Informed Voter Coalition - November 5th, 2024 Election
The Informed Voter Coalition is a nonpartisan group dedicated to empowering voters with unbiased information about candidates. They have approached Show Me Christian County to help communicate candidates in Christian County for the upcoming elections. This collaboration includes expanding their focus from the Springfield area to Christian County. The Coalition remains neutral and does not endorse any candidates.
Become informed before November 5 election day so your vote is cast for the candidates that align with your beliefs and standards! To help guide voters, the Informed Voter Coalition is again producing a series of nonpartisan interviews with candidates to air during the noon hour on KSMU Ozarks Public Radio (91.1 FM). No registration is required - just tune into KSMU at noon that week! Candidates in selected contested races answered questions developed by the Informed Voter Coalition.
Full Schedule:
- October 14 – Greene County Commissioner District 2
- October 14 – State Representative District 129
- October 15 – Christian County Commissioner East
- October 15 – Christian County Commissioner West
- October 16 – State Representative District 130
- October 16 – State Representative District 131
- October 17 – State Representative District 132
- October 17 – State Representative District 133
- October 21 – State Representative District 135
- October 21 – State Representative District 136
- October 22 – State Representative District 137
- October 22 – State Representative District 140
- October 23 – Missouri Senate District 29
- October 24 – United States Representative Congressional District 7
Informed Voter Coalition members include:
Comprised of 13 nonpartisan organizations and entities, the Informed Voter Coalition brings together a diverse range of perspectives and expertise to ensure comprehensive coverage of local elections.
Christian County Eastern District Commissioner:
Republican incumbent Bradley Alan Jackson will face Democrat David Krewson on November 5.
Candidates were interviewed individually and asked the same questions. They had one minute to introduce themselves and two minutes to respond to each question. Questions were submitted by Informed Voter Coalition partner organizations and were not provided to the candidates in advance. The order of the candidate interviews was determined by a random drawing.
I'm Rachel Campbell with Show-Me Christian County. One of the nonpartisan organizations that makes up the Informed Voter Coalition. Today, we are interviewing candidates for Christian County Eastern Commissioner David Krewson and Bradley Jackson.
Our first candidate is David Krewson. Thank you so much for joining us.
"You're welcome."
Let's begin by having you introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this office.
"Well, my name is David Krewson. Like you said, I live just south of Ozark. I am running for the position to give people a choice during the election. I don't believe any office should be run without somebody, at least from both parties, running for the position. So I'm here to do that and hopefully get enough votes out there to win the election. We'll see what happens."
Explain the role of a county commissioner and why voters should care about who represents them in this role.
"Oh, wow. That's going to be a good one. Let's see. The role of a county commissioner should be to represent the people in the area that they have been elected or appointed to represent. In this case, Eastern Commissioner is, I would say, a board of commissioners that decide on a lot of things that go on in the county, such as roads being improved, health, welfare, sheriffs — running the sheriff's office, running the — and who's appointed or hired for sheriff, who's appointed or hired for the fire department, a lot of different things that a commissioner gets involved with. And, of course, involvement with the community itself, I believe, is very important. So that's the reason I'm running to get involved more than what I am already."
If elected, how would you leverage existing resources and evaluate new ideas to promote and improve quality of life for the people of Christian County?
"Well, I know one thing to improve the quality of life for the people of Christian County is internet services. There has been a big push from, I know, the electric company co-op that I belong to, to do internet service throughout their area, as well as other electric companies and those, based upon the fact that the rural areas really need better internet service because of the fact that the world is becoming faster because of internet, and we need those rural areas to be able to keep up with the rest of the world. So that's my big push. That and, of course, working with the roads and road department to make sure the roads are all up to a satisfactory condition for people to travel safely."
Christian County is responsible for a wide variety of services and departments, from roads to law enforcement, to tax assessment and many more. As a commissioner, how would you balance the varying needs of each department?
"Well, of course, each department submits a budget to the county, and the county auditor and those others involved have to sit down, have an actuary decide how much money the county is going to receive. And then, of course, the county has to divide the taxes that they get among the various departments. It's a juggling act, there's no doubt about it, but there is a way to fund everyone at a sufficient level to provide all the needs required by the citizens."
What would you say are some of Christian County's biggest needs, and what role does the commission play in helping to address those needs?
"One of the biggest needs, I feel, are fire and the sheriff's department. In order to adequately fund the fire and sheriff's department, they need to be paid an adequate amount. I see how much they're paid these days, and to me, that's just not enough. Also, the roads, a lot of them in Christian County could use improvement. So we need to make sure that money for the roads are going to the roads that need it the most. So, and then we have the health department. The health department needs to be adequately funded. The library. The library needs to be adequately funded. Not only that, but the library needs to have a board for everyone and not just a certain portion of the population."
