Viewers on Port Arthur News’ Facebook Live broadcast this week had a chance to learn about Groves Councilman Cross Coburn, his thoughts on the city and of being put in the spotlight as a young, gay leader.

Coburn, 19, is the youngest person on City Council at this time and likely one of the youngest to ever serve the city. He’s enrolled at Lamar State College Port Arthur on a scholarship where he’s majoring in drama but he has other interests.

He plans to further his education with a bachelor’s and later a master’s degree in political science with a minor in economics.

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Interest in politics

Coburn took the ward 1 seat when Jim Rasa withdrew his bid for reelection last year and now Coburn is looking to make politics a part of his future career in advocacy and use his public office to help fight for the issues he faces on a daily basis.

But why politics?

“My mom asks me that question daily,” Coburn said. “It really boiled down to when I was a kid and as a kid you just don’t understand the issues. I started one day on the TV, started watching history documentaries. The first history documentary was over the Battle of Stalingrad. I was 8.”

From there he wanted to know more about historical events, then current events to issues “we all face,” he said.

By the time he entered high school he had made up his mind — but didn’t tell anybody — and by 2016 he decided to be more vocal about his views, thus cementing the path he wanted to take, he said.

Issues in the city

Coburn sees issues in the city that he feels need to be addressed.

One main issue, he said, is that citizens’ concerns need to be taken a lot more seriously; these include concerns such as drainage and roads.

“I think it’s our duty as elected officials to hear them (citizens) whenever they come forward and plead, in some cases, for us to do something and in half the cases it doesn’t seem as if we have done anything,” he said. “It doesn’t seem like anybody is bringing forward any proposals that we can use to better the city.”

He would also like to see better drainage in Groves and not just from Tropical Storm Harvey but from recent storms as well. He feels the issue needs to be examined but there doesn’t seem to be much discussion on it.

The issue with the city’s roads will be addressed starting next year as the city pays off debt but Coburn thinks this is something that should have been done sooner.

“We have to give credit where credit is due… but we have to remember that we’ve been waiting for results,” he said, adding that many people have been waiting for results since before Harvey and some since before Hurricane Ike in 2008.

He said a lot of people have grievances that go back five-plus years and have yet to see results.

Voting, city council and being young and gay

“Especially now, more than ever, I thoroughly believe we are living through an incredible time in history where we as a people will look back in 50 years and wonder what we did. We will look at what we did and judge. I think now is the perfect time for all of us to get involved,” he said. “It is imperative and an obligation to vote.”

Coburn said our democratic right to vote cannot be overstated.

“When you are like me, looking at other parts of the world, it makes you terrified. Despite everything we go through here you want, I want this country, we all want this country to be the gentle giant, the superhero that we al know America can be,” he said. “But it’s leaps that we have to go through and it doesn’t matter whether all of us agree or not. It’s not about opinions anymore. It’s about the collective good. We all share this planet. We all live here. We are all a part of the same species of family.”

Earlier this year Coburn came under fire after semi nude and nude photos of him were sent to City Hall and local media that were taken from Grindr, a dating app. This news didn’t sit well with city leaders or some parts of the community who felt Coburn showed poor judgment by putting his photos on the internet. A petition circulated calling for a recall election and Groves voters will see the issue on the upcoming ballot.

Coburn said the atmosphere right now on the City Council is divided but he walks into City Council chambers every other Monday as he represents the residents of ward 1 and of the city.

He feels some of the older members are afraid of change but is a complete believer of bipartisanship and going above and beyond politics and petty disagreements to make policy.

He also likes that since the controversy over him came about there have been packed houses at City Council meetings.