Progress Through Fairness and Efficiency

When Helen Shiller first ran for Alderman, city services and infrastructure improvements were political carrots withheld from certain wards. The 46th Ward was one of those wards that did not receive its fair share. That soon changed.

Helen Shiller demanded and has continued to demand that city service money be spent fairly amongst the wards. In her first four years in office, Shiller dramatically increased the amount of city money being spent in the 46th Ward.

Shiller also brought a common-sense procedure to infrastructure projects that is now emulated city-wide. In the early 1990s, when a massive sewer project was about to begin, Shiller refused to let the city tear up the street until every city department and every private utility or entity that might need underground access was brought to the table in order to insure that all maintenance and repair would be done at the same time. This efficient procedure of communicating across departments and private entities was not the norm until Shiller took leadership.