I’m the only candidate for Washington County Judge who has a law degree and who is a practicing attorney, the only candidate with an engineering degree, and the only candidate with over 30 years of corporate business and management experience.  I will run the county like a business, with balanced budgets and fiscal responsibility to the citizens of Washington County.

 

For 30 years as a business executive, attorney and engineer, I've witnessed the impact good leadership can have on peoples lives.  I am running for Washington County Judge because I am passionate about serving my community and working to make a positive impact for the greater good.  If elected, I will use my training and experience to serve county citizens and solve county problems.

My parents taught me at a very young age that service to family - and to the community - is extremely important.  They led by example and I have tried to follow their lead.  My wife Jacqueline and I have supported, coached and volunteered for our children's sports teams and organizations, and I have served as president of church council, Treasurer of the Fayetteville High School Booster Club, Assistant Scout Master and treasurer of Boy Scout Troop 116 and President of my neighborhood's POA. Now that our three children are grown, I would like to continue my family's tradition by serving as Judge of Washington County.

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The role of County Judge is too big a job to leave to just anybody.  Serving in public office is both a privilege and responsibility to be taken very seriously.  Washington county deserves a Judge who has experience, integrity, common sense, and vision for the future.  You deserve an honest judge who is fiscally responsible and a good steward to the taxpayers’ dollars.  A Judge who is accessible and listens to what you have to say.  One who puts the County first and leads by example.  I am that candidate. 

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Washington County is growing exponentially and we can no longer afford to delay in addressing some significant needs.  The county population is 244,339 (19.76%) and is forecast to double to 500,000 residents in the next 25 years.  Assuming I have the honor of being elected I will prioritize the following:

 

Public Safety.  I Back the Blue and First Responders.  Unfortunately, with growth comes the possibility of higher crime rates.  We need to pay our county law enforcement personnel wages commensurate with the responsibilities and current market rate for the job.  We also need to expand our jail (which is currently at capacity) to provide our Sheriff with the capability of humanely housing the increasing number of inmates we are seeing.

 

Road Improvement and Infrastructure Safety.  While we are busy maintaining and upgrading our paved roads and bridges (we have over 1,100 miles of county road), 30%, over 320 miles of county road is still not paved.  We need to change that and get busy improving and paving roads that need and warrant it.

 

We also need to work with Regional Planning and the State to get serious about putting a beltway around the big 4 cities of NW Arkansas.  We also need much better East/West access through the region.  Growth is coming and we have to be ready or we will be letting our future generations down in a terribly serious way.

 

Workforce Training and Attracting Employers to our county.  We need to increase collaborative efforts with our high schools, colleges, universities and employers to offer and provide more and better vocational training and job opportunities.  We also need to partner with and support our local Chambers efforts to attract good paying companies and jobs to the county.

 

Update the UDC County zoning laws.  Currently the Unified Development Code (UDC) specifies unincorporated County land be zoned as agricultural and single-family residential.  All other proposed land uses are classified as “conditional uses”.  Conditional Use requires any proposed use of any land go through an onerous one-off arbitrary drawn-out approval process.  We need to work towards establishing various zones and implementing useful zoning standards in Washington County to address this very big problem.

 

Cyber security.  244,000 citizens are relying on of Washington County government to keep their personal information, contained in tax and assessment and court documents, safe and confidential.  We need to have a cyber security audit done and fix any potential weakness in our IT infrastructure.

 

I’m not a lifetime career politician and I’m not looking for an Office or title or paycheck.  I am interested in helping the county win.

 

I’m an honest, truth telling, straight talking Individual and my background has prepared me to be County Judge.  The county is a large operation and for 30 years I have worked in and with large corporations managing large operations, large organizations, large budgets and negotiating large deals.  I have an engineering degree and engineering experience which will be put to good use dealing with road and bridge construction.  I am the only candidate for Judge that is also a practicing attorney, which is important when the job has legal responsibilities as part of the duties.

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