I don't suppose you ever live streamed before, right?
What?
So I'm trying to figure out if this is sideways.
I'll figure out later.
Well, it's I'm I'm live right now, but I think
it's sideways.
Um, sorry?
Uh Instagram.
I could check I'll try to check on my other
phone.
My middle name is App.
You need to stop there.
All right.
Good evening, everyone.
Welcome to the McKinney Forum.
Um, we are gonna ask, and I apologize with everyone
sitting already, but we are gonna ask if the candidates
can come and sit in the first two rows just
to make it easy.
Sorry, I don't I don't start getting out.
All right, as you guys are moving, uh, my name
is Jessica Martnick.
I will be your MC this evening.
Tonight is your opportunity to listen to all of these
school boards, city council, and college college, collin college candidates
who are on the ballot in McKinney, and to hear
their views on issues that matter to you.
Before we begin tonight, I would like to remind everyone
to please turn off all of your cell phones.
If you have iPads, whatever you do that you listen
to, please turn them off to stack everyone speaking this
evening.
Um I would like to also thank our Collin
County Constable Matt Carpenter who's here, who's attending today.
He's acting on our southern line.
Matt has attended almost every single forum that we've had
in Collin County, and he has gone above and beyond
to help make sure that we have hopefully continue to
have this evening a peaceful night because I really want
to make sure that they're bored.
Okay.
So let's keep them bored.
Um so with that said, I would like to uh
welcome up Adder Mazeri to begin us with a prayer.
Thank you, Jane.
All right.
What does God say about voting and elections?
Some people in faith say that we should stay above
politics.
That can be tempting to conservatives because it feels easier
in the moment.
The path of least resistance.
In the state of cancel culture and 24 7, mudsending
on social media and in news coverage, we are a
nation that feels more divided and divisive than ever.
It is understandable that good people want to sit on
the sid.elines and keep to themselves
The resulting apathy leads to abysmal voter turnout, and that's
something that we experience here in Cal County.
And as Plato noted, one of the penalties for refusing
to participate in politics is that you end up being
governed by your inferiors.
The result?
Degradation of parental rights, loss of free speech, child gender
mutilation, loss of medical freedom, the list goes on.
The Bible makes clear that despite the stigma often associated
with politics, God calls and uses political leaders.
God calls each of us to participate.
Referring to Matthew as the salt of the earth and
the light of the world, the flourishing of our world
is in part our responsibility.
If I have the only light in a dark room,
its darkness is my fault.
Caring for our culture and engaging in political processes is
part of good citizenship.
So as we steamroll towards election day, we must make
certain that we are not serving our own self- interest, but
we are serving our highest authority, God.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, we pray as grateful citizens of Collentown.
We give thanks to these citizens of a country that
we boldly claim to be one nation under you, God.
We pray, asking for your guidance, wisdom, and support as
we kick off tonight's candidate forum.
We pray for our neighbors in this room that are
bold and brave enough to step forward as candidates, and
we pray that the voters in this room and beyond
are able to support and elect the best citizens for
the job.
Tonight, let us listen and collaborate with open minds and
good intentions.
Father, we pray that our efforts will reinforce your will
as we seek to conserve the values and principles that
grant us life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
We give thanks to you for the days that have
passed for today and for the journey ahead.
Okay, now we're going to do our supply chains.
So everyone will please stand with me.
I would like to first welcome.
I'm Uber Coding Early Crossbow High School.
And this adorable, these adorable young ladies who are here
to say to help us say your name too.
I know this voter.
I thought you would have to do that.
I've got a hand for these great early.
Okay.
So now let's get the party started.
All right.
We have a wonderful basket for donations out in the
lobby.
We are going to do some great things with those
donations.
One, we're going to put on this forum.
And if you could help us cover the cost of
that by making a donation, we would really appreciate it.
There is no dollar amount too small.
If you just have a dollar bill in your pocket,
that would also help us.
So please uh put a dollar in the basket, $20
in the basket.
Um, I would also like to make sure that we
let everyone know that we have invited every single candidate
to this forum this evening.
We have accepted the offer.
I think it's important to note that there is a
McKinney City Council uh meeting this evening as well.
So would also like to thank our sponsor,
Pro Deo Realty.
Derek Baker helped us sponsor this event, so thank you
to our sponsors.
I'm not gonna say all the names because there's a
lot of them, but I'm gonna leave it up there
for you so you can see it for a second.
So as we move forward, we are volunteer political organizations
dedicated to the informed and responsible participation of citizens in
government.
And if you're not a member of any of these
groups, join.
Become a member.
Get involved.
That's your duty as a citizen.
So as we move forward into the questions, I realize
that many of the people in the audience tonight may
be fiercely partisan.
However, I will insist that the candidates and the audience
treat each other with respect.
