Kevin Brock on Smart Growth, Accountability & Baldwin County’s Future

WFUZ-TV’s Thomas Jenkins and Blair Castro sit down with Kevin Brock, Republican candidate for Baldwin County Commission District 3, to discuss the future of Baldwin County and the opportunities ahead as the county continues to grow.

A former police chief and longtime public servant, Brock shares his vision for smart growth, stronger infrastructure, support for first responders, government transparency, and protecting the quality of life that makes Baldwin County special.

WATCH as Kevin Brock discusses his priorities for District 3 and why he believes Baldwin County’s best days are still ahead.

Learn more at https://www.brockforbaldwin.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Good evening. Welcome to the People's Voice on WFEZ TV. I'm Blair Castro here with Thomas Jenkins. And we have Kevin Brock in the studio with us. He's running for Baldwin County Commission District 3. Mr. Brock, thank you so much for joining us this evening.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02 0:15

So what made you want to jump into this range for County Commission?

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Well, in the beginning, there was a situation. It was kind of a turning point in our lives where we had some things happen on the uh on a legal level that changed our employment status and stuff like that, not to say the least. That kind of got me interested in looking into things. But uh I would say the main reason I probably was doing it was uh for my grandkids. I have two grandkids, and I would love to help uh keep the county as uh as much Baldwin County as it was that I grew up in. I would like to have to live the same type of life. So just trying to get involved that way.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

Do you think that voters have brought forth that issue of preserving the county and overdevelopment as like the number one issue? What are some other things you think that people are really telling you that they want to see change?

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Uh that is the number one issue. Uh, you know, everybody I've talked to, and I've talked to a lot of people in this county. Uh the common thread is usually uh that they're not being heard, that they feel like they don't have a voice, and that they don't feel like they are they have a part of the decision-making process. So when you look at the county uh commission, uh, you know, it's it should be more open uh when it comes to that kind of thing. But yeah, the common questions usually revolve around the uh development and fast growth of the county. Um and that's been I think that's been beat to death. I mean, whether you know everybody's talked about it. Uh one thing I did notice here in my uh my investigation into it is is that the government footprint is growing even faster and people don't know that. So most of the most of the news, most of the media is all centered around the growth and the development that's going on. But if you were to look on the backside of that, you would see that the government's spending a lot of money and their footprint themselves is growing substantially too.

SPEAKER_02 2:21

I remember I think it was that comments that's campaign or something else. You talked about how you would like to see a forensic audit.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

I would. Do a forensic deep dive into the uh budget. I mean, I don't know, most people don't know that it's you know, our current budget's$250 million. So it needs to be. I think we need to know what where that's going, and it's also a good starting point for what I think's gotta be a year where we get all new commissioners, you know. All voters show up, there's a good chance that all four seats are gonna be good.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

So I've heard you know, a lot of people say that this seems to be the year for change. I ran in the city elections, I felt like that too, and it ended up not taking change. But then some smaller towns they did change. Right. So that's an interesting thought. Um, I just wonder if people will really show up enough to that.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Uh and that's gonna be the big question being an off an off-election, whether or not voting for president on the major offices like that. It's kind of hard to get voters to show up to the polls, but uh I think there's been a lot of engagement this round, and people seem to be paying attention a lot more than they used to be. So uh I think we're gonna be surprised at the change that happens this time around. So we'll see, it's getting close.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Yeah. So one of the things that you bring to the table as you need is your law enforcement experience. How do you think that that's going to parlay into uh playing a role in the county commission?

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Uh I think uh I think my experience with that, uh a lot of that was at the administrative level. So I'm used to dealing with the bigger budgets and uh dealing with uh personnel and stuff like that. So I think that's gonna uh lend itself to uh tools that I can use to get in there and then manage some of this stuff. But uh also the military background, uh I I was sober the flight line on two different bases. Uh maintenance-wise, and that's what I pointed out there in one of our uh forums. Uh one aircraft is more is more than the more than the Sheriff's Department's budget total. Everybody has$50 million with one aircraft. So we're dealing with 30, 40 aircraft on a flight by now. I mean it gets into big money. So I mean managing those kind of accounts and managing the maintenance on that. It's given me that kind of overview on a substantial budget. Uh but law enforcement itself, uh I I could uh I think it gives me an edge on the other candidates for sure.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

So I know one of your endorsements is the Farmers Federation. Uh, what's other endorsements you have, and how I guess how's it feel to get those kind of endorsements?

