John Garrido

The 45^th Ward Alderman should under­stand how to work with the com­mu­nity in which he serves. He should stand up for his con­stituents and fight for the resources they sup­port through their hard earned tax dol­lars. He should be a fierce advo­cate for main­tain­ing our police resources at the high­est lev­els pos­si­ble to ensure our safety.

As a vet­eran Chicago Police super­vi­sor, attor­ney and ded­i­cated fam­ily man, I will uti­lize my vast law enforce­ment expe­ri­ence, legal knowl­edge and lead­er­ship skills to:

• Empower the com­mu­nity to help prop­erly man­age our resources,
• Increase trans­parency in our gov­ern­ment and
• Improve pub­lic safety in our neighborhoods

My admin­is­tra­tion will seek the plan­ning assis­tance of key opin­ion lead­ers, res­i­dents, neigh­bor­hood orga­ni­za­tions, and busi­nesses to pro­duce a 45^th Ward mas­ter devel­op­ment plan. Ward res­i­dents will always be informed and involved in the deci­sions that impact our com­mu­nity. The best inter­ests of the ward will always be my main priority.

I have a unique per­spec­tive on law enforce­ment after 19 years with the Chicago Police Department. I under­stand what it takes to keep a com­mu­nity safe, and I know what resources are needed to accom­plish that goal. I will work together with the Commanders of the 16^th and 17^th Districts to ensure we have the appro­pri­ate resources nec­es­sary to keep our res­i­dents safe.

Alderman Levar has repeat­edly caved in to polit­i­cal pres­sure on every sub­stan­tive issue requir­ing his vote. As a result, prop­erty taxes have increased while rev­enues have decreased, and city owned assets have been sold and the pro­ceeds squan­dered (park­ing meters and Chicago Skyway). Each of these votes neg­a­tively impacted the ward by deny­ing the city itself untold mil­lions of dol­lars in future rev­enues, which will inevitably force future city lead­ers to reduce and cut impor­tant city ser­vices to ward residents.

Currently, there is an unfor­tu­nate dis­con­nect between Alderman Levar and the cit­i­zens whom he rep­re­sents. Having been a career politi­cian for more than twenty years, he has sim­ply lost touch with the needs of his con­stituents. He has allowed our police resources to dwin­dle as street gangs grad­u­ally seek to take con­trol of our neigh­bor­hoods and parks.

Like you, I am a 45^th Ward res­i­dent who is tired of pay­ing ridicu­lously high taxes for poor city ser­vices. For far too long city gov­ern­ment has served itself rather than the inter­ests of its cit­i­zens. With your sup­port, we can change this by allow­ing me to be your voice for our ward.