Candidates for Dane County executive will speak with the community to answer their questions on their campaign platforms and push the importance of the election at a forum tonight at 5 p.m. organized by Centro Hispano to reach Madison’s Latino population and answer their questions. This year’s county executive election is slated to be extremely competitive with four people running after Dane County Executive Joe Parisi retired after 13 years in the position.
Candidates for the position include Dana Pellebon, Wes Sparkman, Melissa Agard and Regina Vivader. It the forum will be moderated by La Movida Radio’s Lupita Montoto with Spanish translation.
The Dane County Executive position has large oversight into residents’ lives, something Pellebon aims to educate attendees on.
“I want people to show up to find out what the County Executive does, because that’s actually one of the biggest points of confusion. Where does the county executive’s powers lie? How do they interact with the county,” Pellebon said. “There are so many things that the county executive has purview over that people just don’t understand.”
Largely the position of county executive oversees budgetary and strategic priorities for the county and agencies. The county executive has a large place in day-to-day lives of everyone in Dane County — regardless of if they realize it.
Agencies like Health and Human Services or the sheriff’s office, along with the lakes around Madison, streets, the bus, zoo, the justice system and many others, are all impacted by the county executive.
“The money is important, because an agency cannot do things that affect residents unless they have the funds to do so,” Pellebon said. “If we are not giving proper attention to our fiscal management of those spaces, that could have a detrimental effect.”
The Community Conversation will be held tonight starting at 5 p.m. at Centro Hispano’s new building at 2403 Cypress Way. No registration is required to attend. Food will be provided.
