LP McKay
Okay, so we'll start with the easy question. So I would like to hear a little bit about your background and what motivated you to run for county commissioner, as well as this the opportunity to give your party affiliation if you'd like,
Rodney Cox
Okay, my name is Rodney Cox. I'm a fifth generation Montezuma County resident. My wife and I and my family has ran small businesses in the community here for 28 years. I am running as a Republican. I actually petitioned onto the ballot instead of doing the caucus process. So that's done. I just want to serve my community like I have been for the last 28 years. So I think if we don't stay involved, things can change, and I'm not willing to sit on the sidelines and watch that happen.
LP McKay
Yeah, community service seems to be kind of a through line for everybody. I think so. That's a great uniting factor there. If elected, what would be two or three of your top priorities in the county in your first year in office.
Rodney Cox
So for me, it's money. So I would not take spending the taxpayers money lightly. I've served on school boards and fair boards, and I currently serve on the hospice board of directors of Montezuma, and you know, it's, it's not our money. It comes off the backs of the working people in this county. And I would not take that likely. I think there's some communication issues that that could be resolved between some of the other elected officials and the Board of County Commissioners, and I would be really looking forward to helping make that happen.
LP McKay
Thank you for that. Montezuma County, as you're probably aware, has a number of ongoing challenges, as do most counties. How do you view the county's current budget situation, and what steps would you support to improve long term revenue stability?
Rodney Cox
So, you know, being an outsider looking in, I don't know everything that the current county commissioners know. So I have a kind of a philosophy of seek, first, to understand, and I would want to do that. I I don't know what they're planning on doing with the surplus budget they have. I know that we've relied on Kinder Morgan for a lot of our revenue. I for a lot of reasons. I think their production is going down, and I know that the county is currently talking about a sales tax, which I'm not opposed to that at all. I think that's the fairest form of tax we have. But I'm also a small business advocate, and I think we are just hammering our small business community to death with taxes they get, they get hit up all the time for many different things, and I think we can't continue to rely on them to support everything.
LP McKay
So how would the county balance funding for core services like road maintenance and public safety with those other community needs that they also have a hand in.
Rodney Cox
That's always the question, right? There's only so much money to go around. I think you know, what does a community want? I don't believe that it is the county's responsibility to provide everything for every citizen here. I believe in personal responsibility. You know, we just have to prioritize what's important to the community and try to make those needs prioritized everybody. Everybody likes to drive on a good road, so that's important. There's a lot of different functions that the county provides, and I'm not sure you know which ones would would need cut. I don't think any of them need cut at the moment. I think we we have enough money to run everything we're trying to do in the future, I think it could get sporty with Kinder Morgan's revenues declining?
LP McKay
Yeah, for sure, that's something I think all the candidates have mentioned as well. Let's see here. Oh yes, what role do you see the county playing in supporting local businesses job growth and the workforce here in Montezuma County.
Rodney Cox
And again, I think that the business, small businesses, are just taxed to death. So if there's a different approach to generating a revenue for the county, rather than collecting so much money from the small businesses, I would support that. And again, I would support a sales tax, but only if we're going to give something back to the small business owners. It's not fair. What they have to go through with their property taxes they have to pay. You know, they all have homes also. So you get all your taxes on on your home, plus your business, plus your personal property. It's, it's, it's just not fair. There's not a lot I could do about that. But I think if we could, if we could do something with the sales tax, maybe we could lower some of the taxes we get off property taxes, and only 25% of what everybody's paying goes to the county. I mean, your tax bills are pretty high, but you know, most of it goes to schools. I think there's 26 different special tax districts, depending on where you live. Everybody complains about taxes, but every one of those was approved by the voters of this county also. So be careful what you ask for, because you just might get it.
LP McKay
Thank you for that. Yeah, that's a good clarification there on your on your stance. So you mentioned this a little bit in your first question. But what would you do to work to make the county government more accessible and ensure that residents feel heard in decision making?
