Mathis to vie for county judge seat

By LYNETTE SOWELL

Cove Leader-Press 

Alan Mathis, a Coryell County resident who lives west of Pidcoke, is entering the race for the office of Coryell County judge. 

Mathis served 23 years in the Army and retired as a promotable Major. After retiring in 1993, Mathis worked as a contractor for Computer Sciences Corporation for 22 years as he supported the Army’s tactical systems for the forward support branch. He has a bachelor’s degree in business management and a master’s degree in computer science.

He retired from contractor work in 2015 and since then began volunteering with Coryell County Emergency Management and has attended training and became certified to operate a level one emergency operations center. 

Mathis sees pluses and minuses where the county is concerned. One plus is the external audit that was completed, that he said shows a good debt to assets ratio. However, the county also has one of the lowest property tax revenues in the state. 

Another plus is the Forts to Port initiative with I-14 that runs through the area, he said, as well as improvements to F.M. 116 as well as State Highway 36. 

Increased crime in the county is a concern, as is the status of the county jail, and the status of county facilities in general. 

“To me, having sat in on the commissioners’ court since last summer, this is a concern. The county has 18 buildings, either owned or leased, and it was mentioned they have $1 million in deferred maintenance. What’s the plan to allocate some money regularly to fix that?”

Mathis also discussed his qualifications for county judge. 

“I bring 45 very successful years in the military and a civilian contractor. You don’t get selected as a commander of a nuclear-capable unit let alone follow that up with being selected for two more successive commands those units,” Mathis said. “As a civilian contractor, I began as an individual contributor and within two years was responsible for developing and negotiating a $2 million-plus contract to the Army and won. Midway through my 22 years, I was a Senior Operations Manager with over 148 personnel scattered from Europe, continental U.S. with three different departments on Fort Hood.  I was selected for the Red Team (six senior personnel) to craft the contract proposal to the Army for a $131 million-plus contract.”

Mathis said he’s running because he wants to continue to improve Coryell County by being a consistent, fair and equitable county judge in the execution of the office.  

“Our mission must be to provide for the safety and security of our citizens, preserve the values of our country-living while attracting growth in the economic and living standards of all,” Mathis said. “We must not look at the short-term gain but on the long-term goals that we want to attain.  Three elements of this success will be, preserve and protect the money that the county has; retain what we have, and don’t spend it out of the county needlessly; and promote policies to attract and incentivize more business in the county.”