What are the 3 largest challenges currently facing this position/office and your road map to address them?

1. FISCAL DISCIPLINE 

• Balanced budget... 
• Reduce wasteful spending and debt 
• Lower property tax bills 
• I will push to maintain a budget that reflects disciplined priorities. The budget must not out-pace population growth and inflation, and should be returning surplus revenues to taxpayers.  Every budget year the budget should be formulated through zero based budgeting. The effective tax rate should be the starting point of budget development.

2. ETHICS AND TRANSPARENCY 

• Active ethics committee, preferable qualified active citizens in the community VS county employees 
• Eliminate favoritism at all levels of government
• Strong conservative...voice with integrity 
• I will work with commissioners’ court to ensure that meetings are held at a time that is conducive to citizens attendance and after being live streamed, videos are available for download. Once elected, I plan to hold quarterly town halls throughout the Precinct.  This would provide significant constituent interaction, much more than our community has received in the past.

3. MOBILITY 

• County wide mobility study 
• Strategic planning for future growth 
• Strategic infrastructure design 
• Montgomery County is growing at a rapid pace  and that pace is projected to continue.  We need to be prepared for this growth.  To meet these needs, I will push for a mobility study, strategic infrastructure plan, and better flood management that keeps our future growth in mind and keeps our citizens safe.

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.

YES I will follow the RPT platform in its entirety

Will you vote for or against Certificate of Obligation Bonds? When is a Cert. of Obligaton warranted? Though statutory(created by legislature), would you publicly condemn it's use?

I would vote against the use of COs to fund our countys' needs and would publicly condemn their use.  I believe the taxpayers should have a vote on any taxpayer funded debt. The only time I would consider "discussing" a CO would be in a time of catastrophic disaster whereby the safety and health of the community at-large was in immediate jeopardy and no other successful option exists.

COs do not require voter approval unless 5 percent of qualified voters within the jurisdiction petition for an election on the spending in question. 

Opposition to COs came to a head a few years ago in Montgomery County, north of Houston. In 2012, the Montgomery County Commissioner’s Court issued $30 million in COs for a road project in Conroe, less than a year after voters rejected a $200 million bond proposal including the same project. 

As a result, area citizens pressed for legislation to curtail their use, culminating in 2015’s H.B. 1378, which prohibits the issuance of COs for any project voters rejected in the preceding three years. Exceptions include a “public calamity” that threatens property or public health, or the immediate need to comply with a state or federal regulation, rule or law.

Name three main reasons you believe you’re the best candidate for this position?

1. Strong conservative values; I am a Christian, these values have a biblical foundation and are woven into my person character.  They are more than a set of rules to follow, they are the backbone and guide for my decisions and actions at all levels of my life.  

2. Qualifications and Abilities; Family Oriented, Strategic Planner, Fiscally disciplined, Problem solver.   I have a proven record of academic discipline.  My business background includes, budget development and management, project leadership, team building and deployment.

• ·      Analyze the needs/problems…identify corrective actions
• ·      Build teams of people who understand the vision
• ·      Interface with Federal, State and Local officials
• ·      Streamline cost expectations and maximize successful project completion
• ·      Remember who we work for, the community

3. Work Ethic; A work ethic is a set of moral principles one uses in his or her job and it encompasses many of these traits: reliability/dependability, dedication, productivity, cooperation, character, integrity, sense of responsibility, emphasis on quality, discipline, teamwork, professionalism, respectfulness, determination.  I believe a commissioner should be available to his community, especially in times of trouble or disaster.   I have a work ethic that will provide leadership in times of disaster with honesty and integrity.  I believe a future county commissioner should attend commissioners court prior to being elected.

How will you improve the transparency and access to financial and other records for the public?

Requests for information through the county process is slow.  I have made requests for documents and waited for weeks for an answer, many times never even receiving a returned called or email.  This process must be better tailored to meet the needs of the community while at the same time maintaining statutory provisions.  New technologies provide quicker access and flexability to this type of information availibility.  Better procedures and fixed timeline requirements for document disposition must be accomplished by the next commissioners court.

Do you support using zero-based budget practices for every governmental entity, elected and appointed?

YES

We need to move to zero based budgeting in all areas, not just large select departments. This approach insures an annual evaluation of actual expected costs for the coming year. Every year, every dollar spent should be justified, not the typical approach; (growth, inflation plus future projects) and just do that as a given.  It is a more expedient method, but not the most fiscally disciplined. By holding wasteful spending down every year, we will have more available money for necessary future growth projects and tax relief.  This budget methodology will enable the court to lower the tax bill of the voter while maintaining a highly effective and efficient county government system.

Will you vote to award any contract with less than three qualified bidders?

