Episode 24: David Monroe | Mean What You Say

On Today's Episode of The Ranch and Table, Lee Wells and David Monroe, The Hunt County Commissioner discuss a wide range of topics including leadership, managing business, understanding frustrations and challenges in the political and business realm, and finding solutions to road maintenance and community issues.

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  Welcome to the ranch and table podcast,  where we discuss all things related to our Texas ranch and  our ranch to table restaurant located in downtown Rockwall.  I'm your host, Lee Wells. 

All right. Welcome to another episode of the ranch and table.  I'm Lee Wells. And thank you for joining me today.  Looking forward to getting into this next conversation and talking and having a great time with my guests. But before we do that, this episode is brought to you by my friends at Sterling Tea, and they are true professionals in the tea business, creating over 200 different blends and flavors and right there in Rockwall, Texas, and serving hundreds of businesses around. 

We've been partnering with them for a number of years and we'll continue to do that. They've just been great friends to us and great quality tea. They've extended to us a generous discount. If you'd like to go to the website sterlingtea. com and use Wells 20 at checkout, they'll give you 20 percent off.

And we encourage you to do that. Let 'em know that you came from us and we've sent you that way. Let me just also remind you, before we get started today, go out to YouTube if you will, look us up and hit subscribe. That will help us stay connected with you. Even if you don't watch us on YouTube, I'd love for you to at least hit subscribe so we have a connection with you.

We're in the middle of a changeover and moving servers and all of that. So please do that for us so we can stay connected with you  So today joining me on the ranching table is  the hunt county commissioner for precinct two My friend david munro  Hello. Thank you for having me. Yeah, man. Thank you for being on and agreeing to come on.

I didn't have to twist your arm too hard. I don't think. But I've been wanting to have this conversation with you for a while. And I'm glad you came out and thank you. Thank you. Yes, sir. I guess we should start out by how we know each other and how we get together and how we are, how we're connected.

Become friends over the years. And you want to start off and talk about it? 

Yeah. It's pretty cool. I met Lee when I'd start during the campaign a couple of years ago through a mutual friend and one day I get a phone call from, it was Lee. He introduced himself and he drilled me for about an hour, what my ideals were and how I was going to do things.

And. By the end of the conversation Lee said, man, you're a man I can support. And we met up and we just hit it off. Like we known each other for years. He's been a good friend to me and I appreciate our 

friendship. I would agree with that. A hundred percent. I agree a hundred percent on everything you said.

I did for a podcast knows that I don't run my mouth. Yeah. Especially online. I don't run my mouth without knowing what I'm talking about. And if I have a problem, if I have a question, if I have an issue with the city, the county, the state, whoever, I'm going to go pick up the phone and try to get it resolved or figured out.

And I wish more people would do that. Don't you?  

Make life a lot 

easier, right? Not everybody does, but that's what podcasts are for. And that's what this day is for us to talk about some of this, because, I think it's human nature for us to sit back and Kind of judge What we're seeing by what we see and what we don't see and what's happening to us Personally, I think it's a selfish position that we have and I think whenever we get So when we get into the details and we get into the story, we find there's a lot more going on than just what is happening to us personally.

And so this is great. I'm glad that you're here. And so we do know each other from that. And then I'll just go ahead and admit it. I've not told anybody this. I don't think. But I did agree to help you on your campaign that day. Yep. And very much appreciated. I believed in what you said, more than what you said, but how you said it.

And that, that you were genuinely meaning what you were saying. I could tell. I have a sense about people. And And that applies to people in the office as well. I have a sense about people always have. And I knew that day I was talking to someone that could make a difference and wanted to.

And I also, I think what was impressive to me was you said, I don't know yet. I, you said that several times in the conversation, remember? I don't know yet, but I think I'm going to be able to do this and this, but we'll have to get in there and see. And, I love that honesty because a lot of people, they'll make all these promises.

They don't know anything about, they don't know the structure. They don't know the. The constraints, they don't know the processes they're walking into. A lot of presidential elections, right? They'll say, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do this. And they don't realize.  That's a massive machine of many years.

You're not going to go do that right when you walk in the door. Nope.  It's I'm sure it's the same on the County level that there's a lot of stuff in, you just have to fit into the cog and then try to make adjustments as you go. Yes, sir. Tell me about when you first sat in that that first initiation or the first meetings that you go through how crazy was it to see how that system works? 

I was nervous. I'm not gonna lie. I was like a a scared kid, if you will, just sit back and stay to myself and just trying to take it all in listening. And I've been in for 14 months now or going on 14 months and I'm getting my, where I'm comfortable on the court making decisions and voicing my opinion and at first you're scared to, speak up on things.

And I still am to an extent just because I don't like confrontation a lot, but there's some things you have to stand up and say, Hey, this is the way I 

feel. You're expected to. Yes, sir. You're elected to do that, right? Yes, sir. Weigh those situations and then speak on them. Talk to us about the court.

Cause I know that. For me at least i've known my whole life you blame the county commissioner for the roads and the trees and the culverts, right? I say blaming because that's what people do, right? That's the job but there's so much more to the job than just the roads and keeping tree limbs picked up out of the roads Tell me about the court some of what you have Discovered that you do and how that 

works Even myself, I've learned, I used to think that.

You know the major part of this job was you know working on the roads and things and that is that's what you get judged On because that's what the public sees and it is a lot of work Yes, a lot of what it is and I spend a lot of time at the county barn and on the roads You know not personally working but physically, you know out there, you know riding the roads and looking making plans.

Sure. I do that but  If you will the commissioner's court, there's four commissioners and you have the county judge You we're like a ceo of a big corporation and that's part of it I didn't really understand until I got into this, but we have the county there's 400 and something that employs we're over the sheriff's department.

We're over all the court system That's the da that you know, the district attorneys the county attorney county clerk's office And we're over the whole government 

body the whole county the hunt county operation. Yes, 

sir Okay Yeah. And like You have elected officials, like the sheriff, he's elected official, but during budget time, he has to submit his budget to us, as every department does.

And us as a commissioner's court, we have to look at those things and make cuts or, what, to save money where we can, or say, Hey we really don't want to spend the money, but we have to have this. You have to make those tough decisions.  So that's a lot of our job that people don't really see or realize that 

we do.

And I understand that there was some tax help given this year on. Yes, 

sir. We were able to cut the tax rate. I believe it was two and a half cents on a hundred evaluation. Doesn't seem like a lot, but we're headed in the right 

direction. I was going to say that's the right direction is it could just as easily have been.