If elected, in what ways do you plan to communicate with and seek feedback from a variety of constituents?
"Well, I'll make myself available, obviously, through various methods, including email, telephone. I will be at the meetings. Anybody can talk to me before or after any of the commission meetings. I, I'm in all over Christian County, but especially on the eastern side, because that's where I do live. You know, I shop in Christian County. I roam, well, I do a lot of business with a lot of businesses in Christian County even though I am retired, there are things that I do need in life, so."
David Krewson, that concludes our interview. Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us today.
"Thank you for having me, I appreciate it."
Our next candidate is Bradley Jackson. Thank you so much for joining us today.
"Thanks for having me. I appreciate it."
Would you please introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this position?
"Alright. Perfect. Well, a little bit about myself. I've been involved in the the community and the county for quite a few years in different capacities. I've served as the mayor of the City of Ozark for two different terms. I sit on city council for a couple of terms. I've been part of the chamber of commerce as part of their board of directors for five years. I've chaired a couple of different positions inside the City of Ozark, but I've been the associate commissioner for the Eastern District for the past two years, a governor's appointment when our current presiding commissioner vacated that seat to become the presiding commissioner, so I'm running for re-election. I guess re-election. I'm running to be elected, hopefully, you know, since I was appointed. But I just want to serve my community and do everything I can to make Christian County a great place to raise a family, which it already is. But, you know, to continue that tradition is very important to me. And, you know, I've always been told if you've got something to give, give it. So that's what I'm trying to do."
Explain the role of a county commissioner and why voters should care about who represents them in this role.
"So the county commissioner, it's not a hugely complex job. It's very similar to being the mayor, which I have quite a bit of experience, but we manage different members of staff, so we oversee planning and zoning. We oversee human resources, building maintenance, our road departments and, you know, we help with constituent service. Every contract that comes through the county, whether it be the assessor, recorder, collector, all those contracts come through the county commission, and we are the ones that review those, sign off on those and enter into those agreements. We also have different jobs appointing different people to serve in different capacities, whether it be Senate Bill 40, the planning and zoning commission, the library board of trustees. There's multiple different areas that we are involved in, other governmental organizations in appointing their board. So you just want to have a person that cares about the job, that cares about the community, that's focused on doing whatever needs to be done to take care of the citizens and, you know, still run the business, because it is a business. And a lot of people don't think about that. But you have to make good, wise business decisions. Now, we have constraints. There are certain things that I could do in my normal capacity as a business owner that I can't do in a governmental agency, but still, you bring that business acumen into the job, make good decisions and hopefully represent your your county and your constituents the best that you possibly can."
If elected, how would you leverage existing resources and evaluate new ideas to promote an improved quality of life for the people of Christian County?
"Well, I think you always have to be looking out for what's going on. You know, we are a part of a couple of different organizations as county commissioners. We're part of the Missouri Association of Counties and the County Commissioners Association of Missouri. And we have annual conferences that we go to where we get continuing education. But one of the most important factors of those big meetings is getting to meet other commissioners from other areas of the state. The problems and conditions and things that we see in Christian County are not unique to Christian County. They've happened somewhere else, more than likely, before. So gaining off the knowledge and experience of those other elected officials is very important. Always keeping up with what the state legislature is doing and how they're proposing new laws or whatever. Looking at what other states are doing. We're constantly evolving as a organization and as a community, and we have new opportunities. And, you know, utilizing all the resources that we have available to us to continue to grow because it's true, if you're not growing, you're dying. And so you've got to continuously work to put yourself in a position for good, smart, controlled growth. You can grow too fast and outgrow your resources and put yourself in a very bad position, or you cannot grow at all and be in a very bad position. Our citizens deserve the best, so we need to invest in our community. We need to make sure that we're taking care of our community, attracting new business and growth into our community so that the tax burden doesn't fall on a small group of people, but yet it can be spread across to everybody, and we can get more services to our citizens at less of an impact on each individual household."
Christian County is responsible for a wide variety of services and departments, from roads to law enforcement, as you mentioned, to tax assessment and many more. As a commissioner, how would you balance the varying needs of each department?
