The Reno County Commission Republican primary candidates are visiting the KWBW Morning Show to talk to Nick Gosnell about their campaigns. Below is a transcript of the answers of Tom Collins from July 26, 2022.
Nick Gosnell:
In studio with us this morning, this is the first of the four candidates for the Republican side of the new district five on the Reno County Commission, which is basically the southeastern part of the county. You need to go look at the map at the county's website to know specifically which district your home is in before you go to the polls on August 2nd, but we wanted to talk to Tom Collins, who is running for district five this morning, Tom, good morning. How are you?
Tom Collins:
I'm fine, thank you.
Nick Gosnell:
All right. So talk to us about who you are and where you come from and why you want to be on the county commission.
Tom Collins:
Oh my name's Tom Collins. My wife's name is Melanie Collins. We've been married for 21 years. I've been in Reno County since 1964. I've got 28 years of experience in maintaining and building roads and bridges in local government here in Reno County. I chose to run and because I was approached by several people asking me to, because they felt we needed a true conservative on the board. For those reasons and others, I chose to go ahead and throw my hat in the ring.
Nick Gosnell:
Okay, so 28 years in road and bridge, a lot of money gets spent on roads and bridges in the county. And sometimes those numbers, they just get tough for people to understand, don't they?
Tom Collins:
They do. And I think the last few years, I think some of those dollars could have been shaved. We used to have a bridge program in place when I was at Public Works where the crews built their own bridges, they were steel and concrete, free span. The designs went from 30 foot to 90 foot and the crews could build them for eighty or ninety thousand instead of paying a contractor 2 million.
Nick Gosnell:
So that, that would be one question that I guess you would have when these projects come up, something else related to that the three members on the current commission have talked about is just the maintenance program for the county. There's a certain amount of lane miles they try to do every year. So they have a rotation through, of getting the entire county done over a set period. What do you think about that idea? Do you try to do that on a constant basis every year? Or do you say no, we're gonna fix things when they need fixing, but not necessarily do just the constant around and round maintenance?
Tom Collins:
Well, to best explain that, Reno County, I believe has 458 miles of black top road. Back in 2010, when I retired, most of those roads were cold mix. Now I realize what I'm about to say, a lot of people don't understand. Cold mix roads need to be rotated and sand sealed. They should be every three years, but at that time it would've been too expensive, so we chose to do every four years, which was about 115 miles of road. And also while I was there, we put a hot mix program in place. We bought a paver and we started covering up some of the cold mix, so there wouldn't be quite so much maintenance, but it is my understanding that since 2011, they haven't sealed any cold mix roads, which is dangerous because if we ever have a wet really cold winter, they're gonna have problems.
Nick Gosnell:
And then you end up with the further issues that go on with that. So in your opinion, what should county government try to do? And what should they say, you know, what the private sector or other people should accomplish these things? Is there anything that, that maybe the county does now that you say, you know what, I'm not sure we do, I'm not sure that that our agency is the way to do it best.
Tom Collins:
Not to my knowledge now, to my knowledge at this point, which like I say, I've been gone over 10 years, but to my knowledge, the county's not doing anything that should be farmed out. Actually, they are farming out some that I think the county should take back because we could save taxpayers a lot of money doing that. And everyone in government needs to remember, every dime belongs to the taxpayers, let's do the best job we can do for the least amount of money we can do for them.
Nick Gosnell:
A lot of the projects that the county commission has been dealing with now, the one that's, obviously we've had a lot on the news is the courthouse dome and things like that, where there's been a difference of opinion, regarding whether it all needs to be tacked together or whether it would survive an earthquake without being done and all that kind of thing. When you talk about philosophy on those projects, is it more important to be able to look out further down the road or to say, no, again, we need to deal with today's problems for the county in other areas, and so maybe we end up putting off those decisions a little bit, with the county commission saying the engineer, the seismic engineer said it's not an immediate issue. It's more of an issue that they want to be sure gets done in the long term. So they want to step back from it for a little bit. What do you think about that?
