NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Randy Parks won a hard fought Republican primary campaign in Reno County District 1, but he is not taking the on the ballot advantage for granted.
"I talked about doing this for several years," Parks said. "Finally, it came to the point this year I thought, you know, in the sake of, even looking at just my family, grandkids, kids, that kind of stuff for the future, the way things are going, I felt I needed to be involved. Even more so, when I began to talk to people about the possibility of running in the community, getting involved with some other groups and talking to them and hearing their voice that they wanted to have somebody with a positive outlook and a positive leadership style."
Coming to good policy decisions that respect the opinions of the entire commission is going to take time, but Parks believes it is time worth taking.
"I think the background work has to be done on each issue to find out and bring it to the table," Parks said. "Certainly, transparency is the key in front of people in public meetings, so a lot of them know what you've done in that background work, so a lot of them know why you have come to the process you did. Certainly, between the commissioners, I think there needs to be a good roundtable type discussion at times, where we come up with the appropriate answers for the people that we serve."
Parks notes that it is the taxpayers money and it's their county.
"Especially with the way things are going around us, with the cost of things going up, expenses are going to go up," Parks said. "I think, at home, we all look at our budgets and see where we can cut in these times. I think that may be an issue, what we have to do there, see where we can trim things up, not necessarily to cut, but to make them extremely efficient. That's something I think I've been given a gift to do."
County Commission District 1 includes the northwest portion of Hutchinson.
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