Local Control Is Important And In Danger

LOCAL CONTROL IS IMPORTANT

DANGER!AND IN

by Precinct 4 Commissioner Dianne Edmondson

photo courtesy by Commissioner Dianne Edmondson

As local elected officials, your County Commissioners and your municipal council members are the office holders closest to you, the residents of Denton County. Their actions affect you the most of any legislative body, and they are the easiest for you to contact. After all, their offices are near your home, and you probably run into them from time to time at a local store or restaurant. Virtually every political figure knows that local control is important to provide the services, events, and outcomes that the public wants.

Last session, about 7,000 different pieces of legislation were introduced in Austin. These dealt with everything from public education, transportation, licensing roofers, and regulating texting to legalizing marijuana and hundreds of other topics. Some of those bills have a direct impact on your local officials’ ability to serve you, their constituents, as you want to be served. In many cases, very different counties are treated identically.

You, the residents of Denton County, are more aware than the lawmakers in Austin of how you want your local elected officials to deal with our local issues. During the 140 days of a regular legislative session, hundreds of committee meetings and dozens of general sessions are held, many concurrently. There is simply no way that your local officials can – or should -- take time from their regular jobs and head to Austin to monitor the progress of bills which will affect their local constituents back home. So how do we handle this daunting task? By joining professional associations, such as the Texas Association of Counties, the Council of Urban Counties, Texas Municipal League, and other similar professional groups such as those for County and District Clerks, Tax Assessors/ Collectors, Elections Administrators, District Attorneys, Sheriffs, Police and Firefighters, etc. As each of those associations identifies proposed legislation which would affect its members – either positively or negatively – the association notifies its members, provides data regarding the legislation, and encourages the individual members to contact their own state legislators to express their opinions. The associations are the conduits of important information.

Without these associations, for example, your elected officials would have to find another way to review about 7,000 bills, analyze them for potential impact on their respective counties, communicate with legislators sitting on relevant committees, and be present to testify when each problematic bill is considered in committee – sometimes with notice given just minutes before a hearing. It makes no financial or logical sense for all county judges, commissioners, and other county elected officials vainly to attempt to keep abreast of all pertinent legislation and then travel to Austin to convey support or concerns. Your local elected officials urge citizens also to utilize associations to which you may belong to track legislation and “lobby” your legislators with your viewpoints on the proposed bills. (Use

this link to follow legislation of interest to you https://capitol.texas.gov/Resources/ FollowABill.aspx .)

We are committed to full transparency on how your tax dollars are spent. Accountability, embodied in the form of the ballot box, provides the most transparent way for you, as local taxpayers, to ensure that you can measure results and hold your leaders accountable for how we spend your public funds. Your Denton County elected officials communicate to our legislators on your behalf and also encourage individual citizens to weigh in with their state legislators. (Use this link

to find your State Representative or State Senator https://wrm.capitol. texas.gov/home.)

Strong partnerships between business, community, and political leaders have been the foundation of Texas’ economic success. Local leaders and elected officials have historically enjoyed a mutually cooperative advocacy model that supports their citizens, creates jobs, and protects the quality of life in the cities and counties we all call home.

Let’s remember that “all politics is local,” and how important it is to keep local control strong and vibrant here in Texas.

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If you would like to receive an e-newsletter, please contact Commissioner Edmondson at 972.434.3960 | Dianne.Edmondson@dentoncounty.gov | Southwest Courthouse: 6200 Canyon Falls Dr., Ste. 90