ROCKWALL — Kevin Fowler and Jerry Hogan are vying for the County Judge's seat in Rockwall County in the upcoming runoff ballot. The Herald-Banner takes an in-depth look at both campaigns prior to the start of early voting.

Fowler slogan: ‘I can build consensus, not walls’

That’s a message county judge runoff candidate Kevin Fowler wants to get across to Rockwall County voters before the April 13 election.

That will be his down-the-stretch slogan in his judgeship race against Jerry Hogan.

“I find myself saying over and over, ’I can build consensus,’” Fowler said this week during an hour-long interview at American National Bank, where he is a commercial loan officer.

And what’s the opposite of building consensus, Fowler said a marketing representative asked him.

“Well, it’s building walls,” Fowler said he responded. “If you have a personality that’s polarizing, or pushy, or strong, what doesn’t work in county government, then you’re building walls with other commissioners, or other departments, or other elected officials, or other cities, with Washington, with Austin. You have all these walls and you can’t get anything done.”

After the response to the marketing representative’s question, a slogan was born.

The 45-year-old Fowler points to his community involvement as one of his biggest strengths.

He was chairman of the Rockwall County Building Better Roads Bond Committee. He’s a director of the City of Rockwall Economic Development Corporation, secretary and past chairman of the Rockwall Chamber of Commerce, member and past president of the Rockwall Rotary Club, treasurer of Rockwall County’s Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) and chairman of the Rockwall Business Education Council.

“I’ve proven it over and over the past 10 years,” Fowler said of his consensus-building skills with his community involvement. “You just see it in what I’ve done. We’ve made difficult decisions. We’ve done great things for this county.”

“Consensus building” also was mentioned earlier in the interview when he was asked what appears to be voters’ biggest concern.

“Government — they’re talking from Washington all the way down — doesn’t listen to the people,” Fowler said. “That’s the No. 1 thing I hear. And we want someone in office that listens to us and can get things done. That’s what I’ve said from my very first speeches. I will listen. I can build consensus. I can work with people. I can get things done.”

Those same skills are necessary for the judge as he serves as a member of commissioners court, he said.

“There’s four commissioners and a judge. There’s five votes on that,” Fowler said. “So, you have to be able to work with people to get anything done in county government. And I think I have the respect of the county commissioners right now. I never got up and bashed those guys, or called them unethical.”

Fowler said he believes Hogan will have some difficulty working with county commissioners.

“One thing he said he wants to create a position, this ethics officer,” Fowler said. “He wants to restore integrity and honesty in county government … but I think we have the most ethical people of the highest integrity in our county offices now. He’s going to have difficulty working with them, I believe, or would if he were to win, because of that implied accusation — that he’s the only ethical person in county government. I can work with those people. I have a tremendous amount of respect and confidence in them.”

If he’s elected, Fowler said, he will immediately begin working with all municipalities in the county and “start on the track of developing a master plan because you can’t know where you’re going if you don’t have a finish line in place.”

“We need to start mapping out — this is going to be green areas, this is going to be major thoroughfares, this is how many people we need,” Fowler said. “Just like these bond guys do. They’re great at projecting to 2043. They’re making projections on debt right now. We’ve got to do that because as we grow, we are going to need more infrastructure. And at some point, we are going to have more bond elections for infrastructure improvements, for roads, so we have got to have a master plan.”

Roads are a priority, he said, but there’s also “personnel because as the county grows, the sheriff’s office is going to have to grow. You’ve got services in the library. You’ve got juvenile services, You’ve got the district attorney’s office.”

“All those services are going to grow, or need more people and personnel costs,” Fowler added. “There’s roads, there’s equipment, there’s a myriad of capital-type things that go hand in hand with county growth.”

Fowler said he has the skills to work with people to make an overall county master plan a reality.

A difficult issue involves taxes, Fowler said.

“He says no new taxes,” Fowler said of Hogan. “That’s a difficult one because it sounds good and it does get you votes to say, ‘I’m not ever going to have to raise taxes.’ But if you talk to any financial planners, any of the bond guys, and any of the demographic guys, guys at the tax office, at some point you’ve got to make some decisions through cutting staff, reducing overhead, reducing services. And the voters want roads and buildings, then they get to choose if they want to raise taxes. It’s a slippery slope to jump out on.”

Fowler said his goal is to not raise taxes.

“But I’m not going to make that promise because I can’t predict the future,” he added. “I wish I could. … I don’t really know exactly what he has in store for the county. But I do know what I see. I have a tremendous vision for the county.”

