The county\u2019s top official isn\u2019t wasting time as David Krebs begins planning major projects following his narrow 48-vote victory.<\/p>\n
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 The San Patricio County Judge\u2019s race came down to just 48 votes, one of the closest contests in the Coastal Bend this election cycle.<\/p>\n
Incumbent David Krebs narrowly defeated Republican challenger Mark Roach after voters in San Patricio County were almost evenly split.<\/p>\n
Roach has not conceded the possibility of a recount.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got some folks, some advisors, looking into it,\u201d Roach said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to have to convince me overwhelmingly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Krebs says he has no issue if his opponent decides to pursue one.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he wants to, I have no problem with it,\u201d Krebs said. \u201cThat\u2019s his decision to make.\u201d<\/p>\n
The razor-thin result caught many political observers off guard. Roach argued that some voters were looking for more visibility from the county\u2019s top official.<\/p>\n
\u201cSan Pat County needs a more present County Judge,\u201d Roach said.<\/p>\n
Krebs pushed back, pointing to what he calls an \u201copen door policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat door is always open,\u201d Krebs said. \u201cThe first time I ran, I ran on an open door policy. This is the people\u2019s office.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the election behind him, unless a recount changes the outcome, Krebs says he\u2019s focused on several major projects over the next four years.<\/p>\n
Opening the new judicial building by May<\/p>\n
Beginning renovations to the current courthouse<\/p>\n
Identifying a site for a new county jail<\/p>\n
The jail project could be significant. The current facility has 200 beds. Krebs says the sheriff wants to expand capacity to 400 beds.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we have some vacant beds, we\u2019ll lease them out and make some money to help pay for the jail from other counties,\u201d Krebs said.<\/p>\n
Krebs is also proposing to raise the starting pay for county employees from $17 to $20 an hour.<\/p>\n
He says residents with questions about county government are welcome to stop by his office or call.<\/p>\n
For now, the margin stands at 48 votes, slim enough to keep political watchers on edge, but wide enough for Krebs to begin planning his next term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The county\u2019s top official isn\u2019t wasting time as David Krebs begins planning major projects following his narrow 48-vote…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-190954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}