Stephen ‘Steve’ De La Rosa: 2025 candidate for Villa Park village board

Bio

Office Sought: Villa Park village board (Vote for 3)

City: Villa Park

Age: 72

Occupation: Retired maintenance manager

Previous offices held: Library board trustee two terms

What is the most serious issue your community will face in the coming years and how should the village board respond to it?

Fostering the growth of our retail community with increased development of affordable, accessible and supportive housing while maintaining our village infrastructure’s ability to support this expansion across our scattered retail areas. Our board will need to act creatively to make sure our residents are not paying out of their own pockets for what the village should pay for to maintain the village water distribution system.

How would you describe the state of your community's finances? What should be the top priorities for spending during the next few years? Are there areas of spending that need to be curtailed?

Our village switched over to new financial management software in October of 2024. Villa Park residents have not received updates to what is happening financially in our village since this update. Members of the present board have been asking for a regular top line report of our village’s finances on a monthly basis.

I am looking forward to our village staff working out the bugs from the new system so all residents can see monthly updates along with the new board at scheduled board meetings and on the televised YouTube service.

What do you see as the most important infrastructure project the community must address? Why and how should it be paid for? Conversely, during these uncertain economic times, what project(s) can be put on the back burner?

Our village received notice from the Environmental Protection Agency of completion of the final lead and copper rule improvements in October of 2024. This rule improvement stipulates municipalities have a 10-year time limit to act to improve the water delivery piping to residential and commercial properties in Villa Park.

Our Villa Park Public Works department director offered up three different options for the present board to consider at a committee of the whole meeting on Monday, March 10, 2025. All of these solutions offered up came with a cost to our village residents.

I oppose asking our residents to pay from their own pockets for a water delivery link the village will use to charge the homeowner for their monthly water fee. The village is in the business of water delivery and should be the ones paying for a safe distribution system.

Describe your experience working in a group setting to determine policy. What is your style in such a setting to reach an agreement and manage local government? Explain how you think that will be effective in producing effective actions and decisions with your village board.

I have over 30 years’ experience working with corporate management groups to formulate action plans for daily activities and capital projects. Having served two elected terms on the Villa Park Library Board provided me additional experience to work creatively to resolve complex issues when the library renovation and expansion project began.

During the course of two terms on the library I served on its policy committee meeting regularly to update and define our current library polices which were then recommended to the entire board to vote on.

Our board conferred regularly to learn of and create action plans to keep the library in service during the renovations so as not to interrupt the delivery of everyday library services and our staff employed during this rebuilding period. Communication and a commitment to our patrons at the library provided for a united library board response to this task.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

I have a passion for civic participation that began with organizing for the 18-year-old vote in Illinois when I was in high school. I was a near 20-year board member of the Citizens Advocacy Center in Elmhurst whose motto was building democracy for the 21st century.

An example of my personal commitment to civic engagement and why this makes me the best candidate for the trustee position was the construction of a pedestrian overpass bridge in Wheaton where a child was killed taking a shortcut across tracks to her middle school.

I participated with other families in our neighborhood to create the support needed to gain seven different government entities to come together to build this bridge creating a safe pathway to school for the children of the neighborhood.

I have the civic tools, knowledge, and desire to be a resource for our community.

What’s one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?

We need to build up Villa Park for the next 100 years so that our children will know we provided them with the best possible tools in their community to provide for a safe future.