B

Editor’s Note: Efforts to reach the third candidate in the District 13, County Commission race in the May 5 Republican Primary were unsuccessful.

Gwendolyn Holden has been regularly attending Hamblen County Commission meetings for over a decade and she says she’s ready to step up and make a difference by running for the District 13 seat.

“After I attended Commission meetings for 12 years, and seeing more and more taxes and less and less accountability, I decided I would run,” she said.

She said she watched incumbent District 13 Commissioner Tim Horner vote for taxes to pay for projects like the new jail/justice center and an increase of the wheel tax which has been used to pave roads.

Asked how roads and capital projects should be paid for Holden said the money should come from natural resources.

“I think you can take money from just the natural resources and from, maybe from the wheel tax money,” she said, adding “if you have natural resources, you just take it from that.”

“If you’ve got extra money in your budget and watch your spending — don’t spend, spend, spend when you don’t have, have, have… because I can’t (in my personal budget),” she said.

Holden said that revenue can be raised through growth from people moving into the county and through commercial/industrial improvements in the county though most commercial/industrial economic development is done inside Morristown city limits and larger.

Increases in sales tax revenue has exceeded conservative estimates in the County budget in recent years, but those revenue increases have slowed down and are not expected to make the same kind of impact as they have in the past.

Holden said that cuts and better spending practices should be all that is needed to avoid tax increases.

She also said she didn’t like taking monies from funds and “shifting them around.”

“When you do that, then you don’t know where your money’s going at all,” she said.

When the Hamblen County Commission makes an amendment to the budget, the meeting is recorded to the County’s YouTube page, the maneuver is recorded in the minutes of the meeting and posted online on the County’s website, and details about any fund transfers are posted online in meeting packets and agendas. This is done twice for every fund transfer because approval is needed in the Finance Committee before the whole Commission votes on the budget amendment.

“How come we didn’t know about the $5.5 million deficit?” she asked rhetorically about the shortfall that was debated publicly last June and addressed with a property tax increase. “And why didn’t they just build a one-level jail instead of building the four (story) high (building)? And they still probably don’t even use it all. And why did they build judges courtrooms when they already had some? That’s what I’m thinking of.”

She said if expenses go up and tax revenue can’t cover the difference, she would, as a commissioner, vote to cut from the budget to balance it. She did not identify to cuts she would make.

“I’m not God and I’m not a genius — I just try to do what I could do and that’s all I could do,” Holden said.

She was critical of the budgets of the current Commission.

“These people have been sitting on it for eight years and they don’t have it balanced — it has a $5.5 million deficit,” she said of the shortfall that was erased last June. “I’d just work on it. But it takes 14 to work on it. One just can’t do it all by their self. But I would do my part.”

Holden said she would like to place every Commissioner on every Committee to have better representation for county residents in each Committee.

There are needs for more road paving Holden said but said paying for it might be a problem.

“I wouldn’t vote for a (tax) hike,” she said. “I would probably see if I could find the money somewhere else, you know? I wouldn’t move it around. I would just try to see if I could find it somewhere else, you know, maybe in the budget, maybe in the natural resources, maybe in somewhere that I could find the money. If I couldn’t, then I just have to say, ‘I’m sorry, I tried to find the money, but it’s not here, but I’m not raising taxes to fix it.’”

Pointing out it costs the county $300,000 to pave every mile of road, Holden suggested the county might save money and increase coverage by paving in-house as opposed to hiring outside contractors.

One of the questions floating around the County Commission right now is what to do with opioid abatement funds, which are called that because, in intention, the money from class action lawsuits against prescription drug manufacturers/distributors is meant to address harm done from drugs.

“Well, I know (County Commissioner Edna) Greene asked to use them on the roads, but that was a no-no,” Holden said. “(Former Hamblen County Mayor Bill) Brittain thought it should stay where it’s at and use it for people that are on drugs. I could have been on drugs, but I chose to not do that. I chose not to do that. Me, that’s me. I could have been on antidepressants when I was born through change of life, but I chose not to. It’s a choice, it’s a choice.”

Asked to clarify her position on whether the money meant for drug-related programs or items should instead be used for general purposes like roads, Holden said yes.

“Sure, why not?” she said. “Hardworking people that work every day, get up and go to work every day and try to behave themselves and do the right thing, they deserve to have their roads fixed. Yes, sir, they deserve it. I’ve worked all my life, all my life, and I still work and I’m 78.”

Holden said ultimately she did not appreciate the way her incumbent opponent Tim Horner voted.

“He voted to build the jail,” she said. “He voted on every change order there was, and there was, I think, 20 or 25 change orders, and I don’t like that he voted on the wheel tax, and he also voted for the property tax increase.

“And he sat on the jail justice system seat for eight years. So, you know, Horner in your corner? I don’t think so. You can put that in the newspaper.”