-: There it goes.
-: Okay.
-: There we go.
The candidate before us at this time is Mr. David Childs,
candidate for Tax Assessor/Collector of Dallas County.
Mr. Childs.
-: The Tax Assessor/Collector's Office
is primarily these days a clerical function.
Up until 1979, the assessor's office truly was
your tax assessor who assessed your tax rates
and told you how much your taxes were.
In 1979, the state of Texas passed
the Property Tax Code Act of '79
which created the now popular tax appraisal district,
which now sets your tax rates,
and it is now the function of the tax assessor
to simply serve the clerical function
of sending out your statement
and collecting your money when it comes in
and keeping track of who's paid and who has not,
and taking care of delinquent taxes.
In addition to that, the assessor also manages
the clerical function of dealing with car titles,
car licenses, car tags, that sort of thing.
So the office is primarily nuts and bolts,
day-to-day bureaucratic clerical work.
For the past six years, I have been working
in a similar capacity at Dallas County
working with the Dallas County Clerk.
As that name implies, that is also a clerical function.
The job of the County Clerk is to handle paperwork
relating to court cases and also paperwork relating
to other legal documentation,
real estate contracts, marriage licenses,
birth and death certificates, that sort of thing.
So, there's a great deal of similarity
in what the two offices do.
The County Clerk shuffles legal documents
and the Tax Assessor shuffles your tax statements.
So, I'm familiar with the processes
that will be similar in both offices.
Six years ago, when I went to work
in the County Clerk's Office,
I went to work for now County Clerk Earl Bullock.
We went in there with a true sincere commitment
to trying to run the County Clerk's Office
as efficiently as possible.
We almost did it as an experiment.
We went in saying we'd just like to find out
if somebody really wanted to run
a government office efficiently
how much of an impact they could have.
Today, six years later, we are not finished.
I'm not gonna sit here tonight
and tell you that we're a hundred percent efficient
in the Clerk's Office, but the results
that we have received are staggering,
and on the one hand encouraging and on the other hand scary.
Over the past six years in the County Clerk's Office,
we've improved the efficiency of the office by 50%,
and that's not rhetoric, we can quantify it.
You quantify it by saying,
how many people do you have and how many-
-: Excuse me, Mr. Childs.
-: Yes. -: If you could please
sum up your remarks.
-: All right.
How many court cases do you handle with those people?
How many marriage licenses do you issue with those people?
And we've improved those numbers by 50%.
In addition to that, six years ago we inherited
a budget deficit, and today over the past six years
we've returned to the County Treasury over $3 million.
That's what you can do with a sincere commitment
to running an efficient office, and that's why I want
to move on to the Tax Assessor's Office
and try to do the same thing there.
-: Very good. Thank you.
And now to the questionnaire.
You should have in front of you at this time
one of the blind general candidate questionnaires.
I will read the responses only.
In response to question number one,
the answer written is yes.
Number two, yes.
Number three, yes.
Number four: "Considering current medical knowledge, no."
Number five: "Only in case of rape or incest."
In response to the items at the bottom of the questionnaire,
Mr. Childs is here seeking the endorsement of LGPAC.
He did schedule and is here at this time for a screening.
Unfortunately, he notes that he has a conflict
and will not be able to attend
our candidates night on February 2nd.
And now we will take questions from the floor.
Peter.
-: As the tax assessor, would you be responsible
for hiring your own staff?
-: To a large extent, the way hiring operates
at the county, there is a personnel office which sets
minimum standards for positions,
and any person who meets the minimum standards
as screened by the personnel office is then sent
to the Assessor's Office.
And let's say we have an opening in the Assessor's Office,
we will send that information to the personnel office.
They will look at the minimum standards that they have,
then they will send us four, five, six, seven people
that meet those standards, and then from among those
we will make a selection.
-: As an employer who would be interviewing individuals
for employment, do you think it would be ever appropriate
to screen applicants for HIV infection?
-: I hadn't even thought about it.
Off the top of my head, I would say no.
I don't see why it would be relevant
to the function of the office.
-: Yes, Cynthia.
-: I have a question, too.
Concerning your answer to number five.
What you said was that a woman
doesn't have a personal choice except in two instances.
Is that correct?
-: Right.
-: Can you elaborate on this question?