Tom Collins:
Well, I'm a bit of a layman on this particular subject. I haven't been to the meetings and listened to the conversations. The courthouse is historic, and so for that reason, I think it does need to be kept up. Now it is my understanding and I could be wrong, but it is my understanding that that has been put off for several years now.
Nick Gosnell:
Explain how you understand the role of the county administrator and how that interacts with the county commission. County commissioners used to do a ton of stuff, now they hired a county administrator years back to do a lot of that. What do you see the role as?
Tom Collins:
And there again, I'm gonna have to take the layman term on that one. I'm not real familiar with his role because when I was in local government and I was at Reno County, the commissioners made all the choices. They worked on it together. They didn't hire it out to one man to make those decisions. So I really have no comment on that.
Nick Gosnell:
Okay. Well, the biggest issue there is that back then the county commissioners, because they were the ones making the day to day decisions, they got paid like it, I guess, is a way to put it. They made a little bit more money than they do now. They've expanded the commission from three to five members. They're gonna be down to, oh, roughly $10,000 a year to be commissioners. And so the current three at least have put a lot of that in the county administrator's lap to do the day to day stuff. They chose to hire an administrator here years back, instead of having the commission do the heavy lifting on a day to day basis. So that's a bit different than it was in previous time. So a lot of departments in the county are controlled by state statute. Things like the treasurer's office. They have to follow statute in the way they do things. County doesn't get to dictate a whole lot of that. The sheriff, obviously following state statute with legal stuff, etcetera. So how, how do you do that with the people that they're also elected? They're accountable to the people too. How do you interact with them and make sure that they have what they need, but you can keep an eye on the checkbook.
Tom Collins:
I think any elected official or grown adult to that matter can sit down and come to a compromise, can sit down intelligently and discuss the subject. And if you're short of something, which my understanding in the Sheriff's department has been running short of like vehicles and such. There should be a way to resolve that issue. Now, as far as the administrator goes, I don't think we need an administrator. I think the county commissioners were elected to do their job. I think they need to do their job. And as far as, yes, they're getting paid a lot less, but this to me, this position is not about money. This position is about serving the residents of Reno County the best that we can and save the money that we can for them to give them a better job. Every dime that we save does two things. One, it goes to a project that can do a little bit more. Two, it keeps from having to even talk about raising taxes.
Nick Gosnell:
Now I'm going to get to taxes here before we run out of time. Given the truth in taxation law that passed in the recent years in the legislature, the county can't just keep the mill levy flat and count on valuation increases to increase their budget because they have to do all these publication requirements, if they raise more money, even if it doesn't raise the mill levy. What do you think about trying to be revenue neutral? In other words, trying to stay with the same amount of dollars even when valuations go up.
Tom Collins:
I think the county needs to try to stay with the values as they are. I think the county needs to work within itself to find ways to not raise dollars, not raise mill levies, to work with what they are allotted now and make it better. And, and I still believe it can be done. I think that there is always areas, just like if you're a resident and, and you have a family of three, you don't necessarily get to go out and say, Hey, I need more money. The food cost me more. No, you have to make changes. You have to adapt to the life you're living at the moment. And I think the county needs to do the same thing.
Nick Gosnell:
Okay. So is there anything specific that you say other than, I guess the bridges, would be your first place? You'd look just because of the differences in the way it's been done. Is there any other areas where you say to yourself, this is where I would like to at least start looking at to put things in shape budget wise?
Tom Collins:
Yes. I was invited to a debate with the Sheriff's FOP and it was brought to my attention that budget for their vehicles was cut in half. They had to go twice as long before they could order new vehicles. And yet we turn around and we give hundreds of thousands to charities. Now I'm not saying anything against the charities, but I believe our first responders is one of our foremost important areas that we need to cover and protect.
Nick Gosnell:
All right. So where can folks find out more about you? Have you got a Facebook page or website or anything like that?
Tom Collins:
Yes, I'm on Facebook.
Nick Gosnell:
All right. So you can find out more about Tom Collins. He is running for district five Reno County commissioner, Tom, thank you for your time. We sure appreciate it.
Tom Collins:
And thank you very much for allowing me to come speak.