A Republican Candidates Forum, organized by the Brown County Republican Party, took place Tuesday evening at Victory Life Church. The three-plus hour event featured introductory and closing comments, along with question-and-answer sessions with candidates for Brown County Judge, County Commissioner in Precincts 2 and 3, and Justice of the Peace in Precincts 3 and 4.

The following are the comments from three candidates for Brown County Judge who attended the forum – Molly Kay Smith, Terry Blevins and Shane Britton.

Event moderator J.R. Williams announced prior to the candidates taking the stage the incumbent Brown County Judge Paul Lilly would not be attending the event.

“As you can see, we’re missing a candidate,” Williams said. “We were notified yesterday at 3 through an email the letter says that he sent to us about not being able to be here tonight says ‘The cardiologist ordered me home and not to participate in any large gatherings where COVID can spread easily. I’ll release a notice to the media as to why I will not be participating tomorrow.’ After this, we made contact with him about trying to make contact with him about doing this someway electronically because that can be done here, and he said he had a prior engagement. After that another call was made to him and he said he could not come because he had to teach a class at Tarleton. He’s not here tonight, so we’re going to go on without him.”

Each candidate was asked the same five questions, along with a sixth question that pertained solely to a specific candidate. One-minutes responses were allowed for each question.

After the three candidates in attendance finished their remarks, Williams provided the question that Lilly would have been asked – “In your first term as judge you applied for other positions outside the county. Today you’re essentially reapplying for the County Judge position. Can you reconcile that for the voters of Brown County?”

The following are the three individualized questions asked of the candidates, followed by their responses to the five questions asked of all candidates.

Shane Britton – In your position after 20 years in the Brown County Attorney’s office there’s been some investigations. What are those and what’s the status of those investigations?

I think that’s a fantastic question. If I was a voter in Brown County I would want to know that, so I thank you for asking that question.

In 2016 … an allegation was made that we were inappropriately conducting our pre-trial diversion program. The pre-trial diversion program is a first-time offender program for first-time offenders, and it was a way for them to be on informal probation as an alternative of going through the court process.

There was an issue related to the fees that were collected. We had gone to the legislature and had those fees approved. Our program is now a model that other countries are using, which is the ironic part about it.

Someone made an allegation, it was investigated, it was investigated thoroughly, and it was closed in 2018.

Didn’t realize it was still an issue until this election and it was made an issue by some folks, but we were cleared, they summarily dismissed the investigation at the end of it without ever interviewing me. I have copies of the clearance letter available.

Molly Kay Smith – With this your first run at public office, why did you choose the County Judge position and what makes this position the right fit for you personally?

I think building my ranching business 16 years ago qualifies me to manage our county budget. I have always lived within my financial means, made astute financial decisions regarding my ranching business, have excellent credit and pay property taxes. I have skin in the game.

I think if I can manage my own business and personal finances in a way that is fiscally conservative. I can manage those same values while serving our as rural county budget officer.

I am always forward thinking and trying to manage my business more efficiently. As owner and operator of a ranch, I know that I must maintain a calm disposition while dealing with emergencies on the ranch. Dealing with life and death situation on a regular basis, adjusting my farming practices with unforeseen weather patterns, and crisis veterinary animal emergencies have prepared to serve as our head of emergency management.

Terry Blevins – You’ve talked about your business experience in your ads and tonight also, but what about your personality and temperament makes you feel you are the right fit for County Judge.

I do have a low tolerance for stupid, that’s for sure. My temperament, well as I get older I get better. I think we grow throughout life to become better people.

If you look at the TAC (Texas Association of Counties) website, there are eight duties and responsibilities that apply to the county judge. One page of those is judicial responsibilities while of the other eight, four of those pages directly relate to finance and admin. Since I’ve been 30 years in business, multiple businesses … I’ve got the experience, it’s proven, it’s undeniable.

• What are the top 3 priorities you have for Brown County?

Molly Kay Smith – My No. 1 focus and priority will always be water conservation. Our Texas population is growing but Lake Brownwood is not. I will always be researching and educating our community about our most precious and valuable resource. Without ground water and surface water nothing else matters. I will always been forward thinking, educating our county about more efficient ways to conserve water, more efficient water consumption methods and more efficient water storage for our county.

