Proud to Earn the Endorsement of the Tri-City Building & Construction Trades Council

I am proud to announce that I have earned the endorsement of the Tri-City Building & Construction Trades Council, affiliated with the AFL-CIO, representing union workers across Rock Island County and the greater Quad Cities region.

The Tri-City Building & Construction Trades Council isn't just a name on a list — they are the unified voice of the skilled tradespeople who build this community. Electricians, pipefitters, roofers, carpenters, ironworkers, sheet metal workers, operating engineers — these are the men and women who show up every day and build the roads, the buildings, and the infrastructure that make Rock Island County function. Their work matters. Their livelihoods matter. And their endorsement means the world to me.

I didn't earn this endorsement by making promises. I earned it with a record.

As a Village Trustee in Coal Valley, I worked alongside III FFC (Illinois-Indiana-Iowa Foundation for Fair Contracting) to rewrite our Procurement Ordinance to include both a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) and a Responsible Bidder Ordinance (RBO) — with a $250,000 trigger deliberately set low to protect real municipal projects. I made the calls, the trades showed up, and we got it passed together. That's not a vote. That's work.

And the work doesn't stop there. I have filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Illinois EPA to gather critical data on Rock Island County's landfills, and I have already applied for U.S. Department of Energy technical assistance to develop a phased Waste-to-Energy facility for this county. This project will carry a PLA/RBO as a non-negotiable condition from day one. I am not waiting to be elected to start doing this work. I'm already doing it.

To Brian Atkins, Don Taets, and every member of the Tri-City Building & Construction Trades Council — thank you. I will not let you down. When I am on the Rock Island County Board, you will have a seat at the table — not because I promised it, but because I've already shown up.