SPEAKER_01 5:16

Uh it feels good. Uh, you know, a lot of them uh reached out to me, but uh that makes a difference, you know, instead of you know hounding people for this or that. I mean they reached out and uh uh the Farmers Federation when it came through. Uh I sat down. Uh it's a unique process with them. They it was literally a round table, and it was with all the all the big names and farming in the in our county. And uh they had a lot of questions, a lot of hard questions. And we went round and round and I told them where I stand and stuff, and uh I guess they'd like what I had to say. Uh but uh farmers are important to me. Uh I think that's uh you know, they were they were pivotal on creating, you know, the in the past, they are the ones that created this county in the way it is. Uh some of the uh locations of uh big uh centers of town, and it's usually around agriculture, agriculture that created that. So I mean you can see the history involved, plus uh the the uh current situation with farms. They are they're struggling right now. So I mean we need to do what we can do to uh see what's going on at the commission level. I'd like to see that I get in there.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

What was the hardest question that they asked?

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Um it was probably the same thing around development. You know, I mean naturally when you take uh a huge piece of land uh and just take the farming away from it, and then all of a sudden you got 300 houses on it. That makes a difference. Uh we have one right next to our farm. I've been on we've been we have a farm in Silver Hill back side of Silver Hill and it's uh we've been there for 22 years probably. And it's actually been a farm. You know, we use it as a farm. Uh and now it's uh all around us, they're building another subdivision with 300 300 eyes on it right now, right at our front front of our driveway. So I mean it's it's not something we're a stranger to. I mean, we we've we're living that portion of it as well.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Yeah, we've interviewed several barkers around when we were talking. I wanted to know Bertha it's not just any dirt that they're paving over, it's like premium topsoil that we can use to grow cop crops. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Uh the ones around us uh have grown cattle was on it originally, but uh they also were growing uh peanuts and soybeans and cotton and stuff like that. So I mean you're talking about not like you said, the good premium soil that's been maintained over you know generations.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Now it's gone and has houses that it's as to me that you would bring in all these new people and all these new homes, but you wouldn't have the sustainable foods food security to sustain everybody who was coming in. That's right. They are the ones that feed us.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

And it's not just you know, when you when you talk about those situations, uh uh I recently talked about uh uh our school system as well, in the same manner when you talk about uh how development affects an area or a community. When you when you have you know a thousand homes come in and they all have you know two 2.5 children each, you know, I mean that's that's a lot of kids going into the local school system all in one time. So uh, you know, do they do they do they have those discussions on on their side, on the commission side, about the impact or the development side about the how they impact the community? Uh should there be impact fees involved for how they affect the school system and how they affect the uh infrastructure as far as sewage and water and electricity and stuff like that. I mean, all that stuff that comes into play. Uh I think there should be some a lot of consideration on the front side, and then it seems to be all on the backside. You know what I mean? They seem to be building these uh developments just as fast as they can build them, and I don't know that they're having those uh important conversations.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

Something else I've noticed is that there doesn't seem to be, and maybe I'm totally wrong, so I'm just not recruiting to them, but like a lot of good, long-standing relationship between municipalities and the county itself, like down here on the beach when there's things going on and there's building and building like all this new stuff at the county level. It's like, well, they're doing that at the beach, we can't do anything about it. It doesn't really impact us. So they think, but it does impact everybody. And then the same thing, like you know, solar farm up in stock. I think that doesn't impact the rest of the county, but that does as well. Um, I just kind of would like to see more communication and planning between municipalities at the county level and the state too.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

