Candidate Q&As: City Commission

The following is a Q&A of the candidates for the District 3 Quay County Commissioner in the June 5 Primary.

Franklin McCasland

Q: What is the major issues you would want to see addressed if elected as commissioner for District 3?

A: Some of our major issues are the unfunded mandates that come down from the state for the detention center. A small county like Quay County spends more than $1 million each year to comply with these mandates. This is attributed to there being limited resources to address the behavioral health of the inmates other than the detention center.

Q: Why are you seeking to become the Commissioner for District 3?

A: The main reason I want to continue serving the residents of Quay County is I care about all of Quay County. I feel I have done a great job in representing all of the residents needs equally. I have raised my family in Quay County and have a vested interest in seeing Quay County prosper.

Q: What is something the commission does well?

A: I think the county commission is very transparent to the citizens of Quay County. The board packets, minutes of the meeting are available online for the residents to review. The public is welcome to come the meetings to voice their concerns. The commission also weighs every issues, concern carefully to do what is best for everyone involved.

Q: What is something the commission needs to work on?

A: Keeping our citizens informed, excited about future opportunities of economic growth in Quay County. Such as expansion of renewable energy projects in the county, both solar and wind energy. The commission also needs to work closer with the other area entities, agencies and state, federal agencies to bring in new economic development opportunities to the region.

Q: Is there anything that the commission handles that would be best left in the hands of private citizens?

A: By statute the commission can only hire the county commission, set policy and oversee the budget. I don't see anything that we could do that would best be left in the hands of the private citizens. The commission has called upon private citizens to give their input and serve on numerous boards including: DWI Council, MCCH Council, Natural Resources committee.

Bryan Rinestine

Q: What is the major issues you would want to see addressed if elected as commissioner for District 3?

A: I would like to see the retention of our road department employees. We can not continue to train these people to have them leave to work in private construction industry or for the state highway department. Another issue is to stop the State Legislature and agencies from passing down unfunded mandates that put the burden on the tax payers of Quay County.

Q: Why are you seeking to become the Commissioner for District 3?

A: I've worked in county or state government for more than 25 years. This has included work as detention officer, dispatch and recently the supervisor of the DWI program for 10 years. I know how the county works from the inside and there are somethings that need to be changed. I was asked by friends from the north east portion of the county to run for commissioner and this is the first opportunity I have to seek the seat.

Q: What is something the commission does well?

A: The commission has done a great job of bringing in the renewable energy projects including the solar and wind farms into the county.

Q: What is something the commission needs to work on?

A: The commission needs to work more on stopping the unfunded mandates from being passed down on the county. The commission also needs to work closer with their employees, as the DWI Program supervisor I only had one commissioner visit my office in 10 years. I would like to see the commission work to bring in some industry that has higher employment opportunities for our residents.

Q: Is there anything that the commission handles that would be best left in the hands of private citizens?

A: I don't know that there is anything that would be best left in the hands of private citizens. I think the commission needs to do a better job of listening to the residents on zoning and permitting type issues before a decision is made.