Personal attacks will not be allowed this evening.
It is a job of the audience to listen.
We ask that you all listen respectfully to each candidate's
answers.
And in the interest of time, please hold applause to
the end.
And you can make your statement when you go and
vote.
Then we will do city council, and then we'll move
on to the school board.
So I would like to bring up our moderators.
We have Mr.
Derek Baker and Mr.
Jim Pickle.
All right, hi, my name is Jim Hickel.
Wait.
My name is Jared Baker.
Welcome.
I'll just say real quick, you know, there's a lot
I've done, I don't know, countless forums over the last
30 years.
And you know, sometimes candidates don't actually show up.
Uh and you guys must have heard what happens.
Candidates that don't show up, and what we say about
them.
So we appreciate you being here.
In fact, I do appreciate the candidates for Colin College
because actually this is not just the first forum they've
been to.
The'yve been to a number of forums across the county.
We appreciate you.
So we're not gonna have as long of questions with
them because there's so many, but this is our format
for tonight.
Uh as you can see, we do have a lot
of candidates, eight just for the Colin College.
We're gonna have a two.-minute opening statement for each race,
and then for each question we ask them, we'll do
one and a half minutes, 90 seconds
Where's my time keep?
There you go.
Thank you very much.
And you'll need to pay attention to her because she
has a yellow card and a red card.
When she holds up the yellow card, that means you
have 30 seconds left.
And the red card means please stop talking.
I will be very diligent in holding you to that.
So don't make me cut you off because it's fun
for me.
And uh there are no gotcha questions.
Um candidate knows any of the questions.
And we've held them close to the chest, but we
don't think there's any gotcha questions, legitimate questions.
We're trying to find different differentiation and differences uh between
the candidates, so you can make an informed decision.
Uh, we'll be very strict on the time limits.
We talked about that, and then there's typically going to
be a round of questions, depending on the race, anywhere
from one to six, and then we're gonna have a
lightning round uh if you've heard of those.
The lightning round is yes, no, or pass.
They're not intended for gotcha, so if you don't like
to say yes nor pass, don't try to explain.
Hang out and talk to these guys after the fact,
and you can explain uh what your answer is.
But if you say, well, I uh I'm just gonna
cut you off.
So uh with that, let's get into the questions.
You can see there's a number of races that we
have, uh eight candidates, three different races, and I think
it's place is place one down at the end.
Okay, place so you guys are in order, thank you
so much.
They have some uh awesome.
Okay, so place one, place two, and place three of
Collin College trustees.
In fact, we're in the board rooms, you don't see
the dias on the other side, but this is one
of the boardrooms.
And we're going to start, we'll start with Mr.
the Moses
down in end, just to make it simple.
And we're going to have a two minute introduction for
each candidate.
Before Mr.
Moses starts, I'll just remind you of this.
Remember, these guys are not running all against one another.
So when they answer, just make note of their tent
their tent cards and say, Oh, these two, you can
see who they're running against, and just compare the answers
and responses of each.
Just a real reminder.
And with that, Mr.
Moses, two minutes to start.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank uh for calling uh conservative well for having
us available forum.
Thank you for being here.
I'm Fred Moses, and I've uh been on served on
the uh college board for the last six years.
Uh I'm very passionate about the college.
I have well 50 years ago I graduated from a
community college.
Community college gave me a second.
Well, it's like a champion line.
And so that's what I think that the value of
our college is here in Collin County.
I got on the uh Colin uh board, I ran
for it.
They paid very well.
And uh I I'm a as a business owner, I'm
really uh passionate about us uh the college uh providing
service by uh relative training for our uh businesses, and
so that's uh real important.
I've been this has been in business 38 years, and
so that's the real border.
I've served in a minimum capacity uh in the county.
Been in the county 43 years, almost a te.xt
But anyway, we're very uh pleased to be here, and
I've gotten recognition from the college and everybody for the
work and serving and devotion that I have.
My former wife made the college, and we continue to
do that.
And uh being a trustee on the board, this gives
me another opportunity to keep us uh uh keep us
uh rounded and keep us relevant, keep us uh more
so than anything, providing great students and great opportunities for
people like me to call us in formal life, diamonds
and erupts.
And yeah, I've done very well.
Thank you very much for emotions.
Brother friends and I have a lot in common actually,
and uh I laughed because uh he was joking that
he's almost in Texas now, and I what I tell
people is I wasn't born in Texan, but I got
here as soon as I could.
Um my name's Megan Wallace, I'm running for place one
of the Collins College Board of Trustees.
My family moved to Collin County in 2011 to grow
our business.
I served for a time as the chief financial officer
for that business until it was acquired in 2019 as
part of a multimillion dollar acquisition.
I decided after that to grow myself in community service.