True. I mean, there's there's enough people involved that had titles uh that could easily have conversations about all this uh on the front side. And that's what I think uh where they're failing is that uh there's not enough conversations happening on the front side before they're doing the uh the big developments and the big big uh condos and the big businesses that are being built. Uh, you know, they seem to hang their head on things that are going on. I mean, one of the common threads for the uh current administration that's in the commission is they're talking about novellas up there, and like it's you know, they're golden goose, and then that's what they worked on this whole time. Something like that comes into play. Uh they don't have enough housing for the people that work there. So and not just housing, but affordable housing. And I've talked about that before when we're talking about our young people. I mean, my son's 33 years old, and his wife, he has a wife and a child, and it's hard for them to live in a county where the cheapest house is 300 plus, yeah. Yeah. Um and just about every subdivision that's going in, you know, is at that level, 300, 300,000 plus. And I think we're losing, probably losing some really talented young people uh to other communities because they can't afford to live here, you know.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

So I was told that you know, Baldwin Preparatory Academy, which is a really awesome, outstanding school and great thing to have in our county, but like around it, they're building some subdivisions right like literally right across the street. You can see like the big mountain dirt and stuff, and more planes to go in. And I just kind of wonder, um, since that's a school where you have to, you know, get in. It doesn't matter if you live by it. You can't just go there because you live by it. But like all those people move in there, like the traffic flow and like whatever's gonna happen up there eventually. I foresee that as being something that might be problematic down the road.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

But uh yeah, that's gonna be an issue. Uh traffic is it's a huge issue now already. And uh, you know, they talk about, you know, you you hear you know the carrying convention talking about how much road they paid. One thing I mentioned is, you know, yeah, there'll be nice paved roads for us to sit on while we're stoking traffic, you know, because we have a traffic problem from the top of our county all the way down here. As soon as you get off 65 uh coming through Baymanette, all the way down traffic issues that we're talking about specifically. And one thing I thought was interesting is we've been building all these schools on back roads, two-lane roads, in these communities. Well, the uh school system is not required to put turn lanes in. You would think that would be part of the impact of how schools impacting the area. They should be required to at least, you know, create a road that would allow people to come in and out of school without uh endangering other traffic, you know.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

So you've got to pick up and drop off lines just sitting in the road.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

Sitting on the side of the road usually. Uh, you know, it's things that can be done there. You know, I noticed you know, Silver Hill School is the closest one to me. I've noticed several things about it. It's you've got you've got roads that can be built or extended on through to Highway 59 that did that, it would alleviate a lot of traffic problems through there, a lot of congestion. Silver Hill's got a bad congestion problem downtown. It's like going to red light in the other town. If you go through there at 7 o'clock or 3 o'clock, uh you're gonna be sitting for a while around that red light. Um that kind of thing. And then you've got uh, like I said, some of those you build some new roads that go all the way through, like Calch Plain Road to go through, Bond Road can come through right there at the school, so you can actually come out of the school and make some roads. It really just needs some feasibility studies on each school itself and uh start there and then uh hit some of the main intersections of Lily and has a big problem down there. There's so much traffic on 98 coming through Louis in Alberta that people can't even get off the side road to get on. If you don't come out of the red light, you know, it's almost impossible to get out on that road. So then you have people, you know, putting themselves in dangerous situations going high, going quick, making quick decisions, you know, and that's how accidents happen, fatalities happen. And unfortunately, being from the law enforcement realm, um, you mentioned that earlier. Uh law enforcement, I don't think law enforcement is even brought in brought to the table when they're talking about what roads need to go where, you know, and that they're leaving public safety out of the issue. I think some public safety needs to have a seat at the table and actually discuss things like fatalities and what are it usually takes a couple fatalities before anybody consider putting a red light.

SPEAKER_00 15:12

I'm not sure what how Alabama operates with their law enforcement, but why did Patrol Lucy Henna? We had to submit crash reports to the state and they would use that data uh to determine uh what changes need to need to be made at certain intersections that cause a high amount of rents. Does uh Alabama do the same thing?

SPEAKER_01 15:31

It does. Um they have the uh centralized database that all that information goes into. That's why I said it usually takes a nice fatality or two before the state gets involved. If there's already issues going on, uh then we should try at the county level or even at the municipal level, if it's a municipal road uh to try to figure out what's going on and try to help. Uh they put one in on Somerville, and I think they actually split the bill on that between the state, the county, and the municipality. So they split the cost for the red light between the three of them to get it done. So there's things that can be done, these dangerous dangerous intersections.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

Um, I know one thing that you've been advocating for is for more transparency, especially given everything that you've gone through. What are some measures you would take on the county commission to ensure that there's more transparency and accountability on the commission level?