-: Okay, my position regarding abortion is to start
with the premise that I value human life, period.
And the exceptions that I make here, rape and incest,
my position on that, you can always argue abortion.
I don't know that anyone has ever arrived
at a position on abortion that makes logical sense.
I mean you have to arrive at positions
on abortion that are emotional.
I've yet to find one that you can defend with logic.
But my position is that, first of all,
I respect human life, period.
All human life.
Second of all, I think every adult enters sexual activity
accepting the consequences of that sexual activity.
Those are part of the consequences you accept
when you enter into it, and that should include pregnancy.
The reason I make the exceptions for rape and incest
is because those are situations in which the woman
did not willingly consent to the act.
And so, therefore, she should not be held responsible
or accountable for the results of the act
because she did not enter into it consensually.
But in entering into sexual activity consensually,
as far as I'm concerned, you are accepting
the possible consequences of that action.
-: Okay.
-: How many people are
in the Tax/Assessor Collector's Office
and do you have any objectives for reduction?
You mentioned 50% improvement in the efficiency
of the Clerk's Office.
Could you elaborate on that?
-: Right now, the Assessor's Office has about 220 employees.
There is a downtown main office
and then there are nine substations around the county.
I would be looking to try to outright reduce staff.
There are a couple of areas in which
we've actually done that in the County Clerk's Office.
Over the past six years in the County Clerk's Office,
we've had an overall office change of an increase of five
over the past six years in the County Clerk's Office.
But we've had some particular sections
in the County Clerk's Office where we have actually
been able to reduce staff, so we have a record
of being able to do that.
You do it at the county with computerization
because a lot of the functions at the county
are very clerical, they're very mundane.
They're sit at a typewriter and fill out a form
that you can teach a computer to do.
And not having been in the office yet,
I can't say for sure, "Yes, I know exactly how we can,"
but I would think that you could.
-: Hal.
-: In your race there are, oh, seven, eight people.
-: I refer to it as the Cecil B. DeMille cast of thousands.
-: All right.
-: Yes, sir. (group laughs)
It's six.
-: You're helping me, then.
In this cast of thousands, what sets you apart
from the other people that would make it
worth our while to consider endorsing you?
-: First of all, of the six,
there are only two of us who have any experience
managing in government.
Of those two, I am the only one who has experience
specifically in county government.
And in addition to that, I'm pointing once again
to my proven commitment to and proven ability
to give you some tax money back, to run an efficient office.
There are not very many public servants that say that.
I don't know why they don't, but I can.
-: Very good.
Time has elapsed, but we do have a couple of minutes
if you'd like to make some concluding remarks.
I think we covered it, though, with that last question.
Very good.
-: Thank you very much, I appreciate coming.
And I would also like to say in closing,
I would appreciate if y'all have my mailing address
or something I would very much like to receive your mailings
in the future of your activities and events.
Dallas is a very large county.
Population-wise and activity-wise
Dallas is larger than a lot of states.
So, running a countywide race in Dallas
is a larger proposition than running a statewide race
in a lot of races, so I can't always be with you
as I cannot be on the second, but I would like to receive
your mailings and your materials
to know when you're doing things
'cause I'd very much like to visit whenever I can.
-: So, very good.
(audience applauds)
The candidate before us at this time is Jo W. DeWitty,
candidate for Constable Precinct 8.
Miss DeWitty.
-: Thank you.
Let me sttart off by saying
I'm Jo DeWitty and I am a candidate
for Constable Precinct 8.
Presently I am a Deputy Constable.
I was certified in 1976 and shortly thereafter
I became the Chief Deputy,
and of course I'm second in command
to Constable Jesse Dawson who is the Constable presently,
the Constable, and he is retiring
and has encouraged me to run in this race
and is giving me his support.
The function of the Constable's Office
is to serve civil papers and bailiff the JP courts.
Now, I feel like that I have quite a bit of experience
having worked there in that office,
second in command of course during his absence
or what have you, and we sit in,
me and the other supervisory staff,
on decision making and policies and procedures
for the functioning of the office.
I had prior experience before I became a deputy constable.
I was in apartment management.
And if any of you have ever been exposed to that,
you know that you use the services of the Constable's Office
and the JP extensively, (group laughs)
which I did, so I got accustomed to the services
that they offered and, you know, my need for adjusting
to whatever situation I might find myself in.
