The Informed Voter Coalition is made up of these nonprofit organizations: Be Civil, Be Heard ; Drury University’s L.E. Meador Center for Politics & Citizenship; Junior League of Springfield; KSMU Ozarks Public Radio; Leadership Springfield; League of Women Voters of Southwest Missouri; Missouri State University’s Office of Public Affairs; NAACP Springfield; Rosie; Show Me Christian County; Springfield Business Journal; Springfield-Greene County Library District; and the Springfield News-Leader.
You can hear the interviews recorded at KSMU by clicking on the "listen" button above or watch videos of the interviews recorded by Nathan Papes and Greta Cross of the Springfield News-Leader.
Candidates were interviewed individually and asked the same questions. They had one minute to introduce themselves and two minutes to respond to each question. Questions were submitted by Informed Voter Coalition partner organizations and were not provided to the candidates in advance. The order of the candidate interviews was determined by a random drawing.
Christian County Western District Commissioner
I'm Rachel Campbell with Show-Me Christian County. One of the nonpartisan organizations that make up the Informed Voter Coalition. Today, we are interviewing candidates for Christian County Western Commissioner. They are Sheila michaels and Johnny Williams.
Sheila Michaels
Our first candidate is Sheila Michaels. Thank you very much for joining us.
"Thank you for having me."
Let's begin by having you introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this office.
"Thank you. My name is Sheila E. Michaels, and I am a 20-year resident of Christian County. I decided to run because I think that in the past decade or so, there have been a lot of unopposed races in our county, and I am a firm believer that people need choices. It's very difficult to have an unopposed race and to feel like that you have a choice in your representation. My background is public education. I'm on my 23rd year as an educator, and if you want somebody that's going to find the right answer, and if you want somebody that's going to get the job done and look at all sides of the issue, you talk to an educator. So I think that my background in communication and my 20 plus years in education in the county, I've literally talked to thousands of children and families, and I have a really good handle on what the people of Christian County are concerned about for their well-being."
Explain the role of a county commissioner and why voters should care about who represents them in this role.
"County commissioners are so important, and I think that local races historically have been under invested in. The big national races and the big state races always bring a big crowd. But local candidates are so important and local elections are so important. The role of a county commissioner is to be a good steward and a good advocate for the people of your county. And as a county commissioner, I will have a three-point litmus test. Number one, is it good for our families? 2.) Is it good for the community? 3.) Is it good for Christian County? And I think any commissioner that's sitting on that board will take those items into account. Our job is to make sure that we have infrastructure and resources in place so that our families can lead good, healthy, productive lives."
If elected, how would you leverage existing resources and evaluate new ideas to promote an improved quality of life for the people of Christian County?
"One of the things — I like a lot of things about Christian County. One of the things I love about Christian County is it is a thriving, robust community. People are moving in. We're growing exponentially. That tells me there's a lot of good things going on. What I would do is look at existing programs, look at existing budgets. We know what goes well. We know what's going right. What we have to do is be creative and problem solving. And I think one of my strengths is finding, where is the under-representation, where are the gaps? Where are there holes in our existing resources and infrastructure and looking for ways to fill those, talking to stakeholders, talking to stakeholders on all sides of an issue. You can learn as much or more from people who might have a different point of view from you so I think that it's very important to to get feedback from people on all sides of the issue, because we have a lot of diversity in Christian County. We have a lot of families, and all of our families might look a little different. What our families have in common, they want the best for their household. And so a Western County Commissioner's role is to be there to make sure that the resources are in place so that they can lead those thriving lives."
Christian County is responsible for a wide variety of services and departments, from roads to law enforcement, to tax assessment and many more. As a commissioner, how would you balance the varying needs of each department?