"Well, each one of those departments or offices, I mean, they're their own elected office, and they propose a budget annually. Now, we review that budget to make sure that it's in line with what they've currently received in years past, what their needs are, what their growth patterns are and what the county can actually handle. So a lot of that burden falls on those elected officials to present to us a budget. Obviously, like I said, we review that budget to make sure that we're in line and we can afford to take care of things, but, you know, we live in a unique area where we continually have growth, but our, I mean, we primarily operate off sales tax revenue versus property tax revenue. But our sales tax revenue isn't growing at the same pace as the amount of citizens that are coming in. So it's a concerning thing that we're looking at as to you would think as your community grows in Ozark. When I graduated from high school, I had 4000 people. And now here, 33 years later, there's 20,000 people. But percentage per capita, our revenue hasn't grown as much. You know, we have a lot of opportunities now. People are shopping online. They're not spending as much money, but they still demand the amount of resources. And, actually, the amount of resources has grown far greater than what the revenues have grown. So it's something we have to look at, we have to work on. We have to encourage people to shop local, support where you live or live where you support. I mean, it's kind of the motto. It sounds kind of rough to say that, but we need people to shop local, stay local, invest local, and and then we can continue to to utilize those revenues to support those offices and continue to provide great service to our citizens."
What would you say are some of Christian County's biggest needs, and what role does the Christian County Commission play in helping address those needs?
"I think some of our biggest needs are, you know, continuing to invest in infrastructure. I mean, that's primarily, in my opinion, government's most important function is providing infrastructure. There are certain things that we do in government that are good, that help out in the big picture. But primarily we're responsible to provide the resources that you can't provide for yourself. So public safety, public health, public infrastructure, roads, bridges, you know, even to an extent, sidewalks and trails. Some people don't get too excited about sidewalks and trails, but as gas continues to grow in price, I see more and more people walking, and we need to have safe places for those people to navigate through our communities. And so I think that's one of the most important things to me, is getting back to the basics, providing those necessary resources. We know that, over the past several years, some of our crime rates have grown in our municipalities. Drugs are becoming a little bit more prevalent. Calls for service have grown in those areas. So we need to focus on that and make sure that we have those resources because a community can't grow if a community is not safe. So we want to make sure law enforcement have the tools that they need to keep our community safe. We want to make sure that we have good roads, bridges and transportation completely because businesses don't want to come into a community that has poor infrastructure. So I think that's some of the biggest things that we need to focus our energies on is public safety, public transportation and making sure our citizens are taken care of."
If elected, in what ways do you plan to communicate and seek feedback from a variety of constituents?
"So I'm probably one of the only elected officials that post my phone number. You can call me on my personal cell phone (417) 860-9541. I'm on social media all the time. Transparency is extremely important to me. When I came to the City of Ozark as mayor in 2021, we implemented a video recording and and putting our meetings out to the public, to the masses. They could watch us on YouTube. When I came over to the county in 2023, we've done the exact same thing. In 2021, I established the Meeting with the Mayor, which is a public information session where I open myself up one Saturday a month for the citizens to come and ask me any kind of question they want. I give them a report of what the city was doing. Since I moved over to the county, I still continue to do that community engagement with the current mayor of the City of Ozark. Now we call it a community conversation, but we reach out, we talk to the citizens about what's going on with their their local government and answer any questions they have, take in, any concerns they have because communication is key. If I don't know there's a problem in where you live, I'll never know if you don't tell me. Nobody knows their street as well as the people that live on the street. Nobody knows their neighborhood as well as the people that live in that neighborhood. So I need to get all the information I can to help make your situation better, so having those opportunities to do that. So anybody that wants to give me a call to tell me about what's going on in their neighborhood or on their road or whatever, feel free to give me a call on my cell phone, and let's try to get the problem solved."
Bradley Jackson, that concludes our interview. Thank you so much for joining us.
"Thank you for having me. I appreciate it."
Candidates for Western Christian County Commission:
Republican Johnny Williams will face Democrat Sheila Michaels in November.
Candidates were interviewed individually and asked the same questions. They had one minute to introduce themselves and two minutes to respond to each question. Questions were submitted by Informed Voter Coalition partner organizations and were not provided to the candidates in advance. The order of the candidate interviews was determined by a random drawing.
I'm Rachel Campbell with Show-Me Christian County. One of the nonpartisan organizations that make up the Informed Voter Coalition. Today, we are interviewing candidates for Christian County Western Commissioner. They are Sheila michaels and Johnny Williams.
Our first candidate is Sheila Michaels. Thank you very much for joining us.
"Thank you for having me."
Let's begin by having you introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this office.
"Thank you. My name is Sheila E. Michaels, and I am a 20-year resident of Christian County. I decided to run because I think that in the past decade or so, there have been a lot of unopposed races in our county, and I am a firm believer that people need choices. It's very difficult to have an unopposed race and to feel like that you have a choice in your representation. My background is public education. I'm on my 23rd year as an educator, and if you want somebody that's going to find the right answer, and if you want somebody that's going to get the job done and look at all sides of the issue, you talk to an educator. So I think that my background in communication and my 20 plus years in education in the county, I've literally talked to thousands of children and families, and I have a really good handle on what the people of Christian County are concerned about for their well-being."
