Here are the answers Daniel Cross gave to the Rankin County News
What makes you the best candidate for
the job?
I truly
believe in the importance of service to others. We are not here just to
make a living, we are truly obligated to make this world a better place than we
found it. I have spent my youth and adulthood in this district and
have personallyexperienced its transformation from a sparsely populated
community to a heavily populated and rapidly expanding economy with
all the inherent problems associated with that growth. Over the years
I have witnessed good leadership and poor leadership exercised by our
elected officials and never cease to be amazed at the wide divergence
of the outcomes they produce. Things move much faster now. We
need bold, mature and courageous leadership- leaders who
cannot be bought, bartered or badgered by special interests bullies.
I believe I offer the talents of a long time first responder who has
dealt with large public budgets, who has developed skills in allocating scarce
resources to the highest priority needs, who has personally negotiated with
legislators for better laws, who is intimately familiar with the public
infrastructure of this district, who knows first- hand the importance
of reducing crime, who has directly been involved in lowering our fire
insurance rates, and is fully committed to keeping our roads and bridges
modernized, our water and sewer systems efficiently maintained, and our
property values protected.
What jobs have you had
that qualify you for public office.
When I was barely old enough to qualify
I became a volunteer firefighter for the Reservoir Fire District. While
still in high school I learned the location
of every roadway, utility instillation, subdivision,
fireplug, pumping station, and electricalgrid in the district.
After graduation from Northwest Rankin High School,
I attended Mississippi State University, thentransferred to the
University of Memphis my final two years to complete my B.S. degree in Fire
Administration. I have advanced in my profession to Chief Instructor in
charge of the National Fire Protection Association certification of
firefighters throughout Mississippi. During recent years I have
graduated from the law enforcement training academy and serve as a reserve
Deputy Sheriff in Rankin County. I have crossed every bridge
and traversed every road in Rankin County in performance of
these duties. I have pulled people out of burning cars and
homes, personally taken violent criminals to the ground, and
performed life- saving CPR on numerous occasions as an emergency medical
technician. I have worked with some of the most dedicated and
honorable people imaginable who put their lives on the line daily to protect
their fellow citizens of this great county. I know
personally, and work very effectively with, our state legislators and
many other county officials on a daily basis to improve our county.
I have worked hard to help locate and continually fund a burn center in
Rankin County, the only one in our state.
What would you like the voters to know
about you?
First of all the voters
need to know that I will bring honor and dignity to this office if elected.
I am a Christian, a member of Pine Lake Baptist Church, and I strongly
believe that the best blueprint we can furnish our youth is the
example we set in our own daily lives. We should demonstrate
to them that public service is a privilege that should never be abused
and those who are given the honor of the public trust
should reflect a very high standard of morality. Our actions should
attract others to seekpublic service instead of providing
them with a source ofridicule. With two small children to raise
in this district I have a lot of skin in the game and I want to
provide increasing opportunities for them to excel and become the
best they can be in life. So you won’t find me in bars, places
of nuisance, or among questionable associates. You will find me on the
youth baseball fields, in public forums enhancing our county, in church
gatherings, community picnics, graduations, firehouses, police stations, with
military members and their families, or with my wife and two boys.
These are the places that replenish my soul and orient my moral compass.
Do you plan to keep your
full time job if elected? Talk about your yes or no answer.
I am very blessed to have
a job that allows me lots of flexibility and three days off each
week. I suppose I could quit and do just one thing and be more
comfortable and less tired. But I am seeking the opportunity to offer my
talents toward more public service, not less. Let put this in a little
different perspective. The office of county supervisor was created as a
part time job. Over ninety- five per cent of the supervisors
throughout our state have other jobs, including the other elected supervisors
of Rankin County. Our Congress was also designed this way by the
founding fathers, who intended for the representatives of this great
country to live and work in their districts and be part- time lawmakers so
they would personally experience the full effect of the laws they made.
