Published: February 27, 2008 11:18 am      

Candidates speak at last GOP club forum

A meeting Monday night concluded a series of public candidate forums.

At Monday’s meeting of the Cooke County Republican Eagles Club at the Gainesville Chamber of Commerce building, two sets of candidates took questions and answered them — incumbent Tanya Davis and challenger Frieda Fiske seeking the Republican nomination for County Attorney, and incumbent Gary Hollowell and challenger Wayne Dodson seeking Precinct 1 Commissioner.

Each candidate has no Democratic Party opponent, meaning the winners of the March 4 primary are unchallenged in the General Election in November.

A prior forum held Jan. 28 featured GOP candidates for: Sheriff, incumbent Mike Compton and challenger Ken Fogus; District Judge, incumbent Janelle Haverkamp and Martin Peterson; and District Attorney, incumbent Cindy Stormer and challengers Janice Warder and Chris Fostel.

County Attorney

The first question concerned the role of the county attorney.

The County Attorney’s office, Davis said, handles many varying aspects of law. Davis and two assistant county attorneys handle misdemeanors, juvenile cases (including truancy or aggravated sexual assault), mental commitments, Justice of the Peace court cases and they advise the Commissioners Court and county department heads on legal matters concerning the county.

According to information from the Texas Association of Counties, the office of County Attorney is similar in many respects to a district attorney in prosecuting criminal cases, and their specific duties vary from county to county.

The Cooke County office, Davis said, is a productive one, garnering $3.6 million in county revenue and $1.9 million in restitution for victims from 12-13,000 cases.

In her response, Fiske expressed concern with the status quo and that things can run more smoothly to process the large caseload.

“I think that part of the responsibility is to always be on the lookout for new ways of doing things that would make things work more efficiently but would help get the work done, or get the work done better,” she said. “There are always new methods, and new technology, there are people that you can talk with ... there’s a tendency to start doing something a certain way simply because that’s the way you’ve always done it. And you’ve got to keep yourself from falling into a rut.”

Davis said the role of the County Attorney is “to seek justice.”

“The role is not to get convictions, the role is not to operate within a budget. But this office has done both since I’ve been County Attorney,” she said.

There was a backlog of about 2,500 to 2,600 cases when Davis took office, she said, and 1,100 is the backlog at this point, due mostly to people who still have warrants out for their arrest.

“So those are people we cannot deal with. I think the load is manageable now for three attorneys,” she said.

As far as innovation, Davis said she and her staff attended Texas District and County Attorneys Association seminars, some of which are free of charge to the county.

Another question concerned plans for the candidate’s term, if elected.

Davis said not much would need to be changed, other than taking blood draws from DWI defendants per a recent legislative change allowing that for evidence.

Disposes of 100 cases per month. Goal is to continue to prosecute cases, she said.

“Unfortunately, there is no shortage of people out there who are willing to commit criminal acts,” she said.

Fiske said she would like to apply business training and “streamline the process.”

“I would like to see to it that there is a greater percentage of collections on restitutions, or any kind of losses — if someone is injured, has property damaged ...” Fiske said.

Precinct 1 Commissioner

In the first question, which asked each candidate to describe their view of the role of County Commissioner, Hollowell, though he said there is more to being a Commissioner than maintaining roads, said his precinct is responsible for keeping up 101 roads over 180 miles. He said in addition to road maintenance, he voted with his fellow Commissioners to work with the state of Texas to refurbish the exterior of the Courthouse, oppose the Trans-Texas Corridor, add two Sheriff’s patrol deputies and lower the county tax rate.

Hollowell responded that he has limited resources with which to maintain the roads. He said he has seven employees to maintain those 180 miles of road and 25 percent of the road and bridge budget.

“And not all of that went to roads,” he said.

Dodson, in his answer, said with his experience as a manager with Levi Strauss Co. and creating 10,000 jobs, as the director of a municipal water utility, and as a bank director in Richardson, he could manage the road maintenance duties more efficiently.

He said the county has about 38,000 residents and is growing.

“What are we going to do to help our youth and help out transportation?” he said. “There have been people saying that I’m part of the Trans-Texas Corridor. No, I said we ought to be part of the planning.”

He said the Trans-Texas Corridor may take up to 50 years to be realized but Loop 9, which he said may connect near Sanger closest to Cooke County, may be built in the near future.

Dodson advocated using a portion of county funds and resources to help establish parks.

