Fort Bend Precinct 4 County Commissioner

Before being elected county commissioner of Precinct 4 in 1999, James Patterson served his community as an educator with Fort Bend ISD. He began his career as a math teacher and coach at Dulles Middle School in 1965. At the time, FBISD consisted of one high school, one middle school and two elementary schools, and much of the area was owned by Sugar Land Industries until the early 1970s. Patterson became head basketball coach at Dulles High School in 1968 and moved up the education ladder, becoming assistant principal of Dulles High School in 1975. Less than 10 years later, he became principal of Dulles High School. Patterson finished his career in education as the first principal of Elkins High School before retiring in 1998. Several of Patterson's former students and athletes remain involved with Fort Bend County and still refer to Patterson as their "coach," acknowledging his efforts as an educator, a public figure and a humanitarian in the community. Since becoming Precinct 4 commissioner, Patterson has received numerous awards, including the 2008 Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Rotary Club of Sugar Creek, The Book of Golden Deeds Award from the Quail Valley Exchange Club and the Community Builder Award from the Sugar Land Masonic Lodge. Patterson remains heavily involved with local and national organizations, such as the Arc of Fort Bend County. Precinct 4—which comprises a majority of Sugar Land and parts of Missouri City—continues to grow, Patterson said. Master-planned communities and mixed-use centers under development, such as Riverstone and the Imperial Project, are making way for new residents and have begun to attract big business and supporting industries. Other areas, such as Telfair, are closer to build-out and are nearing capacity and offer attractive amenities, including park and trail improvements, expanded mobility options and new commercial and entertainment centers.

How has your experience as an educator prepared you for your role as county commissioner?

When I came in as county commissioner and started working with the budget managers, I started realizing it was like I was between the [department heads] back at school. For three months out of the year, commissioners court discusses and decides budgets. There are 38 elected officials in Fort Bend County. The shocking part of county government is that there is no boss. You, as a citizen, are their boss. Negotiating the budget takes me back to being a principal and working with all the department heads. They all want their budget and their piece of the pie, and they all feel like their subject matter is the most important. You want to be respectful of their desires and their wishes. Before you make a decision, you had better look at the whole picture. It is important to have a process [in which] everybody is able to give their input. That is no different than having this process back at school.

What has led to the county's population growth, and how is the county preparing for this?

There are two things that drive the growth in Fort Bend County. One is our public schools. I tell folks that I can take them to any of our schools and they are going to get as good of an education there as anywhere else in the country. The second thing is the number and quality of our master-planned communities. The third piece is the ability for all facets of the political community to work together. We have a working relationship where if we want to attract a new company, we can sit down with the MUD, the LID, the county, the city, the school district and the EDC and we can all agree on what is important. At the end of the day when we sit down with that company with all of our materials we can say, "Here is what we can do to help."

What are some of the challenges facing Fort Bend County and Precinct 4, specifically?

The challenges I see both for the county and for Precinct 4 is to continue providing a good quality of life. Part of quality of life is mobility. We are a very spoiled society. We want the red light to turn green before we get there. People will need to adjust to sitting through a red light in order to get where they are going. That is the challenge that everybody can see. The challenge that people can't see is drinking water. What are your grandkids going to use for drinking water? The one challenge that I want to be working on is making it to where if you want to build a subdivision, you need to install two sets of pipes: the pipe that is bringing your drinking water and a second pipe that takes treated sewer water back down the same street. When you see the water sprinkling the medians, that should be treated sewer water. It shouldn't be the water we drink. Right now, we are using good drinking water to irrigate our medians. We can fix that.

Where do you see Fort Bend County in five years?

I see Fort Bend County continuing to try to develop job centers and office buildings. One of the areas with the most potential for this type of development is near the Imperial Sugar Factory. That is a logical place to have an office complex. What we are looking for there is a [corporate] takeover of the property. Right now, the percentage of jobs available in Fort Bend County compared to the number of people here is less than a 1:1 ratio. We need to work to attract more job centers.