I am involved in quite a few civic activities
and I have a concern for the wellbeing
of the people of Dallas County,
and of course especially for Precinct 8
because I was instrumental in organizing
the Neighborhood Housing Services organization
that we have here in the city
and was one of the founders and served on the board.
I've served on the board for the Central Library.
I have served on the board
for the fire department advisory and appeals board.
I am presently a member of the JP and Constables Association
and have been since I have been on Mr. Dawson's staff.
I've been actively participating in that group
for improving the efficiency and the services
and things that we offer out of that office.
-: Very good. Thank you.
Time has elapsed on that portion.
Now I'll read the response to the questionnaire.
You should have in front of you
at this time the general candidate questionnaire.
Blank copies are available.
If you don't have one, blanks are in the back of the room.
The answer to question number one
provided by Ms. DeWitty is yes.
Number two:
"I believe that whatever two consenting adults do
with each other in privacy is their own personal business."
Number three:
"Yes, I would hire on basis of qualifications."
Four: "No."
Number five: "Yes."
In response to the items at the bottom of the questionnaire,
the candidate did not check
whether she was seeking or not seeking the endorsement.
It does have the statement:
"I am seeking the endorsement of all qualified voters."
The candidate did schedule and is here
before the screening session.
And the candidate also plans to attend
the LGPC Candidates Night on Tuesday February 2nd.
-: May I say that there is a conflict.
I'm sorry, I didn't check my calendar.
-: Okay.
So you won't be able to make it
on Tuesday. -: I don't believe so.
-: Okay.
(Jo whispering)
Candidate will not be able to make Candidates Night
on Tuesday February 2nd.
-: But I will return the questionnaire that I received.
I will return.
I received a questionnaire, and I will return it.
-: This is our questionnaire.
-: I received another one.
-: Oh, that's from the other group.
-: Oh, I see. I'm sorry.
(group laughing) I'm sorry.
-: Yes, there is another group in town,
very similar to ours.
Peter.
-: Just for our information when it comes time
for us to seek, as we decide on who to endorse,
our procedures presently require that someone actually
indicate they're seeking the endorsement of the group.
So I suppose what I mean to ask you is,
Ms. DeWitty, are you actually officially seeking
the endorsement of this group in your race?
-: Yes, I am.
Maybe I misunderstood that if I don't get the endorsement
of the group, if there's someone in there who thinks
that they'd like to vote for me, I'd appreciate it.
(group laughing)
I didn't wanna lock myself in.
I'll take whatever I can get.
(group laughs)
-: You are in fact seeking the endorsement of the LGPC.
-: Yes, Peter, I sure am.
(group laughs)
-: So, as a point of order,
I should say that you are amending your response here?
-: Yes, I am.
-: Okay.
We do have that on tape, so.
(group laughs)
-: You'll hold me to it.
That's all right. -: Yes, we certainly will.
-: That's all right. (indistinct)
-: Are there questions from the floor?
In regards. Stand.
-: How large of a staff would you be supervising
as Constable of Precinct 8?
-: There are 24 and the Constable makes 25,
is what we have presently.
But we are going to take in some more areas,
Pleasant Grove and a portion of Wilmer-Hutchins
and I believe there are two precincts in North Dallas,
which would require an additional number
of people added to the staff.
And we anticipate that we'll have a need
for maybe about three or four more people.
-: Peter.
-: Did you already describe the area
that your precinct, your position would cover,
the area of this thing?
-: No, I did not.
We have East Dallas, a portion of East Dallas,
and North Dallas.
That's a portion of Oak Lawn area,
and out by Love Field,
and we have we call it Industrial District,
and it sorta bottlenecks.
The Sheriff's Office is sitting in Precinct 8.
(group chuckles)
We have a O'Claire, South Dallas,
and we have recently taken out a portion of Wilmer-Hutchins,
which is the northern tip of Wilmer-Hutchins.
So there will be 64 voting precincts in Precinct 8 in 1988.
However, we will not start serving civil process
to those new areas until 1989.
Yes, sir.
-: There are several people in your race.
I know it's at least six.
What do you think sets you apart from the other candidates
to make us want to endorse you?
-: My experience and having worked there in the office
for 11 years and second in command.
I believe in this race I am the only person
that has been a chief deputy, and I have the distinction
of having been a chief deputy for 10 years.
