Jennifer Bruzan Taylor is running for City Council in the 2025 Naperville Consolidated Election.
Jennifer Bruzan Taylor was a Cook County prosecutor and taught Constitutional Law at North Central College
I currently am a Naperville City Councilwoman who was elected to my first term in 2021. I grew up in south Naperville where I watched south Naperville grow from gravel roads to being completely built up today. I also am part of the first graduating class from Neuqua Valley High School. Until recently, my parents lived in the house I grew up in. I now reside in north Naperville with my husband Matt, and our young children Nolan, Victoria, and Eton, and our rescued pets Mama Cat, Kitten, and Tiny Tim. As such, I am the only Councilperson connected to both north and south Naperville, and so I intimately understand the pluses and challenges of each part.
I spent most of my career in public service, first as a Cook County prosecutor and now in my first term as a Naperville City Councilwoman. I also taught Constitutional Law at North Central College. My background instilled in me a deep respect for and understanding of the proper role of government. I earned a BA from Vanderbilt University and a JD from Boston College Law School.
My family and I enjoy taking walks, reading, playing games, cuddling, and eating ice cream all year round. We are also known for pop up random dancing.
Taylor is running for City Council because she wants to maintain a vibrant, sustainable local economy
I am running for re-election because I understand what makes Naperville special. People move to Naperville for our great public schools, parks, city amenities, and most importantly – safe neighborhoods. These conditions only continue to exist if we maintain a vibrant, sustainable local economy. We need serious people who are fiscally responsible to the tax payer, and can make smart developmental decisions so that we continue to secure our future as one of the best places in the county to live, best place to raise a family, and safest City in America. In my first term, I proved that I rise above partisan politics and keep my focus on City business only. I will not be swayed by outside voices with agendas that do not benefit Naperville. I love this City and want to build on these above stated successes started by my predecessors, successes I nurtured the past 3 years, and will continue to work to grow in my next term.
Taylor’s top priorities are public safety, economic development, and Naperville’s energy future
Public safety is my number one job as a Councilwoman, and public safety goes beyond our police and fire departments. It also means investing in our infrastructure, especially our water utility infrastructure. Our water utility infrastructure is facing the end of its useful life, which means the City needs to make a significant monetary investment in this infrastructure over the next five years. If we delay, we face the potential of unsafe drinking water and sewer backups in basements. When re-elected, I will continue to focus on making these necessary improvements before it is too late. Already, in the 2025 budget, I voted to balance the cost between both our current and future ratepayers since both will enjoy the benefits of these improvements.
As a City we need to continue to focus on economic development, which means supporting our business community and reasonable development, so that we can maintain a high level of City services at one of the lowest tax rates in the area. Since I was elected in 2021, the City has continually lowered the tax rate so that for the 2025 budget we passed the lowest tax rate since 1968. The City can do this because it attracts good development and businesses that allows the City to receive more revenue from food, sales, and beverage taxes than we do from property taxes. It is estimated that about half of these dollars comes from visitors. The issue we face for 2026 is the State taking away the grocery tax we collect, which will cause an approximate $6M revenue hole for the City. There is no silver bullet to solve that shortfall, and most likely will take several solutions to fill this gap.
The City is now in the beginning stages of determining how it will procure its energy once our contract with the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency (IMEA) ends in 2035. The City made a commitment to improve its sustainability efforts in many ways, one of which is lowering its reliance on coal. As the City Council liaison to the Naperville Environmental Sustainability Task Force (NEST), I understand the need to find the appropriate balance between significantly lowering our greenhouse gas output without losing the reliability of service and low rates that Naperville prides itself on. I pushed for the City to hire a energy consultant who will look at all the various ways Naperville can procure its energy in the future and the pros and cons of each possibility. I advocated for transparency every step of the way in this process, which includes a workshop open to the public once the consultant is ready to present options. I will push for competitive bidding for whichever option is ultimately chosen. Finally, this process will be done on the City’s timeline, not any timeline created by IMEA or others.
A note from NCTV17
The written content above was submitted by the candidate. The video interview was produced by NCTV17 as part of the Meet the Candidates series. All candidates running for the 2025 Naperville Consolidated Election were interviewed using the same question format.
The placement of this interview on our website does not represent an endorsement of the candidate.
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