Kent and Parker square off for Precinct 4 Commissioner

By LOU ANTONELLI
Editor-in-Chief
Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of reports from the third annual Candidates’ Forum held by the Tri-County Press on Feb. 15 at the Mount Pleasant Civic Center.

First-term Commissioner Jimmy Parker is being challenged in the Republican Primary by local realtor Judy Kent. There is no Democrat in the race.

In her introduction, Kent said she owns her own business, and has attended commissioner meetings since 2005. She said most people “don’t know how they are spending your tax dollars” because they meet at 9 a.m. weekdays, instead in the evening when people with jobs could attend.

She added that if elected she would take a reduced salary.

Parker said he’s had to make a lot of hard decisions during his first term, and despite the implementation of the unit road system he still gets calls from constituents every day, “and I always drop what I am doing and take care of it.”

Questions from the audience were presented by Tri-County Press Publisher Sonya Woods.

When asked if they felt any budget items should be exempted from cuts, Parker said he would not be willing to cut fire protection and law enforcement.

Kent said “there are no sacred cows’ and she would look at the budget line item by line item.

Asked where they would make changes in taxes, Kent said she wasn’t happy with the job the current commissioners have done, adding that as a realtor she’s heard people say “we moved to the county for lower taxes” – and didn’t find them.

“That’s one of the first questions someone will ask about a house – “what will our taxes be?”

Parker said the budget is large and there are lots of places to look, adding that the county’s is only one tax among others, including the school district, hospital, and community college.

Asked their opinion on the county engineer, Parker said “I wasn’t for the unit road system” and he’s ready to get public works back to where it was.

Kent said “the voters decided the issue” and since it took years to get the system the way it was before it will take a few years to get the unit road system working smoothly.

Asked if they would cite examples of waste, Kent pointed to the fact that, after the 2013 shooting of the District Attorney in Kaufman County, Titus County sought to build a new and more secure district courtroom “and will still don’t have the courtroom.”

Parker said he’s concerned the unit road system budget keeps going up.

Asked about budget cutting, Kent said she wouldn’t want to hurt any service or employees, but she wanted to look at the budget “line by line”.

“We do look at it line by line,” responded Parker.

Asked about the closure of the Luminant power plant, Parker said “we knew it wasn’t going to last forever” and commissioners have talked about dealing with it for years. Kent said she never heard any plan from the commissioners on how to deal with the loss “except to raise taxes.”

Asked about cutting their salary, Parker said despite the unit road system “I still earn it.” Kent said she would cut hers in half.

ENDORSEMENT

Jimmy Parker ran for county commissioner twice before winning in 2014, and a lot of people thought he deserved a shot at the job. He got into office and quickly showed he was too much of a “go along get along” guy to make a difference. He’s had his chance.

Judy Kent is much more qualified. Owning her own real estate business she knows both the effects of lackadaisical economic development efforts as well as careless attention to taxes. She is an original thinker and problem solver. She also has a way of cutting through the baloney. She reminded us at the forum when commissioners went back on their pledge of accountability by going to all daytime meetings – a rollback that Parker facilitated.

She’s honest and independent. At a forum where many public employees stood in the back of the room, in uniform, she pledged “no sacred cows.” We think people on the government payroll should not be allowed to vote for their own bosses – it’s an intrinsic conflict of interest. Politicians expand the bureaucracy and then the people beholden to them vote them back into office. In places like New York and Chicago, under the iron grip of Democratic Party corruption, it’s a major source of votes. We don’t need that kind of vote buying in Titus County.

While Parker did not come out hooting and hollering to roll back the unit road system – like Precinct 2 candidate John Fitch did – he was forthright in stating his opposition. Again, the voters decided the issue. Live with it.

Another reason the unit road system is a great idea is that we don’t have to have commissioners whose primary qualification for office is knowing how to drive a bulldozer. There has never been a woman on the commissioners’ court. It’s about time to rectify that.

Judy Kent will be a welcome change from the usual “good old boys”. She will be fair, honest, objective, and look after the interests of the taxpayers who have to deal with the actions and taxes of the commissioners.