Working very closely with the Constable
on decision making and policies and what have you,
so I feel like that that gives me an edge.
-: Peter, I know you have that question
about the apartment complexes since there are so many
in this precinct.
-: Okay.
-: If you'd like to-
-: (indistinct) that a number of constable candidates
is whether the constable has any reluctance
or would feel things or special precautions are necessary
when it came to serving process of certain papers
on a person who's known to have AIDS,
or serving papers on a house where it is known
that a person who has AIDS resides.
-: I would not see any reason for them
because we take an oath that we will serve that paper.
And we have the responsibility of fulfilling that
because the person who initiated that
has paid their money and they're entitled to that service.
Now, there does not have to be a lot of contact between
'cause I have gone into apartments that were filthy.
But we went right on with what we had to do.
So, I don't see any reason why that would cause
a person to not come up there and say,
"Well, I have a paper for you and here it is."
And that's all that is required.
-: All right.
Time for questions has elapsed,
if you'd like to make some concluding remarks.
-: Well, I certainly appreciate your allowing me to come
and I hope that I have shed some light on my qualifications
and why I think that I should receive your endorsement.
And if so, I want to thank you for whatever consideration
you might give me.
-: Very good. Thank you.
(audience applauds)
(crowd chattering)
Your attention, please.
The candidate before us at this time is Mr. Juan Jasso.
He is candidate State Representative District 103.
Mr. Jasso.
-: Okay. I'd like to thank y'all for inviting me.
In fact, your questionnaire was the very first questionnaire
I got, and right that same afternoon
I got a questionnaire from the Texas Young Conservatives.
(group laughs)
It was fun to read.
Anyway, my name is Juan Jasso.
I live out there in North Oak Cliff.
The area itself covers West Dallas, Cockrell Hill,
North and Central Oak Cliff.
It's a race that I decided to enter because I saw the need,
Steve Wolens is a nice guy, I've met him.
I called him today to see if we could have lunch
but I just got a recorder.
But anyway, I've met him.
He's a nice guy, but I think it's time
that we had somebody there in that office
that is more than just somebody that votes right.
We need somebody there that's going to go out
and actively pursue legislation that is important
to our community there in Oak Cliff,
West Dallas, Cockrell Hill.
And not just there, but also the rest of Dallas.
We all are a part of Dallas.
I'm concerned not only with minority issues
as it pertains to that area,
it is a minority majority district.
I believe the breakdown is like 35% Hispanic,
about 28% Black, and close to 40% Anglo.
You know, among the Anglos
there's the ethnic break up there.
But that composition, to me, it's kind of like a microcosm
of our society as well.
That area is right now undergoing a lot of renovation
and I think it's getting a better reputation
than what it used to have.
I'm glad to see that the neighborhood itself
seems to be coming together and progressing as a community.
And I think you're gonna see more and more people
moving into that area.
A lot of those old homes that were built in the 1920s,
they're fine homes and people go in and buy 'em
and put in another 20, $30,000,
and they come out lookin' really great.
I'm concerned, in that area,
we have a lot of poverty in West Dallas.
It's not evident in Kessler Park, in Stevens Park
which is in the district of parts of Oak Cliff,
but it's something that I am concerned about.
We need jobs for our people down there.
It's something that in the next legislature,
it's gonna be real hard trying to get dollars
for all these programs that we want.
And I think we're gonna have to just buckle down
and become a little bit more fiscally responsible
so that we can continue funding these health programs
and education programs all across this county
and across the state.
-: Thank you very much, sir.
And now response to the questionnaire.
You should have in front of you at this time
the blank legislative candidate questionnaire.
If you don't have one,
there are more available at the back of the room.
In response to question number one,
the candidate answered:
"Yes, our Constitution guarantees such rights
and human dignity requires it."
Number two:
"Yes, our government should not be in the business
of delegating what our sexual preference should be."
Number three: "Yes."
Number four:
"Yes, we have reached a critical stage in this country
and this planet in combating the AIDS virus.
We cannot slack off funding, but do everything possible
to control and eventually eradicate it."
Number five: "Yes."
In answer to the items at the bottom of the page,
the candidate is here seeking the endorsement of LGPAC.