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Well, I think they they're doing a good job on doing the uh uh live stream. Uh you can get in there and see that, but I don't know that we're privy to everything that's going on as far as the budget goes. I would really like them to be a lot more transparent. I don't I don't know if y'all done it, but if you go on the uh internet and try to research the budget, it's really hard to see what's going on. Yeah, I do know that they needed they had to borrow seven million from last year to make this year's or from the reserve to make the budget uh to uh balance the budget the fiscal year. And uh, you know, I thought that was strange, so I just started digging in, trying to find out online in Canada to see what's going on. You just see the final budget numbers, I think. Uh it would be nice to have uh a better website or better page on their website that gives a better breakdown of what's gone.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

Yeah, she has built uh database stuff for Alex and Florida. That was one of the things we noticed when we got here was the the like dashboard and some of the municipal websites were just uh good in that day.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

Right. Uh you know, some of it is. I mean, some of it, some of it's uh does it sufficient to find out what you need to find out, but you know, when it comes to that, I think they just post in a PDF of the budget say here it is you know uh it it would be nice to have the uh the deep dive, uh, get the results from that and actually publish those results so people all over the county can know what's costing the taxpayer.$150 million a year, you know.

SPEAKER_02 18:14

So I think it would help too to have like a public comment or feedback section on the website. And you know, once they got to say like the master plan, I could have the new master plan right now. Before that master plan is adopted, there's like a form or something you can fill out to leave your comments on the master plan or your thoughts before it reaches the meeting level and they actually vote on it. So then you can go give public comments. But like we were saying with um with Tracy Gambles over here, she wants to change the meeting time because nobody can make 9 a.m. public comments for the most part. Um, there's a way to offer your comments without having to go find out who to email, copy and paste it, and write an email, and then maybe hear no never hear anything back. I think some system like that, and then it tracks it to say like message received, and you get like an automatic thing that like you know your thing went through, so they can't deny that we ever reached out to them would be something I'd like to see implemented.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Yeah, and uh I've noticed uh in doing the research on the uh budget, um, you know, they've hired a lot of staff in the last couple of years, so I mean uh so I think they have the people to do that, you know. I mean, uh somebody that can monitor that kind of situation, uh, to have some kind of feedback set up to where you know the average citizen can go in there and ask a question and possibly get an answer within you know a couple of days. I think that's very possible.

SPEAKER_02 19:37

Gulf George just did that. Um I was really glad uh that's something I really wanted to see because my biggest complaint when I started getting involved with stuff was that they could just deny that I ever reached out and say that I never send any emails. I never reached out, I never said anything. It's like, okay, well, you've got sent messages, you can see if that email do at the same time. But you know, unless there's a system that shows every day and like it's categorized, okay, this is public safety, this is you know, department or whatever, like it's going to where it's going. And then you can like work away up the chain and check the status of your issue. I think that's really helpful to people to log in and public records requests. That's something in other counties that there's more of a log into your portal and see where it stands. I I wish we had something like that here. So just putting that out there for anyone that may want to make it happen.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

Yeah, that was good. That's a great idea, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:31

So overall, you know, there's three people in your race, um, could very well potentially go to a runoff. What are some things that you think distinguished you from the other two candidates and why should people choose you over your opponents?

SPEAKER_01 20:44

Well, I think experience alone is uh actually the incumbent is that's her thing. She's she's using that as a platform. Experience matters. Uh I totally agree. The point is, I think my experience far exceeds her experience. I believe she's counting on the fact that she served two terms in there, that she has experience. Well, that just means she has a knowledge of what's gone on within those two terms. Um far as experience goes, I think I've far in a way that uh uh you know, in my life, uh I've been in a service type business all my life. We've owned some businesses, we still own one in Robersdale. Uh so we uh we have that, I think I have that background and I have the military. The military was uh was a great uh area to learn in. I mean, that's a great environment to learn in because it was at the federal level and they deviled a lot of federal uh people when it comes to balancing budgets and having those relationships at that high level. Um so I think that was good. Um and then once I got in law enforcement, I continued to uh develop uh the relationships needed to do that. And uh that's the municipal level, the county level, the state level, and federal level uh relationships with a lot of people. Uh I think uh managing that, going through the system that way uh gives me a lot more experience, I think, as far as that particular job as far as being in.

