Home municipality
Sun Prairie
Home ZIP code
53590
The city of Sun Prairie has done quite a bit with regard to affordable housing and what needs to be done now is become extremely attractive to home builders. Sun Prairie needs single family homes, duplexes, condos, and townhomes that can be purchased, more than anything; and once the market has more than enough of them, the price comes down for all buyers because scarcity is diminished.
Safety has become a larger concern recently and the Police Department is asking for the resources to hire more officers in order to keep up. It is important that the officers and the Chief of Police are able to effectively patrol the community and keep it safe; so the desire for growth needs to be weighed against the need for a safe community which benefits all residents.
My constituents have to contend with a large tax bill that the City only ever increases. No one's income is rising at the same rate taxes are and we do not want to lose our residents because they are "taxed out". The constituents are screaming for fiscal responsibility and for the purse strings to be tightened - that is what I want to help do.
I worked as a paralegal in estate and business law for several years, giving me an insiders view and appreciation of law. I earned my Bachelors degree in Political Science from ASU shortly after the purchase of a small business. I have two favorite words "efficient" and "perfect", in that order. The city government could use more of each. We need more efficiency for less money - things have to be streamlined & we can't be perfect, but we should be trying hard everyday to make sure we are doing our best for our districts and this city as a whole.
Home municipality
City of Sun Prairie
Home ZIP code
53590
Preferred pronouns
Santiago Rosas
The housing market, interest rate, it's quite challenging to buy a home throughout Dane County. Sun Prairie is in need of 544 housing. In 2024, the city approved a 5.3 million dollar for housing initiatives, via TIF districts. These funds will be directed to loans for housing, some will be go to agencies that assist residents like: Tenant Resource Center, The Salvation Army of Dane County, Occupy Madison, Inc., and Housing Initiative, etc. I was a bit skeptical at first about the amount allocated, but learned that these type of programs do in fact
fact help our residents to obtain housing.
Development in any municipality is inevitable, what alders need to question is how much traffic are we inviting from the development that brings in to the existing neighborhood? Depending on the type of development does this invite added problems, like crime? I always believe that new development should maintain it's natural areas, trees, ponds, and per city ordinance, parks. These are questions that alders should be asking and assured the residents that approving a project not change the aesthetics of the adjacent neighborhood nor diminish the natural habitat.
Taxes increases, speeding in our local streets, over development of apartments and lack of communication to our residents. For the last several years, I have been attempting to express our lack of communicate with our residents. The other issue is the council have been over spending, even as we approach a referendum. We started working towards becoming more transparent, but personally, I still believe it will not reach or communicate certain demographics, like our seniors. Several years back, there were a lot of apartments built and my constituents are saying, enough is enough.
I am currently a business owner, have a Associate degree in Finance, a Bachelor degree in Business Admin. Was a Big Brother for over 35 years, Co-founder of the 1st. Latino Chamber of Commerce, created the 1st. bi-lingual radio program via WHA. I currently have 16 years experience in being an alder, 14 years in Madison and 2 years in Sun Prairie. I am quite familiar in how city government functions. I have served in a number of city committees, commissions and boards. Public Safety Review Board, Plan Commission, Transportation commission, Park Commission, Affirmative Action Committee, Equal Opportunity Committee, Alcohol License Review Board, Finance Committee, and a number of Ad-Hoc committees.