Explain the role of a county commissioner and why voters should care about who represents them in this role.
"County commissioners are so important, and I think that local races historically have been under invested in. The big national races and the big state races always bring a big crowd. But local candidates are so important and local elections are so important. The role of a county commissioner is to be a good steward and a good advocate for the people of your county. And as a county commissioner, I will have a three-point litmus test. Number one, is it good for our families? 2.) Is it good for the community? 3.) Is it good for Christian County? And I think any commissioner that's sitting on that board will take those items into account. Our job is to make sure that we have infrastructure and resources in place so that our families can lead good, healthy, productive lives."
If elected, how would you leverage existing resources and evaluate new ideas to promote an improved quality of life for the people of Christian County?
"One of the things — I like a lot of things about Christian County. One of the things I love about Christian County is it is a thriving, robust community. People are moving in. We're growing exponentially. That tells me there's a lot of good things going on. What I would do is look at existing programs, look at existing budgets. We know what goes well. We know what's going right. What we have to do is be creative and problem solving. And I think one of my strengths is finding, where is the under-representation, where are the gaps? Where are there holes in our existing resources and infrastructure and looking for ways to fill those, talking to stakeholders, talking to stakeholders on all sides of an issue. You can learn as much or more from people who might have a different point of view from you so I think that it's very important to to get feedback from people on all sides of the issue, because we have a lot of diversity in Christian County. We have a lot of families, and all of our families might look a little different. What our families have in common, they want the best for their household. And so a Western County Commissioner's role is to be there to make sure that the resources are in place so that they can lead those thriving lives."
Christian County is responsible for a wide variety of services and departments, from roads to law enforcement, to tax assessment and many more. As a commissioner, how would you balance the varying needs of each department?
"There are always going to be varying needs in any department, in any organization, in any family, in any public school. And I think that the best way to approach it is that you sometimes you have to go into triage mode. What's most important right now? What can we solve right now? What can we be creative about in the future? But you have to look at all sides of the issue. You have to think about, number one, who is going to be affected by this decision, who stands to benefit and who maybe stands to lose a little bit by this decision? And those are really, really hard questions because you're never going to make every single person happy. Obviously, we want to. We want to do what's best for the county and best for the community. But I think that getting as much information as possible, looking at expertise, finding people who know what you don't know One thing I can tell you as an educator and a librarian is that if I don't know the answer, I know how to research and find good information, and I think it's important to find good information on all sides of an issue to make the best informed decision that you possibly can."
What would you say are some of Christian County's biggest needs, and what role does the Christian County Commission play in helping to address those needs?
"So we do have a lot of needs in Christian County. One of the things that I've noticed over my 20ish years in public education in Christian County is that there is a need for child care. There is a need for safety nets for families. There is a need to attract more businesses to Christian County. So I think the role of the commissioner is to be creative and to research ways to attract businesses. We need to be finding businesses that are going to create jobs that will help families. We need to attract businesses that are not only creating jobs, but creating the kind of jobs that help families thrive. Another need in our county, which I'm sure is true of every county, we've got some infrastructure issues, we've got some roadway issues, we've got some traffic issues. So I think that prioritizing the health and safety of our families, that plays into roadways, that plays into infrastructure. So everyone needs a safe environment where they have access to what they need, and I think that, looking at all of those needs, looking at the work that the existing commission has done, figuring out what they've done, well. Obviously they've done a lot of things really well. Our community is thriving, but looking for those gaps and being a problem solver and saying, how can we meet this need and how can we be creative about doing it?"
If elected, in what ways do you plan to communicate with and seek feedback from a variety of constituents?
"This is my favorite question so far. One of the things that I have really loved about being in education is communicating with so many different people and communicating with stakeholders. I think one of my strengths is communication. I would have an open door policy. I would have a value of transparency. I would be proactive in explaining, 'hey, we're about to make this decision, so we're going to be seeking input from stakeholders. We're going to be seeking input from the community.' I think it's very important to be proactive and to go out there and to see who is really invested in the issue and what their opinions are, rather than being reactive and have to defend your decision later, which, of course, you can. If you've made a really good decision, you should be open and transparent about why you've made that decision. But it's very important to be ahead of the game, to be communicating with the stakeholders and to say, 'this issue is coming up. We want to hear your feedback.' Another value I have in education and when I was a librarian is the idea of embedded leadership. You don't sit behind a desk and wait for people to come to you. You are out in the community. You're embedded in the community. People know who you are. People know that you're accessible. And I also have a firm belief in listening. If you are the one doing all the talking, you are not learning. So we have to listen to our stakeholders, and we have to be curious, and we have to ask questions, and we have to ask questions about what people really care about and what they care about to raise healthy families. And I think by asking questions, by listening, by being available, by having that open door policy and being proactive about communication, and above all, being truthful and transparent about the issues that are going on in the county and truthful and transparent about why decisions were made, the way that they were made. And sometimes people are not going to agree with your decision, but it's very important to be transparent about the reasons that went behind that decision."
