A Republican Candidates Forum ahead of the March 3 Primary, organized by the Brown County Republican Party, took place Thursday evening at Victory Life Church. The nearly three-hour event featured introductory and closing comments, along with question-and-answer sessions, with candidates for Brown County Judge, Brown County Treasurer, Brown County Clerk County Commissioner in Precincts 2 and 4, Justice of the Peace in Precinct 4, and Republican Party Chair.
The following are the excerpts from the questions answered by County Commissioner Precinct 4 candidates Doug Jester, Brandon Byars and Larry Traweek
Doug Jester
What are the other responsibilities of a county commissioner aside from roads and bridges and what qualifies you to answer those needs?
The commissioners are responsible for the every day workings of the county. They make the decisions based on the four commissioners and a judge. Personnel hirings and firings, whatever it may be, the budgets and all those things. They set the tax rate, they set the priorities and affect everything from the emergency service to facilities and capital projects. My background is the military where planning, accountability and teamwork are not optional, they’re essential. I worked in roles where lives and personnel were put in danger’s way every single day, so I understand what it takes to drive the community and what type of sacrifice you have to give to the community. I understand roads and bridges infrastructure from the bottom to the top, and what it takes to do those jobs. But it’s not just roads, it’s bar ditches. If you don’t care of your bar ditches your roads get washed out. Everything relates to the bottom of the infrastructure, but one commissioner doesn’t do it, it’s a collaboration with the other three and the judge to make everything work.
As a county commissioner, how does your role affect the other offices in the courthouse?
Your position as a county commissioner affects every office because you set the budget, you approve personnel, you approve buying and selling equipment that may be outdated. Being transparent in talking to each office, you can work with these people and determine what needs to be done. You want to be good stewards of the tax payers’ money. Make good, common sense decisions, work as a collaborative effort with the other precincts commissioners, and have good judgment and stewardship of the county’s money.
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Brandon Byars
What are the other responsibilities of a county commissioner aside from roads and bridges and what qualifies you to answer those needs?
Budget is a big deal. To do the road and bridge stuff or to do anything in the county you’ve got to have money. That money has to come from somewhere and I’m not really for raising taxes. There’s several different kids of grants that counties can get, one’s a formula grant, one’s a community development block grant, and others are competitive grants. I’m not saying it hasn’t been done right, but if you look it up Brown County has never received a community development block grant and they’ve never received a competitive grant. All the grants that Brown County has gotten are grants from the federal government that are formula grants that are based on population. All that is good money and helps to keep taxes down, but I think we need to focus more on going after that money that we’re not getting. It would help pay for this other stuff when people ask where are we going to get the money to do this. In addition to a little house keeping as far as reining in costs on things that the county buys. I’ve looked and looked and can’t find any contracts we have with anybody that repairs or equipment or keeps rates down. We take money from there, save money everywhere, the budget will work better if we can stop the bleeding.
As a county commissioner, how does your role affect the other offices in the courthouse?
The county commissioners role in the courthouse is going to affect everybody because they set the budge. At the same time, if they’re setting the budget and different departments are coming in and asking for money and wanting to know if they can pay this or pay that, the commissioners have to pay those bills. The biggest problem I see with it is when they come in and ask for money there’s never see any consultants come in to help people make decisions. Yes those guys cost money, but I think a consultant would be worth what’s paid to them. No one person knows it all, so we need to look at getting people in there that knows business to figure out ways to help save money so each department gets what they need, because if one department gets more than another, it just creates animosity.
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Larry Traweek
What are the other responsibilities of a county commissioner aside from roads and bridges and what qualifies you to answer those needs?
Being conservative helps qualify me. I run a lot of complicated equipment in the combine business and that’s what I’ve done all my life, and they keep getting more complicated as time goes along. You just have to learn as you go. Keeping the county infrastructure up is something we’ve got to do. I’ve got the best equipment in the county but it still breaks down. There’s a lot of challenges, but I’m just going to do the best I can to stay up with it and deal with it.
As a county commissioner, how does your role affect the other offices in the courthouse?
We OK every bill that’s written in the courthouse. For them to buy something we’ve got to OK it, or for us to buy something we’ve got to OK it, for each commissioner. The computer stuff we’re getting done now, everything goes through us, that’s the reason we need to be very conservative, but we have to listen. We know the basics, but when it gets down to the fine tuning of separate offices, we have to learn that and trust the people that have been voted in. It’s a big family and everything has to click, but you have to be conservative but also knowledgeable and listen.
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To watch the KOXE live stream of the forum in its entirety, click HERE.