pleased to present a j williams who's running for washington county commissioner he is running on the democratic ticket a j our first question is what skills and qualifications do you bring to the and sincerity also i was on campus for council for four years so the local government kind of taught me a lot it's a lot different to jump in on a smaller level you're more hands on with the people you're representing so i think that that is a great skill that i can bring as i'm used to dealing with the citizens one on one as well as looking at the issues in a sympathetic and sincere way i think those are three huge things to take to the county level would be great and now i'd like to turn to the issue what do you think are the most important issues that commissioners will face in the next four years you just  start with what you think might be the most important yeah absolutely the most important thing i'd like to see is that we turn our attention towards the citizens of the county i think over the last four years we've grown a lot in the sense of commerce and infrastructure in the county but i think that we've dropped the ball as well when it comes to the citizens in this county that there's an epidemic that you can't overlook it's the pink elephant in the room and it's heroin i mean there's a heroin and drug epidemic here and it's taking lives younger and younger every day and it's a sad thing to see i'd like to see us turn our attention towards fighting that with the district attorney's office and i think when you fight it i think that to turn our attention towards the addict you know the different attorney office and drug task force they do a lot to fight the selling of drugs in the county but i think that we sometimes miss the point there that there are addicts out there that need help and they don't have the access to it in the city of washington they need somewhere to go they need to get to the city of washington so you have these people down south in the valley people you know they don't have access to it and when you create these safe havens they know of a place to go they go to that place and then when we get them somewhere that they can receive help and it may not work the first time doesn't work the first time unfortunately but i don't think i think that we should be there to offer the assistance and to offer going on ok let's turn to some of the other issues as well do you have any thoughts on the tax reassessment and do you see a role for the commissioners in either valuation of someone's home and increasing your tax let's hold the line steady if you don't need to increase the taxes if you don't need to accept you know more revenue from the taxpayer let's hold it steady because what we're seeing is year it's a local you know they're not they elected officials or not federal closer to home they're closer to home yeah i mean maybe someone's next door neighbor might be a school board member or you know councilman or something like that so i think that if you can talk to them say look this is what we need to do we need to hold you know we need to stay steady or tighten our belt let's do what we have because next year you're going to ask for an increase because you're going to spend you're going to get the surplus you're going to spend and then you're going to want more next year so i think that the people are happy that about the jobs but what about the safety and environmental issues do you have any company yeah absolutely i think we can say for sure it's a good thing in the sense of economics and the economy around here we never really felt the recession like other places felt and i think a lot of that the drilling deserves credit for some of that because we brought thousands of people in with these high thing jobs and they were able to spend their money around here and  pay taxes and you know we didn't feel the pressure like other areas did on the flip side environmentally is it safe is it not safe i'm not a professional there's both sides of the story as you know there's an assessment on both sides that weigh in on it but i think that there's a good way for the drilling companies that the good neighbors good members of the community to start establishing programs within the communities to get our people qualified to work in that profession and long range it's going to create jobs locally they're creating jobs a lot of them are brought in from outside of the area so if you can train the people that we have living in this county to perform these jobs now you're now you're a great member of the community you're not you know not just a good taxpaying member but now you're actually showing an investment in the community in what you think about the  casino proceeds the part that comes to the local communities do you think that is adequately distributed or appropriately distributed i don't i'm fortunate i don't it's distributed and a lot of communities take advantage of it however i think that we see a large chunk of it every year going towards building these industrial parks and these redevelopment authority funded projects i'd like to see and more localized and brought into the communities and working on the infrastructure there in the smaller towns that their budgets just don't permit it the way to fix the roads or to repair a pavilion inside the park or something like that we've built industrial parks some of them are empty some of them aren't until we can prove that they're successful and obtaining tenants and things like that i think that we should turn a focus like i said to the smaller communities and start helping them out do you think that actually leads me to another question do you think the commissioners have a role in encouraging smaller communities and others to share some of their services almost in a regional way to us yeah i think the commissioners they can serve as a liaison between these municipalities you know one municipality needs to need a street sweeper there's no reason that a commissioner cannot does that link between it and what this township needs utilization of a street sweeper instead of them buying one or running one and crazy costs if they take care of the gas while you let them use it two days away these are things that we need to stop on the cut the borders per se because for the in reality we're all one community it's not washington county it's not take out the division of each community work together and you'll get so much more accomplished right now we're down to our last minute so i'd like to give you the opportunity to tell the voters why they should vote for you pretty much of what i'm going off of is that we need sincerity in the commissioner's office we need to look towards the future of washington county i plan on being here hopefully for the next few years fifty sixty years god willing so i'd like to see that my children  and my grandchildren one day what a great place to live just as i've had a great place to live and raise their families thank you very much that was a day williams