The candidate did schedule and is here
for the screening session,
and the candidate plans to attend
the LGPC Candidates Night on February 2nd.
Okay, now we're open to questions from the floor.
Tim. -: What kind of jobs
do you feel your election would bring to Oak Cliff?
-: The kind of jobs that I believe an area
like that needs is more in the blue collar area.
It's kinda hard to say we want jobs, we need jobs,
but then what are you gonna do with it?
It's gonna cost money.
And a lot of it is going to be state money.
I'd like to not just limit ourselves to always going
to the government and saying, "Well, we need jobs.
Go build a facility out there so that we can have
a few jobs for a year or two."
I would like to go out into the business community
and tap into that.
I don't have contacts myself, but I'm sure
that there are people out there that do have contacts
with the Perots or the Jeff Hayes or those people.
And if they're going to come around to our communities
and ask for our support, I'm a Democrat.
A lot of those people are Democrats.
They're gonna come around and say,
"You should go and vote for our candidates."
We shouldn't just let 'em take us for granted
as they did a lot of our people down in South Texas
and all over the state.
Say, ya know, "Throw 'em a barbecue and they're fine.
They'll go vote for whoever the candidate is for the party,"
which was true for the longest time,
and it continues to be so.
And I think with more awareness and more education,
I think we can convince these players, whoever they are,
that they have to take us serious
and they can't just every two years or every three years
whenever there's an election come down and pave our streets,
ya know, and build a school, whatever,
and say, "Okay, we've got 'em in our pocket."
I can't be specific as far as,
"We're gonna build a prison out there."
I wouldn't wanna see a prison out there myself,
but there are communities out there
that would welcome a prison.
-: You have a follow-up?
-: Yeah, I do.
There is a real problem of, and affects jobs in that area.
The latest announcement coming out
is that real estate absorption in that area
has actually been negative in the last year
and it has been in downtown.
And in order to continue the kind of revitalization
that's gone on, there's going to have to be
available jobs for people who would buy
even in the downtown area.
I guess I'm looking for some more specifics.
Blue collar or white collar, I mean, how?
-: Yeah, how are you gonna do it?
How are you going to attract business?
I would say, ya know, corporations and businesses,
they're looking for tax incentives to go build down there.
They know what kind of area they're going into,
flood plain, ya know, crime statistics,
the housing projects in West Dallas,
and we have to make it attractive for them.
I'm not saying, "Okay, we're gonna give you
all these tax breaks so you don't have
to pay any taxes, just give us jobs,"
but I think we're gonna have to reach some type
of accommodation where it will be attractive
for the business types to go in
and redevelop that area, ya know?
It's gotten to the point where they were trying to build
a McDonald, you know, and that fell through.
And what do we have out there? Nothing.
-: Yes, Phil.
-: You mentioned the legislature.
Would you be willing to work
for a non-discrimination ordinance in the area?
How is it important to you today?
-: I think that's one of the paramount things.
I've been seeing the statistics as it's been growing
in not only the the Hispanic and the Black
and the Anglo communities,
but it's something that we have to start looking into,
that it's starting to hit us closer to home
than a lot of people expected it would.
And we can't shut our doors to people that have AIDS
because it's an illness.
I've seen examples of it down at the courthouse
where clerks, there was a person that came in,
he got an appointed attorney.
The appointed attorney was hesitant
to even come close to him.
And when he told the clerks that the man admitted
that he had AIDS, it was an Hispanic male,
the clerks went into a panic.
They said, "Don't let him touch the file.
Don't let him touch the file."
And I'm going, like.
You can't have that attitude because that kind of attitude
transcends not only to AIDS, but then it goes
into other areas of racism.
The prejudices that I've seen with AIDS
are the same prejudices and kind of like racists
in a certain sense.
I don't know if the analogy is correct,
but you're seeing the same type of hysteria.
-: Stan.
-: Currently Texas is like third or fourth in the nation,
3 or 4,000 cases (indistinct),
and increased dramatically.
Currently the state spends $2 million on education.
We'll be spending two million on this biannually
which ranks us about the bottom of the nation
as far as the number of cases per dollar
spent on education.
What kind of level do you see in the next biennium
for education, for healthcare,
social services which are staggering.
We're lucky we're 47th because there's Mississippi
and usually Mississippi's ahead of us.
What kind of figures do you see dollar-wise
for us treating this situation, this health crisis.
