The election for Wichita Falls’ next mayor has been underway as early voting continues until Oct. 30. So far, it has been an eventful election season for Wichita Falls. Over 20,000 ballots have been cast in Wichita County during early voting, with one of the more prominent races deciding who the next mayor of Wichita Falls will be. In an effort to provide the community with a better understanding of the mayoral candidates that will appear on the ballot, Dark Roast Report had a conversation with both candidates and asked them the same questions.

Dark Roast Report sat down with Scott Poenitzsch to explore why he thinks he’d be a good fit as Mayor and what his course of action would be if elected. He is running against incumbent Tim Short. 

Poenitzsch is originally from Wisconsin, but has lived in the area for roughly the past 15 years. He has three degrees and started his career as a machinist, where he grew to manage multiple plants in multiple states. Later on, the company was bought out, and Poenitzsch gained even more responsibility and managed locations across the world.

He stated he got the opportunity to come to Wichita Falls, continuing those international responsibilities. Poenitzsch would later buy Horseshoe Bend Cellars, which his daughter now operates. He then stated the job that originally brought him here became an opportunity to acquire the company he worked for, along with some other investors.

“I’ve always been embedded in the communities I’ve been in,” Poenitzsch stated. “So, when I got here, I joined the Chamber. For a while, I was a board member and ultimately got to be the chairman of the board for two terms. I was a board of directors member for the ballet. I am a current board member of a credit union.”

Poenitzsch has been a part of various other boards and city-wide initiatives, and says that he enjoys giving back to the community. Now, with his campaign, he says that running for mayor allows him to be able to give back in a larger way.

“The city is stagnant,” Poenitzsch. “We need to grow this town so that individuals coming out of MSU have a reason to stay here.”

Poenitzsch emphasized the importance of being a part of the community through his experience on multiple boards during his time in Wichita Falls. Additionally, through his time traveling the world, he said that he’s able to bring those vast perspectives to the table with him.

“I see the world through a different set of lenses. I want to give that experience back to the people of Wichita Falls who haven’t had that opportunity,” Poenitzsch said.

Poenitzsch goes on to say that the low cost of living here in Wichita Falls is its biggest advantage, and piggybacking off of that would be the city’s freeway infrastructure. He said that this allows for economic growth, giving companies opportunities to come in. Poenitzsch does add that while the cost of living is down, prices everywhere are starting to rise.

When the time came to toss his hat in the ring, Poenitzsch stated that his deciding factor was ultimately his wife:

“She told me to get off the sidelines and get in the game,” he recalled. “That was it, right there.”

He said his wife has been a great supporter throughout his entire career, even before his campaign.

As far as his campaign goes, Poenitzsch said that his two main focus points have been solid business leadership and fiscal responsibility. His main example of where this could have been put in place was the city’s purchase of the mall. In addition, he said that the Eastside is an area that went long forgotten. 

“It’s a shame to go over there and see how lackluster it is,” Poenitzsch said.

He also said that District 5 and District 2 as a whole need some improvement.

If elected, Poenitzsch said that his first course of action has shifted throughout his campaign. Originally, he said it would be about bringing forward more collaboration. However, Poenitzsch said that there has been a lot of division and negativity throughout this election season. Because of this, he said his main focus would be bringing the city back together and then turning to collaboration.

He said one of the reasons so much division has been brought about this election is because the City of Wichita Falls has mostly been led by people who are from here, and made references to the “good ‘ol boy” system. 

“I’ve only been here a little over 16 years. I see the world differently, and I’m willing to make a change,” Poenitzsch said.

Over this time, Poenitzsch said that he’s gotten to know Councilman Brooks very well and has become more familiar with District 2. He recalled attending a district town hall meeting and said he believes it’s important for every district to host one at least twice a year, and learning that the district hadn’t had one in several years blew him away.

Poenitzsch expanded by saying when you don’t regularly meet with your district, you separate yourself from your constituents and the issues they’re experiencing. 

Adding to that point, he went on to say the relationship between the city council and the community should be much stronger than it is today. One way he said the city could strengthen that relationship would be to move the times of the city council meetings. He said he would work to push at least one council meeting a month to the evening so more people have the opportunity to attend.

“A lot of people are working so they can’t come to the meeting,” he said.

Poenitzsch also said he would focus on restructuring how items appeared on the agenda, explaining that as years go on, more and more topics of discussion that should be in the general portion are being moved to the consent agenda. He said this has eliminated a lot of crucial discussions over taxpayer dollars that should have been had.

Data Centers have also been a large topic of discussion amongst the Wichita Falls community as the city works to welcome Skybox in. Dark Roast Report asked Poenitzsch how he would balance incoming industry with community concerns, if elected. He said that while he is a proponent of data centers in general, he’s not a fan of hyper-scale facilities such as the one that’s proposed on the South end of town. 

Poenitzsch went on to say that he’s tired of listening to politicians try and convince the community they’re okay and would rather put the people over the facility themselves in front of the community to answer questions.

“Every time I hear of a Q&A session, it’s populated by politicians. I’m tired of listening to politicians,” Poenitzsch said. “I want to get Skybox in front of everybody.”

Poenitzsch said that while there are details and information that can’t be fully public, officials should lean as much as they can into transparency instead of away from it.

He then started talking about how he plans to get more involved in the community. One way he plans to do that is by increasing the number of town hall meetings in each district, as he discussed earlier with District 2. He even said he would host them for the council members if they didn’t have the time.

“I want that connection to the community because I think we can solve so much in this discussion than waiting for the anger to be pent up and come out as rage,” Poenitzsch said.

He said Wichita Falls is such a tight-knit community, and he wants to be able to fix the divide he says has been caused by this election season. Poenitzsch said it’s not going to be easy, and while he doesn’t have all of the answers, he plans to reach out to a lot of the prominent community leaders. A potential coalition was an idea he brought up, adding it was important to fix this division.

“We work together, we play together, we do business together,” Poenitzsch said. “So, it’s crazy to me that we have this divide that’s brought us apart. I’ve got to find ways to bring us together.”

To learn more about Poenitzsch’s opponent, Tim Short, you can read his preview here.