By Brittany Woodby
Republican candidates for the Cullman County Commission gave their views on topics ranging from education to fighting methamphetamine Thursday at a forum sponsored by the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce and The Cullman Times.
Moderators for the event were Brian Lacy, spokesman for the Cullman Electric Co-Op, and Times’Editor Derek Price.
Candidates were first asked what they felt is the primary responsibility of the commission chairman.
Each candidate said he felt the chairman should stay on top of the county budget and maintain extensive knowledge of revenues and expenditures. James Graves, who served as county administrator from 1996 to 2001, said in addition to keeping an eye on the budget, the chairman should proactively seek funds from state and federal sources.
“If you want to get beyond that, you ought to be willing to get behind a desk at the courthouse and go to your state legislators, congressmen ... and petition those folks,” he said.
“We are very limited as far as revenue is concerned,” incumbent commission chairman Wiley Kitchens said. “You hear a lot of talk about recession right now, but Cullman County is not in a recession and I don’t really see that Cullman is in a recession. There are some people hard-pressed but one of the things the Cullman County Commission can do is sit down and go over finances and make sure all the things we fund and are involved in, to make sure we do have the monies, and funds are not wasted.”
“The responsibilities of the chairman of the county commission are for the people, and what’s important for the people,” candidate and former associate commissioner Stanley Yarbrough said. “As a commissioner, I went after those grants, and I got some of those grants. ... I feel that is the responsibility of the chairman. The chairman needs to work as the team leader of Cullman County.”
Price questioned candidates about their stances on finding county’s long-term water source, citing ongoing disputes between the county commission and the Cullman Utilities Board regarding plans to build a dam on Duck River. The commission, with Kitchens as chairman, purchased property in early 2007 along the Tennessee River, where the county said it could build a pumping station to draw water from the river and pipe it into the county.
Kitchens said during the forum he was committed to working alongside the city to find the best plan for Cullman’s next water source, but did not specifically state which plan he favored.
Yarbrough also said he believed the city and county have to work together, regardless of the plan enacted. However, he said he does believe there should be a utilities board which includes county, as well as city, members.
Graves took a firm stand in favor of the Duck River Dam project, saying the project has been approved and encouraged by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He also said the steep cost difference between the county’s $117-million proposed Tennessee River Pipeline and the $52-million Duck River project is another reason he supports the dam.
“I keep getting the feeling that Cullman County is heading for a disaster like Jefferson County and the sewer system down there,” Graves said.
Lacy asked candidates if each had ideas to keep from duplicating services between city and county organizations. Yarbrough said he felt there were ways, simply by “working as a team. That’s it.”
Graves said the city and county economic development offices are examples of agencies which could specialize in different areas, allowing the county economic development team to focus on helping small businesses while the city maintains recruitment of large industries.
Kitchens said he also feels the municipalities can continue to work together and drew examples from the drug task force of combined sheriff’s deputies and Cullman City police.
“I think one of the things we have to lay aside is our personal, egotistical differences,” he said. “We are not an individual.”
Each candidate was also asked how they would respond to budget cuts and which area they would trim expenses from first.
Graves said he felt budget cuts across the board is the only fair way to keep one office from suffering more extensively than others. Kitchens said one of the things he has done since he’s been chairman is to look far enough ahead to foresee impending budget cuts and make decisions about cuts with the advice of the county administrator and the associate commissioners.
Yarbrough said he agreed with Kitchens that it would take a team effort to prioritize during a financial crunch to determine which department should be cut.
Price asked candidates whether or not they felt the sheriff’s department should be given more money from a contract with the federal government paying them for housing federal inmates.
Yarbrough said he neither agreed or disagreed with the sheriff’s request, but said the commission would be required to speak with the sheriff about his reasons for the request.
Graves said he understands there is never enough money to meet the needs of the sheriff’s department, but would be willing to meet with the sheriff to determine if there was an appropriate compromise and would even consider expanding the jail to take in more federal prisoners if that would bring in more money.
Kitchens said Sheriff Tyler Roden approached him about housing federal inmates with the initial agreement to give that money to the county to pay for the Cullman County Detention Center.
“There is not a department in this county that does not need more revenue,” he said. “We have to be able to sit down together and come to a resolve on this.”
Lacy asked candidates what they felt could be done to improve communication between county departments to make them more interactive. Each said they felt like the courthouse needed updates to provide for better work environments and each suggested building an annex or satellite offices throughout the county.
“The courthouse contains all the respective offices that were there when the courthouse was built and moved into,” Graves said. “A lot of these departments are elbow-to-elbow, they are so crowded.”
Kitchens agreed, calling the courthouse “outdated,” and said the county needs to prepare for making changes down the road.
Yarbrough said he had talked to the revenue office and the probate office about residents having to wait in long lines and said if he is elected as chairman he will work to build courthouse annex to better serve residents.
Price followed by asking candidates what they felt the county could do about the methamphetamine problem in the area. Each candidate deferred the solution back to law enforcement and the sheriff’s office.
“How much funding do we have to have and can we put in to fight meth?” Kitchens said. “This is a problem not just in Cullman County but everywhere we go ... How much revenue do we have coming in that we can take out of other departments in other areas to fight the meth problem with? ... We are going to have to have team effort from all these sources (federal, state and local governments) there is not one individual department that can solve the problems we have with drugs.”
Yarbrough said his question is whether other counties are putting money into fighting the meth problem.
“If we put $2 million in, will that be sufficient,” he said. “It’s not a local issue, it’s a statewide or nationwide issue.”
Graves said he was in favor of installing secure phone lines at the sheriff’s department for people to call in suspicion of illegal drug activity.
Candidates wrapped up the forum by answering how they felt the county could increase funding for county schools.
“Funds for county schools come in different ways,” Yarbrough said. “When we talk about funding, my theory is not about saying the county will give you $100,000 for your schools. I believe in working for them.”
“In-kind work, we can definitely assist,” Graves said. Construction and safety work are the best ways to contribute to county schools, he said.
“Are you asking us? Should we be equal to our state legislators who have gone down there this past session and squandered their time away without passing an education budget?” Kitchens said. “The county is very limited as to what it can do as far as putting money into the educational system.”
