Following the results of the November 3 election, Dark Roast Report has reached out to the newly elected candidates to give the districts an opportunity to read more about them and where they stand on certain topics. Recently, Dark Roast staff met with District 3 elect David Coleman to learn more about him and his ideals.

To start off, Coleman came to the area when his father was stationed at Sheppard Airforce Base and he began Junior High School at Hirschi Junior High. He went on to get his degree in civil engineering at Texas A&M and later took a commission with the Navy while pursuing a couple of graduate degrees. While his wife got her dream job with A&M, Coleman went on to work with the city of College Station. He started by running the Water Services Department and would later move up to the Assistant City Manager for the last year and a half of his career.

Coleman and his wife eventually moved back to Wichita Falls to take care of their parents. While here, Coleman said he got really involved in the cycling community, specifically in Bike Wichita Falls, where the city is now actively pursuing the Silver status for being a bike friendly city. Additionally, Coleman started volunteering for Hotter’n Hell Hundred where he is now the current chairman.

“I think it’s wonderful to be able to have an event like that and it speaks volumes about the character of our community,” Coleman said.

Coleman expanded on the amount of volunteers it took to make the event happen. He then related that to how a city functions, using his personal experience from College Station. With that, Coleman said he’s gotten more involved and interested in what goes on in the city and around the community. 

After learning that Jeff Browning was being termed out of District 3, he started thinking about what it would be like if he ran. Even though Coleman said he had a lot going on in his life, he added that he’s seen what happens when a city council doesn't work together. Ultimately, he said it’s bad for everybody.

“I know that I can step in and work really well with the existing council members,” Coleman said. “I think we’ll be able to make a lot of great stuff happen for the citizens of Wichita Falls.”

Coleman said that his biggest motivating factor to running was wanting to give back to his community. He said his background working for a city has set him up with the skills and knowledge necessary to run. In addition to his decision to run, Coleman encourages everyone to step up and be more involved in the community.

As the results of the election came in, Coleman said there were mixed emotions that night. On one hand, Coleman said he was very grateful to receive the vote of the people and is very hopeful for the future of Wichita Falls. However, on the other hand, Coleman said he was relieved for this election season to be over because of all of the negativity that was shown on social media. 

“I’ve made a big effort to stay above all that stuff. Just deal with facts. Answer people's questions,” Coleman said.

Many of the candidates Dark Roast Report spoke with shared the same feeling of this election season being accompanied by a lot of negativity. With that, Coleman said that he wants to make efforts to reunify the city. A large issue Coleman said he heard from the people was transparency.

One way he plans to implement more transparency is to create an online townhall where people can have a central place to go and get information going on in the city. Along with that, Coleman said it would be a place where people can ask questions and share concerns. An example he shared was if there was a controversial topic coming up on the next council meeting, he could post all of the pertinent information that goes along with that discussion to better inform the community.

“Sometimes there’s not really room on the council agenda to post a lot of that information,” Coleman explained. “So, what I want to do for things that are coming up, is post the information and here’s my take on it.”

Coleman said that some of the other council members are holding in-person town halls where staff members outnumbered the amount of citizens in attendance. Not thinking that is a good use of manpower, Coleman said his electronic town halls would replace a majority of in-person meetings in District 3, unless it was a larger issue that might need more clarification or explanation.

While the electronic town hall would be more conservative of staff members' time, Coleman added that it would also keep the city from having to answer the same question multiple times.

Dark Roast Report asked Coleman how he would go about solving a district-wide disagreement. He said in an instance where the district is split on a new development, for example, that would be a great opportunity where an in-person town hall would be very beneficial. Expanding from that, Coleman addressed his response to balancing being the voice of his constituents and being a representative of the city when the two weren’t aligned on a topic. 

A controversial example Coleman brought up was the purchasing of Sikes Senter Mall. With that, Coleman said it was hard for him to imagine a situation where the residents of District 3 would be at odds with the city, but that he’s ultimately responsible for his district.

“Bottom line is, I’d stick with the interest of District 3,” Coleman said.

One point Coleman made during the interview was thinking about things in the long term. He used the purchase of the mall again to say that in some cases the city might lose money on the front end, but that it would be made back and more as time went on.

Coleman said that some brought up concerns with the roads, but the number one thing District 3 wanted was more economic development. As Midwestern State University sits within his district, Coleman recalled one conversation that he had with the head of the computer science department, who said they would love to see jobs that would keep their students within the city.

There were a couple of city-wide initiatives Coleman said he wanted to look at. The first being some more bike-friendly improvements, with 9th and Brook being pointed out in particular. Another is increasing the number of TIF districts throughout the city. Additionally, Coleman said that, other than improving the roads, he wants to work on improving the beautification of Wichita Falls and make the city more appealing to outside visitors.

Coleman said that it’s important for Wichita Falls to have a business-friendly climate and pointed to the tax money coming in from the incoming data center and the tax rate going down. He added that doing all of the aforementioned things will also help Wichita Falls look better for businesses.

While the city can’t tell a private business where they can set up, Coleman said he would love to see more development on Eastside. However, he said he wasn’t sure if the “demographic supports something like WinCo coming in.” 

Having more people be involved in what the city is doing is something Coleman said is very important. Still, he realizes that people have a lot going on and says it's his job as a city council representative to help inform his constituents, pointing back to his electronic town hall idea.

“I’ll get the information out there as much as I can, but it’s going to be up to people to consume that information,” Coleman said. 

Coleman, along with Mayor Tim Short and District 5 elect councilwoman Heather Reitsma, will be officially sworn in during the November 17 council meeting.