“They give nothing to the city here for sports. What will we do for the fairgrounds up here?” he said. “If we don’t start planning for our youth and how we’re gonna deal with this in the future, then we’re just a-way behind.”

Dodson said Precinct 1 has about seven road graders and seven employees.

“If I had that kind of business, I’m telling you right now, I’d be a lot wealthier than I am today,” he said. “You talk about efficiency? I don’t know about you people, but I dive my roads and I see water standing in the roads and there’s a ditch off down there ... I see them (Precinct 1 workers) out here clearing out fence rows, when I see bus routes that have 18 foot between (the road) and a cliff.”

Hollowell continued with a description of what the County Commissioners Court does — “we fund your law enforcement, we fund your ambulance service, we set your tax rates, we review and approve budgets for all (county) elected officials.”

“But bottom line is my concern is how to serve the people of Precinct 1. And that’s not defined anywhere with any job description,” he said. “It would be nice to focus on the roads and have unlimited funds to make that happen. But I will tell you that we maintained 180 miles of road last year with seven people. We spent less than $900,000. Over half of that was on salaries.”

He said he receives many requests from his constituents to remove limbs, pick up trash, unclog culverts, etc.

“There’s a huge laundry list. You can’t put it in just a few words,” he said.

A second question asked if the candidate felt that the current system of dividing road and bridge taxes among the four Commissioners precincts is fair.

Hollowell said Precinct 1 draws in 19 percent of the revenue. He said if the money were divided evenly (25 percent for each Precinct), Precinct 1 would take a $63,000 hit.

“... We’re dead last in revenues,” he said.

Hollowell said the wind generators and Barnett Shale revenue will increase tax revenue on the west side of the county.

“As to whether we get enough money, sometimes that’s contingent upon the weather. My opponent seems to be upset because I have $553,000 ... well, about $200,000 is because we couldn’t chip and seal the roads because of the 2007 flood.”

Hollowell said Dodson criticized the $553,000, calling it a surplus that should be spent on additional maintenance projects. Hollowell said that’s what he has to work with in addition to future revenue to chip and seal roads and make future, permanent improvements.

“Is there enough money? There’s never enough money. But at this time, I choose not to put the burden on the taxpayers,” Hollowell said.

Dodson said about 75 percent of the county population lives on the eastern side of I-35. But they get 50 percent of the road money.

“The taxpayers who pay the taxes should get the benefit,” he said.

Dodson said on Jan. 15 Hollowell had $669,000 in the Precinct 1 fund according to County Treasurer’s Office figures.

Dodson returned to the subject of roads.

“I want to tell you right now — they wait until it rains to grade your road,” he said, complaining of misplaced ditches, “wind rows” on the side of the roads which trap runoff water.

“The first thing we will do is retrain those road grader guys,” he said.

Dodson said about $637,000 of the funds are drawing interest in the Precinct 1.

“You know why they don’t want me in this courthouse up here? I’ll tell you why. I know how to ask for the information, I know how to get the answers, I’m a business man, and we should run it like a business.”

Dodson made reference to a Collin County dust control method using an asphalt mixture.

Rust asked each candidate to answer questions directly before proceeding to the third question, which pertained to whether it would be feasible to have a central road and bridge department ran by a road engineer in Cooke County.

Dodson said the county is not big enough for a central engineer, but he said that a modified program where Commissioners could share equipment might be feasible.

“If you ran your business like that, you’d be broke,” Dodson said, of the current method of each Precinct having a complete set of road maintenance equipment.

He added each Precinct has 21 pieces of equipment, on average, at his county barn.

Hollowell said he does not advocate a centralized “unit road system” at this time, and since salaries are the largest expense, it would not be economical to hire an engineer at the going rate.

“Could you imagine hauling a road grader from Rosston to Dexter?” Hollowell said. “It just does not make any sense, folks.”

He added: “... And one man can come in and fix everything that’s been wrong for 20 years? No, I’m not for a unit road system.”

A fourth question concerned how a Commissioner may affect economic development.

Hollowell said if he were better at economic development he might be seeking a higher office.

Dodson said there is much untapped talent in the county, including former heads of major corporations, and said that experience can benefit the county government as well as guide development.

Rust said the next meeting of the Republican Eagles Club is scheduled for 7 p.m. March 31 at Muenster State Bank in Gainesville, located on W. U.S. Highway 82, to discuss the outcome of the March 4 election.

Reporter Andy Hogue may be contacted at andyhoguegdr@ntin.net.