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By CINDY MALLETTE
Staff Writer

Smith County residents had the opportunity to ask questions of 10 candidates for county offices that will be decided in the March 4 primary.

The League of Women Voters for Tyler/Smith County hosted a candidate forum at the Tyler Public Library Monday night. Candidates fielded questions from a three-person panel before answering questions posed by members of the audience.

Members of the panel were Vanessa Curry, University of Texas at Tyler journalism adviser; Roy Maynard, politics reporter for the Tyler Morning Telegraph; and Bonnie Hardaway, a member of the League of Women Voters.

The forum started with questions for Christi Kennedy and Alan Brown, candidates for the 114th District Judge office. Both were asked about their views on plea bargains, courthouse security, non-partisan elections for judges and whether they would have any conflicts of interest in hearing cases at the 114th District Court.

Kennedy said she doesn't like plea bargains because it causes a backlog of work for those involved in the trial process.

Brown said plea bargains are a good thing because they're decided by prosecutors who are elected to represent their constituents' best interests and by criminal defense attorneys. He said defendants should have the right to change their minds on plea deals at any time because all people have the right to a trial by jury, if they choose.

Neither candidate said they have conflicts of interest in hearing cases in the 114th District Court, and both felt partisan elections are best for voters to choose judges, because they believe party primaries have higher voter turnout.

Candidates for Smith County Sheriff answered questions next. During opening statements, Andy Dunklin accused incumbent J.B. Smith of wanting a "monument on Broadway" instead of a sensible jail. He also accused Smith of allowing "immoral" people to continue serving in leadership positions after they were discovered e-mailing supposed pornographic material and using inmate labor to do maintenance on their personal vehicles.

Ms. Curry asked Dunklin if he could verify his claims of immoral behavior and Dunklin said they were written about in the Tyler Paper.

Smith said the e-mailing incident was a first-time offense and broke no laws, only Smith's personal policies for the department. He said the second claim, of using inmate labor illegally, was investigated by the Texas Rangers and no criminal charges ever came out of the situation.

"It's a dead issue, as far as I'm concerned, and besides that, this is five years old. I mean, come on!" Smith said.

Dunklin said he had a cost-effective and logical proposal for a new jail: build a single-story facility to house medium- to maximum-security inmates and let the minimum-security inmates sleep in tents. He said this method is used in other counties and it appears to work well.

"If it's good enough for our men in uniform, then it's good enough for our inmates," he said.

Smith said he fully supported the most-recently-defeated jail plan, but building a jail is the sole responsibility of the Commissioners Court, and he would make no suggestions as to what the court should decide.

Three candidates for Smith County Precinct 1 Commis-sioner took questions from the panel and audience members, mostly focused on the jail project.

Mike Boyer said he would take a business approach, using long-term strategic planning to build a cost-effective building that would last at least 50 years.

Derrell Cooper said he would visit other jail facilities throughout the state, then use that information coupled with input from constituents to put together a jail proposal.

Jeff Warr said the solution to the jail issue lies in spending the right amount of money in the right places, and in communicating the plans openly and clearly with taxpayers.

All three agreed the last proposal failed because the commissioners wanted to spend too much money on the project. They said the fact that the commissioners wanted to include pay raises in the bond didn't help.

The last candidates to speak in the forum were three men running for Smith County Precinct 3 Commissioner.

Incumbent Bobby Van Ness took the brunt of questions centered on a recent commissioners court vote for pay raises. The panel members said it seemed to damage the confidence residents have in the commissioners court.

Van Ness said he was stuck between breaking a campaign promise to never vote in favor of a pay raise, or to deny county workers a much-needed income boost. Van Ness said he decided to abstain from the vote, and he donates the entire $6,000 extra in his paycheck to various organizations within Precinct 3.

Van Ness' challengers, Terry L. Phillips and Toby Cross, both said they would have voted to forgo pay raises for commissioners but would have found a way to give raises to employees who make less than $19,000 per year.

All three candidates for Precinct 3 Commissioner said they would make building a new jail their number-one priority, if elected. They all felt the best solution would be a low-cost facility designed around constituents' input.