Published: October 26, 2009 09:00 am      

Former councilwoman takes on incumbent in Ward 3

CLINTON — Although it’s been four years since Beverly Hermann last served on the Clinton City Council, she said she has tried to stay in the loop.

A regular occurrence for Hermann is checking to see what issues are on the council agenda. If she can’t make it to the meetings she tries to watch the council on television.

However, Hermann misses the action and staying in touch with people. That is why she said, with the urging of some people in town, she decided to run again.

Hermann represented the First Ward from 2001 to 2005. This time she is running in the Third Ward.

Her main goal is to increase communication with constituents, which she said she will do by creating a 12 to 20 person advisory group.

Jason Nevel: Why should somebody vote for you?

Beverly Hermann: I do have four years experience and apparently I did a pretty good job because I had a lot of people ask me if I plan to run again.

I like to learn about the issues, and I don’t go in with any personal agenda. My only interest is to help the city grow and prosper and be the best it can be.

I also work well with people and I’ve worked with other council members to reach a consensus.

JN: Any issues pertinent to the Third Ward that you’re going to put high on your priority list?

BH: Not particularly in the Third Ward. My main interest right now is increasing communication.

JN: Are you at all running because you think you can do a better job than Darrell Smith?

BH: I would never say anything bad about Darrell Smith. He’s been a fantastic council member and served as mayor.I wouldn’t say I would do a better job than Darrell, but I might do it in a different way.

One of the differences would be that I would work hard at staying in touch with people in the ward. I’m not sure that happens right now. I hear that some people feel like they don’t have much of a connection to the council.

JN: You’re getting ready to retire. So this time around you won’t have as many other commitments?

BH: I work at the Regional Office of Education. We represent almost all the school staffs anywhere from around the Quad-Cities to Galesburg. They changed the configurations of the regions we served. That increased my workload by 50 percent.

I couldn’t do it because the council itself is at least a half-time job. If you’re really doing it.

JN: What would you do to attract jobs to Clinton?

BH: The first thing I would say is that one person can’t do anything. The council has to work together and with city staff, Chamber, CRDC and state agencies to attract business to the community.

I would work with other people to do what we have to do. One of the most important things we need to do is stay in touch with our existing business. We need to know what their needs are to help them stay here.

JN: The city is looking at bonding to fund street repairs and other community improvements but it’s at the risk of raising property taxes. Where would you draw the line?

BH: I compare it to your household finances. When you buy a house you’re going to have a mortgage and if you want to improve that house you might have a home improvement loan. That’s how I look at it.

Also, when the interest rates drop you want to get lower interest rates. We need to do that while the interest rates are low because you know they’re going to go up.

JN: That’s where the council is at now. But if you keep adding projects to the bonding list it’s going to be a boost in property taxes?

BH: We have the ability to bond for $64 million. I would never go close to that. Again, it’s like when you buy a house. You’re not going to finance a house to the top number. We’re going to have to study this very carefully to see what level we can go.

You don’t want to over commit yourself to the point where it’s going to be a hardship.

JN: What would you do to provide relief for escalating sewer bills?

BH: If the referendum changes the allocation of the one cent sales tax that’s going to help a whole lot. Another thing that can help a lot is if we manage to get an extension on federal mandate. We wouldn’t have to do the changes so fast. We could do them gradually.

Another thing that will help eventually is that Low Moor and Camanche will be sharing in the cost.