Congress has since morphed into a full time, overpaid job, which keeps
them in Washington, comfortably away from their constituents most of
the time, and you see how that has turned out.
I believe
supervisors should work in the county they supervise, so they
will fully experience the consequences of the decisions they
make. They should interface daily in the work place with the very people
who are affected by their decisions. They should experience the snarling
traffic jams on the way to work and back, they should hit the same potholes and
go across the same bridges. I want to come to a supervisor’s meeting fully
informed, but also tired, just like the voters who elected
me, because they come home tired and many have to go to other part
time jobs just to make ends meet. I may not be the best dressed
at those meetings and may be a little sweaty, not having had an
afternoon nap and shower, but I will be better suited to make critical
decisions that affect you. This is because I believe that my current
job would make me a much more effective supervisor. It develops
strong leadership, it keeps me sharp on budgeting finite resources.
It daily hones my skills in
prioritizing and differentiating the important things form the
trivial. It places me in a forum where I interface with hundreds of
people each day, most all from our county, giving me access to invaluable
feedback. So if the electorate is looking for some sort of time card
puncher or clock watcher to do just one thing only, I am probably not your man.
Maybe we have too many of those types in government already. No,
give me the greater load, let me do all I can, and I will go home tired, just
like you, after a twelve or sixteen hour
day- but I will sleep very soundly, knowing I have done all
I can do to serve others.
What do you bring to the office?
I bring twenty- one years of
public service, coupled with a passionate desire to better this county. I
bring a strong vigilanceto purge county budgets from waste. I
bring a commitment toproperly allocate our resources where they are most
effective. We have sufficient revenue coming in if we develop
disciplinein its allocation. I am tired of the age old
solution of just raising taxes as the easiest means to fulfill budget
requests. I am a Republican, and a very conservative one at that. I
have witnessed the effect of property taxes going up while property values go
down. I pledge that I will not vote to raise anyone’s taxes if it cannot
be proven to me that we are using the most efficient allocation of the
resources we already have.
I have ridden many times with law
enforcement officers whose agency could not afford to buy them a bullet proof
vest because the dollars went to buy furniture for some county
official’s office. I have gone into burning buildings with fire
departments who did not have infrared cameras that would allow them to see
through the thick smoke and rescue the inhabitants because the small
amount of money needed to purchase them went for amore comfortable truck
or car for a county employee. I have seen precious county dollars go for comfortable
buildings and facilities before first ensuring the safety
of our roads and bridges.
I will bring to this
office a spirit of new, bold and courageous leadership for our county, not
just business as usual.
7 comments:
Hope more folks vote for him this next time around.
He's got my vote!!
I won't vote for him and people can call my reasoning petty, but I know what neighborhood he lives in. It's a large neighborhood with a large HOA, probably the largest in Rankin County. As with any large neighborhood there are challenges with keeping the infrastructure running, dealing with the various personalities, overseeing a large budget, knowing when to call on the county for help, etc. To me, a person that wants to serve his neighbors probably ought to be involved with the HOA where he lives. I've been a volunteer and a board member. Not once that I can recall has he stepped up to either volunteer when calls have been put out or consider serving on the board. As he's been running for supervisor, not once has he reached out to the HOA or its leaders to poll them for their biggest concerns. Other candidates did.
If a person doesn't take an active role in their own neighborhood, why would we think they would take care of the needs of the district?
Could he be running for personal gain? Not necessarily just for the extra income for the next four years…but perhaps for the HUGE boost he would ultimately have in state retirement from the four high years of pay (the combination of his current state job PLUS the salary he would receive as supervisor).
Youre not petty. You're perfectly on point and it's this type of information that the voters need to know about a candidate. It would also help if your parents didn't have to write your answers for you.
Know him and that isn't his vocabulary used in the answers placed in the Rankin County News. Saddens me to know what extremes people will go to in order to be elected.
Post a Comment