QUESTION: What are the reasons you're running for county commissioner?

GEYER: I want to make a difference, a positive difference, for the people who I live closest to. I've always been attracted to local governance. I have a lot of different skills and talents that I can use to contribute toward making the county a better place to be.

QUESTION: What services should Butler County provide to its senior citizens? Should its 10 senior centers remain open or should some or all be closed or consolidated?

GEYER: I think the verdict is still out on that. We have to do an assessment of what the needs are and what the demands are and what the costs are and how many people we are serving. We need to do an evaluation and, based on all that data, put together some type of strategic plan. But I'm really confident that just knowing the few things I've learned through reading the newspaper that we can do a better job just as a county and provide more efficiencies and leverage more dollars by leveraging private partnerships and volunteers and schools and churches to make our senior centers more sustainable into the future.

QUESTION: What is your view about the county budget? Should revenue increase to meet rising costs or should expenses be cut? Explain your specific proposals.

GEYER: We have a $184 million budget, approximately $61 million in the general fund. What people don't realize is that 80 percent of the county budget is mandated by the state. I know there's been talk during the race about cutting human services. But the human service budget alone is 93 percent mandated by the state and federal government, so that's only 7 percent wiggle room to make any kind of impact.

I think there's a lot of things we can do within the county by using the synergy and the good people that we have working here. We've already streamlined different administrative functions and prospects, where we're saving county taxpayers money by how we provide programs and services.

I think there's always ways to make cuts. We should exhaust making cuts before we would ever come to the taxpayers in the event that you are contemplating a tax increase.

QUESTION: How much should the county commissioners and county residents be allowed to talk at commissioners meetings?

GEYER: I don't know if there's really a set number. I think the reason there's been so much focus and attention on this in the past three-and-a-half years is because we've had a lot of unprecedented things taking place in the county because we've had people that don't understand how processes and government protocol function on a normal basis. Because of that, we've been accommodating a minority group of people in lieu of doing what the majority knows is best.

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, the tourism bureau and the planning commission?

GEYER: The county commissioners are responsible; they are the administrative and policy-making branch of county government. But they can work with all these authorities and they should have oversight of all these authorities because they are all integrated into the county system. The end result provides programs and services to the taxpayers that live here. So we've got to keep an eye on our authorities and the people we appoint to those boards. We have to appoint good people that are going to continually oversee the operations of those authorities and make sure that they are being fiduciary responsible.

QUESTION: What role do you think the county commissioners should have in economic development in the county?

GEYER: I think the county commissioner can act as a leader, can act as a liaison, can act as a facilitator in economic development. There's nine economic-related organizations throughout Butler County, so you can act as the facilitator and leader to bring these groups together.

I know there's a movement that I'm interested in exploring where we unify these organizations more in one central location so that when people who are new to the county want to start a business, they can come to this hub and access the resources that are needed.

The county commissioners can support economic infrastructure by making sure that we have safe roads and bridges. We can support by advocating in Harrisburg for funding. We can support by establishing TIFF and LERTA and different types of tax incentive, financing districts throughout the county to attract business.

I know I want to start an occupational advisory committee that feeds into the unified economic plan. What I want to do is bring regional business leaders with educational leaders and I want to crank out some ideas and provide some direction so we can put together a strategic plan for the county.

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 and bus transportation?

GEYER: The county really is not responsible for sewer and water; that's a municipal-driven and a local developer-driven endeavor. And what the county does do in terms of sewer and water is that they have a good working relationship with Pennsylvania American Water, and they use private dollars to privatize water lines throughout. I've written letters of support to the state for Pennsylvania American Water so that we could get some state dollars for these various municipalities so that they can implement water systems.