All right, Sheila, that concludes our interview. Thank you very much for taking the time to talk to us.
"Thank you so much for having me."
Our next candidate is Johnny Williams. Thank you very much for joining us today.
"Thank you very much for having me again."
Would you please introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this position?
"Absolutely. My name's Johnny Williams. I'm a lifelong Christian County resident. I grew up here. I grew up in Nixa. I went to school in Nixa, kindergarten through 12th grade, played baseball, basketball, football in high school. After high school, I went to OTC for a few semesters, and I worked at a machine shop. I was a machinist where we made blowers for diesel engines. And when I turned 21, I put myself through the police academy through Drury, and I've been a law enforcement officer for 25, almost 25 years in Nixa, and I've been a small business owner for about 14 years, had anywhere from 20 to 35 employees there. So the back half of my law enforcement career, I just spent about, you know, most of my time as a part time officer there. And then after that, it's all about family and just moving into a career where I get to continue to serve the people."
Explain the role of a county commissioner and why voters should care about who represents them in this role.
"Absolutely. You know, a lot of people don't know who the county commissioner is or what the county commissioners do. But, the county commissioners, there's three county commissioners, so you have an eastern commissioner, a western commissioner and a presiding commissioner. And the eastern and western commissioners are the ones that vote, and then in a tiebreaker then the presiding commissioner would vote. And so in that position, there's nine different boards that the commissioners place people on. In addition to that, they are over the budget for the county, everything from the sheriff's department, road department and all of the positions through that. So the biggest thing, you know, in that position is the budgetary issues and making sure that the people's money is spent well, where those monies are allocated to and just really trying to make sure you accommodate all the people in the different fields that the county has in total. So being accessible to people, being open to talking to people, making sure that we're there to solve the problems the county needs everything from the road department to the infrastructure, the growth so it's a it's a very wide, wide variety of things that the commissioners do every day."
If elected, how would you leverage existing resources and evaluate new ideas to promote an improved quality of life for the people of Christian County?
"I'm sorry. Can you say it one more time for me?"
If elected, how would you leverage existing resources and evaluate new ideas to promote and improve quality of life for the people of Christian County?
"You know, I think, the existing resources, if you know, the county takes all the money that the county gets through, about 80% of that's through sales tax. So one of the biggest things we can do is promoting local businesses and making sure that people are spending their money in our communities and we're helping new businesses come in and making sure that we have that infrastructure for that. That is the number one thing that we need to do as far as building the county. And, because if all the money's coming, you know, the majority of the money is coming from that, it's important that we continue to support them and have those things in place. So that is 100%, you know, the most important thing to give back to the county is making sure that we're able to support those businesses and give them opportunities."
Christian County is responsible for a wide variety of services and departments, from roads to law enforcement to tax assessment, and many more. As a commissioner, how would you balance the varying needs of each department?
"Absolutely. It is a big balance and finding that balance, you know, everything once again comes from budget. How much money comes in and that does change year to year. And there's going to be different things that are going to need more attention from that year to the next year, and especially with growth and seeing how big Christian County's growing and and continuing to grow is making sure that we have the roads and we have the law enforcement to protect the community and all those things. So balancing that, it literally just comes down year to year and knowing what money comes in and making sure that you're sitting down visiting with the heads of each department, going through their budgets, not just pushing those things through or just looking at it as numbers, but actually being involved every day with them and seeing the growth and seeing the things they need so that when it does become budget time, it's not something you're just looking at numbers, you're actually seeing the difference and seeing the things that they need to grow."
What would you say are some of Christian County's biggest needs, and what role does the (Christian County) Commission play in helping to address those needs?
"I think it goes back to — it goes back to the infrastructure. The same thing is helping our helping, our roads be nice, helping the new businesses coming in, helping the community growth because we're growing, you know, at a crazy speed. It's unbelievable how fast Christian County is growing. You know, we went from this small community to, to really to really growing. And so once again, community involvement is number one is being out there and showing up to the chamber meetings, showing up to the council meetings and talking to the public and seeing what the public needs and seeing what the needs are from, from each aspect and then helping in those ways and seeing and how we can grow those and how we can continue to make, make it a great community for people to live in."
