This is a Republican primary race. Do you promise, if elected, to abide by the RPT platform? And if not, please enumerate what problems you have.
I was a delegate to the Texas Republican State Convention in 2016, therefore I was in attendance at the convention and participated in its proceedings. I did so just as I have done many times in the past since I have been a delegate or alternate to nearly every state convention since 1984. Generally speaking from memory, I don't recall anything I had a particular problem with, so I would say I agree with the concepts but may not always agree with the style of convention approved language.
What is interesting to me about your question is, as you know, the party completely defines itself and its platform from scratch every two years through the convention process. You are in effect soliciting a pledge today, for an unspecified document to be created in the future.
It is possible, knowing how conventions work, that a plank could be approved that is in direct conflict with the laws of this state, and as such it would be impossible to abide by the plank and uphold my Oath of Office where I swore to uphold the laws of this State and the Constitution of the United States. After taking the time to go back and briefly skim the 2016 platform, there are places where it is suggested legislation should be ignored or refused.
Are we to become Antifa, choosing anarchy or the Obama Department of Justice picking and choosing which laws to enforce? Are we a nation of laws or not?
Not every office is in a position to enforce the platform. The officials in those positions to make changes in the law would be the Legislators, the Lt. Governor, the Governor and the Attorney General. Texas recently completed it's legislative session. If there was something that should have been done, they just had the opportunity to address it.
What are the three main reasons you are running for this office? Do you see any potential conflicts of interest?
Nothing qualifies the person more than the experience of doing a job first hand. I have been doing the job since I was first elected to this position in 1995. For 23 years, I have been making the daily decisions that maintain focus on the responsibilities and ministerial duties placed on this office.
Each year I have obtained at least 20 hours of continuing education related to the specific performance of my duties as County Clerk through the County and District Clerk's Association of Texas. This training has been provided with the assistance of the Texas Association of Counties and the V.G. Young Institute of County Government at Texas A&M University. I currently serve the CDCAT as a member of the education committee and in the past have served on the handbook and technology committees.
In response to Question 6, I will discuss some things that were formative experiences prior to taking office.
Please describe what you believe are the most significant issues in this race and why.
The most significant issue in this race is the experience to manage the increase in the number of filings and recordings in the office due to the continued growth in population. There has been an occupant in this office since the 1830's. For the most part, this county has had long periods of relative stability and slow growth. There have been a few exceptions, like the oil boom in the 1940's and a real estate boom in the 1970's. But the last 20 years or so, we have been in a period of continuous, unprecedented growth that has required a particular skill set to manage the growth in volume while curtailing corresponding growth in budget and personnel.
Is the board seat you seek to be elected to effectively fulfilling its role? How or how not?
I believe it is. The duties of the clerk's office are primarily ministerial. Ministerial duty refers to the official duty of a public officer wherein the officer has little room for the exercise of discretion, and the performance being required by direct and positive command of the law. Clerk's duties are derived from the Texas Constitution and the laws of this state. To that end, we are filing documents and maintaining them for public use. Whether it be for historical, business or transparency purposes, they are accessible and available to the public, and in most instances without making a trip to the office.
Please describe the best way for the average voter to determine which candidate for this office is best.
There may be two ways to approach this, but both require the voter to become an active participant by gathering and distilling as much information as possible.
Since there is an incumbent, one approach to decision making would be to treat this as a referendum election. Ask yourself if your personal experiences with the office have been positive and met your expectations. Look at the facts outlined in question 7 about my time in office and ask yourself if I have been responsible and efficient with the resources placed in my care to perform the duties of this office.
An alternate approach might be to evaluate the pros and cons against where the voter thinks the office is today versus where it needs to be in the next four years. So the question that needs to be answered is, which candidate is in the best position to get it there?
The reality is each voter will likely use a combination of the two approaches and not rely solely on one or the other. Keep in mind past performance is one of the best indicators of what to expect in the future.
What have you done to prepare for serving in this role?
Here I will focus on my education and previous business experience. I graduated from the University of Houston in 1979 with a Bachelor of Business Administration after graduating from Conroe High School in 1975. My degree is in Marketing, with a concentration in research and statistical analysis. In addition to my marketing coursework, I completed courses in engineering that classified me as a mid-term junior in engineering. I am a numbers person who uses math and analysis in constructive ways to assist in my daily decision making.
My father started an oil field tool rental business in the late 1960's. After college I worked for the company full time and learned many things from the oil field culture:
- work can be 24/7
- work continues until the job is done
- work may require wearing many hats simultaneously
- there is no room for excuses
- do what you say you will do
- time is money and neither can be ignored.
These concepts are evident in practices I continue to hold and bring to my work as County Clerk.
Understanding technology, including computer programming languages and data bases has been indispensable. At the University of Houston I used punch cards and coded in Fortran and Cobol. Then in my father's business, I wrote programs for bookkeeping, invoicing and data analysis for oil and gas production. Volunteering for the Montgomery County Republican Party, I developed software for voter history, call lists, walk lists and web based phone banks. For the Clerk's office, I wrote web based public record research applications that were used in production from the mid 2000's until just two years ago. All of these experiences have built a foundation of understanding and provide me a fluency in the language of Information Technology (IT). IT is highly technical in nature. I understand and can speak with county IT staff and third party vendors on a level that quickly explains what is needed and where we are trying to go. I am able to discern facts from fictions and guard against exaggerated claims from vendors.
