Glen Ellyn Park District Board Election: Vanessa Pierce

Your Name:

Vanessa Pierce

Position Sought:

Candidate for Glen Ellyn Park District Commissioner

Campaign Contact Information:

None

What will be your single most important priority if you get elected?

Increase the year round accessibility of aquatics fitness, recreation, and sport for the residents of Glen Ellyn.

Based upon the Glen Ellyn Community Interest and Opinion Survey from last fall of 2012, a group of residents including me are "officially" organizing as the Glen Ellyn Aquatics Initiative.

Working with the Park District, we are hoping to form a task force and commission a study to:

Formally evaluate the building of an indoor aquatics center, including the development of a business plan;
Identify and plan for the appropriate funding. 

We also understand that an indoor facility can be a significant capital investment and can require material operating budgets. However, based upon consult from U.S. Swimming and discussions with other communities, we also realize that a facility can be run profitably as long as it is built with programming in mind. 

Your Home Address:

Glen Ellyn

Family Members:

Eric Pierce, husband, 43 yrs
Siena Pierce, daughter, 12 yrs
Chase Pierce, son, 10 yrs
Graham Pierce, son, 8 yrs
Rhett Pierce, son, 6 yrs

Education:

Lyons Township High School, LaGrange, IL 
ROTC Scholarship (US Army)
Stanford University, BS Industrial Engineering
US Army- Basic and Advance Officer Training for Communications-Electronics (Signal Corp)
Certified Six Sigma Blackbelt
Certified Professional in Supply Management (CPSM)
Licensed Insurance Producer: Life and Health

Current Occupation and Employer:

Over 20yrs experience in Corporate America as a Global Strategic Sourcing and Supply Chain Professional. "Retired" in May 2012 to have the flexibility to spend more time with my family and established my own company (PPV Advisors, Incorporated).
Kraft Foods – Northfield, IL 2010-May 2012: Global Source to Pay Business Process Manager
Projects included being the Global Procurement business lead responsible for deployment, data validation and on-going SAP Spend Performance Management analytics tool to provide the 700 procurement users on-demand visibility and characterization of Kraft's $32billion in Procurment spend.
Sun Microsystems. - Santa Clara, CA 1999-2010
Global Supply Chain Manager for End of Life Platforms, Inventory and Metrics
Managed an international team of ten Supply Chain professionals that minimized supply chain material liabilities caused by product transitions. In my last year at Sun, we reduced the gross operational inventory by over $144 million.

Tyco Electronics / Raychem Corp – Menlo Park, CA 1993 - 1999
US Army Reserves- 1992 - 2003. Promoted to Captain
2373rd Signal Detachment – Moffet Field / SanJose, CA
319th Signal Battalion – Camp Parks / Dublin, CA

Political Party Affiliation:

Running as an Independent for the Commissioner position. I am a registered Republican.

Why Are You Seeking Office?

My family has been an avid consumer of park district programs and facilities and parks since we moved here in 2002. All our children were educated in the pre-school programs, participated in music and toddler classes, and are now actively involved in swimming, basketball, soccer and football programs offered by the park district. I have coached numerous park district soccer teams and a Lakers soccer team while my husband has coached numerous basketball and football teams as well as coached & played in the men's basketball league.

Issue 1: The Park District has plans for renovations and updates at Lake Ellyn Park. The projects will cost a significant amount of money. Do you agree with the proposed updates? And, if so, what are your thoughts on how the park district might pay for the proposed upgrades?

I applaud the Park District for taking the opportunity to take a comprehensive long at the park and articulate a vision for the future.
Other than on-going maintenance of the current trails and shoreline and the playground which may need replacement in the near future, I'd consider a vast majority of these enhancements as "nice to haves" meaning there appears no pressing need why investments need to be made in the foreseeable future.
These type of improvements could possibly be funded through a combination of grants, private donations and public funding similar to a model the library has with the "Friends of the Library."

Issue 2: How can the Park District continue to offer a variety of programs to the public while maintaining a balanced budget?

Continue the due diligence and review the Park District currently does of all expenditures and annual budgets.
For program fees, benchmark against other part districts to ensure fees charged are competitive and affordable.
Ensure timely maintenance and repair of all facilities and fields and parks

Issue 3: What programs would you suggest the park district add, change or end? And, why?

The Park District has been serving my family well with a wide variety of activities, athletics, and educational programming.
I really would rely on input from residents and the community to help provide any recommendations.

Please add any other information pertinent to your campaign.

My top priorities for Park District:
Ensuring responsible and efficient fiscal management of Park District revenues and expenditures

Ensuring park district resources and facilities are utilized, maintained, and improvement made when necessary

Driving strategic investments in programs and facilities which will benefit and meet the needs of our park district community 

Working with the community and collaborating with other govt organization such as the Glen Ellyn Village and school districts to help make those strategic investments reality.