Tom Weisner

Tom Weisner is a Senior Fellow with the Metropolitan Planning Council. Tom works with MPC to build momentum for water resource planning and management in northeastern Illinois to ensure our region continues to have sustainable water supplies. His leadership elevates the need for continued vigilance and brings more partners to the table on solving today’s pressing drinking water challenges.

Previous to his time at MPC, Tom served as mayor of Aurora, Illinois’ second-largest municipality, from 2005-2016. Among his many accomplishments, Tom’s progressive agenda for Aurora emphasized downtown riverfront renewal, public safety and telecommunications, water, sewer and road infrastructure improvements. Tom cleaned up a thirty-acre former industrial brownfield site on the east bank of the Fox River and built RiverEdge Park, a riverfront music and entertainment venue that draws 100,000 visitors annually. He pioneered the use of green infrastructure, replacing traditional storm sewers with more than 130 Rain Gardens. Utilizing a municipally-owned, 62-mile fiber optic ring, Tom helped Aurora install a city-wide centralized Traffic Signal Management System that synchronizes traffic signals, reduces idle times and unwanted emissions, improving air quality for the community and its neighbors.

Tom is the founding Chairman of the Northwest Water Planning Alliance and has served as the Chairman of the Chicago Metropolitan Mayors Caucus, the Kane-Kendall representative to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), a member on the Illinois Tollway Board under Governor Quinn, and as an Executive Board member of the Illinois Municipal League.

Prior to joining Aurora City staff in 1986, Tom and his wife, Marilyn, served in the Peace Corps, assisting Melanesian rainforest dwellers in the highlands of Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands.