Jim Eckstein - Candidate Questionnaire
What are the reasons you are running for county commissioner?
Eckstein: To promote honest, open government and to reform the political system.
What services should Butler County provide its senior citizens? Should its 10 senior centers remain open or should some or all be close or consolidated?
Eckstein: I think that we should have all 10 senior citizen centers open, and I think we need to do our due diligence on improving the centers and meeting their needs better.
We have not done anything to meet those needs. All they did was want to make a wholesale change of which I am extremely against.
And I also want them to not fund raise. Any fundraising they do, I'd like them to use for trips for themselves; not to pay for the actual facility itself. That would be my goal. I think we've handled it haphazardly so far.
What is your view about the county budget? Should revenue increase to meet rising costs or should expenses be cut? Explain your specific proposals.
Eckstein: I think that it should meet it. Specific proposals, I think we ought to look at some of the jobs that have been created. The other commissioners have created twice as many jobs as I have over my term in office. They voted for twice as many increases than I have. I think we should look at that.
I think Butler County is in a very lucky position. We're a growing county, and we have (gas) impact fee money, and they are drilling more wells all the time. The last two years, we got a $1.5 million per year in Marcellus Shale impact fee money, and we drilled 100 new wells in 2014, and it's based on how many wells you have drilled.
I think we ought to be more frugal with hiring, and we can make it without a tax increase. That's my belief.
One of the things I think we should do is pay down debt. We have a 2006 bond issue that, if we watch what we're doing, we can completely pay it off by 2016. We're already two-thirds of the way there on that. We have to take some of this impact fee money and pay that off, and it will free up $900,000 a year in the budget. Reducing debt is critical.
How much should the county commissioners and county residents be allowed to talk at commissioners meetings?
Eckstein: I think that we've done the community a disservice by making it three minutes. That's the minimum allowed by law, by legal precedent. I don't think we should do that.
During issues, we can be more liberal and let 15 people talk. Very seldom do we go over 10 people.
The critical part, I believe, is the five minutes. We ought to have people allowed to speak up to five minutes. Sometimes, we ought to waive it, like with the senior citizens.
As far as the commissioners, I'm not allowed to speak at all. They used to give 10 minutes to speak for the county commissioners. Now, I get three minutes: the same as the public. I think that is dead wrong.
All three county commissioners should have time to speak at the meeting. I believe five to 10 minutes, max. I'm the only one that speaks now, and the other two just comment on what I say. They don't come up with initiatives; they're just negative about what I have to say.
Now. is that good government? Being negative? They don't do any positives. I speak, they comment negatively. That's not good for county government. They should speak and have give and take.
Explain what you think should be the role of the county commissioners in their oversight of county agencies such as the housing and redevelopment authority, the county industrial authority, the tourism bureau, the planning commission?
Eckstein: Right now, we appoint the boards. I think we should have term limits. We appoint the boards, and we ought to have a different way of choosing the boards rather than the buddy system, where you hand select your buddies. That is a bad idea.
We ought to let people apply for that, and that would alleviate a lot of problems.
Look, we have the obligation now with the housing authority. We gave them $400,000 in 2014. Obviously, we have an obligation to make sure that money is spent wisely. Their board thinks that only one person has to sign a check, or the press and the public shouldn't be allowed to do a Right to Know request.
I am dead-set against that. These are agencies that get tax money. We should be open, honest with the press and with the public to have Right to Know requests. They should be looked at. That's what makes our government strong, freedom of the press.
What role do you think the county commissioners should have in economic development in the county?
Eckstein: I don't believe government should dictate to the private sector what they do and don't do. I think the role ought to be as a facilitator and help them make it easy to get permits or to facilitate business, especially ones that pay living wages. I think that's our job.
I think we ought to make the environment of low taxes, low debt and make it user friendly. We're supposed to help business, not throw obstacles up. But it's not our job in government, I don't believe that policy works.
Also, infrastructure. The county's got 130 bridges. We should be concerned about infrastructure, low debt and low taxes. That will make us more competitive than the other counties, and people will come here.
What role do you think the commissioners should have in helping to coordinate with community services such as water and sewer authorities, emergency medical services, bus transportation?
Eckstein: I'd like to speak about the bus transportation, and park and ride. I really think that the transit authority, We're holding them back. We should be able to facilitate even some front money to make that operate. They have money for buses, they have the park and ride lot over in Cranberry, and we need to do more park and ride lots.
But they really made a big one over on 528 and 68, and we ought to provide bus services for commuting only from Butler County to Pittsburgh. We're one of the only counties that don't offer that, and for us not to be able to come up with seed money to operate, I believe that's what the problem is.
The buses are paid for by the federal government, they want to get natural gas buses. Maybe we can do a cooperative agreement with Vogel, until they have the new natural gas buses. Vogel Disposal has a gas plant. Maybe we can work together with them to facilitate.
Basically, it's been held up for three more years or us not being able to fill the buses up with natural gas. Well, they can operate at half the cost on fuel, so it's imperative that we do that. But, Vogel Disposal in Mars has a facility, or maybe another company that we don't know about, and maybe we can use them as a filling station in the interim and get the process rolling. It's embarrassing.
The bus terminal is done, it's beautiful, in Butler, and it's just ridiculous that we don't have this by now. We're in the minority. Three or four different counties have this. I'd only do it for commuting, where it would be cost viable.