Our law enforcement is my next priority. Our neighborhoods will thrive, and communities of people will integrate more and engage more in each other’s lives.

I care deeply about the mental health of our county residents. I think I can effectively communicate the necessary public education required to help everyone understand mental health issues included PTSD. I will communicate publicly all the resources available to our veterans and non-veterans. I will create a public platform for education and awareness for sex trafficking, child abuse, domestic violence and family violence.

Shane Britton – I’m going to limit to two priorities – taxation and re-opening the court system.

We’re taxing people out of their homes; we’ve got to do something to curb continued taxation. It’s out of control. We’ve had an opportunity with some of the ARP funding to use that to help with our taxation issue, but we’ve got to do something about controlling, and that begins with controlling spending.

Since Judge Lilly has been in office, he has been the budget officer of three budgets that have collected over a million dollars in additional tax revenue from you the taxpayers.

No. 2, we’ve got to re-open the court system. Judge Lilly has closed the court system, we’re at a crisis. The day he took office there were 655 misdemeanors pending. There’s over 1,000 today. He has moved everything to county court-at-law and is expecting Judge Moss to hear his cases.

We’ve got to get it re-opened; we’ve got to have a judge that’s qualified to hear criminal cases.

Terry Blevins – We have to have a strong sheriff’s department.

Obviously that county court needs to be re-opened. It’s absolutely unsustainable. Judge Moss and that group is definitely doing an outstanding job given the workload they’ve been presented with.

Infrastructure obviously, but technology. Sometimes the technology makes our jobs easier, faster, more efficient, and at some point, you have to embrace the technology and quit resisting it.

• There’s a large number of pending cases in Brown County Court-at-Law. If elected County Judge, how would you resolve that challenge?

Shane Britton – First and foremost you have to have a judge who’s qualified to hear those cases. I hear so much work that goes on in the county court that a non-attorney judge cannot hear. We’ve had a little experiment over the last three years about what does a non-attorney judge do, and it’s failed, and it’s failed miserably. We are at a crisis level in Brown County.

Our court systems are overloaded. You’ve got three major courts – County Court, County Court-at-Law and District Court. What’s happened by Judge Lilly closing the County Court, which by the way he closed that so that he could be a reserve officer in another county, and so we’ve got to re-open that. But re-opening that requires an attorney-judge to hear those cases. We’ve also got to move all the juvenile cases from County Court-at-Law back into the County Court, where again that requires an attorney-judge. That’s the reason we had to move them to start with, Judge Lilly was not qualified to hear them.

Molly Kay Smith – I will serve wherever there is a void as needed. Serving as Brown County Judge, I think the fact that I do not have a law license is an asset, not a liability. This will ensure that our licensed attorney, Court-at-Law judge and District Judge are the only team members handling our higher-level judicial cases.

I want to serve and fill that void wherever I am needed. I am a team player and will consult with our Brown County attorneys and judges. We will decide as a team what judicial cases I need to handle to help each of them and Brown County operate as efficiently as possible. The State of Texas will provide all the adequate training and education necessary for me to perform all the required judicial duties.

Terry Blevins – Much of what Molly Kay says is absolutely true. The State will train us. I want to say that to get the pending cases down it’s going to take work ethic and you have to show up. I don’t think we should let the failure of Judge Lilly reflect on Molly Kay and myself for not being lawyers. The State doesn’t require you to be a lawyer. 83 percent of the 254 counties in the state don’t have lawyer-county judges.

It was said counties our size need a lawyer-judge. I looked it up. Counties that are 30,000 to 50,000 (in population), and Brown County is at 38,000 or 39,000, firmly in the middle of that group, out of that group, those 25 counties, 5 of those have a lawyer-judge which is 20 percent, which is slightly higher than the state average. So, to say that it’s necessary in the 164 years of the state’s history, the state didn’t introduce legislation to change that requirement.

• How would you characterize your views regarding the county’s fiscal management?