As a side note, I recently completed 3 web delivered classes (2 via UT, 1 via MIT) on statistics and how to use R, a statistical analysis framework. I intend to use this knowledge for more in depth analysis of data available within the office.
What have you done, or will you do, to reduce the size of the government?
While I support the need to control the growth of government, as County Clerk, I can only guarantee efficiency within this office. I can continue to do what has worked so well in the past. There is a misperception that every single elected official is wasteful and eager to spend as much money as is possible each and every year. While it is true for some, I do not believe it applies to me and my spending record while in office. Long before there were tea party concerns, the County Clerk's office was quietly doing the right thing on its own. Every budget cycle we make an honest assessment of our needs. As I said in my budget presentation this year, my usual approach to a decision is to gather the data, do the math, then analyze the results. If you can't count it, you can't measure it. And if you can't measure it, you cannot manage it. We count everything we do, so we know where we are spending our resources. We track expenditures separate and apart from the county financial system to provide more clarity as to where and how money is spent.
Since I came into office in 1995, the population has more than doubled in this county. The number of filings, which is the real measure of our work, has grown by 50% since then. In the 403 budget line item the number of employees has changed from 35 in 1995 to 36.5 in our most recent budget. In the past we have had more employees when some of the filing volumes were higher, but when volumes dropped we made the appropriate adjustments on our own without being asked.
Something we did not mention during the budget hearings was the fact that the fees that we earn by providing services far exceeds our expenditures in the budget. To say it another way, no property tax money is required to support County Clerk budget line items 403 or 40311.
Who is endorsing you and what is their relationship to you?
I appreciate community support because I believe in public service. If your question is about an entity, I'm not aware of any at this time. Although I will tell you, in the past I don't go out of my way to solicit endorsements. My observation is they often occur only when deals have been struck and promises have been made.
What do you primarily rely on to help you make difficult decisions as it relates to public policy?
I first voted in 1976. I have been participating in republican party primaries and politics since 1980 in almost every role imaginable. I have observed the weak and the strong, those with well thought out arguments and those that flew by the seat of their pants. I rely on everything I have seen and learned, trying to apply it to the decision making process in a fair and impartial manner that focuses on the big picture.
Why are you running for this office and what 3 major goals do you want to be measured by if you are elected?
In 2018, I am running for this office for the same reasons as when I first successfully ran for this office in 1994 and the 5 subsequent election cycles since then. There are still tasks at hand for which I believe I possess the talents and skills necessary to complete them. I still have a vision of where I want to take the office. I believe I am still in the best position to be able to construct the roadmap of how to get there using my knowledge of the technologies available.
Since the Republic of Texas days in 1836, recordkeeping was essentially done the same way utilizing paper based systems. Things began to change in the late 60's and 70's with the early introduction of computers. It wasn't until the 80's and 90's that equipment was used on a more widespread basis, but even then hardware and software were still in their infancy. This technology shift has been transformational for clerks offices across Texas.
When I took office, computers were in use for document indexes, but I think it is fair to say the majority of the work was still paper based. Eventually the hardware, networks, storage and software matured to the point where serious work on expanding imaging to all the record sets and building database indexes back to sovereignty could begin. Today filing is completely the opposite, with only a few record sets still being handled in paper form. Most of our records only exist in digital form from origination through their workflow lifecycle.
Much has been accomplished to acheive those early goals. The indexes and images of the deed record set are complete back to 1838. Birth, death and marriage records are near complete with final quality control steps in progress.
Since so many of the books have been digitized, it is possible to remove and store these original records in a stronger and safer environment for their long term preservation. We are in the process of constructing a hardened building with improved fire and wind protection and proper temperature and humidity controls to provide maximum protection and longevity to the county's historical records. It will be exclusively paid for from the County Clerk's records management fund which is solely supported by a fee that has been collected for years. This fee has paid for book restoration, microfilming and all computer hardware and software since before I took office. In fact, because we have been judicious in the use of this money over the years we will also be able to include as a part of the construction, a Tier 3 data center large enough to house servers for the county IT department which includes all of our data and images. This will be the most ambitious project with the longest term impact ever attempted with this fund.
What other endeavors/responsibilities do/would you have besides being the clerk?
The responsibilities associated with County Clerk make it a full time job. I have no other business interests or conflicts on my time. However, beside responsibilities to my family, I still volunteer at Republican Party headquarters and do sound and lights at church.
Do you favor term limits? Please explain why or why not.
I am not strongly in favor of them nor opposed to them. There can be a good case made for either. As conservatives, we generally adhere to the notion that there is wisdom at the grassroots level and that widsom is expressed through the power of the ballot box. Term limits seem to fly in the face of that. I have faith in the system, in that I believe the grassroots voter is capable of making the right decision more often than not. I believe the voter can see through the negative influences of money in campaigns and on public policy.