"There are always going to be varying needs in any department, in any organization, in any family, in any public school. And I think that the best way to approach it is that you sometimes you have to go into triage mode. What's most important right now? What can we solve right now? What can we be creative about in the future? But you have to look at all sides of the issue. You have to think about, number one, who is going to be affected by this decision, who stands to benefit and who maybe stands to lose a little bit by this decision? And those are really, really hard questions because you're never going to make every single person happy. Obviously, we want to. We want to do what's best for the county and best for the community. But I think that getting as much information as possible, looking at expertise, finding people who know what you don't know One thing I can tell you as an educator and a librarian is that if I don't know the answer, I know how to research and find good information, and I think it's important to find good information on all sides of an issue to make the best informed decision that you possibly can."
What would you say are some of Christian County's biggest needs, and what role does the Christian County Commission play in helping to address those needs?
"So we do have a lot of needs in Christian County. One of the things that I've noticed over my 20ish years in public education in Christian County is that there is a need for child care. There is a need for safety nets for families. There is a need to attract more businesses to Christian County. So I think the role of the commissioner is to be creative and to research ways to attract businesses. We need to be finding businesses that are going to create jobs that will help families. We need to attract businesses that are not only creating jobs, but creating the kind of jobs that help families thrive. Another need in our county, which I'm sure is true of every county, we've got some infrastructure issues, we've got some roadway issues, we've got some traffic issues. So I think that prioritizing the health and safety of our families, that plays into roadways, that plays into infrastructure. So everyone needs a safe environment where they have access to what they need, and I think that, looking at all of those needs, looking at the work that the existing commission has done, figuring out what they've done, well. Obviously they've done a lot of things really well. Our community is thriving, but looking for those gaps and being a problem solver and saying, how can we meet this need and how can we be creative about doing it?"
If elected, in what ways do you plan to communicate with and seek feedback from a variety of constituents?
"This is my favorite question so far. One of the things that I have really loved about being in education is communicating with so many different people and communicating with stakeholders. I think one of my strengths is communication. I would have an open door policy. I would have a value of transparency. I would be proactive in explaining, 'hey, we're about to make this decision, so we're going to be seeking input from stakeholders. We're going to be seeking input from the community.' I think it's very important to be proactive and to go out there and to see who is really invested in the issue and what their opinions are, rather than being reactive and have to defend your decision later, which, of course, you can. If you've made a really good decision, you should be open and transparent about why you've made that decision. But it's very important to be ahead of the game, to be communicating with the stakeholders and to say, 'this issue is coming up. We want to hear your feedback.' Another value I have in education and when I was a librarian is the idea of embedded leadership. You don't sit behind a desk and wait for people to come to you. You are out in the community. You're embedded in the community. People know who you are. People know that you're accessible. And I also have a firm belief in listening. If you are the one doing all the talking, you are not learning. So we have to listen to our stakeholders, and we have to be curious, and we have to ask questions, and we have to ask questions about what people really care about and what they care about to raise healthy families. And I think by asking questions, by listening, by being available, by having that open door policy and being proactive about communication, and above all, being truthful and transparent about the issues that are going on in the county and truthful and transparent about why decisions were made, the way that they were made. And sometimes people are not going to agree with your decision, but it's very important to be transparent about the reasons that went behind that decision."
All right, Sheila, that concludes our interview. Thank you very much for taking the time to talk to us.
"Thank you so much for having me."
Johnny Williams
Our next candidate is Johnny Williams. Thank you very much for joining us today.
"Thank you very much for having me again."
Would you please introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this position?
"Absolutely. My name's Johnny Williams. I'm a lifelong Christian County resident. I grew up here. I grew up in Nixa. I went to school in Nixa, kindergarten through 12th grade, played baseball, basketball, football in high school. After high school, I went to OTC for a few semesters, and I worked at a machine shop. I was a machinist where we made blowers for diesel engines. And when I turned 21, I put myself through the police academy through Drury, and I've been a law enforcement officer for 25, almost 25 years in Nixa, and I've been a small business owner for about 14 years, had anywhere from 20 to 35 employees there. So the back half of my law enforcement career, I just spent about, you know, most of my time as a part time officer there. And then after that, it's all about family and just moving into a career where I get to continue to serve the people."
Explain the role of a county commissioner and why voters should care about who represents them in this role.
