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Thursday, October 19, 2000

Commissioner candidates' plan: Efficiency, interlocal agreements
Incumbent Schwing says efficient work can keep costs down; challenger Jones says cooperation with local governments is key
By Jason Ma
Caller-Times

Jones

Voters in County Commissioners Court Precinct 1 will choose between two methods of keeping county costs down.
   Democratic incumbent Frank Schwing wants to keep taxes down by continuing to find ways for the county to serve its residents more efficiently.
   Republican challenger Bob Jones says he wants public entities to cooperate. He proposes that the city and county pursue inter-local agreements to help one another in repairing roads. He says the county and the city should work together to provide youth programs, and he wants all public entities to cooperate on plans for regional economic development.

Schwing

   "Everybody's operating independently," Jones said. "Everybody's raising taxes independently. When are we going to sit down together?"
   He wants the county to provide care to indigent patients in new locations. Currently, the county hospital district contracts with Spohn Health System to provide indigent care at three hospitals and four outpatient clinics in Corpus Christi and Robstown. There are none in Calallen.
   Jones also pledges to have regular office hours for people in the county courthouse and within Precinct 1 so they can see him after their work hours or if they cannot make it to a Commissioners Court meeting.
   Schwing wants to continue to keep Nueces County in good financial condition. He touts the county's bond rating of AA from Standard and Poor's as one of the highest in the state.
   "My primary responsibility is making sure they get the services they pay for in as efficient manner as possible," Schwing said.
   If elected to another term, he said he would look into merging a constable precinct and selling or eliminating the Nueces County airport near Robstown to save hundreds of thousands of dollars. And he would transfer staff into Constable Precinct 1 to clear a backlog of citations and warrants and try to mandate a garbage fee for rural residents so they will all get trash pickup services. That, he said, would free road crews from cleaning trash that has been dumped illegally.He points out that this year County Court No. 5 will have a contracted public defenders office that is expected to save as much as $150,000 a year.
   Both candidates want to improve the pay and working conditions of county employees.
   Jones says he wants across-the-board pay raises for law enforcement officers and more training for them. He says the first place he would look for the money for raises would be in county departments that are under budget. He would have consultants re-evaluate positions to determine pay raises.
   Schwing said he would like to give county employees more pay, but said it is also up to the elected department heads to ask for raises from the Commissioners Court.
   Jones is a Vietnam veteran, ordained pastor and has run for Corpus Christi City Council. Schwing is a business owner and former Corpus Christi city councilman and an Army veteran.
   The position pays $53,477 and is a four-year term. Precinct 1 is bounded by Calallen and downtown Corpus Christi.
   Jones has raised $17,333 in contributions and loans since January. He has spent money on billboards, signs and brochures.
   Schwing says he raised about $15,000 in contributions and loans and plans to spend it on TV and radio ads, signs, brochures and possibly print ads.



Staff writer Jason Ma can be reached at 886-3778 or by e-mail at maj@caller.com

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