Two or three or four cents the other way. Yes with all the crazy Economics that we're dealing with. Yes, sir. Part of that job then Is budgets. Yes, oversight And then is there anything that would maybe affect? Other than the property tax side of it. Is that property tax? Is that what is that your property tax?

Yes, sir. Okay what else would you say has been a learning experience with the commissioner's court? While we're on that subject that you realize that you have say so on  

Man, we pretty much we have to okay everything that it comes through the commissioner's court. You  Money spent, for instance, we had an elevator go bad in the courthouse  that has to be replaced.

The commissioner score has to okay that, you hate spending that kind of money. I forget the dollar amount on it off top of my head, but it was several thousands of dollars. And you look at that and you're like, Wow. But on the other side of that, you have two elevators in that courthouse, one of them inoperable.

You've got to get people, there's five stories in that three stories are used in the courthouse to the public. If you have people up there on that third floor, in a wheelchair or something, they can't take the stairs. So you have to get them down. But that's just one of the decisions we made, but there's a lot of tough decisions that we have to make like that is spending a lot of money.

And I'm tight because, I look at the taxpayer's money as my money, and that's what people elected me to do is to govern that for them and to manage it. So I try to take care of it as if it's coming out of my 

pocket. So there's more we talked about,  like that. So you have a construction background and I know your your number one guy there has a lot of construction, dirt work, type of background, but a lot of what you're talking about right now is business sense And business accountability and so it would be real important for us to know that When election times come up whether they're in precinct two three one, whatever they're in That it's not just a guy that can run a tractor or shovel hot mix into a hole but there is a business acumen required for Analyzing budgets and doing all that and a lot of times.

I don't know that people You put those two together. Yes. And so the person running that you're electing for these offices has to have more than just a, a work ethic of, I can shovel. Yes, sir. You got to, and so you've been a business owner for a number of years, run your own company for how many years, 23 years, 23 years, successful company, and you had to.

You had to have that same business sense. Yes, sir that you're using 

now Yeah, a lot of people told me when I was running you run a business but the county's not like a business and in some ways it's not but in a lot of ways it is because Even though we're not doing a job to make a profit I still look at it as we've got to get that job done because the longer we're on that job, the more money it's costing, the taxpayers are or me as out of my budget.

So I like to schedule things and to get things done, to get them accomplished. So  I think you have to have business mind to be 

successful. Yeah. It's in that position for sure. It would have, it would help. I can't imagine someone that's never run a company or a business making decisions on my tax dollars and budgets.

And we're talking multimillion dollar budgets, right? Yes, sir. 

My budget, basically every precinct, we'll have four precincts in the county and 4 million. That's a little over 4 million per precinct. So like 16, a little over 16 million goes. To the precinct Wow, but for the whole county, I believe I may misquote this I believe it's 78 million for the total budget for the whole 

county Yeah, and so you so let me make sure I get this right you the judge and three other commissioners are overseeing 78 million dollars  I'm glad you've run a successful business.

Yeah  I'm glad you could do more than just push a push some dirt around. Thank you. Thank you for cutting my taxes. I appreciate That's interesting though, because I think a lot of people miss that side of the work that you do Yes, sir. How much time do you think you spend in the court side of things in a year?

You've been there just a year and two months About do you spend a couple days a week a couple days a month? How much time do you spend in that office? Doing that kind of work 

numbers. We have court on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month Okay, and twice a month so I go there and where they're usually two or three hours taking care of that business I generally go up to the courthouse for About an hour a day to, check emails and go over that type of stuff.

You 

have an office at the courthouse. 

Yes, sir. Okay. My goal is when I took over, I've had to spend so much time in the precinct to get that, things taken care of and get it lined out, going the direction that I want it to go to show my men what I expect and, train my foreman, put my DNA in him, if you will. 

So we're pretty much there and so my goal this year is I want to start spending more time at the courthouse On the business side of it the administrative side of it this I want to try to look more into the budget and understanding that it's very complicated to figure out just because it's so big and there's so many pieces to the puzzle that go into that  So I want to spend more time figuring that out And then I want to look at ways to Is there more ways that we could actually cut, to save money and what could we cut out and maybe do away with this or something that, that maybe if you say 500, 000 here and 500 there that adds up to a million.

Do that helps every little bit helps, 

Seven 

or eight times for us. Yeah. Yeah. And maybe start looking at some, maybe some grant programs, that where we could get some grants on helping with the infrastructure in the County.  Grants on rebuilding these roads, you know So that's things that's my heart, you know going forward is what I want to do is try to get more into 

that Right that makes it makes sense the the thing you alluded to there when you were talking about that the first is I've lived in precinct two on and off for my whole life.

Pretty much. We moved out here. I was in seventh grade, so it's a long time. I moved away years ago. Eh, something like that. Yeah. Six or eight. No, I've got a class reunion coming up this year. It's got a three in there. So it's a, I'm not as young as I look. But yeah,  I've grown up out here and I would never want to throw stones.

That's not what I do on this show for sure. But it, there were times that were better than others. There were commissioners that did a better job than others. I think that's a fair statement. And there was quite a bit of work that you had to do. I don't know.  I don't know if you know this, maybe you do.

My road was so bad at one point. Me, the guy that worked for me, a couple of guys that worked for me, we bought a load of asphalt, regrind and some bag asphalt from home Depot and mixed it in the bed, in the bucket of my tractor. And we fixed our own road. 

That's terrible  I'm not laughing No, but 

that's terrible.

That's a true story. I've got pictures on my facebook from it  And we went up and down this road. I don't know anything about roads I don't know anything about fixing asphalt, but I researched it and here's what we did. We mixed that by hand we packed it in by the tractor tire, and then we came back over it with a mix of hydraulic oil and diesel and sprayed over the top of that patch and ran it again with the tractor.

Did we do okay? Yes, sir. Okay. So that we had, we fixed the whole road and man, people got excited about it and thought something was changing and they didn't realize that I had done me and my two guys. You made a job. No, sir. Not right now. I got plenty, plenty going, but I'll let you know. Okay. But yeah we did that ourselves.

And so whenever you, that was partly why I called you because I had pulled out of my drive with a load of cattle  on a gooseneck trailer and the hole was so deep. That my back axle fell down in it and it literally sprung the whole axle and ruin the trailer. And it wasn't anything I had done. It was just that when I pulled out onto the road, the old top road, the hole was so big that, that axle fell down into that.