I serve in the PTO at my son's school in
the IC.
I'm the literacy library head there.
I also serve at the community food pantry in McKinney.
I'm a shift lead volunteer over there, and then I
decided, you know what?
I can do more.
So I decided last year to go back to school
at Collin College to shift gears on studying the law,
and it was my experience. as a student that led
me to seek out an opportunity to serve the school
that I love so much
As a student, I feel like I have a special
um opportunity to serve as someone someone who has relevant
current experience in the classroom and on campuses.
I've been at three different campuses all week long.
And I feel like that could be a really um
big plus to have me on the board and be
that voice for our students.
Um my goals as trustee would be to um make
sure that our college-bound Collin County High School students that
are graduating, that they would graduate with dual credit.
We should graduate every student with as much dual credit
as we can because our parents need the break.
Our parents need the break in the cost ever rising
cost of higher education, and so I would like to
see us really expand in those areas and make sure
we're working with every student in this county.
Thank you.
And I'm a lifelong DFW resident, and I've been in
Collin County for 13 years.
I um am a former corporate attorney business owner.
I got my JD from Texas Tech and I mean
from Texas Tech as well.
But for the past 13 years, I've been a public
school educator.
I've been a social study teacher, I'm an assistant principal,
principal, director of academics at MHR, and some other roles
that are not quite as important, but I'll have done.
So I've kind of done it all in public education,
and that's the number one reason I'm running for the
seat is because I I''mm super passionate about public education.
I love that public education with my heart and soul,
and we really need somebody in place too who's active
and who's experienced.
Um there's a couple of reasons why I'm running in
addition to my passion for education.
One, Megan issue issue of dual credit.
I see some people who might be parents in the
audience and some students
Are you all familiar with dual credit and in your
high schools?
Um so you know y'all are y'all are actually paying
a little more in dual credit than I think you
should.
Um, if you've looked at your tax bill, you know
that you pay a common college tax and you pay
an IC tax.
But the common college is actually charging the ICs for
bill credit.
And in Dallas County, that isn't happening, it's only happening
here in Colline County.
And so basically you're being double taxed, and I'd like
to change that and reduce your fees that you pay
in dual credit so that you pay less because I
want it to be open for everybody, not just a
few people.
The second reason, and I'm glad uh the invocation mentioned
free speech.
You know, violating someone's free speech rights isn't just the
wrong thing to do.
It actually happens to be quite expensive.
And for Collin College, it has cost the common college
one million dollars in accounting and settlements and lawsuits and
paying lawyers.
I think that's lower as I used to be on.
But paying lawyers and settlements for violations of free speech.
The problem is that the incumbent of place two hasn't
done anything about that.
There hasn't been any action taken.
And the longer we go on with lawsuits and free
speech being violated, the more money it's going to cost
us.
And so I want to turn that around.
I like to change that.
I understand that um that you know, if we do
keep it the same thing over and over again, the
same thing is going to happen.
And um, I'd like to work with the administration and
the rest of the board who I think is committed
to changing that, and I want to uh change that
as well.
So thanks, thank you so much so much for coming
on starting.
Place two.
My name is Jay Sand.
I'm presenting in place to and the million dollar comment.
There is no million-dollar payout.
We have had two settlements, we had to pay our
deductors.
And that's what we do wear in insurance.
We buy an insurance policy to pay off that who's
state or for those issues, and then we go forward
from that.
That's all it is.
Now, the problem is that what I'm running, we got
a great college here
Most people don't even know what pre-college yet.
We have 67,000 students.
We have the lowest tuition in the state of Texas,
and we have the second most cash rate.
That means it's great for our students to come on
and get an opportunity to get hours, as you mentioned,
dual credits.
We can take advantage of that.
Our students can get ahead and get ready for when
they go out of a four-year college.
We also have one of the highest success ratios.
Meaning kids who transfer from one college to another college,
and we have the highest success ratio.
So again, we're doing well in our college.
Why am I participating in it?
My kids have all grown up, they've already graduated from
college.
I understand the importance of financially sound education.
In today's world, when somebody goes out and uh graduating
from college or even attending college, and there are $39,000
in debt.
That's not just a few people, there's 43 million Americans
there at that party debt.
So when we talk about tuition and controlling costs, that's
why I'm participating in it, and I'll continue to focus
on those things, and I'll continue to look out for
you, the customers who are ultimately the ones who are
going to be making the decisions.
Thank you.
Um let's see, quick interesting background.
Um for a long time.
Sorry.
Okay
Okay.
Been around for a long time
Went through UT system, bachelor's, masters, Don Bell's ISD,
teaching up here now.
I kind of live in a world of CNE filmy.
And that's pretty much what I try to do where
I go.
And I learned while playing the Army and other places
that you can only have one priority.