-: I wouldn't wanna venture in exact dollar-wise,
but I think as overall education spending increases
in the state for just basic education,
I think within that system, within that scope,
you're going to have to have funding
for education on AIDS on school level.
So, you can plug those monies into it, okay?
You can also probably, since it will come under education,
I would lobby for it, I would fight for it,
that some of those monies go
into the general public for adult education.
You can plug into that maybe you don't have to increase
by much and just use what's available without cutting back.
-: Peter.
-: Could you describe the elements of your campaign,
what type of mailings or efforts you're going to make
to reach the vote or get out the votes
since you're campaigning against probably
a rather wealthy old incumbent?
-: The campaign that I'm running is a low-profile campaign.
We're doing direct mailings,
probably make two or three direct mailings,
and they run about a thousand dollars apiece,
that includes the printing.
We're gonna target close to 6,000 households.
There's about 32,000 registered voters
which includes Republicans and Democrats,
and then you cut it down halfway.
I believe it will take between 3 to 5,000 votes to win.
The previous election I believe Steve got like
over 2500, Domingo Garcia got close to 1800 or 1500.
That was a very expensive campaign.
I don't come from a background where I will spend
that kind of money on anything.
If you're campaigning for a job that essentially pays $7500
and you're gonna spend $60,000 on it,
that means that there's somebody out there
that you owe money to.
I would accept money from groups
that I'm philosophically aligned with.
I will not accept money from corporations
or insurance companies, anything like that.
It's a low profile, like I said,
and the strategy has been there's 21 precincts.
We're running something like 14 races, 14 precinct races.
That in turn gets those people
that live in that precinct excited.
They go around, and we've seen it happen,
even in Cockrell Hill.
We've run a couple of weekends of voter registration.
The last election, there's 900 registered voters out there.
200 were Hispanic of those 215 voting,
and that was with a Mexican-American running.
So, that means somebody didn't work it.
What we've done is we've targeted that area
as well as the other precincts.
They've already covered like 3/4 of Cockrell Hill,
signed up close to 200 more.
So that's 400 already right there.
As they go around with their own little campaigns,
they're spreading the word about my campaign
and about other local campaigns that they're interested in.
And I think that's hopefully, and it's incumbent on us
to go back, and go back, and go back,
and get 'em out to vote.
And that's how we're running our campaign.
Last time, I believe it was too...
There was a lot of rhetoric, there was a lot of negativism.
I'm running more of a positive, low-profile campaign.
This is who I am.
This is what I stand for.
I believe that I'm better because essentially nothing
has been done in the past eight years
as far as the community is concerned.
He's a nice guy.
I'm a nice guy, but we all, we have to be more active.
-: Time has elapsed.
We wanna thank you very much.
-: No, I thank you for giving me the opportunity.
(audience applauds)
-: The candidate before us at this time
is Edgar L. McMillan, Jr.,
candidate for Constable Precinct 8.
Mr. McMillan.
-: I'll not read the entire card.
If you would take a few minutes just to glance over it
at the conclusion, I'd appreciate it.
I'm 39 years old.
I was literally born in Precinct 8
on Hall and Thomas at Pinkston Clinic.
I was raised, or reared, whichever you prefer,
literally in the precinct,
living in my grandfather's house, Dr. W.K. Flowers,
on Lawrence in South Dallas.
I currently reside at that same residence.
I was educated literally in the district.
Charles Rice Elementary School, John Henry Brown,
and later a graduate of Lincoln High School in '66.
I have a degree in Criminal Justice
from Abilene Christian University.
I am currently assigned and employed
by the Dallas Sheriff's Office where I've been for 17 years.
I also have two years that I spent
with the City of Dallas in '69 through '70.
My credentials in the police field are numerous
and they're listed on the right-hand side
of the back of the card.
One of the primary goals in my taking over the office
as Constable of Precinct 8 is to organize it.
In my opinion, it is currently in total disarray.
There's no delegation of authority.
They shy away from taking action
on criminal offenses in view.
If you would, just think of yourself being mugged
on the street and a constable passing by
because they're instructed not to deal
with criminal offenses.
And that's exactly what they do.
I'll field questions now.
We'll go very much deeper.
I'll answer your questions.
-: First, we'll go over your questionnaire.
