O’Brien advocates ‘stable budget,’ wants to see projects’ completion

O’Brien

KATE LIEBERS

Staff Writer

Incum­bent county com­mis­sioner Ken O’Brien is run­ning for another term to “ensure the tax­payer dol­lars are wisely spent,” and to fin­ish projects cur­rently underway.

“There is a learn­ing curve, and I would like to see those com­pleted,” said O’Brien, who was endorsed by the Delaware County Repub­li­can Party’s cen­tral committee.

In par­tic­u­lar, O’Brien wants to help over­see the suc­cess­ful and seam­less tran­si­tion to new 911 sys­tem, espe­cially since lives are at stake.

He also wants to con­tinue work­ing with the Cen­tral Ohio Youth Cen­ter con­sor­tium to make sure it is cost-effective, while pro­vid­ing a safe and secure envi­ron­ment for youth.

O’Brien said that main­tain­ing a sta­ble bud­get would be essen­tial for Delaware County’s progress. This point was illus­trated when Ohio Fam­ily and Chil­dren First Coun­cil came to the com­mis­sion­ers when the state did not pro­vide funds for man­dated ser­vices ahead of time.

From home­land secu­rity and emer­gency man­age­ment, to jobs and fam­ily ser­vices, O’Brien said that the county needs to be pre­pared by reserv­ing funds.

“Delaware County is very for­tu­nate to have the resources that we have, but we need to be very cau­tious in how we spend it so that we can meet these press­ing needs,” said O’Brien.

A fund reserve is also crit­i­cal as local gov­ern­ments antic­i­pate fur­ther cuts from state fund­ing, he added.

One of his plans for meet­ing these goals is to endorse col­lab­o­ra­tion projects, such as shar­ing the high-speed fiber optic cable with schools or other pub­lic entities.

“The county should not com­pete with pri­vate com­pa­nies,” said O’Brien, “But any pub­lic entity should be able to access Delaware County fiber…that we don’t need.”

O’Brien touted his abil­ity to mon­i­tor spend­ing while serv­ing on the board of commissioners.

“One of the things that I com­mit­ted to when I ran the first time was to spend county dol­lars the way that I would spend my own dol­lars,” said O’Brien. “I’m con­fi­dent my votes reflect that.”

He was espe­cially pleased with his influ­ence in sta­tion­ing the county’s juve­nile and pro­bate courts in the Hayes Gov­ern­ment Ser­vice Build­ing at 140 N. San­dusky St. Com­pared to the other com­mis­sion­ers’ plans, O’Brien said that mov­ing the courts into the already par­tially com­pleted Hayes build­ing was “a bet­ter use of resources.”

The ren­o­va­tions cost $1.7 mil­lion, which O’Brien said was a small frac­tion of what the county could have spent, and “stopped a cour­t­house from being built before it was needed.”

That project as well as ren­o­vat­ing the jail to increase capac­ity were timed such that con­struc­tion costs “would be rea­son­able,” said O’Brien.

“I want to be sure that we are able to tackle the big deci­sions in a timely man­ner, such that we are able to reduce costs,” he said.

O’Brien addressed fac­ing per­son­nel as well as bud­getary chal­lenges through­out his last term, but ulti­mately described the expe­ri­ence as fulfilling.

“Day by days, there are ways to save money for the county,” he said.

O’Brien added that with his pre­vi­ous expe­ri­ence serv­ing as a town­ship trustee and on zon­ing com­mis­sion, he has been exposed to many aspects of county government.

Posted by Kate Liebers on Feb 16 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.