And from what I've seen, the college's number one priority
has to be students.
And we'll get played all sorts of other games of
this, that whatever.
We take guy off the prices.
And if you take guys off the price, it's like
driving down the road to ride a bicycle.
You're going to know where you're working.
You look at the ditch, that's where you go.
Look at the other lane watch the other remote, that's
where you go.
So my focus is with students and for students is
to keep the path clear ahead.
And either for the students, make sure the schools are
working for the students.
I think it has some admin issues.
Excellent education.
Excellent other pathway work with.
I think on the admin, I'll let you do some
work, and that's our mind.
So even jump on the kids today, but what promises
I should make.
And um we come up to a good conclusion.
It was actually offered three pizza on every day, um
ending with a Y.
So I didn't gotta do my campaign for others.
So good, all good.
I'll try to keep you entertained if nothing else.
Thanks.
Thank you for coming out.
Um I started my higher education experience down at the
UT Austin campus.
I worked in the McComb School Business, and I was
there for a number of years before I transferred up
to UT. Dallas and was assistant dean of undergraduate education
I loved working with the students, and we were laughing
because of the technical problem that they had with technical
problems.
I said, I don't know how to do that because
it was always the students that came in and fixed
everything that I wrote.
But um I guess my background lends itself
to more for the students than anything else.
I want to make sure that they receive the knowledge
that they need from our faculty and staff that will
allow them to develop wisdom because wisdom doesn't come without
knowledge, and that's my my focus is I want to
make sure that we do what we can for the
students, the high school students, the homeschool students, and our
our college students to gain the knowledge that they need
to develop the wisdom they need to take forward into
their careers.
I'm big into workforce.
I had a group of scholars when I was at
UT Alice.
I was on the admissions committee and ended up with
a group of students that were not for traditional.
They learn enough money to have a family in the
future.
So I'm Kathy Alexander.
I'm in place three for Collin College.
Good evening.
ing Thank you for be here.
I'm Dr.
Stacey Donald, and I'm the incumbent in place three on
the board
And I'm a community college baby myself.
My mother taught nursing in Amarillo in Texas Canhandle, and
I went to community college there.
So it's kind of always always been in our family,
always been in the blood that community college is a
great way to get started in life.
And I've been in higher education my whole life.
I got my bachelor's, my master's, and my PhD from
the University of Texas at Dallas, and I always wonder
now if we cross paths at some point and didn't
know it.
And from there, I have been a literature professor, part-time,
full-time, online, on site, hybrid.
I was around for some of the college's first online
classes, and it's been exciting to see a lot of
the new innovations that have developed as college has developed
along with online classes.
When we get back there, it is all for the
students, the faculty and staff, and the greater community.
And when everyone is doing well, we are only going
to get better as a county and as a community.
So things like when we got a pay raise for
our police force, that was a big thing because we
want our Colin College Police Force to be a little
authority to live here with us.
When we got paid family leave so that we have
more loyalty from our faculty so that they'll stay here
longer with us.
We don't have to spend more money training new faculty.
Those are the kind of things that we're going to
do.
And I appreciate y'all coming here tonight.
And I was asked to run because of the skills
and leadership and commitment to the community to education that
I've shown our app over the last uh decade.
If you go to my website, Joe for Collin College.com,
you'll learn a lot more about what I've been doing
for the last decade or so and see why I
was asked by people on college and people in the
city of McKinney to run for this position.
I've served the last five and a half years on
your McKinney EDC board.
I was appointed by three different city councils to do
so after serving as the Chamber of Commerce board
chair.
And so I was asked to run, and I think
as you said when you started, when we're called to
serve, we have to answer that call.
And what more important thing than to affect the ability
for students to get the education they need to make
a nice wage to sustain themselves and their family.
I can't think of a better calling where I can
make a better impact, use my passion and my skills.
Obviously, I told you my resume a minute ago.
I've been chosen for multiple important roles and given a
lot of responsibility because of my expertise and leadership.
I'm also very passionate about this, and I just want
to honor that and do my best to serve you.
Thank you.
It's literally random.
We're going to start with you, Mr.
Inasali, and let's see what I have on the docket
here.
Um, two minutes for these.
Please explain your position on annual funding needs versus
your responsibility to taxpayers to maintain a reasonable and affordable
uh rate in the at the college.
I mean, just say it one more time.
Please explain your position on annual funding needs versus your
responsibility to taxpayers to maintain a reasonable and affordable tax
rate for the college.
Great question.
I spent about uh 20 years of my career as
a hospital CFO, division CFO.
Uh I understand. budgets
I ask the hard questions in the EDC closed sessions
when we're asked, do we want to fund this project
or not for your city?
I'm the one that's the fine was the finance chair
or the finance committee chair for the EDC board.
Why?
Because I asked the hard questions.
