After four months in office, Jack Cagle, who was appointed county commissioner of Precinct 4 in October 2011, has made major strides in moving critical transportation projects forward. The most significant project he has taken on for his constituents in the Tomball area is entering into negotiations with Montgomery County and the Texas Department of Transportation on a possible partnership to construct, maintain and operate toll roads on Hwy. 249 from FM 1774 to Spring Cypress Road.

The former judge of Harris County Civil Court at Law #1, Cagle said he became interested in filling the commissioner's seat because he could help build policy instead of just enforcing it as a judge.

Before Cagle's foray into public service, he grew up in Harris County "in the shadows of NASA" near Pasadena. He stayed in Houston for college at Rice University and then went on to earn his Doctor of Jurisprudence at Baylor School of Law.

Cagle returned to Harris County after law school and eventually started his own law firm, Cagle and Associates, near FM 1960 and I-45. Then, in 2000, he was appointed as a civil court judge, and he remained there for more than 10 years.

During his time as a judge, Cagle said he reached his peak in 2011. By this time, he had presided over 730 jury cases and served as the president of the Texas Association of County Court at Law Judges.

In addition to working as a judge, Cagle served as a Republican Party Precinct chair in Precinct 4. He lives in Northwest Houston, just off Hwy. 290, with his wife and three children.

What is the most important role of a county commissioner?

Service. Probably one of the things that has resonated the most is when my youngest daughter, who is 10, wanted to know, "What does a commissioner do?" The process of trying to decide what we do in service in the terms of a 10 year old was very helpful to me.

What we do is make sure our roads are taken care ofThe second thing we do is we make sure that our parks are available to use and amenable. We have a number of parks that are in the [planning] process. We have three dog parks that are in the planning stages. Previously, Precinct 4 did not have any of those, but there are a lot of dog lovers [in the area]Then, the third thing we do is we have to plan for the future. We have to be able to make sure there is enough of whatever the people need in this precinct.

What is the most critical issue in Precinct 4 right now?

Transportation and mobility are, at this time, the most critical issues we face. We have the Exxon plant that is coming in, and it is going to bring anywhere from 36,000 to who-knows-how-many additional individuals to the north portion of our county. That means we need to be able to tap those people into the Grand Parkway, to have our neighborhoods ready and to be able to service these individuals and the roads that come along with that.

What is your greatest challenge as a commissioner?

The greatest challenge and one of the greatest thrills is there is so much that is involved in terms of the services that we have. I have 315 or so of the finest employees anyone can imagine, and they are doing the work of 420 employees. They are giving double and triple the effort to carry a great project forward, and they are doing it with excellence. My job is to get in there and try to help them out. [I try to] find out what they are doing, find out what extra tools they need, encourage them and say thank you to them for the great work they are doing.

How do you plan on maintaining county services with ongoing budget constraints?

I first need to commend my staff and my predecessor for doing a very good job of preparing for these lean times. We did not have to have massive layoffs because we have been in a hiring "chill," and as the economy has slowed, we have not been hiring. We have had folks multitask.

How are we going to face the ongoing issues? We are just going to try to work with everybody and do more with less. As we just went through the mid-year review, we have our budget for the next year, and it is down. We are down 4 percent from the year before. That is a lot of money when you consider the size of our budget, but I think that our people are doing a very good job of adjusting. And we just have to make hard decisions.

Where would you like to see Precinct 4 in 20 years?

My 20-year vision of Precinct 4 is that whereas now we are spending $550 million in growth improvements and projects, I would like to see that [number] in terms of the billions.

We will build our roads in a way that not only saves you money, but they save us money in terms of our construction costs. And we are currently engaged in a number of projects in our county where we are using sustainable technology.

In 20 years, when you drive down our roads, you will get there quicker, and when you get there you will be happier because it will be beautiful along the drive.