And it was loaded. I had a load of cattle on it. It literally sprung that whole hanger and everything. And I had to take it down to Tom down here at the end of the road. Yeah. And he's the only one I knew that would even look at it. And I can tell you that story one of these days. He had to put his, I don't know how many.

million ton winch on the front of that truck  and trailer and rinse that thing back in with that winch. It was crazy. The amount of tension and we were all nervous, hoping nothing broke. And he got it. I had a, he had a, I'm telling you the story now, yeah. I think he had a 20 pound sledge. Yep. I think it was one of the biggest, bigger, that's one of the big, that's a big one. 

It's the biggest sledge I had ever swung. And I literally hit the bottom of that trailer so hard, my feet came off the ground. And he said, again, and I hit it again. I hit it and my feet were coming up. I'm a pretty good sized guy. I'm 6'1 something, and My feet were coming off the ground.

I was hitting that thing so hard, hoping that rent, that winch didn't come loose. And he said, all right, that's it. He tack welded it back into place for me. I should never have had to have my trailer repaired for the road damage that was out there. And so it, that kind of stuff.

At one point, I had made like nine phone calls to the office, to the barn. And and I called the both numbers, the one at the Courthouse and left messages. And so I was frustrated and I'm just a citizen. I'm not in an elected position  I don't ask for much. I pay my taxes. I don't know the IRS anything.

I don't know the county anything and I was ticked  and So when I found out that you were running and I haven't we have a mutual friend Connecting us. They said you know what this guy's an honest guy You And so that's why I gave you that phone call and  In the fifth degree or whatever because I wanted to make sure we were going to get a chance at some change and man, you have really done.

I believe a great job I want to do something real quick if you don't mind I want to I have we designed this and we'll put this up in post. We'll put this up for folks to watch and look at it says vote david munro You A new vision with integrity and leadership you can trust and this is a graphic I built for the campaign  and I just known you a Few weeks when I wrote this but we talked and I said let's put down some things that you think you can do And let's not overdo it.

Just come do some work would be good  and then  Hunt County Commissioner precinct two and then there's one two, three, four five There's six stars and they'll see it on the screen  and it says better use of existing resources and so I want to go down this list and I want you to tell me how you've been, how you've been doing.

This is your scorecard. One 14 months in one year in two months. Tell me how you've redone some of your resources, how you've restructured that to get some work done.  

Man, we took one thing we did is we had a reclaimer there that grinds the roads up. That thing had been setting. We took and maintenanced it and got it back.

We've done two roads with it.  We we put that on the back burner for right now. It worked.  But what we found out is the roads have been neglected for so many years and there again We're not throwing stones here. It is what we're just neglect. It is what it is So what we realized is when we go out and grind a road up it takes so long to get that done that process that yeah, the guy over here on this one mile we're doing is real happy But the people with the 240 mile  249 other miles aren't happy with this because their roads are still tore up.

Yes, sir. So what we've done is went back into a we put the grinder up and now we're just going in and we're repairing bad spots in the road. Just the worst spots. We're by no means making the road. Perfect. We're going in what I'm saying soft spots. That's where a base failure is. And you'll have like re.

They've potholed it for 20 or 30 times there you can see this looks like little ant hills or whatever in the road  So we'll go in and dig those up You dig down about 18 inches to two foot and you get down into that base What that is a base failure and that's where water has got into that base and it's just soft.

It's mud 

So you're talking about if someone's building they're not familiar with the road you come in on a road and you clean out  What's going to be the road base? You get a solid base, right? Yes, sir. And then you start building layers of rock and building up a solid surface Yes, sir. And the last thing that you do what 18 inches up in the air 24 inches up in the air is a is finally the nice layer of  Surface, but there's 18 to 24 inches of road that you don't see right?

Yeah, that's 

underneath it Yeah, that's the base and if 

that base is failed Meaning there's been a hole and water shoved down in there, soaked down in there for years. You'll never get that to hold on that top layer. Yeah, it'll just keep sinking So you go in and you dig it all out Yes, and start over and put dry material pack it in.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So for those that don't know I think that's yeah It helps us understand 

you're saying is We'll go in and you like your road surface is only gonna be about three to four inches thick You know the black top that you see right  on the top You get below that and then you'll have a rock base.

That's the white rock. That's your base. And that's going to be about four to five inches. It should be sometimes we're finding that it's not sure, but you get past that and you get down into the base, which is the dirt, which was the natural dirt, the virgin dirt that was there, but it was packed. It was packed 

compact packers.

And yes, sir. And just over the years where the roads haven't been maintained is you'll get water down in that base and there's no way for it to dry out and especially if you have Water standing in the ditches that sits there and it soaks up. It's just like your slab on your house That's why they say you want to get water away from your house slab Because that water sit there and go underneath your slab and it creates a soft spot under your house then your house starts settling right because of that base failure The road is the same thing.

So what we're doing is going in and we're actually digging out those soft spots on these roads Putting new base back in and that's you know, white rock is a crushed concrete, right? It's a base rock we go in you compact all that in we like to let it set for a week or two weeks, but  Sometimes we get so many complaints about, Hey, y'all turned our road back into a rock road or whatever.

So we're trying to not let it sit more than a week now, just trying to get it compacted and then get back out and get it covered back up with, with oil sand. And then a lot of the roads pretty much a lot of the roads in good shape, the center of the road, but you'll have like on the, what we're calling the shoulder of the road, which be.

Two to three foot from the edge. The edges are gone So what we're doing is going back in and putting the edges back in And what we found when we're doing these we're we're able to do a mile and it varies how much Damage you have in that mile, but what we've been averaging is between fifteen thousand to thirty thousand dollars a mile when you go in and you overlay that road, we were spending 150 to 175  thousand You per mile.

Okay. So I told you our budget is 4 million. Out of that 4 million, that's not all material out of that 4 million comes salaries, insurance, retirement equipment, fuel. We got to pay for the utilities at the barn. So we cut that down to probably a little bit less than 2 million, if you're spending 150, 175, 000 a mile, that doesn't go very far. But we've cut it back to, like I said, 000 a mile with going in. We're calling it a level up is what we're doing. We're not rebuilding the road, but we're correctly repairing the road. And  we can cover more miles doing that and get these roads, get the maintenance caught up on these roads.

Making them safer. Yes, safer.  Yeah. And.  Once we get them back where they're all caught up and safe, then I want to go back into, I want to do a complete rebuild on a road. And that's where we'll take the grinder, you grind that surface up and get down to your base, restabilize your base with, you can put lime in it or maybe concrete, grind it into it.

