lower…but violent crimes seem to be on the rise. Our Belleville Police do a great job and protect us daily. Are we supporting them as much as we can? For example, when the last questions from the BND were printed in March 2017, we had 84 police officers in our department. Less than 4 years later, we currently have 73. We lost some to retirement, but we need to put more police back on the street. First, we may have 73 officers, but some are desk jobs, and those officers are not patrolling the streets. Should we consider a grant writer strictly for the police and fire departments? After conversations, it is my understanding that police are writing some grants. We need our police on the streets period. When we work with many schools, churches, organizations and practice community policing, the city and crime stats improve. A collaborative partnership with the police and a representative from each ward could serve to develop solutions and build trust between the community and police. We need to encourage this since many residents are afraid to report crime. Let us not forget, housing, infrastructure and economic development all play a role in this effort. Unfortunately, crime has no boundaries. It is a national, regional and local problem. That needs to be addressed locally.

Who are your top three campaign contributors? BGSC Inc., Auto Spa Car Wash, Auto Spa Oil Change

Belleville Tax Increment Finance District 3, or TIF 3, is expiring this year. Do you agree with the proposal to extend the expiration date for another 12 years? Why/why not? I will be doing a special audit to look at all TIF funding and spending. After that is completed, then I can decide on whether the TIF 3 extension of 12 years is necessary. I will approach TIF spending in a different way. The original purpose of TIF was to be used for infrastructure. Not sure if that has been happening as the current administration appears to have certain projects that TIF’s are used for. Our Mayor, elected in 2005, has had many years in office with a small percentage of our streets being properly fixed. If managed in a business-like manner, I believe we can repair a good portion of the streets and sidewalks that have been long ignored. Projects are needed throughout the city, not just commercial areas, but in our neighborhoods as well. Most of all of it is imperative that we begin to adjust many current policies to eventually wean ourselves off of TIF dependency.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating effect on parts of Belleville’s economy. How would you grade the city’s response and, if you are elected, what would you do to help businesses and residents? We need to become an ever-improving city. Coming out of this pandemic has shaken communities. I have been proactive by having a Zoom meeting with the restaurants and bar owners, I listened to their concerns and suggestions. We all need to realize that these owners have been through one of the most challenging times of their lives. In the fall of 2020, I learned about grants available to the restaurants from St. Clair County. I made a call to Mr. Stubblefield, who oversees the grant department. I knew that very few restaurants from Belleville had applied. The grant department could not have been more helpful. Mr. Stubblefield gave me his personal phone number to give to the restaurant owners. Calls were made and several restaurants who met the grant criteria, where given the grants ranging from $5,000-$15,000. Being proactive with personal contact can make things happen. As we reopen, we have two choices, gloom or doom or responding in a positive proactive manner. I choose to do the latter. We need to look upon this situation in a totally different way. In the news every day we read or hear about malls in bankruptcy, big box stores closing and going online, we see strip malls with vacancies. But we can use this to reinvent and reimagine Belleville. Belleville has a history of resiliency, after all, we have been here for over 200 years. Let’s take advantage of this. First, we should be fixing up all our store fronts, more awnings and planters in front of our businesses, many improvements can be done with a small investment. I believe people would enjoy helping to change the appearance of the whole town. This can be done by volunteers and neighbors working together, not just downtown, but all over Belleville. Remember, slow pace does not mean nothing is happening. Working with the City, Belleville Main Street, the Chamber of Commerce and the County is a GOOD THING!

What is your opinion of how the Belleville Police Department handles public safety in the city? Do you think the city needs more or fewer police officers? If you want additional officers, how would you fund that cost? I have already addressed some of this in the previous question. Here are a few more thoughts. Our Belleville Police protect us from harm and danger even in the worst possible times, such as we all are experiencing now. Public safety plays a critical role in the success of a community. Economic development, new housing and infill projects and the perception of the city are all affected by crime. Besides having a social and economic cost, public safety issues also have side effects, such as stress, pain, suffering, quality of life issues and psychological and emotional concerns. We currently have 73 police in our department with some on desk duty, and some serving as code enforcement officers who work Monday- Friday from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The big question is, HOW MANY ARE ACTUALLY PATROLLING THE STREETS? Lighting improvements need to be taking place all over the city. It is my understanding, that a series of cameras are being installed in the city. This is great news since most of the cities surrounding us have already accomplished this. Improving public safety is not a cost, it is an investment. Shortsightedness leads to decline, big thinking leads to big returns. Review spending and return on our investments, streamline codes and ordinances, look for new approaches to address all issues of public safety.

Belleville has offered various tax incentives to support businesses in recent years. What are your plans to increase economic development in the city and how would you use tax incentives? I believe we are currently in a repetitive cycle. That repetitive cycle includes public safety/crime, economic development/infrastructure and housing that need to be aligned together. When these are interacting and developing in tandem, we will stabilize our community. Currently the business climate in Belleville does not have the best reputation. This needs to change. We need to analyze our obstacles to development; also, an Economic Base and a Business Climate analysis needs to be created. As mayor, I will move forward to get these completed.It is exceedingly difficult to attract businesses, homeownership and larger development when the town does not look its best. People will come when they believe they can make a good investment. Therefore, neighborhoods, infrastructure, and public safety need to be going in the correct directions. We have close to 50% rental property in the city of Belleville. We do have larger than average rentals around the area since we are near an Air Force base. While homes are selling very well, we need to get properties off the rental rolls and into homeownership. This will help stabilize our community and will move us forward. When new housing development starts, and the population builds up, economic developers will start to develop larger areas. We need something other than fast food and storage unit. Let us look at our positives. We are remarkably close to St. Louis, which is great since many people work there and it gives us an opportunity to draw homeowners and developers from both sides of the river. It can also be challenging for people to buy locally when they may be in St. Louis on a regular basis. We have large areas open for development, especially on the east and west ends of our city. But can we attract them with our local business climate and lack of new housing and retail development? Our homes in Belleville are beautiful, especially in our historic districts. I will be a voice in Springfield to advocate for historic tax credit programs which help individual homeowners restore their homes. We have younger people reinvesting in these older homes and that is a plus. Affordable housing is a draw for people, and it is desperately needed. Our schools and 501c-3 organizations in our community are top notch! The most important of all is to sell us and this community, that means PROMOTION, PROMOTION and MORE PROMOTION. After 20 years of selling and promoting Belleville with AOTS, I believe I can bring this skill to City Hall. We are in this together as we build Belleville up. We all have our own visions that we can make our reality. Vote for positive change on April 6, 2021!

This story was originally published February 24, 2021 at 4:59 PM with the headline "Patty Gregory, candidate for mayor in Belleville, IL."