SPEAKER_02 22:20

What about for people who you know may want to change, but they're more between you and Dr. Phil?

SPEAKER_01 22:28

Okay. Um, well, it is gonna, you know, a lot of people tell me, you know, uh, it's not gonna split the vote. Well, it will split the vote. I mean, I'm still gonna have to avoid any of that, I would have to pull 50% plus one to uh to uh go in as the Republican candidate of the primaries, but uh it's possible. Um uh we we had a talk, uh, you know, me and uh Phil. Phil's a friend of mine. I've I've known him for a long time. And uh he said he wouldn't he wouldn't have gotten the race that he known I was in it. So we kind of got in at the same time without talking to each other. And uh you know, I'm glad he's in the race. It gives it gives the people uh some choices. Um, you know, I think uh I think somebody new needs to go in. Oh, you know, Phil said, you know, if I if I don't make if I don't make some primaries, I'm gonna talk to my constituents and and have them support you. So I'd like to endorse you. And if he doesn't make it in, I said I can do the same thing. No problem. You know, it's the fact is we need somebody new, we need somebody fresh in there. Um, you know, Phil has some good ideas. I still think I have far more experience uh to be in this particular position, but uh uh you know I I like him and he has he has experience running a business, and you know, he's been in this county for a little while, so he knows a lot of people, a lot of farmers and stuff like that. So uh uh but still I think it's gonna split the vote and let's decide to see what happens.

SPEAKER_02 24:03

I always think it's good to see people challenging the incumbents and try to give people options. I'm I'm one of those people that never wants to tell somebody, don't get in this race if you really feel compelled to run, that you should run. Like you should take your shot at it just like everyone else, and the more options the better. The congressional race right now, there's seven people in that, and I kind of like that. I like that there's a lot to choose from, and you can kind of really go through and pick the different values and the different priorities that you know might feel important to you. So I think it's good to see diversity. Nobody should go unchallenged. I don't know why there's some representatives out there, particularly state representatives that are unchallenged, I feel like they should have been challenged. So if you want to run next time, please consider it because everybody should be challenged.

SPEAKER_01 24:51

I think so. Yeah, that's uh especially at that level. Uh I think we get into this uh oh, you'll hear me call it the machine, but it's I mean the machine exists, and there's a lot of people that I think stay out of the race because uh they fear that side of it, fear you know, what could happen and how the race could be run uh unevenly. And uh anyway, that's a rabbit hole I could go down.

SPEAKER_00 25:18

But hypothetically, if you were Emperor of Baldwin County, what would you envision for the future?

SPEAKER_01 25:27

Emperor of Baldwin County.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

If he could handle it your way.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

They're gonna come here regardless. Uh, but I would like to see it controlled a little better so we we still have some of our good farmland left that the farmers are taken care of and that uh the children are taken care of. And you know, my grandkids can grow up in a county that uh that they can talk when they grow up, they can talk good about it and remember good things, you know, that kind of thing. So this kind of growth unmanaged can get out of hand and can uh can really you know destroy the county. Uh not that that we're headed in that direction, but uh it's possible. It is possible it was not managed properly.

SPEAKER_02 26:27

So is there anything else out there you would like to tell the voters uh when they're considering their choice for District 3?

SPEAKER_01 26:36

Well, District 3 again has three candidates, and uh I'm the first one on the ballot. Uh it's Kevin Brock, and uh if they want to go and look, you can look at uh Brockforbaldwood.com. That'll give you some information, a little bit more information about me. There's even a documentary on there that you can access that tells a little bit of our story, and uh uh I'm just here for the right reason. Uh I think uh you know it needs to have some new new blood in there, uh somebody new to the commission, uh, but it needs to be somebody that's experienced. So I think I'm your candidate. And I would uh love to earn your vote.

SPEAKER_02 27:17

All right, thank you for coming out, and that's brock for volcan.com, and the vote is on May 19th, coming up right around the corner. So make sure you have to go.