Get your base stabilized and then come back in and put a new oil surface on top of it Then you have a road. It's a 15 year road. It's gonna last. Yeah. Yes, sir Yeah, but just for the time and the resources right now We had to change our plan that we started out with just going back to that So 

so let me ask you this you said 250 miles of road is what you're responsible for.

Yes, sir So 250 miles of road. Yes is what is in the precinct not the county. That's the priest. That's your purview is 250 Miles. Yeah. Okay. So 250 miles of work and for the most part  I would say most of that needed some attention. Yes, sir, and that's being kind. Yes, sir. Okay So better using better use of existing resources and  Tell me about tell me about the equipment yard.

Y'all went through and clean that up. And we were talking about it earlier and you were able to auction off some stuff. This wasn't used some old trucks and stuff. Tell me about what you did. That's resources, sir. 

What I did is when I took over man, And I've had so many compliments on the yard.

It looks good. We've cleaned it up. It looks 

really professional nice clean Yes, 

sir We don't have it a hundred percent like I want it, but we can't spend all of our time up there cleaning the yard, right? 

But we've made a lot. That's one of those things people give you They give you a thumbs up, but they really want you working on the road.

Yes. Yeah. 

Yeah, I got it what I did is last year that at this time of year is around April I took a bunch of equipment that was sitting around  some of the guys that's worked there for years. They told me some of this equipment set for 12 plus years never used it. Didn't move. Some of it wouldn't even run.

Anyways, we put it in an auction and after commissions were paid, there was, it was right at 285, 000 that went back to the County, but that goes into my equipment budget. Okay. And so  to me that's using, our resources, that's been sitting around, and so I freed up. 285, 000 right, you know that went back 

to help with stuff.

You weren't using. Yes to put it back into something That's new. Yes, sir usable. Sure I would say that was what that is and then we talked about the second point was repair County roads Repair all County roads and that's what you're saying is you had a plan you thought would work Once you got into it, you realize there's a lot more work here than we got Time and resources to spend on so we got to go pick the worst ones do the most we can do And then work as we can work on it.

Yes, sir Yeah, and then the correction of ditches and culverts was the next one Which I think you alluded to with the shoulders. Yes, sir How many culverts have y'all had to go dig out and make work? 

Man, I was talking about that, friday with my foreman You And we've got all of it in a computer, and he takes a daily log and he keeps a log of everything we do every day. 

We didn't just sit down and go through all of it, but he said a safe number on culverts that we changed out last year, or since we took over 14 months, it's 50. We've changed out 50 culverts. I don't know how many feet of ditch that we've actually cleaned out, but.  Man, we've made a lot of progress 

so so let me talk about that because you talk about the roads being in bad shape or the roads water standing in ditches causing soft spots in the road And for those that don't know  That's the number one destroyer of any base like you were talking about a house or whatever.

So it doesn't matter if you go fill a pothole. You've got to get the water running down the road and down away from the ditch and out. Yes, sir. And the culverts have to work. or you're just wasting time patching a hole is going to reappear. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. So building better ditches, shoulders and culverts, even though it's not, sexy, it's not amazing.

I got a brand new road. It was necessary. I know that y'all worked on my road out here for a little bit. And and I actually, y'all didn't have the budget for a couple of the culverts, but y'all were here working. I said, Hey, if I go by the culvert. And put it in or put it out there. Will you help me with it?

And I love the fact that you're working with people. You were just telling me a while ago about cleaning out some ditches this last week or two and getting the water to flow, and the, what the guy bought lunch or something, the 

homeowner came out and was, he's actually came out and asked my guys, Hey, can you take care of this ditch while y'all are here?

It stands in water.  And so they're like, yeah, sure. That's what we're out here doing is cleaning ditches. So they actually cleaned his ditch for him and got the water running out. And I didn't know it, but the guys told me, he said, Hey, that gentleman bought our lunch.  That goes a long ways, man. My guys, they like, thank you.

They're not used to seeing that. 

Everybody does. Everybody appreciates a pat on the back fair strong and fair leadership. I think you've got pretty much same crew for the most part, you think? 

Yes, sir. I've let two or three guys go and changed them out. And then I've added we had empty spots and I had let, I think three guys goes, I've let go of, I've added six guys since I've been there.

Okay. So we have total, I have 10 workers. Okay. And then I have a foreman and myself so there's 12 

of us total, okay  All right that's really not a lot of people for the amount of work you guys have to 

do That's not if you do the math on it, I told you I have 250 miles and basically you have 10 10 people because I can't be on a tractor every day and My foreman obviously he needs to be scheduling things getting material different places and returning phone calls So basically you have 10 guys So that's 25 miles per guy  But the thing is a lot of time, a lot, most of the things that we do require three, five, six guys doing  that.

So yeah, it's 

a crew for sure. I would say leadership. I love the way that you have a clear direction. You know what you're doing. You've had to pivot a couple times because things didn't quite work out the way that maybe you had hoped And you just keep you keep plugging at it and finding solutions. I think that's what leadership is accountability talk to us about accountability policy  And in that communication open communication  

late whenever You know when I campaigned and when you and I talked that was during campaign that was the number one complaint from people from the constituents.

Yeah You And like I say, man I'm not here to throw stones or anything, I'm just 

talking, I called at least nine times, I 

understand, so I'm just talking, person to person, whatever, but people would say, man, we call, call, and we can't get a, we can't get a response, nobody even returns our phone call, people don't even, they don't show up, if they don't return a phone call, they're sure not going to show up.

Yeah. Yeah.  I determined early on and that's one thing I campaigned on and I campaigned hard is I will open an open line. I'll have an open line of communication between my office and the constituents.  I've done that day one.  We had the phone calls went way down, but when I first took over, it was, seriously, 20, 30 calls a day.

No joke. I'm not exaggerating. Yeah. We have, I can sit here and honestly tell you, we have returned that I know of, we have returned every single phone call. I have returned every single email.  That was one thing that my foreman and I, when I brought him on with me, we had that agreement.

We're going to return every phone call. I believe that every citizen constituent, if you call my office, You deserve a phone call back. We may not tell you what you want to hear or give you the answer you want, but we're going to call you back and you're going to get an answer. And so many people. 

Has told us thank you for calling us back Even if they don't get the answer that they want or we give them a reason why we can't do something They're like hey, thank you for calling us back. Yeah, we appreciate that. It's at least you could yeah, Yeah, and so another thing I did is i've got two two emails That 365 days a year.

