Four Republican candidates for Bandera County offices attended a forum held at the Core Coffeehouse in Medina last week, three of which spoke about their campaigns.
Bandera County Commissioner incumbent Jack Moseley (Precinct 3), Bandera County Sheriff candidate Will Dietrich and Bandera County Republican Party Chair candidate Mark Miller addressed the audience; Bandera County Attorney incumbent Janna Lindig attended the meeting but left early before speaking.
Dietrich spoke at length and answered questions from attendees first, beginning with his 29-year background in law enforcement before outlining his time as Bandera City Marshal.
Dietrich criticized the leadership of the sheriff’s department for failing to communicate with the community about the issues and crimes that face the county.
Dietrich said that Bandera County Chat Facebook posts informed him about the particulars of crimes facing the county.
“The marshal’s office and the constable’s department don’t get a lot of information from the sheriff’s office,” he said.
Dietrich said he believed that the community should be strongly involved in every aspect of law enforcement.
“If you don’t work with the community, you are working against them,” he said. “I think that’s what we have now. We have a lot of resentment and hurt feelings.”
Dietrich said that he had visited several communities in the county to get their take on what was needed to adequately police their areas.
“Wharton’s Dock feels they have a lack of service, and they feel like they have been abandoned,” he said.
Dietrich continued, “I am very big on customer service, and I didn’t believe that until I became a supervisor. When I started getting complaints on officers, you find out that it wasn’t so much about them doing something wrong as it was how they treated someone.”
He suggests that officers should seek to find alternate answers to problems.
“I think we can help people out; we should be doing more than just trying to arrest them,” he said.
Dietrich said he thinks that the current sheriff is “retired on duty.”
“I think he is a nice guy and I’ve never had a problem with him. But I have noticed that the level of service has taken a step down every year,” Dietrich said.
Dietrich told the crowd it would be a cut in pay for him if elected.
“It’s going to be a lot of hard work, and it’s going to take a couple of years to get things back to the way they used to be,” he said.
Commissioner Moseley for Precinct 3 spoke next to the group, emphasizing the Bandera County Commissioners’’ Court has “no say in how the different departments are run.”
He said the sheriff’s department is divided into three areas: patrol, jails and dispatch, each with its own budget.
Moseley noted the sheriff’s department received a 10% raise in pay last year, the road and bridge department 15% Moseley also spoke about the coming full eclipse in April. He warned that the problems expected to occur in October, would occur in April.
He said that many people parked on the side of the road to observe the event. He said the RV parks reported that 50% of their visitors came for the eclipse, but many also came to Bandera for a vacation.
Pinegate Solar Company was also a topic for Moseley. He mentioned that he had an appointment with them to talk about the project.
Moseley mentioned he was working on upgrades to Mansfield Park, and he e emphasized that these upgrades would occur without the use of taxpayer money.
Mosley said he applied for grants to provide upgrades to Mansfield Park, while the COVID money available to the county mostly went to the volunteer fire departments and could not be used for Mansfield Park.
Miller, a 15-year county resident, spoke about his background and military service. He mentioned his philosophy was “first faith, then family and then politics.”
He said that he was running for this position because he was tired of screaming at the TV.
“If I want to make a change in something, then I have to do it myself,” he said.
He answered questions from the audience.
“People have approached me and said that they would like me to run. I would like to unite the party,” he said.
He was worried that “everything around the country was being splintered. You remember the old saying ‘divide and conquer;’ well, that’s what the Democrats are doing, they are dividing us and will conquer us.”
Miller said while he doesn’t have a background in GOP work, he does have leadership skills gained from his job with the Ford Motor Company as lead engineer for two $27 million projects.
He said he was very familiar with working with people.
While Miller is not intimately involved with GOP work, he said he is most concerned with registering citizens to vote and getting them to the polls.
“It gives people a feeling of worth,” he said. “Get people involved, and they feel ownership.”
Jana Lindig attended the meeting but had to leave early and did not speak.
