Back to our roots: Former judges reflect on Collin County’s history

Many Collin County residents enjoy recalling the days when Plano was the edge of civilization and the Sam Rayburn Tollway was just a two-lane road.

Last week, the public was invited to relive some of that history with the past four county judges at the Jack Hatchell Administration Building in McKinney. With a combined 37 years of experience, the judges – including current County Judge Keith Self – reminisced about the years they led Collin County and major milestones that paved the way for its significant growth.

With County Commissioner Joe Jaynes retiring after 16 years and the rest of the court relatively new to their positions, Self said he thought hearing some of the county’s history from their perspectives would be an effective way to learn about and appreciate the county.

“I wanted [these men] to talk to us about what it was like to be county judge during their period, what their job was like and just what life was like on the commissioners court,” Self said. “We have a very sophisticated county in many ways and it really is due to these three gentlemen.”

From what began as a scattering of farm communities and the upstart suburban model of Plano in 1975, Collin County’s population has grown six-and-a-half times larger since and is now the sixth largest county in Texas. Despite some slowing in the economic downturn of 2008, the county is projected to hit 1 million residents sometime between 2016 and 2018.

Friday’s panel discussion started with an account by Nathan E. White, Jr., who served two terms as county judge from 1975 to 1982. Now a senior state district judge, who also presided over the 366th Judicial District Court in Collin County from its inception in 1989 until 2006, White took office as county judge when the county’s population was at about 105,000 – smaller than McKinney’s current-day population. That number practically doubled in his eight-year tenure.

White was eager to share his stories with those in attendance, particularly his first day on the job as the county’s first Republican judge.

“I don’t remember what the weather was on the outside, but I can tell you on the inside it was chilly,” he said.

White began his tenure in a county with a $4.8 million operating budget and no central appraisal district or county logo.

Some of White’s first acts in office included performing his first wedding and removing a cardboard sign that was hung with wire above the water fountain in the courthouse reading, “Do not spit in water fountain.”

“I tore it up and threw it away, and I regretted not having saved it as a symbol of the old Collin County government,” he said.

The floor was then given to William J. Roberts, who served as county judge from1983 to 1990. The current Plano attorney served two terms during a time when the county’s population grew by more than 45 percent, with a 1990 population of 264,000 – slightly more than the population of Plano today.

“This is a grand idea to take advantage of this while we have this many county judges living,” Roberts said.

With an operating budget around $14 million at the time, the county purchased the land for today’s county complex off Bloomdale Road in McKinney. The county also created its information technology and records departments during Roberts’ tenure.

“Nathan [White] left me with a county that was right on the verge of dramatic growth,” Roberts said. “The bulk of the work I did was not only making sure we had services for citizens that were needed, but a large part of our focus was on the future.”

In addition to a story about how Collin College came to be, Roberts explained how the George Bush Tollway project kicked off while he was in office. A project on the books since the mid-1960s, very little progress had been made due to scuffles with an environmental group.

During his time in office, the county sued the group and won.

“We solicited the Texas Highway Department to join us in the lawsuit. A lot of legal scholars told us we were nuts,” Roberts said. “That’s one thing I’m rather proud of. I remember, more than anything, the help and assistance of our employees. Without them, I would never had been able to accomplish anything. We had a very harmonious commissioners court.”

Now a McKinney business consultant, former Plano city councilman Ron Harris succeeded Roberts, serving as county judge for 16 years (1991-2006). During his term, the county grew by 162 percent, with more than 200,000 new residents arriving between 2000 and 2006. The county government’s workforce grew from 719 to 1,621 workers during that time.

“It’s five of us and it takes three of us to do anything,” Harris said. “It is the ability to work together that has resulted in lower costs [and] more efficient government. If you don’t work together, there are people and businesses that will shut you down.”

Self, elected in 2007, said he’s humbled to lead a county that has been in the hands of these men. Serving at a time when the county has had an 11 percent growth rate and has a 2012 population of roughly 804,000, Self said he plans to continue the tradition of teamwork and cohesion his predecessors enacted.

“What you heard today is [the account of] a rural county of 77,000 that has grown to 800,000, and if you listened carefully you heard the sophistication that these gentlemen have led the way in producing,” Self said. “It’s like I’m the jockey that rode Secretariat in his last race that he won by 31 lengths. If you recall, [the trainer] said to the jockey under his breath, ‘Just don’t fall off.’ You always stand on the shoulders of the ones who came before you.”

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