We'll get them I've got an office, you know at the courthouse that we have a phone number there and I have A phone at the barn and we have a recorder on that if because we're very seldom in the office at the barn We're out in the precinct If you leave a message on that We're going to call you back or if you send me an email and ask for a phone call back We're going to reply to that email and to that phone call.

Did I see the trucks have their your number on them? 

Yeah, that's what I was going to tell you is On all the company the county vehicles in the precinct I went and had our email And phone number put on the vehicles on the sides and on the back of it I want people because these trucks are out in the precinct, you know while we're working sure I want people to know who number one who's out there It's the county working and if you want something done while we're there or you have a complainer you want to just say thank you Yeah, I want you to know how to get a hold of us, right?

And I think i've made myself more than available  

I would agree. So the fact that you answered all those calls I think is honorable, but but you said you were gonna do it. That was what you had. A lot of times we hear campaign promises. Yes, and nobody believes campaign promises anymore, for good reason.

Because they just fall through. And a lot of that maybe because they're not.  honest about the fact that they don't know the systems they're walking into. But I think that everything that you said you were going to do, you're working on doing. And I think that there's people who probably say, man, my road is as bad as it's ever been.

That's you're one of 250 miles that has to, it's going to take some time. Yeah. What's your plan on getting all of that? I think we talked a few weeks ago about how you were going to approach getting to everybody. At some point, you have a plan to  catch it. 

Leave what we did. Cause obviously we can't be everywhere.

You just can't, nobody can. It's not humanly possible. 

No. But at least you can have a plan. Yeah. 

Yeah. And what I did is I started driving the roads before I ever took office. And and I found the word, what I deemed was the worst roads, and some roads, that's probably not correct to say the worst roads, but what we did is I judge a road on how much traffic is on that road.

Okay. For instance, we went over, our first road that we did was 2706 in Caddo. There's a bunch, it's over by the schools. There's thousands of people that travel that road every single day, taking their children to school. That road was terrible. Real dangerous. And very important.

Very important. Yeah. I made that one my first road. Sure. The ones that we did. I took another one over in Union Valley. 25, 26, that road has about six subdivisions down it. Thousands of cars literally going down it every day. High speeds, that road was dangerous. So we went over and 

took care of that road.

So you have a criteria that you built that says it's going to be an important road, the number of people on the road, and then.  Which ones need the most attention out of those right and you just work your way across And what 

we did to be fair about it is I went in all the precinct And I did a road in each precinct, like I did one in caddo.

I did one in union valley I don't want in quinlan. I 

don't want to say but you mean every section of the precinct 

every section of the precinct Yes, sir. Yeah, like I have poetry Caddo mills quinlan cash,  cattle mills, and then some of Greenville. So I went in every area and did at least one road in each area to be fair, because I had some people say why didn't you finish this area?

This road over here is bad. I explained to him what I was doing and why, and he goes I don't understand why you don't stay in one area.  And so I'm like, okay, we'll say I go off of your idea and I stay in one area and finish that whole area. I'm going to start in poetry and you live in Cato mills.

It's going to be years before I get over here to Cato mills to fix your road. It's going 

to be a while. Yeah. Yeah. And so it starts making a showing in some places that you can, and in the worst places of the worst. Yeah. Yes, sir. Yeah. I guess there's probably not a wrong way to do it as long as you're working.

Yes, sir. I think one of the greatest things, also we forgot to mention, on the on the communications side, you have a Facebook page. Yes, sir. And tell them what that Facebook page is, because you put updates and pictures and what you did all during the week and day to day. Yes, sir. 

What I try to do is go in once a week.

at the end of the week, typically. And I take pictures throughout the week. And so I post those pictures so people can see and I give them, explanation of what we're doing. I want people to see what we're doing. I want people to know, Hey, we, we weren't maybe on your road or in front of your house, but we were several other places and here's what we were doing, I had another, when I started out, I had a Facebook page and for some reason it shut down and we hadn't been able to figure 

out why. Yeah. Facebook messed that up. Yeah. Yeah. I think it was tied to the political side and Facebook and politics. But it's sticky. Yeah. They're they're not really a fair entity when it comes to that.

Yeah. Yeah. If you want to go on my website, it's, the Facebook page? Yes, sir. Yeah, it's a Hunt County Commissioner Precinct 2 and you can go on there and follow us we're about to try to get more aggressive with that Facebook page what I mean by that I want to start doing some videos of showing the road before And doing a little short videos explaining why we're doing what we're doing and show that process A lot of people just don't know.

Yeah, they don't know, and I'm trying to be as informative as I can to people, because a lot of times people get upset, it's because they don't understand or they don't know what's going on. If you can explain that and take a lot of the whys or whatever out of it. It makes 

sense. And that's why I love having you on here is someone may hear this and say, oh Lee loves David Monroe.

Lee does love David Monroe, but Lee loves what David Monroe's doing. Thank you for this precinct. And I think that I think that other guys in position ought to look at what you're doing and say, man, that guy's doing a great job, or maybe I need to do better, or whatever. But it's more about the job that you're, you said you would do.

And then are doing but as to what you're saying  with the Ignorance level that's there. i'm trying my best to get a texdot engineer On with me because i'd love for him. I got his number. I've called him twice I'm about to make him public everyone's going to start bombarding. No, I wouldn't do that.

But he He knows, he understands everything that's going on from Greenville to Royce City all the way to the bridge in Rockwall. He understands everything that's happening when the overpasses are going down, how they're going to route. And I think there's so much frustration out there because we can't tell what's going on.

Yeah. We're just, there's cones and then the, these new ramps and all this stuff. And I think I try to explain to him, if we, if you could just do a good job of explaining what you're doing, I think you would get a lot more grace as to the process, because we don't know what you're doing. You build a ramp and it's got big bumps in it.

You make this exit ramps, got these big dips in it. You're doing 70 miles an hour and you're, going airborne. I have no idea what they're doing. Have you been on 30 over here? Coming up to 1903, but before you get to the truck stop, they put a speed bump in the middle of 30. And I don't know what's wrong with that.

I went to air, I went airborne the other day in that thing. Today I was coming in and I slowed down real, these cars are trying to go around me and whip around me. I'm like, go ahead, man. It's got a speed bump in that lane too. You'll see why I'm slowing down.  But on that subject when the ice storm came through and that, that ice hit that deep freeze that we had, there was a lot of people online that were saying, my commissioner's not doing anything.

Talk to us about what your purview is on the different types of roads how that works. 

What we've got, Lee, is on your on interstates, like Interstate 30, that's a state highway. Your FM roads FM 36, 1903, those are state roads. Okay. 

