TARRANT COUNTY, Texas — Tim O’Hare is halfway through his first term as Tarrant County Judge, and he recently told us on Inside Texas Politics he is “100%” intending to run again.
The Republican is proud of the fact he’s already achieved a number of his campaign promises, including lowering the county’s portion of the property tax rate and cutting $58 million from the budget without layoffs.
He pointed to the I-T Department as an example of those budget cuts. He says the county regularly budgeted for 240 – 245 positions but couldn’t keep them filled.
“So, we just eliminated them, the positions. Didn’t lay off anyone. That savings alone was about $30 Million,” the Republican said. “And since we did that in October, or I guess that was September of ’23, we haven’t had one complaint from anyone in the county, elected official, staff member, not one saying we don’t have enough I-T support.”
When Judge O’Hare first took office, he says he was actually surprised that it was easier to cut the budget than he imagined.
But he says the one thing he didn’t expect was how many people in the county had risen to positions they weren’t qualified for.
“So, we’ve had to make some changes, and we’ve replaced some folks,” O’Hare explained. We’ve got some really good folks in. Some people, they had just, maybe, lost their passion for the job, or their desire to do the job. We had some people here in the county that were coming in sometimes four hours a day, working from home all the time. That’s just not the way to get stuff done and the way to handle things.”
When we asked O’Hare what people get wrong about him, he told us it’s the fact that while politically he may be very conservative, he says he can still get along and work with anyone.
He says while many people characterize him as evil, he points to the fact that before becoming county judge, he was successful in private business and as a city council member and mayor in Farmers Branch.
And he says that success comes from the fact he can deal with people from all walks of life.
“It’s actually kind of an advantage. You walk in the door, and they think you’re going to be, you know, this green-eyed monster. And then they found out, oh, actually you’re a nice, normal person who loves his wife and kids, and likes to treat people well and wants employees to be happy,” said Judge O’Hare.