County clerk challengers focucs on "access"

Grimes County voters heard from candidates on the Republican primary ballot Sunday, Jan. 16, at a forum hosted by the Grimes County Republican Party (GCRP). The event was held at the Lions Club Building at the Grimes County fairgrounds, moderated by Kenny Graves of Willy 1550 and 98.7 and live streamed by the Navasota Examiner.

GCRP chairman, Susan Patrick, opened the forum explaining the importance of primary voting.

She said, “When it’s time to vote and you go ‘I don’t like any of these people. How did we get these people on the ballot?’ It’s because you skipped the March primary and that’s what we don’t want you to do. Listen, do more investigation and vote in the primaries.”

She added that since Republican primary winners and those unopposed have no challengers running against them in November, they are essentially elected in the primary.

While the forum initially featured both the County Clerk and Pct. 2 Commissioner candidates, Patrick announced that Pct. 2 Commissioner candidate David Tullos advised Saturday he would not be able to attend but added that incumbent David Dobyanski would still be placed on the “hot seat.”

Clerk candidates take the stage

Q&A for County Clerk candidates, incumbent Vanessa Burzynski, Stacey Male and Britney Husfeld consisted of two-minute introductions, six 90-second rounds, six lightning rounds and a closing.

Burzynski recapped her accomplishments preserving and digitizing county records back to 1846, bringing in new technology and her commitment to customer service. Male said she would bring a fresh set of eyes and focus on cross-training. Husfeld said she has a “servant’s heart” and her experience as a Realtor would help prepare the County for the coming growth.

Office hours factor into access

In 90-second rounds, the candidates responded to six questions about their knowledge of the functions of the County Clerk, job qualifications, management skills, computer and website management skills, work ethic, commissioners court attendance and Republican Party involvement.

As to what changes the candidates would bring to the Clerk’s office, Burzynski recapped the changes during her administration such as cataloging, preservation and scanning of records, accepting credit cards, opening the office during lunch, and the ability to search for records online, and said, “There’s been a lot of things we’ve done and I’d like to continue doing that, and keep scanning and get more records online to the public.”

Husfeld’s goal is to increase accessibility and educate residents about the clerk’s office.

She said, “I would like to set the office hours so that they are accessible for title companies to record the deed when someone sells a home and for the law offices that pull records. I would like to have a lot better accessibility for every person in the county.”

Expanding on accessibility, Male said, “Making sure that all current records for probate and the most important things that title clerks and attorneys pull is online so it’s easier for them to get to, being open and available to them, and yes, sometimes they work late. They do it at all hours and they need to be able to get those records at any time.”

Male would increase staff training and cross-training to keep the office running smoothly.

Short and sweet!

Six lightning round questions pertained to contract experience, customer service skills, court experience and information about their current employment.

The county clerk’s office is a resource for genealogists and a question related to family genealogy search revealed that all three candidates have at least minimal to strong skills in genealogy research. All candidates expressed a desire to keep paper records as part of Grimes County history.

Unopposed candidates speak Running unopposed and

Running unopposed and making comments were Pct. 4 Commissioner Phillip Cox, County Judge Joe Fauth, District Court Clerk Diane LeFlore, County Court at Law Judge Tuck McLain and all three Justices of the Peace.

Not on the ballot but present and speaking was Pct. 1 Commissioner Chad Mallett.

A common denominator in the comments made by Cox, Fauth, LeFlore, McLain and Mallett related to their pride in the new Grimes County Justice and Business Center.

According to McLain, the dedicated courtrooms will allow the five judges serving Grimes County the ability to move their dockets along and provide speedy justice.

He said, “The thing that helps stop people from committing crimes is quick, sure consequence. If the consequences don’t come for three years, it doesn’t do any good.”

Justices of the Peace, Pct. 1 Chris Acord, Pct. 2 Lester Underwood and Pct. 3 Mark Laughlin gave an overview of the JP duties.

Pct. 2 Q&A

Wrapping up, Commissioner Dobyanski answered questions about his accomplishments, priorities for Pct. 2 and Grimes County, the status of strategic plan assignments, outside activities, responsiveness to phone calls from constituents and working with the Navasota Grimes Chamber of Commerce to attract industry.

One priority is “to make sure our subdivision rules are going to protect the citizens in those subdivisions and we have to continuously update those subdivision rules.”

Addressing the growth which reduces ranch and farmland, Dobyanski said, “The county is going to change… and we have to work with the Chamber to make sure we get industries that provide jobs for our citizens. We have to work with the schools to develop people for those industries.”

Jan. 30 state rep forum

Slated for Jan. 30 is the GCRP’s forum for District 12 State Representative. Same time, same location, 4-6 p.m. at the Lions Club Building. Fielding questions will be Incumbent State Rep Kyle Kacal and challengers Ben Bius and Joshua Hamm.

To view the County forum in its entirety, go to ww.facebook.com/NavasotaExaminer/videos/301072248749580.