Shane Britton – Fiscal management is paramount. We’ve got to get control of our fiscal management. We’ve got to get control of our spending. We’ve got an opportunity now because of the ARP funds … we got 3.6 million dollars in May; we’re going to another 3.6 million this year. What’s most important about those funds is that it’s your money. You get to decide how we spend that money, not the commissioners, not the county judge. We have to have complete transparency in all financial transactions. Everything we do at the county courthouse has to be transparent.

Judge Lilly spent a tremendous amount of money filing open records requests. The only time ever in the history of Brown County that a judge has spent money on outside attorneys to fight open records requests. That is unacceptable. We have to have complete and total transparency; we have to open out budget hearings and encourage participation.

Molly Kay Smith – I think the constituency of Brown County should make that decision.

Terry Blevins – Fiscal management is not a whole different than any other management. As far as our taxes are concerned, we all dislike paying taxes, but I think more than the dislike for paying taxes, we dislike the frivolous spending that’s happening. We don’t mind paying our fair share but when we see government waste our tax money, that’s what’s infuriating us. We need better stewardship of our hard-earned tax dollars.

• The county has received millions of dollars in ARP funds, how would you like to see those funds used?

Shane Britton – That stack right there is the actual ARP rules if anybody wants to peruse those later tonight. It’s 437 pages. It’s very, very complicated and it requires a lawyer to read it.

We’ve got an opportunity, the law allows us to supplant general funds with those ARP funds, which ultimately results in lower taxes. We can take those ARP funds and deposit them into the general fund and pay our bills. Some of you have heard me use this example. Brown County thus far has been like someone who gets a $2,000 stimulus check and instead of paying their bills they buy a new big screen TV. That’s what we did was buy a new big screen TV. We need to pay our bills.

Second of all, when we do decide to spend some of that money, we need to have public input, public hearings and public process.

Molly Kay Smith – Water conservation, law enforcement, and mental health issues.

Terry Blevins – I just wanted to see if I could read this without me being a lawyer. Let’s see, public comment. Many commenters expressed … yes, you can read it without being a lawyer.

• What’s your position on tax abatements for renewable energy projects in the county?

Terry Blevins – It’s no big secret, I was opposed to this particular tax abatement in Brookesmith for several reasons.

The first reason was as a business owner I’ve employed scores of people throughout the years and never have I once thought of or expected a tax abatement. I expected to pay my fair share. So, when you take a company that comes in and says they’re going to spend $300 million, it’s going to be worth $200 million by their assessment and they want tax abatement down to ridiculously low amounts, it’s not fair to us. If we’re paying 100 percent, they’re paying 2 percent, they could bring it up to the middle and everybody pays a little less, and then everybody pays more their fair share. And they brought one job, or two, whatever the final count ended up. But for that particular incident, I was against it.

Molly Kay Smith – I am opposed to any tax break for wind or solar energies. I have always been opposed to wind turbines. They are not green, not clean energy, not efficient, will never pay for themselves, decrease land values significantly, produce low frequency sounds and shadow flicker making it impossible to sleep at night, catch fire, destroy wildlife habitats, destroy livestock health, and kill beneficial wildlife. They consume excessive amounts of oil, the economic development for communities is short lived, none of the temporary employees move here permanently and send their children to school here. Electricity bills will never decrease, property taxes will never decrease. The only people who benefit from these wind farms are the shareholders who do not live on the property full time.

Our government and mainstream media have manipulated and lied to the American people about these green energy farms. They are not transparent about the amount of ground water and surface water they will consume.

Shane Britton – Those of you that followed that issue closely when it came before the commissioners court last year, if you will remember … every time that came up before the commissioners court, I was preaching the same issue – transparency. I’m the one that said we have a meeting at night, we invite the public, we encourage the public’s participation and let them decide and let them tell us what they want us to do. This is their money; this is their business. Ultimately, we did that. We had a meeting at night at Adams Street, very well attended by hundreds of people. That’s for one reason and one reason only and it’s because I insisted that we have a meeting at night and receive public input.

More information on each candidate can be found at Candidates | Brownwood News

To watch the forum in its entirety, click the following link: Candidates Forum Live Stream | (koxe.com)

Stories on the County Commissioner and Justice of the Peace candidates will be published Wednesday.