Tom Green County Commissioner Candidates Search for Budget Cuts

The two precinct 1 county commissioner candidates vying for the Mar. 1 Republican Party primary election squared off at last night’s regular meeting of the bi-monthly San Angelo Tea Party. The county commissioner precinct 1 is the northeast quadrant of Tom Green County.

In this race, Willie Ruiz is running for the second time against incumbent Ralph Hoelscher. Ruiz’s energy was a peppy contrast to the stately and stoic slow Texas drawl of Hoelscher.

Hoelscher’s speech began by stating the limitations of what he can do at county court because state law regulates many of Tom Green County’s responsibilities.

For example, the jail, to Hoelscher, is simply a matter of fact.

“We have to build a new jail because the old jail has been condemned by the state for structural damage,” he said. The county is spending $60 million for a new structure, with approvals already underway to start construction on county land northeast of town near the intersection of US 67 and US 277 highways.

He also defended the court’s decision to build a new jail 12 miles away from the courthouses where the prisoners will have to be bussed to trial.

“If you tear the existing jail down and start over, it’s going to take you four years to construct a new jail there. Where are you going to house the prisoners while you’re building the new jail?” he asked, in response to a question from the audience. Hoelscher said the county would have to pay to another county the exorbitant expense of bed rental to house San Angelo’s prisoners and to transport them to and from the Tom Green County Courthouse. Building a new jail 12 miles away was the smarter option, Hoelscher added.

Neither candidate knew the exact number of prisoners that the jail can house. Hoelscher said “well over 400.” Ruiz said 476. The exact capacity is 449, and on many nights, the jail is near 100 percent capacity.

Ruiz agreed that building the jail out of town was a smarter option. His principle reason was not only cost, but a downtown jail blights the economic resurgence of the downtown area.

Hoelscher ceded to God the solution to what he thought was the county’s largest problem: the lack of water.

“Water is always a big problem in this area," he said. "We definitely have done everything I can think we can do. The only thing (else) I can think to do is get down on your knees and pray for rain.” 

In a long answer, Hoelscher considered the idea of cutting taxes. In it, he listed areas of the budget that cannot be cut, except for road maintenance; and he doesn’t want to cut that, either.

“There’s never enough money for road maintenance,” he said. “Roads always seem to be one of the last departments to be funded… When the budget gets tight, the roads always get cut.”

He then turned to the sheriff’s department for budget cutting ideas.

“If we cut more, well, I think the community wants more (law) enforcement, not less. And we have to operate and maintain the jail. It’s required by the state.”

Hoelscher noted that over 70 percent of the county government budget is judicial, with much of the courts’ expenditures dictated by the state mandates. He also pointed out that the library was built by the community and probably not a good place to look for cuts. Then he mentioned parks, “Not much there.”

“The only thing left to cut is road maintenance,” he said. Without mentioning a tax hike, Hoelscher admitted, “We need additional funding.”

Ruiz said roads were a problem, but then he took a sidetrack conversation, saying that discovering the largest problem facing the county is to ask the question, “Why do we have so many criminals?” Instead of building new jails, Ruiz said, we should focus on the schools. Admitting that a county commissioner doesn’t build schools, Ruiz said he still wants to have a conversation about what the community can do to better educate the children so they will not live a life of crime.

“We have to come together as a community to address our problems,” Ruiz said. “Not just the county problems, but the legal problems.”

Ruiz wants to cut county taxes. After hearing Hoescher’s rundown of how tight the budget is, San Angelo LIVE! asked how Commissioner Ruiz would cut taxes and maintain current service levels.

“You accomplish that by reexamining your budget," he responded. "I’ve seen this a lot in government…they fail to do operational audits. An operational audit is... let’s say you take 100 employees, and over time, you have improvements (to) processes and technology. But you still have those 100 employees. You bring an operational audit in place and find out, ‘Hey, it only takes 40 people (to do the same job).’” 

Ruiz also wants to examine what can be done with county pensions. While admitting that the county doesn’t have the power to do away with pensions, and current retirees who have earned their pensions should keep them, he said he’d like for the county to think ahead in implementing a blended retirement system, part savings (like a 401k) and part pension funded by tax dollars.

Ruiz is a registered nurse, farmer and rancher of about 400 acres in northern Tom Green County, and a real estate investor. A resident of San Angelo for 34 years, he retired from GTE/Verizon in 2008 where he had a 24-year career in management there.

Picture: Willie Ruiz and incumbent County Commissioner Ralph Hoelscher, Pct. 1 at the San Angelo Tea Party candidates' forum on Jan. 26, 2016. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde)