City Cast Madison invited all qualified Madison Common Council candidates to complete a short questionnaire to help voters learn more about the people running to represent them in city government. All candidates were sent the same questions, and as you'll see, some questions are more policy-oriented and some are a little more fun!
The unedited responses for District 3 candidate Derek Field are below.
Read the rest of the questionnaire responses here.
1. What is the single most pressing issue facing Madison?
The City Budget is the most pressing issue. State law places significant restrictions on local government revenue in Wisconsin, prevents some revenue sources available in other states, and requires local government spending in several forms. That doesn't leave us much to work with - the main source of revenue isn't even permitted to keep up with inflation. We NEED to aggressively make the case to State lawmakers for Madison's role in driving the state's economy to get a better deal than the current shared revenue deal, which provides Madison the lowest per-capita funding in the state. They only pay back 38% of the cost of providing mandatory services to state property. We have to fix this.
2. What's the most important issue facing your district and how will you go about addressing it?
I think that gun violence prevention is a critical public safety strategy and has been a significant need in my district. During my first term as alder, four young people lost their lives to gun violence in my district. I see violence prevention holistically, meaning addressing the community factors that lead to conflict and violence. That includes socioemotional learning for children in schools, building trust and relationships between the public and law enforcement, preventing the kind of over-policing of marginalized groups that erodes this community trust, activating public spaces where violence has been an issue, and meeting families basic needs like affordable housing, food, reliable transportation options, and economic opportunity. Further, I'm recognized by Moms Demand Action as a Gun Sense candidate this spring because I support common-sense restrictions on the availability of firearms. I want to keep working with East District MPD and the Violence Prevention Unit in Public Health to understand and meet these needs of families in my district who live at two particular properties that have seen patterns of gun violence in my first term.
3. What sets you apart from your competitor or, if running uncontested, what would you like voters to know about you?
I would like voters to know that I work hard for them to make sure issues in our district are prioritized. I champion causes and programs that I think are important for us and I vote "no" on projects or budget amendments where I can't justify the cost/benefit to District 3 residents. I've built relationships with D3 neighborhood leaders to stay on top of what's important. To summarize, I'm doing the job how I will want to see a future District 3 alder do the job once it's no longer me.
4. Did you support the $22 million property tax referendum? Why or why not?
I did. The alternative was to begin making cuts to City services in the Operating Budget so that the City spends $6million less per year, repeated each year for the immediate future. The staff who provide our public services cost money and we can't print money. The first year of those cuts might have been more bearable but without new funding from the referendum, the cuts in following years would likely have affected programs that are very important to my district: street maintenance, youth outreach officers and community policing officers, CARES program teams, the list goes on. Public Health & Safety agencies, which I think are critical, account for nearly half of the Operating Budget. We need a state policy fix for this problem and we need to work hard to make our case to legislators that lowest-in-the-state per-capita funding and 38% state reimbursement for mandatory local services we provide to state property are inadequate and unfair.
5. What should Madison look for in its next police chief?
I think the next Chief must be committed to using data rather than perceptions to allocate department resources. I hope to see the continuation of, or something similar to, Chief Barnes' stratified policing model that used crime data to focus officers' attention and time at varying levels based on the volume and severity of crime, rather than spending too much time in parts of the City that didn't benefit from that presence. I also hope to see a commitment to community relationship-building, including with neighborhood leaders, community partners involved in violence prevention, and Violence Prevention Unit staff.
6. What's something the city currently isn't doing, but could do to help ease our housing crisis?
I think the City has made a lot of progress on this in recent years, but additional steps the City should take include: making it easier for empty-nesters converting part of their house to a separate housing unit (which could provide income options for fixed-income senior homeowners), making the post-approval permitting process easier and more predictable for housing developers, and using City resources to develop condominiums in neighborhoods that are getting dense with mostly rental housing (I think that ownership options are really important for a "complete neighborhood").
7. What's something you wish more residents knew about Common Council/city government?
I wish more residents knew how lucky we are to have so much dedication and talent in our City workforce. Living in Madison, it's really easy to take for granted the excellent level of service we can expect from City agencies. That's despite the fact that our agencies are often dealing with multiple vacancies or solving complex and frustrating problems under significant budgetary or legal constraints.
8. What's one thing you wish you could change about Madison?
I wish we could house everybody, end homelessness, and connect everybody with the services and opportunities they need in order to keep their housing.
9. What’s your favorite meal in Madison?
This is a hard question because I don't have just one favorite - rather, I love trying meals at brand-new restaurants we see opening all the time and adding to our community's impressive restaurant scene!
10. Anything else you'd like to add?
Thank you for taking time to learn about candidates!
