Brown County Judge candidates Tom Munson and Patrick Howard held meet and greets with the public in the last week.
Both are running against incumbent Shane Britton, who has not scheduled any events, to BrownwoodNews.com’s knowledge, ahead of this Thursday’s forum for the March 3 primary candidates, which will be held at 6 p.m. at Victory Life Church.
Munson, at his gathering at the Brownwood Event Center this past Thursday, and Howard, prior to his speech at the Early Visitors and Event Center Monday night, both shared their reasoning for running for the county judge position, and their vision for Brown County if elected.
In response to why he sought the position of Brown County Judge, Munson said, “My decision to run for county judge is based on the fact that I believe I can do a great job. I care a lot about this county. I’m a licensed attorney, I can carry out all the responsibilities of the court as a court. Then I’ve got 30 years of business leadership experience that I believe I can apply in helping to run the county from an administrative standpoint. I care a lot about this county and I just want to give back. That’s why I’m running.”
As for why he opted to pursue the Brown County Judge position, Howard said, “Long ago I recognized problems in the County Judge’s office. I believe that the courthouse is represented by good, ethical people, but the County Judge has not been a problem for the last six months to two years, but for the last eight years. I was encouraged to run for County Judge by county leadership, I would not have run without their support. That being said, they all thought I was a good candidate because I have 20 years of experience in the courthouse working with them and 3,000 cases gave them trust that I can do a good job.”
Howard continued, “I believe the County Judge is very important for Brown County and I believe there are things that need to change. Dignity in the office needs to change immediately, the experience in the county office needs to change immediately. Brown County has missed grants, Brown County has been wasteful of money. I believe that fiscal responsibility and attention to detail needs to be brought back to the office. I believe I have the experience and the relationships to do both.”
Regarding his vision for Brown County if elected, Munson said, “Basically to start with is to move things along in the courthouse itself, both through the commissioners side from the administrative side and through the judicial side. A lot of stuff has gotten clogged up, we need to get things moving in time, we don’t want to miss deadlines, if we have grants we want to make sure we get them. It’s to get things flowing in a way that the county as a whole can serve the people of Brown County in the best manner possible. Right now that’s my vision, and I feel like we can get there pretty quick.”
Howard’s vision for the future of Brown County, if supported by the voters, is, “people want leadership with new ideas, with fresh ideas. The ideas that have brought us the status quo are not working, they want change. I’ve talked about ideas of improving the rodeo and fairgrounds. Generations gave it to us, and we gave it to the generations to come to fix that. I know it’s been talked about, but it hasn’t been tried. But it will be tried and we will be transparent. I also believe in efficiency and that we should cut the waste in government and turn that into priorities. I would rather that money be spent on law enforcement and state and county employees, and training for law enforcement. Money should be spent on roads and infrastructure. I also know if we would be more efficient in our paperwork we could save hundreds of thousands of dollars just getting people out of jail. I’m not talking about the violent offenders, I’m talking about the people that are only there because of efficiency.”
Early voting for the March 3 primary will take place Feb. 17-27 at the Brown County Elections Office.
The event will also be available to watch via live streaming video at koxe.com.