Burns Wants to See More Housing, Pro-Business Climate in Jal
by John Earp
There are three men running for the position of Mayor of the City of Jal in the upcoming November election. We always endeavor to share with our readership the candidate’s own words to the extent possible. This week, we present our first interview with a candidate for Jal Mayor, Mr. Larry Burns. Having lived in Jal since 1992, with 23-1/2 years’ experience working for Jal Police Department, thirteen of which he served as Chief of Police, followed by several years working in the oilfield in chemicals, most recently working in water reclamation for Lea Energy, Burns says he is running for mayor because of his “kids and grandkids that live here, and I want to see the best for this community.”
When asked, “What are some things that you think that you would be able to change for the better if you were elected mayor?” Burns replied, “I’d like to see us to bring in some housing projects, you know, not some that the city’s building or the school’s building, but outside that, you know, because we have a lot of people here, you know, young people, they can’t get out of their parents’ house because there’s no place to live. Because everybody that’s renting property only wants to rent to the oil companies because the oil companies pay more. We need to get some housing going in here that’ll help out these young people, and then maybe like some apartment complexes, where maybe some of the older people that don’t want to take care of a lawn and stuff like that can get moved into, and then their houses could go up for sale. You know, they can make income that way or what, rent their houses, you know, to these young people.”
Burns also says, “I’d like to see some companies come in, you know, not the weed company or anything else, but support companies where these young people say they don’t want to go to college, but they want to get a job. They want to get some training, you know. It’s like a plumbing company, you know, anything, you know, any kind of, you know, operation or diversified companies to help out where there’s a lot of need here, you know. An air conditioning company could come in. We need to move towards bringing just regular companies here, you know, like a Tractor Supply, things like that. Just bring things that we got a diverse group of jobs for these people to look at. They don’t have to look at, you’re going to work in the oilfield or you’re going to work for the school or the city?”
Burns continued, “There’s like safety issues that I’ve seen where the city employees are doing work without the proper equipment, you know, like in the manlifts and stuff, they’re in there, they have no harnesses. Man, if one of those guys falls, that’s not good.”
Burns says he wants City Hall to be a little bit more personable towards folks that come in there with questions and problems, you know, instead of what I’ve heard from the public that, you know, this person is a total rearend and not very help helpful, things like that. You know, maybe help train them into knowing that they work for the public. You know, the city is not its own little deal. It’s the city only runs because we have the city. I mean, if the citizens can’t get in to talk to the manager or whoever, I mean, I don’t know. Burns says he has heard numerous complaints that voice mails left with city personnel aren’t returned in a timely manner, if at all.
It’s in the phone thing, too. I’ve called up there many times and I go, it goes to voicemail and then I never get a call back. He also said the Motor Vehicle Department in Jal needs to be improved. He says he has bought cars in recent years where the dealership sent the title and paperwork to Hobbs MVD to handle it, saying, “I bought a few vehicles lately, and this is what they told us, you know? I’m like, you know, this shouldn’t be a problem like that. We should have more communication and be more helpful to the citizens, you know? And then when it comes down to it, quit trying to hide stuff, and because it’s all the public’s money, it’s the public’s decision. Put it out there. Let the public know everything, you know? There’s nothing that they have that has to be a secret. And then whenever people go to ask for things, you know, this public records. Let’s get that information to them in in a timely manner.”
Burns added, “And then don’t try to push companies out, bring companies in. Well, you know, not to dig up old buried stuff, but, you know, how it’s been in the past. It’s kind of been more or less unfortunate. It’s not so much recently that I’ve seen or overtly, but perhaps it’s still going on, you know, the whole favoritism and, you know, picking winners and losers and that kind of thing. That’s not their job. Not at all. We don’t want to pick any winners or losers. We want to treat everybody with the same respect and dignity and give everybody our full undivided attention, just like, and it doesn’t matter if you’re the richest person or you’re the littlest, poorest person. If you’re a citizen and we’re helping you out, we want to give you the same 110% all the way around. And then we can’t give any kind of favoritism or try to hide stuff from one person just so another person can get it. You know? I mean, they were going to put up some property for sale, and I went and asked, I need to know what the dates are, they’ll go up, because I’d like to bid on some of that property, and it never went up whenever I did that. And then it turned out next thing you knew it was sold to somebody else, but I mean, everybody should get the fair shake and all this stuff. They can’t just, you know, keep it all, you know, to their buddies or whatnot. It’s not about being buddies. It’s about doing what’s right for this community.”
Burns says, “The thing is, I’m not trying to change the world. I’m just trying to make an even playing field across the board, you know, with everybody. I don’t have anything bad to say about anybody. I just want them to change their way of, you know, communicating with the public. Get the information out. Let the public know, let them make a decision, you know? I want transparency. I don’t want them to ever think that we’re hiding anything. I’m just trying to make sure that there’s still a Jal when my grandkids are growing up to where they can make their decision if they want to be here or move on somewhere else. But I want them to have that opportunity to come stay close to where family could be around them.”
Burns says, “Jal is my home. I’ve been here longer than I’ve been anywhere in my life, and I don’t plan on just jumping up and getting out of here.” Burns says he wants to see families and companies thrive in Jal. “I just want to see good things come to this community. I’m going to try my best to do what’s best for this community and them.”
