Three prospective candidates for the Logan County Commissioner’s race met with members of the public Tuesday during a forum at Charter Oak Elementary School.
Floyd Coffman, Mike Fergason and Charlie Meadows answered a collection of questions posed by moderators and some sent in by the public.
Also featured at the forum, hosted by the Guthrie Chamber of Commerce, were Logan County Court Clerk candidates Cheryl Watts Smith (the incumbent) and Janis Crews DeLisa, who addressed their campaigns and why they are running for the position.
The County Commissioner candidates were asked a handful of questions centered around job responsibilities, prioritization within the job and even if they considered themselves politicians. All of the candidates were in modest agreement that the County Commissioner acts as the “CEO” of the county, given all of the responsibilities.
“The job is not simply just about making improvements to the town,” Coffman said. “There is also a public relations aspect involved. You have to go out and talk to the citizens and listen to what they have to say.”
When asked if they believed they were politicians or not, Coffman and Fergason shared the belief that they were not politicians. Meadows, however, viewed himself as a politician in this role.
“Anyone that puts their name on file to run for public office is a politician,” Meadows said. “It is important to make connections with lawmakers and establish good relationships with them. If you don’t understand how politics works and how beneficial those relationships can be, then you are going to be at a disadvantage.”
A recurring point of discussion throughout the forum was the status of roads and bridges in Logan County and how the candidates would handle that. Each candidate noted that one of their three goals in this role would be to maintain and improve roads.
When they were asked about which roads and bridges would receive priority, answers ranged from spending money to where the most usage on roads is, and prioritizing school and bus routes.
“While we need to have a couple of good north-south and east-west roads, we also need to ensure our school and bus routes are good,” Fergason said. “I’ve been driving a school bus lately, and some of our bus route roads are pretty bad. We have our little treasures in those buses, so we need to ensure they are riding on a good road.”
When asked about prioritizing the county budget, all three shared similar viewpoints, saying that funds for renovations and updates to the County Courthouse were necessary and overdue. Fergason also thought it would be beneficial to work with other departments to figure out what their needs were while prioritizing the courthouse.
The first real shot of tension during the forum came during the closing arguments for each candidate. Coffman was first to make a closing remark, and he closed by mentioning again how he was born and raised in Guthrie and that he had a strong desire to serve his community and be fair to all citizens, regardless of background.
Tensions rose when Meadows took the mic and opened his statement by calling Coffman a “fraud” and “charlatan” and providing a story to back up his argument.
Meadows told the audience that he had ordered four new road graders for Guthrie to have at its disposal and they were scheduled to arrive early. Meadows then said the day the graders were put on the agenda to be voted on for purchase, Coffman called the commissioners' office and told them to vote against the purchase of the graders.
Ultimately, the vote ended up passing, but Meadows argued that if the vote went the other way, Coffman would’ve only had one grader for road construction projects, which would have been to the detriment of the community.
“The people of this district would have suffered if we didn’t have those four graders,” Meadows said. “He’s made all kinds of promises, and you want someone in this job who is not going to lust for power and harm the citizens.”
Coffman was given the chance to respond and argued that he was advised the new graders up for purchase were going to be smaller than the ones Guthrie already had. Coffman said he then called the commissioners and said he believed the vote should be put off until after the election, noting that if the new graders were, in fact, smaller than the ones Guthrie already had, then he wasn’t going to take them, arguing that Guthrie could use a larger grader and not smaller ones.
Coffman then said that both commissioners he spoke to told him they were unaware of the sizes of the new graders and couldn’t answer his questions. Coffman then made a comment that one of the commissioners told him that he had to back Meadows in the vote because he was “indebted to him,” which sparked Coffman to cry collusion.
“You can call me a charlatan or whatever you want,” Coffman said. “But collusion is collusion.”
The County Commissioner vote is June 18. Polls will be open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and the election is strictly limited to registered Republican voters. If one candidate receives a majority of the votes, that candidate will be declared the winner. If a candidate does not receive a majority, the two with the highest vote totals will head to a run-off August 27.