I I believe that we need to make sure we
respect the taxpayer money and are good stewards.
I believe there's always opportunities to find savings and innovative
solutions.
Money, spending more money as a hospital president of a
for profit hospital, spending more money doesn't solve problems.
Being creative and a good steward of it does.
So I believe we have to make sure we keep
the tax rate the lowest in the state for Colin
College.
And I believe we can continue to do as the
incumbents have done and have great outcomes while
doing that.
So I don't believe we have to sacrifice the taxpayers'
dollars or compromise education.
Again, I I would ask you to look at my
look at my website because there's we can all give
you the best answers all night, but what have we
done for the last 10 years?
What have we done for the last 20 years?
You know, if you look at my Facebook or LinkedIn
page, you'll see who I'm friends with, and you know
those people, and ask them about me.
So it's not whether I can sound real persuasive and
charismatic tonight.
It's what have you done?
Do people trust you with their mind?
They trust me.
All right, thank you
And the settled minute and a half.
Let me know if anyone wants me to repeat that
question.
No, thank you.
So, Dr.
Donald, and that is a great question.
The college operates on, well, this year for the 2223
year, our budget was just a hair under a third
billion dollars.
So we manage a big budget, it's a big job.
And we haven't risen, we haven't raised the tax rate
in the last three years.
So 23, 22, 21, our tax rate's been the same.
It's been 0.08122 when it's the more numbers.
Um, but it is the second lowest in the state,
and we are just a little bit under 5% of
the property taxes that come out.
So if you look at like a pie chart, you
know, a big bunch of it is ISD, then you
have your city, then you have your county, and we
are just a little bit under five point five percent.
We're about 4.8.
So we're just a little tiny piece of the pie.
And we've been doing pretty great with a little tiny
piece of the pie, and we've been not making our
piece of the pie bigger.
And look at what we've done in the last six
years that I've been on the board.
We have built four new campuses with a $600 million
bond that we voted in at the same time that
I got elected.
Um, your taxes have not risen, and we've been steadily
paying towards that bond, and we've gotten fantastic interest rates
on it.
Um, our funding formula is with the Texas legislature this
year, and is looking to change substantially for the first
time in 40 years, and so that is going to
make a a ch change.ange, but it doesn't look like
it is going to be that is going to cause
a tax increase
So thank you so much.
Thank you.
All right.
So next question for our place two folks.
Oh no, I'm sorry.
This I know I know this Alexander is in place
three apologies.
Thanks so much.
Well, you guys know effective tax rate does that bring
belting?
We have it in planet, and what happens is the
effective tax rate looks at our budget and then projects
the increase in your property value, and then they set
the tax rate.
So you the tax rate may not have gone up
for you, but if your property values went up, what
happened to your taxes that you owe?
They went up as well, right?
So my idea would be to explore the idea of
an effective tax rate for Colin College.
Now, place two.
And yes, we'll start with you.
Of all the problems we have, this is probably one
of the most making believe.
That's good.
I'm gonna interject just for a second because I made
up these questions and I've had this for about 10
years.
Over 30 campuses in the United States have actually instituted
free speech zones.
You can continue.
Okay, my question, my answer, right?
Okay.
Well, that's in this make-believe problem.
Now, the nice thing about make-believe problems is we can
make believe answers.
What do you want to do with kids to talk?
Kids talk.
I don't talk in class.
I don't know how teaching class.
I want to hear what kids have to say.
It's how you learn, and you can't teach if you
don't learn first.
And to learn, you must listen.
Two years, one month, good ratio.
Thank you.
Um you have some locations where people can come in
and speak and voice their difference opinions.
It's not in the middle of the campus.
You can't walk into my campus and yell fire.
We have to protect our people and our students and
our staff from that kind of behavior.
So when we start focusing on people being able to
speak, words don't hurt you.
It's when people do physical things to you.
So we need to protect our students.
We have people where they can talk in their corners
or their group areas, but they cannot come in our
buildings and start verbalizing or threatening or harming our students
and our family.
And that's what we protect.
Thank you.
I kind of smiled to myself when I heard about
the free speech zone because at Texas Tech, I had
this memory.
Um there was this pagoda at Texas Tech where there
was a free speech zone, and I kind of smiled
every time I' onm the bike because nobody ever used
it.
I always wish someone would stand there and say something,
but I don'm
kind of a free speech absolutist.
I think everywhere should be a free speech
I don't think there should be a space designated for
free speech.
I think people should be able to say, you know,
anything we want, safety wise, anywhere they anywhere they please.
And so that conversation that's a little pogoda about free
speech in our world, you can't speak and use your
constitutional rights.
I totally reject that.
But you know, back to this free speech issue.
You know, this is costing us money, it's costing you
money.
And it's already cost us a million dollars, right?
