based introduce mike mccormick he is a republican running for the office of washington county commissioner mike i'd like to start off with asking what qualifications and skills you bring to the office or would bring to the office of commission thank you before i answer that question i'd just like to thank you and the league of women voters for providing this format for us to be able to talk with the people about the things that we believe in as a candidate  i have a vision for washington county that includes the county being both a prosperous safe county and a county that has a good clean environment and i believe that my experience life experience business experience and my professional experience make me a viable candidate for the office of washington county commissioner great can you tell us a little bit about your background so that the people will know where you come from yes so from a personal standpoint i was born in monogamy and i went to my own hell high school and graduate in one thousand nine hundred sixty six went on to a clarion university where i have a degree in business administration and i have a concentration in both economics and marketing a good combination by the way for being a county commissioner i also have been involved in the business world for most of my life i would say that's one thing that separates me from most of the other candidates is that i come from the world of results where we have to make things happen and where words like i trust integrity and passion are not just slogans that we have for our political campaigns but there really are words that we live by  most recently in one thousand nine hundred eight i start a company called benchmark wealth management and i have been the president the c e o now for seventeen years and i think my qualifications as a c e o and a business person is also going to help me become an effective county commissioner thank you what do you think are the most important issues that are going to face the county and then the county commissioners of course in the next four years yes i see some pretty big concerns in the area of economic development we have a kind of an unusual county in that it's like the tale of two cities we have some parts of the county that are doing extremely well and then we have other parts of the county that are really doing just the opposite where chronic unemployment is pervasive and people are struggling to eke out a very day to day existence so somebody that is going to have to have as we do a plan of action to address both the growing and prosperous areas that we have as part of the county protect their ability to generate business to employ people to attract new talent to the area and at the same time we have to do something to help the people in the mon valley we do have a  plan called the mon valley twenty twenty vision where we see reconstructing the mon valley over the next ten years as a significant part of our economic plan the other two issues would be that we believe that the government can be more efficient and more effective not necessarily criticizing anyone in particular but after ten years of prosperity often times it's good to sit down and review what you're doing the county did a strategic plan in two thousand and five i think it would be smart to revisit that in this upcoming year and so the third thing is i'd like to make this a destination county so that people from all over the place from businesses all over the united states in the world move to washington county and college their home and those people who have moved here that they enjoy it enough that they would stay here so those are the three issues economic development a more efficient government and a destination county for washington has south point been a destination for that kind of company that's looking for advancement in this area south southwest is a very good example of how energy oil and gas has altered our economy in a positive way about thirty percent of companies that are in south florida now are energy related but we also have some other great companies over there and says we have a mile in this an example fairmont supply these are all companies that attract great talent hire a lot of people provide incomes and opportunity for many of our current citizens and they are also attracting talent from other places so we see a lot of  moving into south point from allegheny county my office is in the town center by the way so we're right hub of that activity good could you give us just a sneak peek as to what the twenty twenty vision  the issues that are keeping the county down the drug issues as an example unemployment but we're using lawrenceville as kind of a model to explain to people we would like to do and when i say we i'm talking with a california university they have a center for innovation that's providing an incubator for starting new businesses in the area and we're talking to them about helping us in the mon valley i'm currently talking to the new president of the chamber of commerce in the mon valley who  have the whiskey rebellion that we have history that can be capitalized on so you start to really draw on the limited resources that you do have you partner with other places that are doing what you want to do you talk to lawrenceville and you talk to south point about the things that they're doing perhaps get some mentors involved in that you redevelop main street and then you find weak areas like shiloh or doesn't have a grocery store the the grocery store the stop  a four or five points that would like to do but we use lawrenceville because ten years ago it was really struggling as the mon valley is right now but if we put the right things in place ten years from now gas industry is having all these things can affect employment and i think the commissioners really could be advocates for keeping the cost of doing business in washington county as low as possible on the consumer side the assessment issue is something that perhaps should happen the long time ago that we have we have a reassessment that's actually necessary and important to stabilize our tax base it's going to affect people differently based on how opportunity for people to appeal to present their case if they are experiencing hard chat show hardships or disability or senior citizens they'll have an opportunity to do that so the commissioners would have a responsibility to make sure that like to give you a minute to address the voters and tell why you should be the one they elect and again thank you for this opportunity i just want to start by saying my website is w w w vote mike dot com if you want to find more about the issues that i just started to talk about but i really believe that i am the most prepared candidate for my history and the most prepared to leave washington county into the future i believe that we can have a prosperous growing economy and at the same time provide safety to our our communities and keep our environment clean and i think as a county commissioner i will be committed to the economic development committed  to efficiency in government and committed to making washington county a destination county for people and companies all over the world again w w w about like dot com and i would appreciate your support on may nineteenth thank you very much thank you very much