So 

you don't have anything to do with that. No, I have no authority.

You can't touch that. I can't. It would be the same as you going out there and getting on it. You're going to get in trouble. Same thing as city roads. I have no authority on city roads. Okay. Now, saying that we do have an interlocal agreement with the city of Cattle Mills. We have one with Quinlan and Poetry.

Sometimes they'll call me. And like poetry the other day, she's needing some potholes repaired over there. So I figured up a price, what it would cost to do that. She took it before city council. They approved it. She brought a check for the amount to the county, to the courthouse. Okay. And so we're going to get that on schedule to go over to help, do potholes.

We can do that if we have an interlocal agreement with them, but If we just can't go over there and just start doing something So 

people are so upset about the construction going on and then the service road was really bad it was horrible and it's in this precinct. Yeah, but that's not anything that you can work 

on It was nothing that I could do and I had on Facebook can be your worst enemy or could be your friend, right? 

But there was a lot of people during that time. Call the commissioner, the right the squeaky wheel gets the grease You can call me, but there's, I'll explain it to you, but there's nothing that I can do on a state highway. I did call TxDOT and they did get out, but during that time, man, it was raining, freezing weather, and you can't do anything.

So talk about that, that those things in the wintertime really slow you down on what you can do, right? Yes, sir. 

Cold weather. Yeah, the cold.  They say it needs to be 50 degrees and rising. That's the road temperature for oil sand to really work properly Okay, and to put that in perspective one day Like after you have these cold nights, the weather's been down, say in the 40s or whatever.

Yeah, you go out there that day and it might be up 80 degrees. We done one day, we took a thermometer. We had one of the guys we buy road oil from, and he just came over and we were talking about different things. And so he was shooting the road with that thermometer and it was 70 something degrees that day.

But the road temperature was still in the forties.  So it wouldn't have set. Yeah. He said, you can do it, but it's, you're wasting your time and your money because it's not going to set up proper 

because everything that we're talking about asphalt And oil sand all of that is all petroleum based.

Yes. So temperature affects it. Yes, sir Yeah, so it'd be like butter that you can spread on toast or not, right? Yeah. Yeah, there's something to all that. i'm glad y'all have figured all that out 

and same thing with water, Yeah Water affects it also, that's why we try not to, go out and patch potholes  You know when it's raining or just right after a rain or whatever because it has 

water You don't want to trap that 

water in the bottom Yeah, because that just goes down into the base and then to the old doesn't bond right to it.

Okay, so Talking about potholes on pothole repairs. I hate doing those just because It's Per se a waste temporary. Yeah, it's temporary, but that's what people need to realize. It's a temporary fix, but  The fact is you have to do that because these roads get potholes in them and if you don't go fix them, they just get bigger and bigger.

So we try to run our trucks, but at least once a month, we have three patch trucks and I'll get those out, put all three of them out and we try to stay on top with my foreman. Now we try to ride around, take notes of, potholes when we see them. Calls come in. Yeah. Calls come in.

We try to go take and get those, especially those that get called in. We try to go get those ASAP. But 

man, it's a full time job it is man, and it's a jobs never gonna go away I don't guess no, but that's what you signed up for. Let me ask you this if you were to Rewind and go back  Would you say you're having a good time with it?

Are you glad that you did this man? 

I be honest. I'm having fun That's good. I don't regret it at all. There are days You know  Just like with anything it has its challenges and you're like, man, what did I do? Yeah. But majority of the days I love it, and I knew, the first year or two was going to be, or I had a real good idea.

It was going to be tough because People had me under the microscope, hey, is he going to do what he said he was going to do? And so I was prepared for a lot of that So but i'm having fun and I hope to be here many more 

years. That's good. That's good I know you got a good crew I know some of them and i've got a real good crew.

They're good folks. They're good guys hard working man, I appreciate the insight on some of these things because I don't think that we get You We don't get a good picture at election time. Yeah. People are talking hot topics, people are talking, whatever they're talking, but that, and then it goes away.

Yeah. And no one's talking about it. And then people have questions. There's no  real forum to understand this process and what you do and how it works. And so I'm really glad to have this conversation today with you. So we talked about the size of the precinct. We talked about the condition of the roads.

We've talked about a lot of stuff today. Outside of the road maintenance and tree trimming and all that kind of stuff we know about, you've got the court that you run as well with the other guys. And then what do you think your number one? Goal is as you move forward because you've got some stuff established.

You talked about looking into budgets. But what do you think?  If you can accomplish by the end of your term, you got three years roughly left, right? Yes of your term What would you say would be an amazing? accomplishment to say  That this is what I've done with these four years  

Man on the roadside.

I'd like to have all the roads In a safe condition. Okay. I mean that's really that's really the main reason I ran for the job is I've lived in precinct 2 for 23 years. Okay, and I just seen the shape of it and just from running a business, and being in construction  I didn't know no, but I pretty much knew that I could make a difference in it Yeah, and that's still my heart is to get these roads in the condition, you know a safe condition And that's where I want to go with it That's on the in the barn side In the at the office side of it or in the courthouse side of it.

I would like to get it where everybody wants to lower, property tax, but I want to be more conscious of that and try to You Get the tax rates lower, and a lot of that is the state regulates a lot of that, you know on the like appraisals and stuff They tell us we have to go off a fair market value, right?

So if your neighbor a lot of people don't understand that's not the county that does that, whenever you Say your neighbor has a house over here. That's Say a five hundred thousand dollar house and he sells that house for eight hundred thousand then another guy down the road the same thing guess what now you're five hundred thousand dollar house  That has to be appraised at eight hundred.

It has to go for fair market value that's what the state of texas says that the county has to do The county takes a lot of heat on that because yard is raising our You know our appraisals of well, it's because the state says that's what we have to do So I would like to try to get in to maybe see if I could get some of that changed You know, we're the average citizen or all citizens don't have such a tax burden  

That'd be awesome  

Not saying I can get it done.

I'm not making any promises, but that's some things that I want to 

work on Yeah, it'd be a good goal I think that we would all appreciate that effort.  People who own, who owns, yeah. Anything you want to add to the conversation before we get into my favorite part, which is a rapid fire question.

Oh man, that's 

the part I'm dreading. No, it's fun.  Anything you'd like to add? I would like to say, I think you've seen my passion that I had during campaign. I did.  for this job.  And I want to say, since I started this and I don't want this to sound like cliche or whatever, but man, my passion, it drives me.

