Commissioners pick Road Engineer Search Committee; snub Riddle and Christopher

County Clerk Joan Newman tallies up the nominations for the search committee made by commissioners at Thursday's meeting, flanked by Joyce Simpson from the County Clerk's office and County Treasurer Sheryl Preddy.

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Commissioners Thursday morning named five members of a special search committee that will advertise and screen applications for the county’s first Road Engineer, who will administer the Unit Road System approved by voters Nov. 8.

The committee will consist of two commissioners and three members of the public. After considerable deliberation, the court named Commissioner Jimmy Parker and incoming Commissioner Dana Applewhite – who takes office Jan. 1st – to represent them, and Bill Ratliff, Darrell Grubbs and Mike Hall to represent the public.

Neither Commissioner Al Riddle – the only commissioner who actively campaigned for the Unit Road System – and Nigel Christopher, who led Better Roads for Titus County, made cut after a secret nominating tally.

Neither Ratliff, Grubbs nor Hall had been mentioned during discussion at the meeting of Dec. 9 when it was agreed to form the search committee.

The meeting Thursday started as County Judge Brian Lee reviewed a list of names that had been collected by commissioners to represent the public. They included Christopher, Ratliff, Grubbs, Hall, Danny Cook and Lonny Smith.

Smith is an engineer retired from TXU and Luminant; Cook is also a retired Luminant engineer. Lee noted that Cook is the husband of County Tax Assessor/Collector Judy Cook.

Ratliff is a former state senator and Lt. Governor; Grubbs is the executive director of the Titus County Fresh Water Supply District; Hall is business manager of Chapel Hill schools.

Lee said all the members of the public had either volunteered and agreed to serve.

At the Dec. 9 meeting, Lee proposed the court be represented on the search committee by Riddle and Commissioner Mike Fields - who had beenon opposing sides in the referendum election - but Fields said he changed his mind.

“I’m not that interested in serving,” he said.

Lee suggested that Parker serve on the committee with Applewhite.

At this point, a member of the audience, Judy Kent, spoke up to say she felt Parker would be inappropriate on the committee.

His wife actively campaigned against the Unit Road referendum. She also said as an new commissioner Applewhite lacked experience.

Not including Riddle, a big supporter of the Unit Road system, on the committee “makes no sense,” said Kent.

Lee said not including Riddle “is just my personal feeling.”

Commissioner Parker repeated that he felt Applewhite should be on the committee.

The only volunteer from the public who spoke at the meeting was Hall, who said that while he is currently working for the Chapel Hill school district, he had a lot of past experience administering road and transportation projects in the Lubbock area.

“I have a very deep level of familiarity with road projects,” he said.

Hall volunteered to serve on the search committee in person.

He said he was committed to seeing the Unit Road system succeed, which hinges on hiring the “right engineer.”

Another member of the public, Alford Flanagan, said the state law that enables the Unit Road system is written in “very general language” so it can be tailored to different counties’ needs.

“Every county is different,” he said.

He suggested the county only needs a Road Engineer to supervise construction during the warm months of the year, and it could “fulfill the desire of the people” for better roads by perhaps hiring a retired engineer part-time.

Freh Harkrider said he felt commissioners “feel threatened” by the new system, but the voters bore them no ill will, but simply want a system that is “more efficient.”

Riddle said he felt “both factions” on the issue should be represented on the search committee.

Fields said he felt the committee should not be formed until Applewhite is on the court. Commissioner Phillip Hinton agreed.

Lee said “I hate to delay the start of this until after the holidays.”

He suggested Hinton and Applewhite confer during a recess and see if they could come up with a list of five nominations they could both agree on.

The court adjourned at 9:50 a.m. while Hinton and Applewhite met in the county judge’s office.

After the court reconvened at 10 a.m., commissioners write down their nominations on a secret ballot which was tallied by County Clerk Joan Newman. After she gave her results back, Parker moved the court approve the five people with the most nominations, which were Parker Applewhite, Ratliff and Hall. The motion passed unanimously.

Lee said the county will start publishing ad for the Road Engineer position and seek application which will be screened by the committee.