If elected, in what ways do you plan to communicate with and seek feedback from a variety of constituents?
"Absolutely. And I still got months before, you know, if I'm lucky enough to be elected, but I'm already doing that. I'm already out, like I said, attending chamber meetings and attending groundbreaking events for new businesses coming in, I was just that one yesterday. And being out there and already having that community involvement and seeing what people need, and I'm already seeing in some of the smaller cities as I go there, they're like, 'wow, you know, we haven't seen anybody out here. We don't know,' you know, letting them know that their voices are heard and seeing what they need. And it just comes down to being involved. You have to get out there. You have to spend time with people because you can hear about it. You can talk to somebody on the phone, but it's a big difference in sitting down with somebody face to face, actually talking through the problems and seeing what you can do and what you can't do."
Johnny Williams, that concludes our interview. Thank you very much for taking the time to talk with us.
"You bet."
Candidates for Eastern Christian County Commission:
For the Eastern Christian County Commissioner race, the coalition interviewed Republican candidates Bradley Alan Jackson and Jess Hodges. Although Rick Parham has withdrawn, his name will still appear on the ballot. David Krewson is the only Democrat in this race and did not respond to interview requests.
Would you please introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this position?
"All right, well, I ran for this position in 2020, come up just a little bit short in a five-way race to who's now our presiding commissioner. During that time, I had some time on my hands, and I decided that, you know, I got four years until the seat comes up again. And so I ran for the mayor of the City of Ozark because there were some issues that needed to be addressed. During my second year of that term, the presiding commissioner race happened, and our Eastern Commissioner ran and won that race, which created a vacancy. The governor asked me if I would fill that vacancy, and so that's where I've been for the past year and a half, is in this seat that I'm currently running for. This seat has turned over seven times in the past 14 years. It's a four year term, but for some reason, no one's staying longer than two, and I would like to help create consistency on the east side of the county by fulfilling a full four-year term, plus the two that were given to me by the governor."
With only three commissioners serving a county of 94,000 residents, each commissioner's vote carries significant weight. If elected, tell us about your decision making process when evaluating an agenda item that comes before the commission for a vote.
"Well, I think everything takes a lot of background research into a topic. You know, you've got to know exactly what you're looking at. Emotions can't really always play into your decision making. You've got to base everything off facts, so doing a lot of research, doing a lot of background investigation into whatever that topic may be. A lot of people think that the the commissioner's job is a simple little come in for an hour a week job, and it's not. We do a lot of research on the topics because we do handle a very hefty budget. We are the leaders of the elected, you know, in the county. I mean, we oversee not necessarily the functions of every single office in the county, but they rely on us to help make decisions. They rely on us to enter into contracts on their behalf, and if we're going to put our names on a contract, we want to know exactly what it is, even though it's been vetted by the other elected office, our name is the one that goes on those contracts. So it's just a lot of research, a lot of thoughts been put into it before we render that decision. A lot of times, you know, your emotions may dictate that you're going to go this way, but the facts reveal that maybe you shouldn't go that way, maybe you should go back the other direction. And ultimately, it's what's in the best interest of the citizens. You know, we could have a multi-million-dollar-a-year company wanting to come into Christian County, but if it's bad for our citizens, then it's bad for our citizens. And our citizens come first. We had that issue come up this past year, and it was it an easy decision to turn away a company wanting to come in and invest money in our community? No, but the facts were not there to substantiate that. It was a good move for our community, and our citizens were not receptive to it, and that's the decision that we had to make."
What support, if any, has your campaign received from community groups, organizations or political action committees, and why should that support matter to voters?
"Well, I think that, you know, we have a lot of different organizations that have supported me. Some will openly support me, some individual members support me. I've received a lot of encouragement from a lot of the grassroots organizations such as We the People. I have been endorsed by the Republican Assembly of Christian County, the Missouri Republican Assembly of Christian County, which carries the endorsement of the entire state. That means a lot to me because I am a Republican, and they understand that I lead from a Republican standpoint, that my views mirror the party's platform, and I'll always lead in such a way. My moral compass is set with the Republican Party. I've received endorsement from U.S. Congressman Eric Burlison, which to me is a great thing because he's been a huge advocate in our community, serving in our State House, serving in our State Senate and now serving in the Congress. And, you know, that means a lot to me that these grassroots groups and organizations have stood behind me and pledged their their support, not necessarily monetary, you know, but they've pledged their support to endorse me and help me pursue reelection, if you will."
The CC Highway Department is under the purview of the Christian County Commission. The highway department and its 30 employees are responsible for nearly 1200 lane miles of roadway, 35 bridges, as well as road culverts, low water crossings and roadway signs. How would you prioritize road repairs and improvements?