Yeah. I mean it.  That's why I wake up at, early in the mornings thinking about, and seriously, and it's because it's on my mind. I go to bed or go home at night and I'm mentally drained. Not because I physically worked or whatever and one of my friends asked me the other day He said you know why you're physically drained or mentally drained  I said no, he said it's because you care  That's why you're so drained and you're wore out, yeah, 

Mental stress and thought  Is is as tiring as wearying as physical labor.

Yeah, sometimes more  But 

No I'm glad I took this job and I appreciate the people that back us. During our time here we've had citizens come up and buy lunch for everybody. We've had people bring donuts by the shop in the morning and just people drive by, give you thumbs up and say, thank you.

That, that makes it all worth it. 

Right. And there's always going to be squeaky wheels and there's always going to be people that don't understand the process that are going to be, Kind of mouthy and stuff, but really that's anything you do the more you do the more you get that it's just life I've 

Found out the last year that and I'm a people pleaser and so it bothers me some  but I've learned you just  People are gonna speak, you know So you just have to let things roll off your back and I always tell my guys, Hey, if you can look yourself in the mirror  And you say, Hey, I'm proud of that guy right there.

. I'm proud of what he done. . That's all that really matters. Yeah. 

Yeah. You have to be, you have to be proud of it. And I know you are. I know you're proud of your team. Yeah. I think y'all are doing a great job. Let's do this thing. Today's rapid fire segment brought to you by our friends at Fate  Creamery.

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It's Fate Creamery and that is ice cream done right and ask them for a 20 percent off your order because of the podcast. All right. Here's how this works. I'm going to let you go first and you get to ask your first question. I'm going to do my best to answer it. And then I'm going to get to ask you, and we'll go back and forth with three questions. 

I 

want to ask you cause you're a pastor of a church.  You manage a ranch,  manage a restaurant, manage this podcast.  You've wrote a book and whatever else you do How do you keep it all in perspective and how do you not get burnout? Okay, 

that's a great question that's two questions. But let me start by saying perspective is  the reason I do everything I do is rooted in the call that I have to help people.

So the reason I started the beef company was to help people with the most healthy beef that's on the planet. And our beef actually lowers cholesterol. It's amazing what our beef does for people. I learned all of that after going through a heart attack myself and having those struggles.

And and then the restaurant, we just love people. Yeah, we take care of folks. We don't want you to have a problem. If you have a problem, we want to fix it. And we just, we want to be a blessing to people. We want to give you good food. We want to give you a good time and we want you to know we care.

This podcast, the book is about helping people. I hope people read the book. I haven't brought the book up yet. You did. So I'm going to just show it right here. I'm sure they'll show it on the screen, but if you don't have this book grab it and get it at Lee wells, official. com. The book is about helping business owners do better at their perspective of why they do what they do and how they do it.

And it's just an interesting take on our journey and what we've learned along the way. That works and is award winning and so I hope that translates into helping people so that's how I don't I get tired I get worn out, but I don't get burnout because I believe that my  Purpose for doing all of those things comes from a calling in my life  I preached today Went to lunch came home doing this.

This is a Sunday. We're recording on a Sunday today and it doesn't bother me at all to be able to do all that because  I'm driven by that passion to help folks. And I hope that this, I hope that this educates people and it helps them understand the processes that you guys are going through. And it's really not about me.

This podcast isn't about me. It's about others. And then I compartmentalize things pretty well. And that's how I am able to keep doing what I do. I don't, I try not to let things bleed over. Into each other too much if we're having a bad day at the restaurant or something's going on I try to keep that in perspective with where it's at what's going on  central to that and then Try to let the other parts of my life be what they're supposed to be And so I don't know how to tell really how to even explain that.

Yeah, but But I love what i'm doing and I love doing all of this and it's fun and it's fun to get somebody write in and say, man, that podcast really helped me that, that thanks for saying those things that really, you know, so that's for me. That's how. I don't know if I answered that or not here's a question that I keep asking my guests because I think it's a fun question I could get there's a million questions I could ask but I think this is a fun one if you have to pick one Song it's your walk up song, like baseball pitchers, right?

What's your walk up song?  

Oh man  One day at a time, sweet Jesus. 

I'm not sure that's going to get the crowd going. That's what put them to sleep. All right. What's your second 

question?  If you could sit down with anybody, whether they're still alive or deceased and have a conversation with them,  who would it be?  

Okay.  Course, the standard answer would be my dad.

If I could have one more conversation with my dad, the same answer I have, that's probably a given outside of my dad, probably my pastor that passed back in 17, he was not 17 Oh seven. You remember the guy that was killed on a motorcycle out in front of Cracker Barrel.

Yeah. That was my pastor, Scott McManus. My mentor, one of the most, other than my dad, one of the most important people in my life. And I'd love to have a conversation with him. I'd love for him and dad to come sit together and we talk about all the stuff that's going on. Yeah. I'd like to be 

in that conversation.

It'd 

be, it'd be awesome. It'd be awesome. I'll tell you, and this is crazy. It's an off subject, but I've had a couple of dreams in my life. I don't know. Maybe God gave them to me, but I was a couple of times that I've been going through things. And I dreamed that I was having a conversation either with one of those two men Like we were sitting down in a park bench just talking or at a dinner just talking And I wake up feeling like I had a conversation with them And it was as if it and almost as if it had happened Yeah felt like it had happened and I just think that's a miracle I just give god credit for that.

But those are awesome times with that. That's cool. Yeah, it's happened a couple times and pretty cool All right. Here we go. Would you, this is an easy one for you. Would you rather have hot weather or cold weather and why?  

I think I'd rather have hot weather. Yeah.  Because I can always get cool.

And my bones hurt when I'm cold.  Yeah. Now we can be just more productive. I'm in a better mood when it's warm outside. And cause I'm an outside person. And when I'm having to sit around and not really do anything, be active. I get moody irritable. I agree with that. So I'd rather have 

hot weather I'm more productive in the summertime for sure.

I also hate the stupid time change Yeah, I hate it getting dark at four o'clock 4 30 44 45 me too. i'd rather get dark at nine o'clock Yeah, that's just that's me all Go ahead  

Wow, You  If you could change anything that's happened to you in your life, what would you change, whether that's good or bad? 

That's a hard question because I'm one that has accepted  that. I don't believe everything happens for a reason. I don't believe that statement. It is a true statement. Sometimes things happen because people are stupid. Yeah, but so maybe the statement is true I'm, not sure everything's ordained to happen the way it happens, but I have come to understand at least to deal with things in my life that have come that maybe I have hated to try to see some lesson from it to learn from it i've lost everything twice in my life And I wouldn't change it though.

