Connel Towns, who served Dallas County as a commissioner for the 16 years, will now serve the county in a different role.

Towns was appointed unanimously by the Dallas County Commission Monday as license inspector.

“When they called me I was very overwhelmed with the idea. I definitely still want to be a part of what’s going on in Dallas County,” Towns said. “By becoming the license inspector that will give me an opportunity to still be a part of Dallas County to help insure that we can keep Dallas County going in the right direction.”

Commission Chairman Kim Ballard said the county’s license inspection department was once responsible for bringing in revenue for the county, but that dropped off due to the lack of man power in the department.

“There was a time when that department was bringing in over $100,000 a year,” Ballard said. “It’ll trickle in maybe $8,000 to $10,000 a year, but it’s not nowhere near where it’s supposed to be.”

Ballard said Towns is the “perfect man” for the job, and he should be able to help the county capitalize on missed revenue for licenses that are not up to date for mobile homes and businesses.

“It’s obvious that the revenue is out there. People are not paying it just because no one has asked them to,” Ballard said.

Towns will be responsible for making sure all mobile homes are registered through the license office, as required by law.

“One of the duties I’ll have is to make sure people that live in mobile homes are getting those stickers they have to buy every year and make sure that we don’t have people doing illegal selling in the community,” Towns said.

Towns said as license inspector he won’t be out to get anyone. He said he just wants to make sure everyone complies with requirements.

“We’ve got a lot of people out there that are not buying their license … and the county is losing a lot of money. Those are revenues that we could be getting for the county,” Towns said. “By being a commissioner for 16 years I have been all over Dallas County, and I know all the places and ins and outs of Dallas County to go to try to work with the different communities.”

Towns said he expects to start working this week.