Rodney Cox
So I've thought about this one a lot. I've heard a lot about transparency, and I've been attending most of the county functions. I've been to the to the workshops, I've been to the county commissioners meetings. I You cannot have a commissioners meeting and have it open to the public because it's would be a free for all. I believe you do need to allow time for the public to speak, and they do, and some of the public does show up and speak, but I also think it's a citizen's responsibility to voice their concerns. I don't call my state legislature every time there's a decision that needs to be made. I trust Larry Don's going to do what's right for the you know, his constituents, something major, like the sales tax. I believe they do need to have some forums where they get community input on what the citizens are really looking for there, and they need to be able to explain to us what that money is going to be used for. So I think there's a time and a place for the public to get involved. But I mean, I vote for people because I trust them, and I trust how they're going to represent me, and if I have a specific issue, then I'm going to take that upon myself to go let them know. So I think it's a two way street there.
LP McKay
Thank you. What do you see as the biggest challenge facing us here in Montezuma County, and what opportunity are you looking most forward to? Are you most excited about if you were to be elected?
Rodney Cox
So some of the issues I think, in Montezuma county or housing is is it's hard for the young people to afford a place to live here as a commissioner, I don't know if there's a lot I could do to affect that, other than, you know, to support some of the development that's going to come from the private sector. And I would do that. I, I, you know, opportunities I'm looking forward to. I I'm just there to serve. I don't have an agenda. I don't have I don't want to go in and do A, B, C, D. I want to go in and learn, and I want to make, you know, fiscally responsible decisions that align with my morals and values.
LP McKay
And you've also touched on this a little bit, but for a little bit of more of an in depth answer, county commissioners often have to work closely with staff there at the county, but also other elected officials neighboring governments, state, federal government. How would you describe your leadership and collaboration style, your experience there?
Rodney Cox
So I think it depends on what the situation is. I am a big teamwork kind of guy. I've built, you know, businesses over the last 28 years, and all those are relationship the our success all came from building relationships. So I think you know you have to listen. You have to understand what the wants, needs and desires are of the of the people you have to work with, and you have to come to some kind of common ground with that. There are situations within the county that if there's a disaster something, you need to go into more of a command and control structure. And I could do that too, if, if needed, I coached High School basketball. So I've built teams, and I've, you know, dealt with outside influences, such as parents and things like that, worked on school boards, same, same kind of situation. You have to build relationships to have any, any hope for success with anything you want to do.
LP McKay
Yeah, and if you've ever been to a youth sports game, you know that some of the toughest, toughest critics you can face,
Rodney Cox
you know, parents, parents are tough, especially when you have their kids. And I was on the Fair Board too, and that's even tougher because you have parents, kids and their pets, so that's really sporty.
LP McKay
So we again, kind of touched on parts of this answer, I think. But just to get it clearly out here, what would voters measure your success by if you're elected? And what would you hope to point to at the end of your term as like a piece of success?
Rodney Cox
You know, I think the fiscal piece would be my big goal. You know, where, where do we need to be in five years? What do we need to do now to achieve that goal? How do we measure the success specifically, you know, what? What are we going to have in reserves for? Why? What do we have in capital improvements and why? Because you have to explain that to the taxpayers. Why are we using all this money for? You know, I know there's some, some stuff going on with road and bridge right now, and they're trying to make data driven decisions on which roads are going to work on first, and I would support that. I think if you can make decisions based on data instead of emotions, you're going to be better off
LP McKay
and just kind of rounding things up here, is there something that we haven't touched on that you want to make sure and let people know your stance on or your beliefs, your platform,
Rodney Cox
You know, not really. I just, I've, I've been serving the community for 28 years, and if the people would have me, I would love to do it again. I have two ears and one mouth, and I know how to use them. I don't have an agenda. I just want to go in and do what's right for the you know, citizens of this county, and stay involved that's all well.
LP McKay
Thank you so much for coming in and being here. Great. Thank you.