Yeah, I wouldn't go back. I wouldn't go back even though it was a horrible time I lost everything moved back home with my mom and dad with my new daughter and wife and it was bad. It was bad. The first company went defunct. It was a bad deal But I wouldn't be the man I am today I wouldn't have the respect I have for money and the in some of the wisdom that I have in some of the things That sounds funny to say it out loud, but I there's a lot that comes from that.

Yeah, I would So I don't know that I would change anything. 

Isn't it amazing how those tough times build our character? Yeah, 

The tough times are what make it Yeah, easy times can almost make us worthless. Yeah, the easy the having a lot of money the having a lot of  stuff going good is Almost detrimental.

Yeah, if we're not careful And I think that the hard times come so that we can manage those good times and appreciate them So I really I don't know. I mean if I could go back and change one thing I wish that I wish my dad would take better care of himself when he was older. Diabetes got him. And and I think that he might've gone sooner because he didn't take care of himself.

Which keeps me trying to take care of myself for my family. And if there was one thing I might could change, I would. I would love to still have him around. But then when you say that we wouldn't have Wells Cattle Company beef, we wouldn't have the restaurant cause dad would still be running this ranch the way he always did.

And I've always respected that even though I didn't agree. Yeah. With the way that old timers run their ranches. They're profitless things and we can't keep, it's, and he loved it. And I would never, Have changed that I would have let him do his thing. So I don't know. I don't know that I don't know that we can there's probably a reason why we can't change things Yeah, but that leads me into the question I have for you.

Oh, man, and this is gonna Tie in really well if you could time travel one time  Which direction would you go? future or past 

Let's see, I think i'd go back. 

Okay to what time  Man, 

I would probably go back into the I don't know if I'd go back in all the way to the seventies, but at least to the eighties. Yeah. 

I'm thinking 1800s, but go ahead. I was 

talking to my timeline, but I wish we could, as Americans, we could get back to, we used to respect each other.

Yeah. Yeah. Even in my, I'm 54 or will be in April, but I remember growing up, watching your parents or your aunt and uncles, have disagreements on politics or, just different things, whatever the case was.  And they would sit and discuss those things. And they were still friends at the end of the day, and we'd go watch a football game together or whatever, and  It seems like today's culture, if we don't think just alike or we don't agree then we can't be friends we're mad at each other and so I wish we could go back into a time where we just we respected each other 

I was I just had a podcast at this point looking back a couple weeks ago with  A man that's running for the house of representatives texas house and  I asked him the question.

I said if you were to grab four random republicans Would you think they would agree on maybe 80 85 percent of stuff and he said yeah, probably I said if you go grab Four democrats you think they'd agree on maybe 80 85 percent of stuff. He's yeah I said you put those four and those four together.

It didn't go down that much does it? Yeah, not really because we all want Prosperity we want to be safe. We want to have good jobs. We'll take care of our family We want to be able to be safe in our state, It really doesn't have these big differences the way That the news brings it out The social media brings it out.

Yeah, you know somebody says on social media, oranges are the very best. Fruit for your health and boy you watch because somebody's going to say no an apple a day keeps the doctor away Yeah, and there's someone else gonna say no bananas gonna keep you from cramping up in the potassium And you're gonna end up with 14 different opinions.

Yeah about Nothing. Yeah. Nothing. And yet people will be mad at each other. You're going to be cussing each other at some point. I had disagreement one time about, it was when, during the COVID video going on, I had a disagreement about it  and it got onto I said something about it on a on a group, a Facebook group, I had a whole group of people come give me bad reviews.

For my restaurant to try to destroy me and physically like physically try to destroy me because they disagreed with something Principle that I had yeah, which ends up I was right by the way, I was right by the way Science has proven Me right, but I still have those bad reviews  still sitting there because people are idiots Yeah, when they get like that and so I really there's times I do it for fun, you know If i'm with my buddies, I'll you know, we'll spar.

Yeah, but we're still friends. Yeah, we're still we still love each other so Yeah, Man, i've really enjoyed our time. I did too. 

Thank you for doing 

this me on here Yeah, hopefully it helps some folks get a perspective And and you talked about it just a minute ago, sitting down and talking and respecting each other.

Somebody that watches or listens to this podcast may think that I'm just everybody's friend and I don't have any disagreements with anybody. But the fact is when we sit down at this table, that's the goal is that leaders can sit down, talk to each other.  agree on everything we can agree on to move forward.

And I talked to the same guy just the other day and I said if we were to go deep enough and talk long enough, we'd find things we don't agree on. That's everybody, no matter who, but. There's a whole lot of good that can come from working together, talking together, getting consensus and moving forward.

And I don't know that we would disagree on all that much, but there would be something somewhere, and that's just everybody. But this is, this podcast is about coming together and leaders respecting each other and having good conversation about issues and things that are going on.

And so I appreciate you coming on. I always appreciate your opinion. 

I'd like to say thank you for the vision you have and just the things that you're doing and accomplishing and I appreciate you and I appreciate your friendship. I 

appreciate that. Thank you. That means a lot. I I know that the more we do. 

The more criticisms that fly. Oh yeah. They, it goes with, they say the wind blows harder and colder at the top of the mountain. You know what, I'm just going to keep climbing. I'm gonna keep doing what I feel called to do. Yep. And if I didn't, if I didn't. And this is true for you, you would have never run for office had you worried about all the negative that could happen Yeah, but instead we focus on all the positive that can come of it.

I think that's what we have to do Yeah, for sure man this is this has been great. If you don't have my book i'm going to mention it one more time leewellsofficial. com go out grab a copy i've got hardback and paperback for you  And if you've not ever or you come by the restaurant downtown, rock Wall, if you're close and pick up a copy, I'll sign it for you. 

If I have to, I will. I don't mind doing it at all. And this podcast has been brought to you by our friends at Sterling Tea. Use Wells twenty@checkoutsterlingt.com and our friends at it's Fate Creamery downtown fate.  And that is ice cream done right. So those are some good folks. And my favorite flavor there is cookie butter.

If you've never had it, it will change your life  and it'll make life worth living.  And I appreciate all the feedback that comes in on the show. And so if you have ideas and thoughts and opinions, send them and I'd love to read them and get back with you. Thank you for the encouragement that comes along the way.

I appreciate that. This is Lee Wells, the ranch and table. And until next time we say adios, farewell, goodbye, good luck, so long.