Ferris City Manager talks politics on Lone Star Politics this past weekend

FERRIS – Ferris City Manager Brooks Williams appeared on NBC 5’s Lone Star Politics this past weekend talking about not only local, but several state-wide topics.

First up, the city’s coverage for everyone with Ferris offering free healthcare to everyone living there.

Using federal relief money from the COVID pandemic to help its residents, Williams spoke on the show outlining the details and how the program is going.

Now in its fifth month, Williams said there were about 1000 residents registered on the platform and about 10% of the community has utilized the platform to get access to healthcare.

He also indicated there has been a 98.5% satisfaction rate from the community.

“It is going well for us, and we are excited to have this in place for our citizens.”

COVID relief money won’t last forever, and Williams said to sustain the coverage, “We are already going out and applying for grants and other funding so we can continue this.

“Our theory was this is money that came to us from a public health crisis so let’s use it to improve public health, but let’s do it in an innovative way rather than your typical brick and mortar public health facilities.”

The program offers basic healthcare to residents and is described a chance for residents to call a number, talk to a provider who can diagnose what is going and then offer perhaps a prescription or another path necessary for the resident to feel better.

Williams also said Ferris ISD as an example of the program’s success in that, “we have now rolled this out to every student in our school district so we can begin to address absenteeism in our schools.”

The show delved briefly into the city manager’s ideas on other political topics.

For example, what does a city the size of Ferris need from the Texas Legislature this session.

Williams said, “Besides to be left alone, there are a few things that need to be addressed. Texas traditionally has been a property rights state, but that has shifted as more of a developer’s rights state and we are really beginning to infringe upon a city’s ability to protect their city from developers.”

Williams also suggested that “declaring war on public education is not the right thing to do right now” and also opined about how funding infrastructure is addressed and what are some ideas regarding property tax burdens.

To watch Williams full interview on NBC 5’s Lone Star Politics, go here: https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/politics/lone-star-politics/lone-star-politics-march-12-2023/3212500/