Keller - Roanoke - Northeast Fort Worth | January 2022

PEOPLE

G.K. Maenius Tarrant County administrator looks to new year

ONWHERE THE COUNTY’S PANDEMIC RESPONSE STANDS AS 2022 BEGINS: We’re right now in a ood of need for testing for COVID-19 … and so we need to make sure that our organization is ready to stand up to those types of challenges. I think everybody thought that 2021 would be the end of the coronavirus, and we know now that it’s not going to be the end—we don’t know [if] 2022 is going to be the end, so we have to stay exible and have enough capacity to meet the needs. I will tell you that the demand on services, as relates to the coronavirus, has grown substantially even over these last six weeks because of the new variant. … At the same time, we need to make sure that our organization as a whole, we need to take care of our employees—make sure that their mental and physical health are good. We’re going to be really focusing on things such as improving the structure of our public health department. We have a good public health department in normal times. Unfortunately, the last two-and-a-half years have not been normal times—so, we have the ability to strengthen our public health department. They’re doing a good job now, but they’re stressed. If we can improve that, that’s going to benet everyone in this county for many years to come. … We’re also looking forward to the hospital district [JPS Health Network] had that $800 million bond package that we ran for them and was approved by the voters. We’re going to see some buildings go up. ... You’re going to see a real strong emphasis on community health and that kind of ts hand in glove with the issues with the public health department. ON PUBLIC HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE: TARRANT COUNTY’S COVID19 AND PUBLIC HEALTHOUTLOOK

BY STEVEN RYZEWSKI

Since 1990, the population of Tarrant County has grown by more than 80%—from 1.17 million residents to 2.11 million residents in the 2020 census—and G.K. Maenius has been Tarrant County administrator through it all. The county administrator is appointed by the Tarrant County Commissioners Court and serves as the county’s Chief Administrative Ocer, supervis- ing its roughly 4,000 employees and various departments. Maenius sat down with Community Impact Newspaper to discuss the county’s challenges and opportunities in the year ahead.

G.K. Maenius

WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO IN 2022? First, the voters approved $400 million in transportation bonds that we worked with our cities on. We’re probably going to be selling debt in March so we can begin those projects, and we’ve already been talking with the cities to get everybody geared up to do them. I think you’re going to see a real growth in road construction, which is always good because of our growing population. … Normally, we have focused on the unincorporated areas and also those smaller towns and cities … but I believe that with the monies that we have and the partnerships we’ve developed, you’re going to really see the county stepping up and really provide not only funding, but also some strategic leadership in address- ing long-term needs of the entire community of Tarrant County. WILL ECONOMIC DEVELOP MENT CONTINUE TO BE A FOCUS FOR THE COUNTY? Absolutely. In fact, we partner every day with the chambers of commerce and the municipalities in working economic development deals. We’ve got an economic development sta that’s located in

our oce here—and it’s not just a matter of bringing new business in, but it’s also the expansion of existing businesses. We work very aggres- sively with [Tarrant County College] because the key to bringing in new businesses and expansion is to have a trained workforce. WHAT IS THE COUNTY’S FISCAL OUTLOOK? I think as far as revenues and things such as that, I think we’re going to be in really good shape. We’re going to continue to decrease our tax rate. We’ve done a pretty good job over the last eight or 10 years, and we continue to drive that tax rate down. Unfortunately, I think some people are going to see an increase in the value of their homes, and so we try to oset that with decreases in tax rates. WHAT ARE SOME OTHER AREAS OF FOCUS? We’re looking at housing; we’re looking at employment-related issues. We’re looking at infrastruc- ture in our buildings and how to make sure that we have the type of buildings that can support the growth that we’re gonna see in the county. ... I think we’re going to see a rapid

movement of a lot more activity in both the criminal and civil courts— and that’s a big deal for us, because we have 20 criminal courts, and we have 10 civil courts, and we have like six family courts. They’re going to get back into full operations, and so we’ll be working o those backlogs. TARRANT COUNTY VOTERS WILL ELECT ANEWJUDGE, DISTRICT ATTORNEY AND TWO NEWCOMMISSIONERS DUE TO RETIREMENTS. IS THAT UNUSUAL? Since I’ve been working with the county, I’ve had about four, maybe ve dierent courts where you had some change. I’ve seen it where we’ve had at least two members of the court roll o and had two new members come on board. The chang- ing of the county judge is a little bit dierent. Judge [Glen] Whitley has been county judge for 20 or close to 20 years now, and Judge [Tommy Joe] Vandergri was there for 16 years before that. You don’t really have that big of a change that often in the county judge roles, so it is a little bit unique. I think everyone is, you know, somewhat anxious about how that’s going to work, but I think that we’re gonna be just ne.

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