"Absolutely. You know, a lot of people don't know who the county commissioner is or what the county commissioners do. But, the county commissioners, there's three county commissioners, so you have an eastern commissioner, a western commissioner and a presiding commissioner. And the eastern and western commissioners are the ones that vote, and then in a tiebreaker then the presiding commissioner would vote. And so in that position, there's nine different boards that the commissioners place people on. In addition to that, they are over the budget for the county, everything from the sheriff's department, road department and all of the positions through that. So the biggest thing, you know, in that position is the budgetary issues and making sure that the people's money is spent well, where those monies are allocated to and just really trying to make sure you accommodate all the people in the different fields that the county has in total. So being accessible to people, being open to talking to people, making sure that we're there to solve the problems the county needs everything from the road department to the infrastructure, the growth so it's a it's a very wide, wide variety of things that the commissioners do every day."
If elected, how would you leverage existing resources and evaluate new ideas to promote an improved quality of life for the people of Christian County?
"I'm sorry. Can you say it one more time for me?"
If elected, how would you leverage existing resources and evaluate new ideas to promote and improve quality of life for the people of Christian County?
"You know, I think, the existing resources, if you know, the county takes all the money that the county gets through, about 80% of that's through sales tax. So one of the biggest things we can do is promoting local businesses and making sure that people are spending their money in our communities and we're helping new businesses come in and making sure that we have that infrastructure for that. That is the number one thing that we need to do as far as building the county. And, because if all the money's coming, you know, the majority of the money is coming from that, it's important that we continue to support them and have those things in place. So that is 100%, you know, the most important thing to give back to the county is making sure that we're able to support those businesses and give them opportunities."
Christian County is responsible for a wide variety of services and departments, from roads to law enforcement to tax assessment, and many more. As a commissioner, how would you balance the varying needs of each department?
"Absolutely. It is a big balance and finding that balance, you know, everything once again comes from budget. How much money comes in and that does change year to year. And there's going to be different things that are going to need more attention from that year to the next year, and especially with growth and seeing how big Christian County's growing and and continuing to grow is making sure that we have the roads and we have the law enforcement to protect the community and all those things. So balancing that, it literally just comes down year to year and knowing what money comes in and making sure that you're sitting down visiting with the heads of each department, going through their budgets, not just pushing those things through or just looking at it as numbers, but actually being involved every day with them and seeing the growth and seeing the things they need so that when it does become budget time, it's not something you're just looking at numbers, you're actually seeing the difference and seeing the things that they need to grow."
What would you say are some of Christian County's biggest needs, and what role does the (Christian County) Commission play in helping to address those needs?
"I think it goes back to — it goes back to the infrastructure. The same thing is helping our helping, our roads be nice, helping the new businesses coming in, helping the community growth because we're growing, you know, at a crazy speed. It's unbelievable how fast Christian County is growing. You know, we went from this small community to, to really to really growing. And so once again, community involvement is number one is being out there and showing up to the chamber meetings, showing up to the council meetings and talking to the public and seeing what the public needs and seeing what the needs are from, from each aspect and then helping in those ways and seeing and how we can grow those and how we can continue to make, make it a great community for people to live in."
If elected, in what ways do you plan to communicate with and seek feedback from a variety of constituents?
"Absolutely. And I still got months before, you know, if I'm lucky enough to be elected, but I'm already doing that. I'm already out, like I said, attending chamber meetings and attending groundbreaking events for new businesses coming in, I was just that one yesterday. And being out there and already having that community involvement and seeing what people need, and I'm already seeing in some of the smaller cities as I go there, they're like, 'wow, you know, we haven't seen anybody out here. We don't know,' you know, letting them know that their voices are heard and seeing what they need. And it just comes down to being involved. You have to get out there. You have to spend time with people because you can hear about it. You can talk to somebody on the phone, but it's a big difference in sitting down with somebody face to face, actually talking through the problems and seeing what you can do and what you can't do."
Johnny Williams, that concludes our interview. Thank you very much for taking the time to talk with us.
"You bet."
