Charles Stimatze (R) – Larry Hicks (D)
Geary County Commission 2nd District Candidate Forum-1st Half Hour
Geary County Commission 2nd District Candidate Forum-2nd Half Hour
There was sharp disagreement between the candidates for the 2nd District Seat on the Geary County Commission, Charles Stimatze and Larry Hicks, during a candidate forum on 1420 KJCK, The Talk of JC.
One issue revolved around how to decrease or keep the property tax levy stable. The Geary County property tax levy has increased more than 19 mills over the course of the last three years.
Stimatze pushed Hicks on that issue, saying it’s not the county department heads fault. “I’m saying it’s the commissioners that have to do the tough questions. They have to go to the department heads and say hey, cut five percent, cut ten percent, cut three percent, not them coming to you ( the commission ). That’s not their job. Your job as a commissioner is to say here, this is what we need, do it, and if they can do it that’s great, but if you guys as the commissioners need to do more you may have to do more.”
Hicks countered by asking, “How do you do more with less. I don’t understand your question. What are you trying to say? Stimatze said “You’ve got to cut it.” When asked by Hicks where, Stimatze said he didn’t know and did not have all the information. He was unsure at this point if he would cut, but said across the board figure out what would work the best.
Later in the forum civil legal matters allegedly involving Hicks in District Court entered the conversation. A caller questioned him about court documents posted against Hicks that could possibly pose an issue with his job as county commissioner. “How do you expect to balance the budget, but having those personal financial things come involved in your work? Hicks responded, “Personal financial issues have no impact what-so-ever on my ability to govern, and I’ve done that as well as I possibly can over the course of seven-and-a-half years. I’ve done a lot of things to help improve the services of Geary County and the taxpayers, and those personal matters are just that, they’re personal matters that are being dealt with by me.”
Stimatze then stated, “I think if you have some personal financial issues it makes it harder to….if you can’t manage your own budget how can you manage a million dollar budget or plus, or county budget.” Hicks responded by saying he didn’t know anyone who hasn’t had personal challenges at all at any level. Hicks had indicated he assumed the discussion was about civil legal matters. Stimatze said Hicks knew what the caller was talking about, but Hicks stated he had no idea what the caller and Stimatze were talking about.
Other topics in the forum ranged from possible communications issues between the governing body and other county department heads and elected officials to the recent review of the chamber of commerce master agreement.
The election is November 8th.