Seven candidates will run for three open seats on the Wichita Falls City Council on Nov. 5. The Times Record News spoke to each candidate who answered inquiries about their qualifications and their vision for Wichita Falls.
We also asked about some timely issues in the city, including property taxes, collective bargaining for firefighters, accepting contributions from political action committees and construction of Lake Ringgold.
Here are the responses from the candidates for the at-large seat.
Sam Pak
Pak is a financial adviser who has lived in Wichita Falls since he was 10 years old.
“Sam is not for sale,” Pak said. “I’m doing this campaign with zero money. Whoever spent the most money in the last election won, and I think that is a travesty.”
He said all the candidates who won in a previous council election were backed by special interests.
Pak said he will run a “digital grassroots campaign.”
He said he wants to see Wichita Falls facilitate bringing in businesses that have higher paying jobs and believes the city can help do that in the area of permits, development and variances.
“There has not been a very pro-active City Council, and it’s kind of been the same people making the same promises and nothing gets done," he said.
Q: Do you agree with the recent increase in the property tax rate to give police an 11% pay raise and all other city employees a 5% raise?
A: I do not agree with the fact that we should raise tax rates. Right now, the Police Department is sorely undermanned. To try to compete and entice people to take those positions, they’re going to have to raise the prices because every other city is doing that. I think every department should have the same amount of raise. It’s really unfair to the citizens that their house valuations went up and tax rate went up.
Q: Do you support the Wichita Falls Firefighters Association's push for collective bargaining and arbitration, a question that will be put to voters in November?
A: No, I am not in favor of it. They do have some legitimate grievances, which I appreciate, but every department has grievances. The fire department is the least of all the departments that is hurting for any positions. Their turnover is the lowest it has ever been.
Q: Have you or would you accept campaign contributions from a political action committee?
A: No. I want to stay away from any appearance of being bought.
Q: Do you support construction of Lake Ringgold?
Instead of us doing it out of our own dollars, we should allow the Tarrant County Regional Water District to have ownership of it and in exchange for that, a pipeline that goes all the way to East Texas and the ability to buy that water at a rate that is consistent with what it would cost us to make our own water.
Austin Cobb
Cobb is a Wichita Falls native who is in charge of business development for an oil field software company. He has served on the Lake Wichita Revitalization Committee and the Wichita County Heritage Society.
He said he is running to strive for responsible growth for the city.
“Responsible growth means growing the city in a responsible way. We need younger people to move here,” he said. “I feel like in the past the city has been so reactive instead of proactive to growth.”
Cobb said he feels in the past the city, the school district, Midwestern State University, the chamber of commerce and the county were working independently of each other.
“We need to work on Wichita Falls being on sharp spear and the same team working to bring new businesses to Wichita Falls," he said.
Q: Do you agree with the recent increase in the property tax rate to give police an 11% pay raise and all other city employees a 5% raise?
A: I do. Our police are paid so much lower than any of our sister cities. I am not a fan of raising taxes. If we could grow our population and grow our tax base a lot of these problems would work themselves out. Where it sits today, I support giving our police the 11% and the firemen 5% and the other city employees a raise because the cost of living has gone up for everybody.
Q: Do you support the Wichita Falls Firefighters Association's push for collective bargaining and arbitration, a question that will be put to voters in November?
A: Anytime I can put something to the voters to decide, I’m going to be 100 percent in favor for. The reason why I supported it from the beginning is because I felt like the only person on meet and confer on the city staff side was the former city manager. I think if he had negotiated with the firefighters in good faith, we would have never gotten to this point.
Q: Have you or would you accept campaign contributions from a political action committee?
A: If I am lucky enough to get any political endorsements, I would accept donations.
Q: Do you support construction of Lake Ringgold?
A: I support Lake Ringgold where it is today in the process. Technology changes very, very rapidly. My concern is if we are two or three or four years down the road and there’s an additional technology that can secure our water for the future, I will be all in favor of that. We should continue on the path to Lake Ringgold, but we can’t have a closed mind.
Larry Nelson
Larry Nelson is the incumbent District 2 councilor. He decided to run for the at-large seat.
He said he did so because he wants to extend an awareness program he created in District 2 to the entire city. Nelson said a key priority for him is bringing more businesses to Wichita Falls.
“For the betterment of the people of Wichita Falls, that’s the key thing,” he said.
He said a lot of Wichitans are not aware of services like those offered by the city’s Economic Development Corporation, Sales Tax Corporation and first time homebuyers program.
He said during his time on the council, he actively pursued projects like improvements at the sports complex, which he said brings out-of-town dollars into the economy. He’s pushing for a second complex.
Nelson said he also is an advocate of bringing Amtrak service to the city.
Q: Do you agree with the recent increase in the property tax rate to give police an 11% pay raise and all other city employees a 5% raise?
Nelson was on the council when the vote was taken and voted in favor of the tax increase and the pay raises.
Q: Do you support the Wichita Falls Firefighters Association's push for collective bargaining and arbitration, a question that will be put to voters in November?
A: I’m for favorable collective bargaining.
Q: Have you or would you accept campaign contributions from a political action committee?
A: Maybe, but nobody’s approached me.
Q: Do you support construction of Lake Ringgold?
A: I can’t say that right now because we haven’t even gotten the permits yet. I don’t know how people can talk on that because they don’t know all the ramifications of it. We’ve got to have water to advance.
More:Where do the candidates stand? Thoughts from City Council hopefuls for District 1
More:Where do the candidates stand? Thoughts from City Council hopefuls for District 2