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John O'Brien
ELGIN – When it comes to economic development, Comanche County is falling behind other counties, said a candidate for the District 1 seat on the Comanche County Board of Commissioners.
“Economic development is not up to par,” Elgin resident John O’Brien said in a June 13 interview.
O’Brien is one of the candidates in a three-way race to fill the District 1 seat on the Comanche County Board of Commissioners. He will face off against Commissioner Gail Turner, who has been in office for nearly 24 years, and businessman Charlie Hale in the June 28 GOP primary election. There are no Democrats in the race, so whoever wins the primary election will claim the seat.
Southwest Chronicle recently interviewed O’Brien about his decision to run and other topics. Here are questions and answers from the interview, edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: What is your occupation?
A: I’m a senior knowledge management advisor for Unity Technologies out at Fort Sill.
Q: What made you decide to run for the District 1 seat on the county commission?
A: Firstly, I have a vision for Comanche County. That includes a leader that will bring transparency to the office of the commissioner, and I can be that leader. People will know that I truly care about their concerns.
Additionally, I can promise that all the decisions that I make will be based on what’s right both ethically and morally and in the best interests of the people.
The office of the commissioner shouldn’t be run like a quid pro quo type of system. The people deserve better. They’re owed that transparency. They’re owed honest and fair representation.
That’s what got me motivated for the office.
Q: What skills do you have that would make you an effective commissioner?
A: I spent 21 years in the Army, and I’ve been a commander a couple of times.
One of the biggest things is I’ve managed budgets and government projects. We could say upwards of, say, $40 (million) to $60 million. Managed hundreds of people at a time, not to mention the health and welfare of their families.
I’ve got a master’s degree in organizational leadership from Cameron.
Those are some of the skills.
Just very open-minded, very high ethical standards. I consider it a big deal, but I’m a firm believer – a true believer – a devout Christian, and I just want what’s right for the people.
Skills-wise, that’s why I think I should be in there.
Q: Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the county’s current direction? Why?
A: I think we need to reprioritize our budget.
Right now, getting more money isn’t really going to be so much of an option, and I don’t – and I won’t – vote for raising taxes. But we have a sheriff’s department that’s trying to cover 1,100 square miles, and they generally have two deputies. Not to mention they make $32,000.
So I’m not going to say that we can make them rich, but what we can do is reprioritize some of that money to where we can give them a fair shake.
So there’s that. We’ve had 23 years of growth since Mr. Turner took office, and we haven’t had 23 years of leadership change and development.
The problem, I think, that we face – everybody hears this, everybody says it – but as far as roads, bridges and infrastructure, I don’t think we’re doing a good enough job, to answer your question, with preventative maintenance operations.
We go out there, and we patch, and we patch, and we patch. We don’t recognize when patching’s just not going to work anymore.
Economic development: I think we’re behind in economic development.
I say that because economic development is what improves our infrastructure. It enhances our education. It betters our public safety, improves our parks. And lastly, and most certainly not the least, it incentivizes and attracts new business and creates jobs.
I know they’re just now releasing some of that ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) money, and I know what the ARPA money’s supposed to be for. I know they’re following rules, but I don’t think they’re using that money to necessarily help us to recover from the downfall of COVID and all that.
I think we should try and help local businesses recover – this isn’t necessarily tied to the ARPA part – by awarding our contract bids to more of our local folks and stop taking it outside the county and definitely outside of the state.
So, those are the problems I think we face.
Q: You mentioned transparency a little bit ago. Do you think the county is sufficiently transparent? If not, what more should be done?
A: No, they’re not transparent enough.
I know they’ve got an open-door policy, but I want to promote one that’s even greater, that’s more powerful. One that encourages folks to come in.
I just don’t want people stumbling in when they’re really mad, but I want to encourage that open-door policy – one that improves the way citizens get information, which could possibly be somewhat of a rebuild on the county website. I’m not faulting the website, but I think it could be better.
On top of that, I also want to inspire them – I know we don’t have a lot of room – but inspire them to come to the commissioners’ meetings. It’s an open forum. Come in and listen.
I know they discuss their agenda, and we all sit there and listen. But I don’t think people understand the opportunity that they have to just come in there and ask questions.
I’ve noticed Gail (Turner) and Alvin (Cargill), particularly, say, “Hey, great. I’d love to hear what you’ve got to say. Talk to me after the meeting.” You may not get your answer blurted out amongst the crowd, but it would give you a chance. And I’m sure they’d give you five, 20, 30 minutes. Because people need that. They want to know that they’re being heard, and they want to know that you care. And then you’ve got to follow up.
At least tell them, “Hey, listen, we’re not going to be able to do that. But maybe we think about meeting in the middle on some kind of solution.”
Q: If you’re elected, what would you like to see the county accomplish in the next four years?
A: I hate to kind of reiterate some things, but I’d like to see our public safety vastly improved. I’d like to see us up that general fund, the county’s budget. I’d like to see the barn out there – it currently runs on a four-day schedule – and with all the stuff we have and probably the lack of overtime that they probably get, I’d like to see them working a full week. I know that’s going to break some peoples’ hearts, but I think it’s being good stewards of the barn and equipment and whatnot.
I’m going to be real honest: I want to see Comanche County’s swamp drained.