I want to go back to this because in Frisco
last week, um, you know, my opponent said, well, this
didn't actually cost us a million dollars.
It didn't cost us $100,000.
Well, even the settlement itself, if you read the lawsuit,
um, the settlement has already cost $200,000.
And I asked the opponent, like, let's let's see the
budget.
You know, the interest for transparity, let's let's see the
numbers, let's see what it actually costs.
And it didn't, it we didn't get, we didn't see
it.
And so um, so you know, this is this is
a big thing for for the college.
It's something that's really really important.
And if you vote for me, I guarantee you I'll
take side and I'll change it.
I'll see you never for free speech.
Thank you.
All right, one more question for place one.
This is different.
Um, what we're looking at is what do you believe
are the three most important functions of the board of
trustees?
And how do they differentiate from the staff uh and
faculty?
So I'm gonna ask that question again.
What are the three most important functions of the board
of trustees?
And how do you give differentiate the role between uh
staff and faculty?
Okay.
That's a great question.
Um, you know, many of us are familiar with um
the machine of command, if you know what I'm saying,
um, whether you're in the. military or you just worked
at a job or there's a chain of command
Ideally, the board of trustees relies on its staff um
to bring budgets, to bring proposals, to bring issues.
Ideally, what happens is the professionals who are doing it
day to day to day work in those areas who
know it in and out, have a community have an
open line of communication with the board that then we
take those issues and we make decisions based off of
the professional advice that we're given.
So it's meant to work as um decision makers who
um are answerable truthfully to the taxpayer.
At the end of the day, the board is answerable
to this community.
The the fact is uh the Texas Comptroller um says
that for every taxpayer dollar we spend on community college
education, the local economic return is six dollars and eighty
cents.
That means that 200 million dollars or 300 million dollars
to be quoted, it actually return is exponentially higher than
that.
So we're responsible to the taxpayer, and we have to
rely on how it differs from staffing faculty.
Well, staff and faculty re rely on them, their expertise
to bring issues to the board to help us make
those decisions because there's too many decisions to make without
the fact that question uh regarding the
board and the staff.
Um basically the board, we're we're we're we're the governing
body we we hired the president, we're appropriate budget.
Um we also one of the things that goes beyond
that as a as as trustees we have a fsishary
duty to uh watch out for you know the the
welfare of this this institution so that' really important in
terms of a board but you know the staff administration
uh they provide a great service I'm glad I'm out
in the week community a lot I've oh I've heard
some great great feedback about our staff very you know
very and I went to community college it was very
uh you know that and energized me to uh complete
um go to community college and go but then go
to a four-year institution so that's the uh the the
day to day operation uh the president we are we
we you know we were a lot we were higher
president and we expect him to carry out our policies
and that's what uh we do and that's that's a
great responsibility for us as uh as trustees and and
so I take it uh that that responsibility very lightly
I mean not very not lightly happy well anyway as
a little guy but anyway but that's a great responsibility
in terms of us in terms of uh our as
uh as government body trustees uh so thank you very
much all
right we have a lightning round coming up there's gonna
be five questions for this lightning round um now one
quick caveat uh I've been in politics for about 35
years and one of the my pet peeves is in
Texas.
Did you know that Collin College trustees, ISD, and city
council races are nonpartisan?
I don't think there's anything any such thing as nonpartisan
races, but that's how Texas does it.
So there's a particular question about that, because there has
been some questions.
In fact, there was even a bill filed the last
three cycles to make these actual partisan races going forward.
So just that explanation about one of the questions on
here.
Five questions are gonna make it super simple.
We're just gonna start at one end, go down, and
we'll start the next question and come right back.
This is what we're looking for here as a yes,
no, or a pass.
Question one, Mr.
Moses, we'll start down with you.
Should Collin College trustee elections allow for ballot
declarations of party affiliation?
Just what I asked.
Should Collin College trustee elections allow for valid declarations of
party affiliation?
Yes, no, or pass?
Yes, yes, yes.
Absolutely not.
Yes.
Oh no.
Yes.
All right.
Do you guys pay attention?
Because you've got some uh differences in the candidates, which
is what we want.
That's great.
Okay, question two.
We're gonna start right here.
Do you oppose free speech zones for campus for students
on campus and efforts to limit free speech?
Do you oppose free speech zones for students on campus
in efforts to limit free speech?
Yes.
No
As?
No.
Of course you can.
Yeah.
You gotta be safe
Do you oppose free speech zones?
Yes, I oppose it.
Okay.
Question three.
This one's really fun.
Will you oppose any effort to raise the Collin College
tax rate during this next term if you're elected?
Will you oppose any effort to raise the Collin College
tax rate during this next term if you're elected?
Yes.
Alright, next question.
It gets a little trickier.