"Well, I think infrastructure is one of the main focuses that our government should have, right? Government should not be here to run your life. They should be here to provide you the things that you can't provide for yourself, infrastructure being one of those key points. We've utilized over this past year, ARPA funds to address a lot of stormwater issues that are in the county. You know, when you develop in the county, you're not held to the same restrictions that you are inside the city. So if you go in in the city and you build a lot of impervious surfaces, you're going to be required to put in water detention, water retention. In the county, not so much, you know? If you build out a subdivision of three acre lots, there's really not going to be, unless it's drastically necessary, water detention. But you're putting in rooftops, driveways and streets. That causes some issues down the road. So we have used those ARPA funds to address some of those low water issues. Since I've been in office, it's been a huge priority of mine to try to take care of as many roads as we possibly can. I'm currently working on what will end up being a private-public partnership on a road in eastern Christian County that, if we fix the road out in front of this driveway, it won't do a bit of good if the property owner doesn't fix his driveway. So we're collaborating together at the same time to pull off a project that will be beneficial to, not only them, but everyone else that lives on that road. Infrastructure is hugely important to me. From my time as the mayor of the City of Ozark, we've always focused on infrastructure improvements, making sure that we spend money wisely. Wants and needs are a huge thing, right? And needs are quality transportation for people to get from their properties to their places of employment and back. So it's a huge priority for me. Long, long story short, it's a huge priority for me that we take care of our roadways."
The commission is responsible for appointing people to serve on several boards and commissions throughout the county. What factors would you consider when making an appointment?
"So I think that we have to look at everything, and the cat's out of the bag, right? So when I took office, I made it a a major priority of mine that if the commission is responsible for selecting the board members of an organization that's using taxpayer funds, the board, or pardon me, the commission needs to be highly involved and not just rubber stamp the decision that's made by that board. So the most prevalent of that is the Library Board of Trustees in Christian County. They traditionally have just sent up a name. The county commission's always signed off on that name, and that person's been on their board. But what we've come to find out is there's a lot of questionable materials inside of our library, especially in the youth section, borderline pornography. And, yes, it's protected by the American Library Association as literature. Some of this is questionable literature, in my opinion, and no children should be subjected to that in a place like a library. That should be a safe space. You ought to be able to take your kids into the library and know that, if they're milling around in the children's section, that they're picking up books like The Mouse and the Motorcycle or a Choose Your Own Adventure book, or maybe Clifford the Big Red Dog, not necessarily a book that is pornographic in nature or visually descriptive or illustrated visually descriptive. And the Library Board of Trustees was not taking a good stance with regards to these books to protect these kids that are unknowingly stumbling across these books. And so I was not going to be party to that. I'm going to vet these candidates. Last year we vetted a group, a great group of people. We selected two individuals to serve on that board. They've done a fantastic job. This year, we've selected another person to come in. I want to know that if the decisions of the Library Board of Trustees is going to affect me because my name is standing behind their name, that they're doing things the way I would want them done and the way my constituency has expressed they want things done."
With Christian County being one of the fastest growing counties in the state, how does the commission coordinate efforts with the county's Planning and Zoning Commission and the communities within the county to have adequate infrastructure and roads, power, water and other resources needed for growth?
"Well, I think growth is one of the most important things that we have in Christian County. For over 30 years, you know, we've been one of the fastest growing counties. You know, I'm from Ozark, and I used to tell a story about growing up in a small town of a couple thousand people. And, you know, things have changed in that small town. And then usually halfway through my story, I let it out that I'm from Ozark, right? And Ozark had about 4,000 people in 1991. They have 24,000 plus now, and so we've grown a lot. And we've outstretched some of our abilities to provide adequate infrastructure, so there's been a lot of conversation about slowing down our growth, to manage our growth a little bit better. But so many people want to come live in our community. They want to share our values of our community. They want to share the serenity and the scenery of our community. And I can't blame them, I love it. I, you know, in 1991, I left for the Army. I couldn't wait to come home and put myself right back in Christian County, so it doesn't bother me that they want to come live in our community, but we've got to work with our neighboring cities, especially Ozark and Nixa, as the two fastest growing inside the county, that we're taking care of all of our residents, not just our future residents, but our current residents so that the impact of the new residents doesn't disenfranchise the current residents. It's a lot of planning and coordination. Thank goodness we've got great groups like our Chamber of Commerce, Show Me Christian County being one of those other groups, that can focus on those efforts to make sure that we're taking care of everybody and everything that's needed so that we continue to be one of the greatest places in the State of Missouri in the United States, as a matter of fact, to raise a family. And there's a lot of people that come here that are not interested in raising a family. They want to retire here and be with their children who are raising that family. So, it's just something we're going to have to continue to work on, continue to collaborate and make sure that we're all singing from the same hymnal, if you will, and that we take care of all of our citizens and all the needs."
