Glen Whitley Seeks NACo Leadership:

Pledges to Boost Awareness of County Government

  A concern for detail mixed with a keen imagination and a practical vision of the future

is what makes Glen Whitley’s leadership valuable.

  As the co-founder of a large North Texas accounting firm and as a Navy Reserve air traffic controller,
Whitley has always shown a penchant for precision.

  As a county commissioner and county judge he has displayed a strong commitment to meeting health and
human service needs and addressing transportation concerns.

  Whitley is intent on bringing that uncommon combination to the National Association of Counties as its new
second vice president.

  “There is a great need to raise the awareness of the public and state and federal legislators of how county
government serves our citizens,” said Whitley, 54, who was raised in Grand Prairie, Texas, a city between
Fort Worth and Dallas.

  In a decade as a county government leader, Whitley has worked to make Tarrant County government
more efficient and accessible and he has weighed in on the important matters of the day.

  He has worked on public transportation, air quality, energy and water conservation, mental health care,
children’s issues and county hospitals and the care of the indigent.

  Whitley’s role and influence as a regional and state leader continues to grow. He is chair of the Texas
Conference of Urban Counties and a member of the state task force on indigent defense. He is actively
pursuing a resolution to new accounting measures that threaten the retiree health benefits of our long-trusted
and valued public employees.

  “I continually study the urban and rural issues that define the arena in which we live our lives and raise our
families,” Whitley said, adding that community development block grant monies and children’s health programs
must continually be protected.

  On the national front, Whitley has worked with county leaders from across America on NACo committees,
dealing with many issues important to rural and urban counties.

  “Experience is a good teacher and I have learned that every issue must be viewed from both a rural and urban
perspective, because solutions vary accordingly,” Whitley said.

  When he worked on the reauthorization of the federal transportation bill, Whitley pushed for rural road safety
and for providing funds for rural planning organizations similar to what has traditionally been made available to
urban areas.

  Whitley represents his state association of counties on the NACo board of directors. He is a tri-chair of
NACo’s 2008 Presidential Election Task Force, the chair of the 2006-2007 Strategic Focus and Oversight
Committee and the former chair of the NACo Transportation Steering Committee. He is a member of the
Large Urban County Caucus Steering Committee, the NACo Finance Committee and the NACo Member
Programs and Services Committee.

  Whitley has been endorsed by the County Executives of America, on whose board he serves.

  “It is truly an awesome responsibility to be the elected chief executive of a county of 1.7 million people and face
the challenges of regional leadership in a metropolitan area of more than six million people,” Whitley said, while
traveling to Austin to testify before the Legislature on revenue cap proposals.

  Whitley is a 1971 graduate of Grand Prairie High School. He earned a Bachelor's of Business Administration in
Accounting from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1976.

  He began his career as an accountant at Ernst & Ernst. In 1983, he co-founded the accounting firm of
Whitley Penn, which now has offices in Fort Worth and Dallas.

  Glen Whitley and his wife, Brenda, live in Hurst, Texas and are members of the First United Methodist Church
of Hurst. They have three grown children and one grandson.

  Whitley’s community service is extensive. He has served on a school board and as the chair of a hospital board.
He has long been active in mental health care issues and youth substance abuse issues.

  Whitley was elected to the Tarrant County Commissioners Court in 1996 and then to the post of Tarrant County
Judge in 2006.

  “Sometimes the problems we face seem insurmountable, but they are not,” Whitley said. “In our great country we
develop some wonderful solutions, sometimes we make compromises and other times we start over. But, we never
give up, because not trying is never an option.”
  As the new NACo second vice president and a part of the NACo leadership team, Glen Whitley is pledged to
working inclusively, for all people and all regions of the country. NACo must remain strong, he said, and it must
stay focused on being a resource for local elected officials.

 “We need to share the answers to our common problems with each other and bring the public on board, as well
as state and federal legislators,” Whitley said. “NACo is the ideal organization through which to do that.”