With the Unit Road System there is a trained engineer in charge of fixing roads. Over time, this will result in improved roads throughout the county. The engineer has only been employed since April of 2017. Given that theengineer needed a transition time to get to know the county layout of roads, to get to know his employees and their abilities, to evaluate the equipment presently owned and to determine any equipment that might be needed (not to mentionthe time it would take to actually purchase new equipment and get it delivered), it is unrealistic to expect a significant change in county roadsover the first few months. It was a given that at the beginning of this process it would take at least five years torealize the benefit of the new model.
To view what an experienced engineer and trained road hands can do, go to Neville’s Chapel Church and drive east on the new road. You will be impressed. If we go back to the old system, it will be highly unlikely that we will ever be able to reproduce this type of road.
During the debate two years ago, leading to the vote for the Unit System, it was stated that commissioners spent up to 80% of their time working on and dealing with road maintenance. Also, during the debate, a visiting Commissioner from Upshur County (Gilmer), which was on the Unit System, said he could attend commissioner meetings, work one day a week, and do his job. The Unit Systemmade the Commissioner position a part time job in Upshur County; thus, Upshur County commissioners make about $30,000.
Under the present Unit System, Titus County Commissioners should reduce their salaries to about a third. Two motions have been made at Titus County Commissioner meetings to reduce salaries, neither seconded. For the past two years commissioners have been working part time jobs for $90,000 a year. It was also a given during this transition that it would take a couple of electioncycles for the commissioners to voluntarily reduce their salaries, we are now at this point.
Under the Unit System, Titus County should be able to save money. If the commissioners went to $40,000 a year ($30,000 plus $10,000 benefits) for a total of $160,000 for the four commissioners, and the engineer was at ($80,000 plus $20,000 benefits) for a total of $100,000, that would be a total of $260,000 for the commissioners and the engineer. Presently we are spending $360,000 for the four commissioners and $100,000 for the engineer for a total of $460,000. The difference, $460,000 - $260,000, is $200,000. Staying with the Unit System would give us a professional engineer fixing the roads and part time commissioners spending most of their time on overseeing the overall county budget. The Unit System would also save the taxpayers $200,000 per year, and that’s a lot of money to save (think $1,000,000 in five years!).
Under the old system, each Commissioner ran his own precinct. There were four different land locations, four different office buildings and four different sets of buildings to house and store equipment. There were also four different road crews working under four different Commissioners, none of whom (Commissioners) had any training or formal knowledge of fixing roads, yet the Commissioners spent 80% of their time doing just that. All Commissioners had their own set of equipment duplicated over and over; such as: tractors, mowers, dump trucks, road graders, back hoes, and the like. This is illogical and no one in their right mind would do it in the private sector. There is a lot of money to be saved by eliminating the duplication of equipment.
Think about it. If you were going to start an Air-Conditioning Business in Titus County, would you lease a building in Mt. Pleasant, Talco, Winfield and Cookville? Would you then buy office equipment, hire an office manager, and locate a service truck and an employee to run the service truck, at each of the four locations? Of course not, anyone can see that this would be a plan that would not work and put a business in immediate peril. Think about it. That’s exactly how the old system organized our road maintenance, except that the Air-Conditioning business would most certainly be operated by peoplewho had been trained and had knowledge of Air-Conditioning.
The one big difference between the Air-Conditioning Business example and the structure of our county road maintenance is that the Air-Conditioning Businesswould have to make money or go broke and file bankruptcy, whereas, our county road maintenance structure can go on and on, wasting all kinds of money in multiple ways, with no fear of running out of money. Why? Because the taxpayers will always have to come through to fund the foolishness of ill-advised organizational structures, such as but not limited to, the old way of maintaining our roads.
Here are some ideas on the money issues that we are deciding. Initially, of course is the commissioner’s salary. If we keep the present system, then at some point the commissioners will, by necessity,need to reduce their salaries. Anyone who remotely understands what commissioners do knows that, with a road engineer, a commissioner’s work is part time.There will be plenty of good qualified people who will be willing to work for $40,000 per year. If we keep our present system, after another election or two, the commissioners will be forced to reduce their salaries.
Also, regarding money, when a commissioner gets reelected one time that commissioner qualifies for state public service retirement. This is a great motivation for reelection.
I believe Jimmy Parker is a good man, but I disagree with him on this issue. He has stated that he supports going back to the old system. Thus, it seems logical that he would disagree with my points in this writing. There are some in his precinct, as I do, who disagree with Jimmy, and he now has a write-in opponent. A vote for Jimmy will be a vote to return to the old patch and patch again way. A write-in vote for Wesley McCollum will be a vote to keep the present Unit System. Please write-in Wesley McCollum and vote against going back to the old system. We should maintain a little patience and give the Unit Road System more time. If proven necessary, we can always revisit the issue after the new system has had a fair amount of time to be used and tested.
Some very reliable sources have said that some of the road hands, most of whom were originally against the change to the Unit System, have changed their minds and are now for it. They are hesitant to say anything publicly because of the fear of losing their job. My guess is they have seen the quality of the new roads they can build and don’t want to go back to the old way.
And finally, these are my opinions, nothing more, nothing less. I have tried to state some logic and reasoning. Quite frankly, most of what I have seen regarding this vote is nothing more than venting and making statements and or accusations which have little or no basis in realty or in rational thought.
Finally, VOTE RED AND VOTE CRUZ. We are on the tipping side of losing our great country.
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