Thank you so much for being here with us.
"Thank you for having me, I appreciate it."
Thank you very much for joining us.
"Well, it's a pleasure to be here, guys. Sorry, If I stutter or if I'm nervous. This is the first time being interviewed in probably 20 years. So a little bit about me, I grew up in Christian County, born and raised, 4-H, FFA, grew up on a farm. To me this is just a pleasure to give back to my community. That's what this is all about. It's, there was one of those uhs, but it's just about giving back to my community and the people that literally raised my family over the years."
With only three commissioners serving a county of 94,000 residents, each commissioner's vote carries significant weight. If elected, tell us about your decision making process when evaluating an agenda item that comes before the commission for a vote.
"Well, I think that every commissioner, not just the presiding or the West Commissioner or the Eastern Commissioner, I think we need to be guided by our morals, our knowledge about the issues. We are representing the voice of eastern Christian County. So as Eastern Commissioner, I want to hear what my people have to say. And when I say my people, I consider myself one of those people. So I want to know what...Chadwick has to say, Bruner has to say. Sparta has to say. Ozark has to say, you know, we even go up to Fremont Hills, and we go way over to Cheyenne Road. So I want to hear, and I think we need to reflect the people's voice, and I think we need to make the best decisions based on our morals and our knowledge that we have at the time."
What support, if any, has your campaign received from community groups, organizations or political action committees, and why should that support matter to voters?
"Well, you know, I'm glad you asked that question because I don't get any support. This is me. I am doing this because I think that someone needs to step up and say, 'hey, we're, we want to do our community' — actually, it's kind of great. I sat in a meeting the other day, and there is six candidates in Christian County that are running that have never run before. So I am not political. I don't know anything about politics. I am doing this — first off, so I am not backed. I am not, I can't think of the word right now. I don't have any political groups backing me. I have no one to answer to. So if I say something wrong, you know I have to answer to my people. I don't have to answer to no political groups. And I think that's the way to go. I am running as a Republican and I am conservative, so my conservative beliefs and my morals is going to guide me."
The Christian County Highway Department is under the purview of the Christian County Commission. The highway department and its 30 employees are responsible for nearly 1200 lane miles of roadway, 35 bridges, as well as road culverts, low water crossings and roadway signs. How would you prioritize road repairs and improvements?
"Well, that's a great question because we're not road commissioners anymore. Being a Class I county, a lot of those have to — and, now, I don't know all the ins and outs because I am new — that is better suited for a commissioner that has been in there. But the way I understand it and the way I read it, everything has to go through the engineers. We have to approve it. We do need to prioritize safety overall. And when I say that there is some roads out there that are pretty rough that people need to be able to navigate for your ambulance and your fire districts and all that, so I think safety would be the most important thing to look at first."
The commission is responsible for appointing people to serve on several boards and commissions throughout the county. What factors would you consider when making an appointment?
"So there's big, two big factors. I've been asked that question before, but it really comes down to morals and the ability to do the job. So 1.) they have to be a good person, and 2.) they have to have the background and the job. So it's just one of them deals where I'm not going to hire somebody just because they're a great guy. They need to be a great guy, and they need to know how to do their job. And that is really what I'll be looking for is people that is suited for that situation."
With Christian County being one of the fastest growing counties in the state, how does the commission coordinate efforts with the county's Planning and Zoning Commission and the communities within the county to have adequate infrastructure and roads, power, water and other resources needed for growth?
"That is a great question, and that is actually one that's not been presented to me yet. But when we, we got to look at our infrastructure and it's all going to be — and I'm kind of segwaying — because it's all going to be through economic development. If we want our revenues to grow, we're going to have to do it through economic development. You know, we're bringing in $74 million in revenues, but I think our projected budget is $96 million. And that's approximate because I don't have the numbers in front of me. You can go to our christiancounty.gov website and go to transparency portal and see all the numbers for yourself. It's a fantastic portal, but that going back, is we do need to grow our county, but we need to do it in a form that is through economic development and not raising taxes. And that being said, I don't know the best way until I get in there and see what we've already done. So we go in, and you start talking about infrastructure, and I'm assuming you're talking about gas, electric, water, sewer, all that, so that is not my strong suit. I'll be the first to tell you, but I'm a quick learner. And we'll go in there and figure it out, and we'll get it done together."
Thank you so much for talking with us today.
"Thanks for having me, guys, I appreciate it."
The video interviews were recorded by Nathan Papes of the Springfield News-Leader.
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