Incoming State Representative visits County Commissioners

Incoming District 60 state representative Glenn Rogers was an attendee at the recent Stephens County commissioners meeting during the regularly scheduled Monday, August 17 meeting inside the Stephens County Courthouse.

The incoming state representative listened to the county commissioners on the issues that are impacting rural communities.

“I’m in the mode of listening, “Glenn Rodger, Incoming District 60 State Representative said. “I want to see specially what we can do in Austin, to address specific issues here in Stephens County. I want to open it up and see what the commissioner’s concerns are and what we can do from the state level.”

In the county, Glenn Rogers beat candidate Jon Francis with 882 votes to 453, Rogers also defeated Francis in the district-wide election by a small margin of 51.5% to 48.5%. The final tally was extremely competitive with Rogers receiving 11,956 votes to Francis’ 11,278 votes.

With no Democratic candidate in the race, Rogers will replace retiring state representative Mike Lang as the District 60 state representative.

Stephens County Judge Michael Roach provided the incoming state representative with a few concerns that are plaguing the county.

“I know one thing that’s so important is to be able to navigate decisions locally,” Stephens County Judge Michael Roach. “It seems like the last couple of legislative sessions, Austin has pivoted and taken a lot of local decision-making and taken it away from local commissioners courts when it comes to issues within the county.”

Stephens County Judge spoke candidly about the difficulties of governing the county during a global pandemic and the issues the county will face in the future.

“I always felt it was interesting that Austin doesn’t want Washington in its business, but Austin takes the opportunity every time it can to get into county government’s business,” Roach said. “I realize we are a political subdivision of the state and there is a healthy relationship there. There is a balance, and it seems like there has been an overstepping of that balance. The reaching in locally and cuffing our hands to provide service to the local taxpayer is just one issue.”

Stephens County commissioners will continue to convene on the second and fourth Monday of the month, with the next meeting transpiring Monday, September 7.