place to welcome corey mcconnell corey is running at the democrats for washington county commissioner will turn directly to our questions cory we would be interested in knowing what skills  qualifications you would bring to the office of commissioner i think my skills would start with my education i graduated from college with a degree in political science and history so i have a good understanding  of that aspects involved in politics i've been involved in the local my local government for fifteen years that's on zoning boards i've been on there for fifteen school board i've been on it for  fourteen years nine years of which i was president so i've been involved in negotiations obviously and budgeting so have a good understanding of what's involved what's needed in that respect library boards  involved in two library boards over the last decade so it's good to be involved in that in the local community so that i think that's the main thing so it's an understanding of the fiduciary requirements of the position and also the leadership skills needed and to do all those jobs you probably have to be able to work well with the variety of people i'll definitely and i think every board that i've been on it's been filled with a lot of great people to work with and even working with the unions that we've had to work with on the school board they've been excellent to work with when you get down person to person but i mean it's it's about working with people  their positions and get a lot of problem solved that way great what do you think are the important issues facing the county and in particular the county commissioners in the next four years i think one of the big  issues facing the county is the reliance on the energy sector i mean you have the marcellus shale a lot of industries in the area which is good i mean it's a lot of jobs or a lot of people  but what what happens when it goes away when they're done drilling they need to set the stage for more manufacturing more jobs that aren't reliant solely on the marcellus shale and  that respect they also need to be cognizant of the fact that they have royalties and lease payments they received from cross creek park from the fairgrounds from the county home in arden from  even part that's a lot of money that they've taken in over the last seven eight years but what do we really have to show for using the money to balance the budget so that makes you think that we have bigger issues here that are being glossed over by they were readily access to this money so it's concerning so it's an accountability i think is needed in that regard in how they address the marcellus jobs budgeting that's so is if you are elected commissioner you would be interested in getting more transparency about where all definitely the money is being you definitely need more transparency from i mean they roll half of all the money directly into their general fund so where's it going it's a big concern of mine they enjoy talking i mean you get involved you go to various meetings that they have and they'll tell you what you want to hear but not necessarily what they're going to do and i find that troubling i mean i've been involved in certain meetings over the last i would say probably ten years between the school board and the county and you get different story every time you talk to a different person so what about the revenues from the gaming activities th of that come to the county to yes and i think there needs to be more thought put into where that money goes i think it needs to be more for growing the community to benefit everyone in washington county instead of picking and choosing pet projects i think it needs to be more of a transparent process as well instead of just going there and putting on  you have to put on a show of what you're going to do and all that needs to be more transparency on how the decision is made instead of just put it all out there from people to make their case but it's transparency in the whole pro where that money goes and then also countability after the fact i mean do they really get the bang for the buck i mean yes i mean that of just you know here's the money go on your merry way they need to follow up  how about another issue with the drilling is the safety of the of the work that they do and the its impact on the environment do you have any concerns at all we signed a lease and it was a new surface lease and we've had no adverse effects from it even i mean we watched our water we watched that so environmental i see no concerns with  quick but then i guess when it gets to the state or county roads they seem to take a little bit longer but the township roads way seem to get fixed relatively quick but that would be the only safety concern i see  traffic i mean traffic and the road side yes what about the reassessment process are you do you see a role for the county commissioners when the figures eventually do come in explaining to the public what the process was all about and so on coming from being on the school board and i you see that the reassessment is long overdue i mean thirty years basing everything on evaluation thirty years ago i mean that's the county has changed residents have changed i think it was something that they needed to do the only concern i had about the process was all the legal fees that the county expended just dragging the process out i mean how much did we waste in legal fees to prevent the inevitable i mean i think it was for their own political expediency that they can say they fought it the only reason that they did it can you explain why you think it's necessary in case members of the public don't understand that it's homes were evacuated i think it was in seventy nine i think was the last evaluation reevaluation reassessment but it's to balance everything out i mean you have new homes you have older homes that are being based off of that those values from there are no love has changed a lot has changed but it people need to understand that like municipalities school the school boards and the county they can only repeat so much is the limits of what they can see from reassessment so your taxes you reassess value may be higher but everyone else is going to be higher so on average everyone should balance out some people may see a raise but some some people may see us i think the county needs to be more forthcoming with information on the potential risk of the potential downside or  the fact that you might be paying less i think to reassure some people like those on fixed incomes retired citizens that own their home maybe give the strine create a mechanism that allows them to lock in their current rate i think it's something that the school boards the townships and the county the taxing bodies that go off the excess could work work together with to allow that security for the people that would could potentially be impacted the most by that and they've probably lived in their homes for a long time more than thirty years or the third oh yes the mean it's low for him to be able to stay there and be forced out by something like this we're down to one minute of time and i'd like to give you the opportunity to tell the voters why they should vote for you i guess vote for me would be a vote for something that's someone that's more accountable somebody that's willing to listen i know a lot of politicians they tend to talk lot i try not to talk talk too much mainly because i want to hear what people think what issues really matter to them and be honest i guess in the response and if it's something that i can't address or something that i can take care of i'll tell you i'll tell you why but i want to listen i want to know what's going on and i think it's my leadership skills that i've demonstrated ever since i graduated college that i enjoy being involved in