Interview with a candidate: Nancy Turner

Nancy Turner is running for her first elected position, Naperville’s city council. She is involved in community volunteer work at organizations like Loaves and Fishes and as a child advocate in Dupage.

Turner has been partially retired for the past few years but spent 34 years as a public school teacher. She says that her time teaching meant that she had to learn to work with a wide variety of people from students to parents to administrators and believes she can bring “a collaborative work experience,” to the city council. She explains that the city council, “is a team … and everyone has to work together to make the best decisions for Naperville.” She also believes the fact that she doesn’t have any “business ties,” will allow her to remain unbiased when making decisions.

She hopes to help Naperville, “commit to moving towards being more sustainable with renewable energy and green building standards.” She believes the city should “encourage” private developers to apply green standards to their projects as well. Turner also says she hopes to see the city adopt “more completely policies of inclusion.” She explains that, “the government is starting to resemble more the city of Naperville,” and she would like to see that expanded.

She says the most important part of being a city council member is “being a team player,” and “listening to everyone, not just on the council.” She says the city has, “wonderful staff,” and says that they “run the city on a day to day basis.” She expresses her belief that the council should be attuned to the opinions of both the other government workers and the residents of the city.

Turner says that, if voters wish to get contact with her, they can go to her campaign website, omearaturnernaperville.com.

Note: Turner shares campaign resources and the website with another candidate for city council, Barbara O’Meara, to mitigate both costs and environmental impacts. They are, however, separate candidates.