-: Oh, okay.
-: Okay, should have in front of you at this time
the general candidate questionnaire.
If we don't, there are blanks available
at the back of the room.
In response to question number one,
the candidate stated, "Yes!"
Exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point.
"All men and women are equal regardless
of their sexual preference."
Number two:
"Yes, it is obvious that while slow in moving
to repeal, the Texas Legislature is on the verge
of repealing this section by the fact
that this section is classified
as the lowest misdemeanor, C."
Number three: "Yes.
Under no circumstance would a person's sexual preference
have anything to do with his or her ability
to perform their job."
Number four: "No.
Under the Constitution of the United States,
all men and women have the right to life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness.
These things are in my belief necessary
to accomplish these goals."
Number five, "Yes.
As with my own body,
I mandate the course that it will take."
In response to the items at the bottom of the questionnaire
the candidate is seeking the endorsement of LGPAC.
The candidate did schedule and is here before us
at this time for a screening session.
The candidate plans to attend
the LGPC Candidates Night on February 2nd.
And now we'll go to questions.
-: You made reference to the fact
that you felt the Constable's Office
should get involved in criminal activity.
Is that authority given by the state
to the Constable's Office?
-: Okay, first of all, let me,
and this is a misconception totally,
almost 90% of residents.
A constable's authority is equal to that of a sheriff
except in the area of detention of violators.
They are mandated by their oath to enforce the laws
of the State of Texas and the United States.
For so long they have been channeled off
into a totally civil process type of atmosphere.
Now, mind you, I acknowledge that civil process
and court orders from the JP courts are the main priority,
but their arrest power,
their execution of the laws,
the powers are identical.
As a matter of fact,
their power supersedes, say, a municipal officer,
a police officer, because their jurisdiction is wider,
and they are mandated by the State of Texas by law,
not by creation of an amendment later.
Sheriffs and constables are the law.
-: So they have arrest authority and-
-: Yes, they do.
-: You would propose to enhance Precinct 8's ability
to go out and perform that arrest function?
-: My authorization to the officers would be
any violations in view, you have the authority
and my sanction to execute.
-: Would the District Attorney you think process
and prosecute those cases?
-: The District Attorney probably wouldn't as it stands now
because they have not been trained properly
and their training has not been updated periodically.
So the reports, and I've seen it down
at the Sheriff's Office when some of the constables,
in this office now, speaking just plain
and simple Precinct 8, has tried to book a prisoner,
and it's been rejected simply on paperwork,
not because of an authority.
The training level would be increased
1,000-fold, let me assure you.
And any paperwork or cases filed
going to the District Attorney's Office
would be accepted because the training level
of the office would be such that it would be automatic.
-: Thank you.
-: Other?
-: Yes. -: Mr. McMillan,
your face looks so familiar.
Weren't you a candidate in a recent election?
What was it?
-: I was endorsed by the Gay Alliance four years ago
for this office.
-: That's right.
-: I was running against the incumbent.
-: It wasn't as constable then.
-: Yes, it was. -: Oh, okay.
-: Additional questions?
Is this your standard question?
(indistinct)
Yes.
-: One question, you talked about getting the officers
in the Constable's Office more training
regarding the arrest bumps and how much would you anticipate
that would add to your budget?
-: The Dallas Sheriff's Department sends out
biannually a schedule of courses available.
They welcome, especially county
because this is a county office,
they invite you to send your officers.
It's almost null.
They hold the course, and if it's a county officer,
most of the courses they don't even charge.
the training would take place primarily there,
and their training ranges all the way from human relations
to report writing to whatever you can imagine.
-: So the primary cost would be the time of your officers?
-: Right.
-: And the court's.
-: The chair will take privilege to this point,
and ask for clarification to one of your responses
to the questionnaire.
Question number two, besides saying yes,
you also stated that, "The Texas Legislature is
on the verge of repealing Section 2106."
I'm curious as to know where you have your information
since legislators that we have talked with,
friends of our community, find it almost impossible
to get support for such action.
And also, in more recent legislative sessions,
there have actually been bills introduced
to strengthen the section.
-: Well, and I was reaching back in my memory
of several years ago.
A similar law was of a higher consequence,
and in researching while answering the questionnaire,
I found that the section that was referred to
was a class C misdemeanor in the penal code that I read.