Trust in government is part of Hogan’s four-part plan

Jerry Hogan says he has a four-point plan that he will implement if he wins the runoff election for county judge on April 13.

The plan involves:

• Trust in government;

• Honesty and integrity;

• Sound, conservative fiscal management; and

• Getting concerned citizens involved in county government.

And during an hour-long interview this week at a Rockwall Starbucks, the 72-year-old Hogan also focused a lot of attention on the differences between himself and his runoff foe, Kevin Fowler.

“We talk about the differences in the two candidates,” Hogan said, “and that I have a lot of experience-based knowledge that can be applied directly into becoming the county judge, whereas my opponent has spent his whole life in the banking industry and hasn’t had a lot of experience in the issues of managing people and doing things that are required as the county judge.

“He’s focused on his volunteer activities and those are important in life, but leading a bunch of volunteers who are already there because they want to volunteer is not quite like leading an organization when people have different priorities, different goals and different ways of doing things. That takes experience. I’ve had lots of experience in business and volunteer activities and the military, and so when we talk about the election coming up, why of course we focus in on those type things.”

Several times during the interview, Hogan commented on the value of his experience in the military and business.

“So, through that whole thing of being a leader in the military and in business, I’ve done this before,” Hogan said. “I know how to do this. I don’t have to go in and learn, well how do you establish a vision, how do you work with people outside your own organization, how do you work with the adjacent county judges, how do you work with your state representatives? I’ve done all that stuff.

“My opponent has only been a banker, examiner, bank regulator, and I said that he supervises a secretary. He told me he supervised more than that. I asked him how many and he wouldn’t tell me. It wasn’t relevant.”

Hogan said Fowler’s background “does not compare with running a worldwide, 1,500-person, billion dollar organization like I’ve done.”

“And that’s the major difference in the two of us,” Hogan said.

Hogan said his grassroots supporters want him in office and the “good old boys” out.

“What I’m hearing, they want me to win,” Hogan said of his grassroots supporters. “What can we do to help? What do you need? We think it’s important that you’re elected. We want to see fresh blood in Rockwall politics. We don’t want the good old boys to stay in. And my opponent is perceived to be one of the good old boys that’s in the inner circle. They don’t want that, and they want me to do everything I can to win.”

Hogan said he considers Fowler, 45, in a group of “movers and shakers” who are in their mid-40s and very active in Rockwall volunteerism.

“I believe that he is on the fringe of that or considered to be within that inner circle of good old boys,” Hogan said.

If he is victorious on April 13, Hogan said, his first action as county judge will be to meet one-on-one with county commissioners.

“After hearing all the rhetoric from me and the other competitors about the courthouse and everything that we considered to be wrong, I’m sure the commissioners need to understand who I am and where I’m coming from,” Hogan said.

The planned Rockwall County Courthouse was a major topic of discussion during the four-candidate primary election. The campaign focused on the courthouse — a project that is moving forward even though voters twice rejected proposals to construct the facility.

After completing his talks with commissioners, Hogan said, he will start fulfilling some of his campaign promises — having night town hall meetings with the judge, periodic night commissioners court meetings and writing a newspaper column.

“So, the first thing is establishing rapport with the commissioners and then restoring trust in county government,” Hogan said.

Hogan said it’s important for him “to make sure we don’t have the perception that there’s anything at all being done in back rooms.”

“Like, for example, there’s no reason we should let any contract on a sole-source basis in a public institution,” the candidate said. “There’s no reason why we should not bid everything possible that could be bid. There’s no reason that vendors from our county should be excluded from bidding on some of those things, and they have been and that’s got to be fixed.”

Hogan then followed with more comments about “good old boys.”

“There is a perception that within the town, within the community, there’s only a certain number of people who can actually influence what happens,” Hogan said. “If there’s something coming up, it’s that good old boy network — however you want to define that — that makes all the decisions. They’re the ones that get involved. Everybody else is excluded. That’s got to stop. Everybody’s got to have a chance.”

Hogan said he would provide sound, solid, conservative management of the county’s tax dollars. And he wants county residents to see how tax dollars are being spent. His plan involves posting the county’s check register on the Internet.

There are ways to accomplish his goals, Hogan said.

“You’ve got to get the things opened up,” he said. “You can’t have all these secrets. You’ve got to let people participate in what’s happening. They’ve got to see what’s happening.”