Bob O'Neill - Candidate Questionnaire
QUESTION: What are the reasons you are running for county commissioner?
O'NEILL: The number one reason for me is, I've spent a life in public service. My family are all police officers, we've dedicated ourselves to public service. To me, I kind of feel like I have a chance to do more from a bigger area. I believe that I can bring a lot of different skills that some other people don't have. I have different life experiences than almost everybody here that's doing this, and I think I actually know what people are talking about and what matters to them. I think I am uniquely qualified and would do a great job.
QUESTION: What services should Butler County provide its senior citizens? Should its 10 senior centers remain open or should some or all be closed or consolidated?
O'NEILL: I visited the senior centers. I have had the pleasure of having my father-in-law and my grandfather-in-law live with me at my house.
My grandfather-in-law passed away recently, but he lived with us and he used the Cranberry senior center a lot. He really liked it. I took him there, I went up there and visited during the campaign.
I just don't see how we can cut their services. They've spent their whole life paying taxes. They just need a little bit of time to have that community. I think there's a lot of other areas that could be squeezed before we squeeze the senior centers.
To be fair, I'm sure there's going to be some change in how it's done. But, to eliminate their space and take away that time from them, and also, I don't think people really know that some people get only one good meal a day. I know, my grandfather, he couldn't have prepared that meal every day if he was on his own.
If you spend time with them, they're great. That's why I like coaching, too. They bring a uniqueness; they're not in a rush like we are. I think we need to provide whatever services we can.
QUESTION: What is your view on the county budget? Should revenue increase to meet rising costs or should expenses be cut? Explain your specific proposals.
O'NEILL: One of the main reasons I'm running is that I've worked in government budgets my entire life.
As leader of the drug task force, part of my budget comes directly from the county commissioners. I think that there's money that is being spent wastefully throughout the county.
I'm not in favor of raising taxes whatsoever, or fees. I believe there are plenty of things that we can look at to save money. I would lead the county the way I lead my family. You know, you're not going to spend more money than you take in. It's easy for people to say that they are going to cut this, cut that and not really do it. I think, what I've been able to do with people that I work with and as a leader in the community, especially with the task force, is provide leadership that has people do what they're supposed to do because they want to do it. Because they're happy; they're positive. That alone cuts down on the need for more people.
I don't throw people at problems. You have to come up with a plan and you have to facilitate that plan. I don't think government has ever shown me that, by taking in more money, they're going to spend it any better. So, I would not increase fees or revenue; I do not believe in that.
QUESTION: How much should the county commissioners and county residents be allowed to talk at commissioners meetings?
O'NEILL: I've sat on boards and I've run meetings before for the FOP and the Cranberry Township Police Association, I've been their president for years. There is a time and place for that forum when you have to talk.
You have to expedite the meetings, I understand that. It just seems to me that the best way to go about that is have people present the need for how much time they are going to have. In other words, if you have something to talk about and you know it's going to take you eight to 10 minutes, if you have that much planned, why couldn't you provide us with, “Hey, this upcoming meeting, I need eight or 10 minutes of your time, can you do that?” Maybe we come back and say, “We've got seven,” to make it fair. But, I don't think everybody needs to be cut at three minutes just for the sake of cutting everyone.
I'm about planning and organization, You tell me you need 10 minutes that day, I'm going to make sure we'll give you that 10 minutes, but somebody's going to lose something. Maybe it's me, maybe that's the time I lose a little bit of my pulpit time. But, if I tell someone I'm going to be there at 5, I'm there at 5. If I'm running a practice, as a coach, I've told this to parents forever: if I say we're going to start at 5, we're going to start at five to five. If I say we're going to be done at 7, we're done at five to 7, because I believe in that.
But if somebody tells me they need to do something, I'd make time for it. That's more than reasonable. If some citizen needs to talk to us for 10 minutes regarding an issue, then we can allocate that time, but within reason.
QUESTION: Explain what you think should be the role of the county commissioners in their oversight of county agencies such as the county housing and redevelopment authority, the county industrial authority, tourism bureau, planning commission.
O'NEILL: I'm a big believer in giving people authority over their area of expertise. In other words, if I have a plumbing issue, I very rarely ever fix it; I hire a plumber. So, if were going to put somebody in charge of a board or authority, such as the tourism bureau, I know that they're able bodied and that they are there for the right reasons.
I'm not the kind of micromanager to step on their toes. However, they do need to report to us because we are the community's voice. We're the elected people and we're the ones holding the purse strings. So, as long as they're keeping their house in order, then I don't think we need to micromanage them.
But I do think we need to be the leaders, which is what I think has been missing. Professional, almost ambassadors for the county. I mean, tourism is one of the biggest things we have in our county, with the parks and everything else. The county commissioners should be the ambassadors of the county, bringing in the outside people. We could work hand in hand with them, but I don't think we need to be in their day-to-day decision-making process.
QUESTION: What role do you think the county commissioners should have in economic development?
O'NEILL: Very similar to the last answer. We are the faces of the county. As a police officer for all these years, I had an old boss, he has since retired. He was a retired Air Force general; very powerful man, knew a lot about a lot of things. He once told me that the police are actually the face of the community; we're the people that people see on a day-to-day basis — perception is their reality.
So, if you're doing the right thing all the time, even if we don't think people are looking, then that's how people will think of us and that's how people will think of the community. That stuck with me; he told me that as a young man.
I believe that's exactly who we are as the commissioners. We should be the most responsible. When people look at us, they should be like “This guy's out here hustling for our county; he's trying to bring in jobs; he's trying to advocate; he's bringing people to the table.” Not creating our own infighting problems and basically making the county look bad.
Cranberry's done a great job of bringing economy here. They go out and they have a purpose for their actions; they go and seek businesses and bring them in. I think that's exactly what the county commissioners should be doing. We should lead by example and be in the forefront of communicating our message to everyone.
QUESTION: What role do you think the county commissioners should have in helping to coordinate with community services such as water and sewer authorities, emergency medical services, bus transportation?
O'NEILL: I know that there's a lot of talk about transportation. I can tell you that the port authority used to run a bus line out here to Cranberry. A lot of people probably don't even know that. It came from Pittsburgh, and it probably was about eight people on it every day.
The cry for public transportation from here to Pittsburgh, I can tell them, empirically, it doesn't work. People don't want to sit on the bus for 45 minutes from here to there.
I don't think that there's a solution there, because there's not a problem there. People aren't going to do it no matter what we do. Unless we get some sort of light rail system that's going to whisk them down there, they're not comfortable with it from this community.
However, there are many private businesses that run shuttles to Pittsburgh, and I think that's the way our transportation should continue to run.
I firmly believe that business does everything better than government. I don't think that the county commissioners should do anything that impedes businesses from growing in our economy, especially with respect to transportation.
I know that there's some public transportation questions about how do we get the people from Butler to Cranberry to work. If the need arises, just like there's a bus from New Castle to Cranberry every day, there will be a bus that will run cheaply.
I think those people pay a couple dollars a day to get from New Castle to Cranberry. I'm sure they'd be happy to run that same bus from Butler to Cranberry if the need arises.
The county commissioners, We're the face of the community. I think anytime we're talking about something that changes people's thought about Butler County, we need to be professional. We need to be out on the front and involved and I think we should be constantly selling Butler County.
I've met thousands and thousands of people during this campaign, and I think their perception of the commissioners right now is that they are not a professional representation of what they are now, and I think that's what they want in office. I'm hoping that's what they'll get in this next election.
