Montgomery County, County Commissioner Precinct 4 - No Recommendation

Commissioner’s Court is the governing body of the County.  It is comprised of the County Judge and four County Commissioners, who are elected from equal precincts based on population. The County Judge is the presiding officer and voting member of the Court and is elected at-large every four years.  This body conducts the general business of the county and oversees financial matters. 

RECOMMENDATION:

Texas Patriots PAC is not making a recommendation for either candidate in this race.  As stated with the other races for the Commissioner’s Court, we view the court as a cash cow for developers rather than truly advocating for the taxpayer’s wallet. The court members are highly paid and we seek leaders who will earn their salaries by cutting the exorbitant spending in Montgomery County. Metts has room for improvement and more can be done to curtail spending and to end the practice of hiring family members and giving jobs to favored contractors. Matthew Gray might be a refreshing and much needed change to the Commissioners Court. We would expect Mr. Gray to stand true to his campaign promises to implement improved drainage in the precinct while streamlining operations without controversy and conflicts of interest. While Gray is a credible candidate, we are hesitant regarding his path to victory due to his limited campaign.

MATTHEW GRAY
Matthew Gray is seeking to be MOCO Precinct 4 Commissioner to bring new vision for improving the operations and delivery of services for citizens. Overwhelming growth and development is challenging emergency services, maintenance of roads, drainage, and increasing traffic. With years of experience in project management, planning and development, budgets and funding, contracts, leadership, people management his priorities include: proactive rather than reactive drainage planning and repair; return to five day from four day workweek; auctions for outdated equipment; building strong relationships with builders and commercial developers early during clearing and drainage planning; reducing nepotism and conflicts of interest. Matthew Gray is dedicated to bringing needed change to operations to Precinct 4 as Montgomery County Commissioner.

JAMES METTS

Mr. Metts is the incumbent MoCo Precinct 4 Commissioner. He was previously the Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace, a position he held for 8 years. His practice of nepotism, cost inefficiency and his cozy relationship with developers should be of concern to his constituents. However, in fairness he has been much more effective than his predecessor Jim Clark, who was seriously ill and left a virtual mountain of unfilled work orders when he departed the office 4 years ago.

Precinct 4 has seen explosive residential and commercial growth over the past five years due mainly to the extension of HWY 99 to East County. Mr. Metts has struggled to balance the demands of developers with the need to protect his constituents from issues relating to subsidence and storm water mitigation. If re-elected Mr. Metts should be pressured to convince his colleagues on the Court to revise MoCo’s very dated and ineffective drainage design requirements.

Flooding will continue to be a major issue as more development takes place and it is a problem that is not being addressed adequately anywhere within MoCo. Given the fact that Precinct 4 is downstream of the rest of the county, it would behoove Mr. Metts to take the lead in getting MoCo government to get serious about water issues before it is too late to make significant changes.