Rocky James

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[I am Rocky James; my parents are Doris James and the late John E. James. My wife is Martha Crabb James, daughter of Jerry and Carol Crabb. I am a member of Calvary Baptist Church of Eldorado.

I am employed with the Department of Juvenile Justice at the Illinois Youth Center-Harrisburg. I have been employed at IYC for over 26 years and currently hold the title of juvenile justice supervisor.

I have held many union positions during my career, including president of AFSCME Local No. 779 and am currently the union steward for the facility supervisors.

I am a graduate of Eldorado High School as well as a graduate of Southeastern Illinois College. I have been very active in city and county government over the last 18 years. I served 10 years on the County Board prior to entering the city of Eldorado race for commissioner in 2003.

I have since served the last eight years working for the citizens of Eldorado, currently holding the office of mayor.

I am now seeking re-election as mayor in hopes of leading the city of Eldorado for another four years.

I feel my experience is a big plus for my community as I know what it takes to continue moving Eldorado forward in such tough economic times.

I have been very fortunate to work with such a great council over the last four years as we have managed to keep Eldorado financially sound during our years of serving the citizens of Eldorado.

I pledge that if re-elected as mayor, I will continue to work hard to make Eldorado a town we can all be proud to live in.

2. As mayor, I will continue to be aggressive in the removal of old, run-down properties. I feel it is very important to keep the city free of such run-down properties for many reasons, such as safety of citizens, property values of neighbors, opportunity to entice others to move into Eldorado and finally, the possibility of luring businesses to Eldorado.

It is very important for our city to be clean and free of eyesores, as people do remember such cities. I have personally had many calls regarding how we manage to continue our cleaning up of such properties as many communities are not as successful when dealing with the issues.

3. I will continue to follow the same practice of managing money for the citizens of Eldorado as the council and I have followed over the last eight years.

I cannot say enough about the focus of our council when it comes to finances as they deserve a lot of credit for keeping our city financially sound. It has been tough, but we have managed to do a lot of updating or our infrastructure over the last eight years and still remain in a good financial state. It is tough to keep finances in good standing in such rough economic times, but our council and I are very dedicated to keeping the city of Eldorado in good shape.

4. When the final flood maps are printed, the council will have to decide whether to become a participant in the National Flood Insurance Program regarding the properties listed in the flood plain.

Currently, citizens cannot purchase flood insurance because we are not a participant in the NFIP.

It is my understanding that if the city chooses not to be a participant in the program, then people wanting to build or sell within the flood plain may not be allowed a chance for loans from a lending institution without being able to purchase flood insurance. It is also my understanding that this could possibly risk us losing grant opportunities. Therefore, I feel big government gives us little choice but to join the program.