Did you know you can actually have the same tax
rate and your taxes can go up?
You guys pay attention?
Okay.
Here we go.
Will you right here?
Will you vote to support a budget that adopts the
effective tax rate for the college?
Yes.
Last question.
Someone's gonna get elected in each race.
Pay attention if they actually adhere to that.
Last one.
Do you support free two-year college tuition for anyone who
wants to attend college?
Mr.
Moses.
Do you support free two-year college tuition for anyone who
wants to attend college?
No. way
Yes.
No.
Yes, real fast.
No.
Okay.
I'm enlightened.
Thank you very much, I guess.
I really appreciate that.
Let's give them a closing statement and then send them
on their way.
So really good job.
We'll start here.
I think we started.
Closing statement of a minute and a half.
And you can reference any questions or anything else you
want to show you.
Thank you so much.
One thing up on the stuff there you have my
friend Jade.
Oh, you start together.
His man is Jay, not Fred.
You know, we have to be like, hey, like,
we come, Fred.
Amen.
We are good.
Jay, please forgive us for that project.
Okay.
All right, too fine.
So my name is Joe and the Sali, and you
should vote for me if you go to my website
and check out who I really am and what I've
done for the city of McKinney.
Um, I'm passionate about it.
I'm here to serve you.
I'm here to make a difference.
I would prioritize number one, including this increasing
and improving the success rate of the students year over
year.
Collin College is number one in the state in that,
and we should only strive to get better because the
most important thing is that these students get the education
they need, the certificate, or the ability to go on
to a four-year school to get a wage and get
the jobs we need them for right here.
And as pro-business on the Chamber of Commerce, the EDC,
and as a hospital president who hired a lot of
these students, we need a training workforce.
So everybody wins.
Collin College is a very valuable resource to us.
Put it in someone's hands who has led local business
to find best place to work awards in DFW.
So I can help.
I'll work for you if you'll have me.
Thank you, and God bless.
Thanks, Joe.
So I'm Dr.
City Donald and the incumbent in place three.
And you could just leave place three in the hands
of somebody who's already won top best places to work
for the last several years.
We're already here because we have a great board that
has been very fiscally responsible.
We've kept our tuitions rate, tuition rate rate low.
We've kept our tax rate low.
We have built incredible big campuses.
We've instituted three housework degree programs that were desperately needed
in the area.
We've instituted a bunch of workforce programs that were also
desperately needed in the area.
Students aren't having to go over to Dallas County to
take well in HPAC and pay out of county prices.
And responsive to what are the business needs in this
county and respond to them really quickly in terms of
academic timelines, which you want to work, but we responded
to them quickly.
Um, and I hope somebody likes to really pay attention
to what's going on in the county.
I volunteer with Big Brothers Big Sisters, I volunteer teacher
the GED program in defense prisons, South of Dallas.
Um, I like to know the people in our community,
what are the struggles in the community, and how can
we raise everyone up so that everyone will do better?
And um I hope you'll go to CC4Collin.com and learn
more about me, and um, we'll keep doing what we're
doing here.
I'm Kathy Alexander for place three.
I suppose you probably don't need to know that I
work in Cairos and that I've that I facilitate Bible
study.
And you guys do all that stuff too.
I've been on boards and commissions, and I've got 90%
of y'all done the sun.
I think what sets me just a toe ahead is
my experience in higher education and looking at the problems
that are being faced by administration and coming up with
solutions for those problems.
Um, I was blessed to get to work with Dr.
Coleman at UT Dallas, and he used to say to
me, come up with a solution, get it running, and
then give it to somebody else.
And that's sort of my frame of reference.
I would like to visit the campuses, um, visit the
faculty.
I think that would be wise for us to hear
from people on the ground that are closest to the
issues that hang, and then take them back to the
board and build consensus with the board so that we
can move forward.
Again, my name is Kathy Alexander, and I'm running for
place three.
Hello again.
On the way out here shortly.
So move till.
Entire common system.
I teach more for the kids.
Believe me, I'd much rather be doing that than I
already know that much of silly adults.
And what I see so much of this stuff with
the arguments of the silly adults, there the reason that
they're arguing about the silly adults is they've taken their
eye off the focus.
The focus of the college can only, only, only R
and circle as well.
It's important we say it three times.
Only be the students.
It's what it has to be.
They're all important, yes.
But I mean, I went through my own budgets.
I can cut my own budget and you don't gotta
worry about the tax system budget.
You really don't.
There are priorities that you think so.
One of the questions I wish I would have got
was what are the three things the board should work
on?
This is from basic project management.
I handle Billy Call of the Projects.
The sequence and order must be statement of work.
What you're doing first, the transition, second, your schedule, how
you plan your things a little bit, third, your budget.
Third, your budget.