NO

Open and fair bidding for purchases is an absolute must in county government work.  We must always strive to  select the vendor that will deliver the best service/quality of work for the best price and complete the project in a timely manner.  The bidding process provides competition which in turn gives the taxpayer a better chance of receiving a fairer market price for a given project.   Purchasing makes a recommendation to the court to award contracts. There may come a situation when, because of the uniqueness of the project or tools needed there may only be two, in which I would be forced to consider the situation.  I believe all bidders should offer bids with a new completion bonds model in mind.  This model will be established with the other commissioners in order to insure more efficiency in county projects.

Will you vote to limit budget increases to a factor based on population growth and inflation? Explain.

YES,

Taxpayers are already over burdened in their tax assessments. This method will usually produce a reduced budget which in turn reduces the size of government.  This method would provide a system that is formulated on actual data points, measurable and trackable.  

What are the balanced budget “rules” for Texas counties in general and for Montgomery County in particular & how/when would you balance the Montgomery County budget & pay off debt?

Texas requires counties to have a balanced budget.  The county should be able to function from a balanced budget annually through proper management structuring, commitment to the budget, zero based budget development philosophy, efficient project projections and management.  Debt reduction should be a high priority annually.   Less debt means a stronger more flexible government that can deal with any emergency or natural disaster.

Did you support/vote for or against the $336.5 million 2020 budget on 9/4/19? Why or why not?

I do not have a vote, but I don't support the budget as it was adopted.  I did speak against the non-profit funding and did attend some of the budget workshop meetings.

• Commissioners are overpaid
• I question the quantity of employees required in Pct-1 and the size of salaries
• I disagree with blanket raises as an approach to rewarding employees
• I disagree with the policy of funding Non-Profits
• I would like to see a more aggressive approach at reducing our debt load.

In light of census data showing average taxpayer salaries of $40K, what salary would be appropriate for the office you are seeking?

Based on an average of counties with population of 350k-1M it could range between 125k-130k.   According to a recent study, Montgomery County Commissioners are the highest paid in Texas per population. Judge Keough reduced his own pay by 12% voluntarily. Servant leadership philosophy requires that we follow suit for the good of taxpayers, not ourselves. I have committed to reduce my salary by as much as 20%. 

Will you vote for increasing the public debt of Montgomery County to fund road construction/maintenance?

NO

Do you support the granting of public tax dollars for economic development in areas that are not economically disadvantaged? Why?

NO

Economic development is the role of business not government.  I believe in a capitalistic approach.  A capitalist nation is dominated by the free market, which is an economic system in which both prices and production are dictated by corporations and private companies in competition with one another, and places a heavy focus on private property, economic growth, freedom of choice, and limited government intervention

Is there anything in your background of an embarrassing nature that should be explained before your election? Arrests/Convictions? Bankruptcies?

NO

Do you believe the private conduct of a public official is relevant to that official’s suitability for office?

YES I DO

Do you oppose the use of public funds, other than for needed infrastructure, to subsidize the cost of private facilities such as stadiums, arenas, hotels and other such entities?

I OPPOSE

Tax dollars should be used for statutory expenses.  Taxpayers must vote on any referendum that attempts to use funds outside the proper regulated or required purpose of county taxation.

How much of a problem is county hiring based on the "good old boy" / "loyalty to leadership" instead of one's ability to efficiently and ethically perform their tasks and functions? and what can realistically be done about it?

I am not a county employee but I have been informed that this is a large problem in our county government.  This type of employment environment is not only detrimental to a department but it often leads to less productivity and inefficiency.  Hiring protocols should be established to eliminate this practice.  HR policies should be adopted to insure that this is not a hiring practice.  We should have strict ethics guidelines in place to protect the purity of the process.  All hiring should be on the basis of; education, qualifications and experience.  

What is your position on the amount of nepotism in MoCo and should it be changed?

There is too much nepotism.  This practice should not be allowed in county government hiring practices at any level.

What's your position on Toll Roads?

I OPPOSE THEM

I will advocate for every penny of transportation dollars we can get, while opposing toll roads that will double tax our residents, and forever increase the cost of travel in our community.  We need to maximize federal and state project partnerships for funding new roads along with grants and other funding options.  

What are your criteria for granting tax abatements and under what, if any, conditions should the county offer incentives for corporations? Why?

We should only grant tax abatements if a corporation will be creating tax payers and its own future tax revenue in a very short period of time.  Tax abatements should not the first option to lure corporations into Montgomery County. Instead, low taxation by our county and city will itself be an enticement for capital investment.  We need to be an island of fiscal sanity to be more attractive to business than the liberal county that surround us.

Do you believe Americans should be forced to provide medical care and public education to people who are in our country illegally?

NO

I do think we have a moral imperative to provide emergency medical care in cases of life threatening injury only.   My Christian faith does not allow me to find comfort in allowing an injured person to suffer.  As for school children, they cannot help the illegal actions of their parents, however they need to be taught to respect American values.