What do we spend the most time with here talking
about?
Swab it over money like we're a bunch of silly
benefits.
I don't get it.
I really don't get it.
Main main point.
But there is some difference.
You won't see that from me.
It's going to be mission first, make it happen second,
third, we'll do the budget, make it four.
It's not that complicated.
Thanks.
Thank you, good evening.
I'm not trying to change anything here in Columbus.
Like what I see, it's been a great college, it's
gonna continue to be a great college.
We have the lowest tuition in the state, the second
lowest tax rate, the highest success ratio, and the second
best financials in the state.
So you can't have all that stuff positive and say
that we're not doing the right job.
We have 98% persistency of our full-time faculty.
We've heard about faculty.
We have 98% persistence.
These are the kind of things we talk about.
We are students.
We graduated our students.
84% of them would say they would come back again
and do it over.
I go eat dinner, and half the time I don't
even think I'm gonna come back this place again 50%
of the time.
84% of the time they're willing to come back and
do this again.
So get involved, stay involved.
Our college is great.
We're gonna continue to survive.
And guess what?
Vote for me, and I'm gonna keep this college like
it is.
Jay sad place too.
Well, thanks so much for coming, everybody.
Um, I hope you've seen a contrast between uh my
opponents and me today.
It matters to your pocketbook, it matters to your reputation
to have the right person with experience in education.
And you know, I guess it's it's good to disagree
with the moderator at the end of the debate rather
than the beginning.
You know, I just totally reject this idea that the
partisanship of education.
You know, I when I when I'm serving a mom
and when I'm serving a dad or a student or
a teacher, I don't actually ask for a political party.
You know, I don't I don't do that before I
before I help them.
I had a mom the other day who was on
uh her daughter's phone, and her daughter voiced uh suicidal
allegations.
I think I didn't give her a sheet of paper
and say, you know, choose which political party you are
before I help you.
I helped her and I helped her daughter, and that's
what I'm gonna do.
So um uh you know, I just totally reject this
idea that we have to have a political party. with
education because that's that's not what I do
So if you're looking for somebody who will serve you,
not a political party, then I'm your person.
I think my family is like your family, my school
is like your family.
They're Republican, a third Democrat, a third can't stand either
party whatsoever.
Right?
So if you elect me, I'm gonna serve you.
I'm not gonna ask you what your color is, what
your religion is, I'm not gonna ask you to local
party because I don't care about that.
I want to serve you, and I'm gonna serve respect
your taxpayer money and your commitment to education.
So thanks, thanks so much for being here, y'all.
And uh I hope to see you all soon.
Thanks so much.
Thank you all coming together for inviting us.
Um thank you guys for being here.
And um, again, I'm Aiden Wallace, and I'm running from
Lance Blood, the Colin College Board of Trustees.
And uh, what I want to leave you with is
really my goal for the school is that it serves
the community.
It would be great if we could keep things the
same, right?
If we didn't have to change and everything would just
keep going in the right direction.
But Colin is changing.
Colin is changing rapidly, and we have to get ahead
of that change.
We are growing, and we have to manage that growth.
If we don't manage that growth, we will grow into
a whole host of problems that will be behind eight
ball and fix it.
So we have to we have to be thinking ahead,
we have to be innovating.
And uh, one thing I haven't had an opportunity to
talk about that's really really important to me is teachers.
Uh, teachers, we need them, yes?
We need them in our K through 12 schools, we
need them trained.
Um, we cannot afford to pay them a whole host
of money, but what we can do is we can
get them an education locally.
I want Collin College to offer an articulation for them
with a local university that gets teachers into a classroom
in four years with two of those years being a
column.
So that it's a straight two for two program, and
they're being the most pain for their budget and we're
getting teachers into classrooms in our communities.
That's very, very important to me.
I just never get to talk about it.
So remember me if that sort of thing is important
to you.
Thanks.
But most importantly, uh coming from a family of 10,
and uh my father passed away at five, I know
how to be involved and not sit on the sideline
and contribute and contribute.
In these roles, we have servants.
We serve in uh students, we've served in uh the
taxpayer with servants, and so uh I think I know
how to do that.
A little guy like me, you know, yeah, that's that's
done that all my life, and so I do that.
I'm a Sunday school teacher, and I'm a separate church,
more importantly, uh serving here in Column County and a
lot of roles, you know, my wife and I form
a lot, but a lot of uh awards for the
work we've done here at Colin County, or we've done
education with this year across the country.
And so I want to continue.
That's why I'm here.
I'm here because as a person that gave me a
second chance, seven chance, and uh still working.
We're still uh we're very blessed.
So as I go out to the second term term,
of you, about community second, pray for me pray for
the work.
we'll That uh
we'll do a good work for all of you and
for students and for the institution.
Thank you very much.