Tom Scherlen desires to bring company mindset to Amarillo City Council

Retired businessman Tom Scherlen is generating a second run for Amarillo City Council in an work to represent Location three on the council. Scherlen, the existing president of the Amarillo Senior Citizens Association and former CEO of Austin Hose, previously ran against Eddy Sauer in 2021, garnering 43% of the vote. He is now seeking to supplant him, as Sauer chose not to run for reelection. Through his 38 years with the corporation Austin Hose, Scherlen ran 5 branches in 3 states servicing seven diverse states.

“I really feel like I have a lot to offer you with my company practical experience, and I want to bring that type of practical experience with the city, becoming capable to balance budgets and seeking at troubles from a company point of view,” Scherlen stated. “We genuinely want to find out to listen to the citizens as their representatives.”

Scherlen stated that a single instance of the city not becoming ready to deal with a trouble was the reactionary nature of the earlier council’s inability to deal with the strong waste personnel challenges final year, which led to a short-term stoppage of twice-a-week pickup. The pickup schedule resumed at the starting of January.

“We can’t continue to do factors precisely the exact same way that we have been carrying out factors in the previous,” Scherlen added. “We can’t ignore the will and vote of the people today. As well a lot of people today on council have in no way run a company in their life.”

Though acknowledging that the Amarillo Civic Center will want a workable answer in the future, Scherlen stated that the city clearly did not perform with voters to uncover a workable answer. He stated that the city must have attempted to get a greater thought of why the people today had rejected funding a new renovation for the civic center the final time that they voted.

“I did not like the process that they had been suing to spend for it myself,” Scherlen stated. “I honestly believe if the city gets extra input from the voters, they can come up with a workable answer we have to be greater listeners.”

With regards to the current college bond elections, Scherlen stated that he was a staunch opponent of the spending that was proposed for the projects in the Amarillo Independent College District (AISD) bond measures. He stated that he was accountable for the billboards all through the city that stated no tax enhance for that election. All 4 AISD bonds failed, with 3 of the bonds obtaining extra than 60% of the voters rejecting the propositions.

“The major factor I did not like about the bond election was that I felt that there was as well a great deal waste in developing a entire new Austin Middle College, rather than fixing the college for a great deal much less revenue,” Scherlen stated. “If they had come in and asked for much less revenue, I am confident that they would have got what they asked for.”

If elected to the city council, Scherlen has promised that he will have frequent meetings with constituents at least after a month. He stated that he would be prepared to meet with neighborhood committees and have frequent town halls to be capable to get a view of the requires of people today all through the city. With these meetings, Scherlen stated that there would be a higher understanding of challenges all through the city.

“Amarillo has not accomplished a great deal in the way of infrastructure in the previous 75 years,” Scherlen stated. “We have big infrastructure challenges, with not obtaining the strategy to be capable to repair our streets as it stands now. Difficulties of infrastructure can’t continue to be ignored.”

He stated that he has observed excellent factors with the way the Amarillo Financial Improvement Corporation has been bringing new company to the region more than the previous two years of the existing mayor’s administration. With these new enterprises becoming brought to the region, Scherlen has issues about regardless of whether the city has the infrastructure and housing to accommodate the enterprises becoming brought in. He also expressed issues that new enterprises becoming brought in with greater wages could hurt regional enterprises, which are currently obtaining difficulty getting sufficient staff.

Asked why he decided to run for workplace, Scherlen stated that his objective is to bring frequent sense back to the city government. His concern is that the city has taken more than governmental functions it must not be involved in.

“Years ago, it appears the city had a lot of revenue to take care of its simple requires, and now with extra tax dollars, it appears they are capable to take care of much less,” he stated. “We want to be extra adaptable with how we serve the requires of the city and be prepared to make alterations as required.”

Asked what his prime priority would be if elected to the council, Scherlen was significantly concerned about the increasing crime price in the city of Amarillo. He stated that the priority for any city must be the public security of its residents.

“We did not want to employ an outdoors supply to be capable to figure out what the trouble regions of the city are,” Scherlen stated. “I want to speak with our law enforcement from the prime to the bottom to uncover out what are the challenges and what can be accomplished to resolve them.”

A further prime situation for Scherlen is fiscal duty to the taxpayers and becoming superior custodians of their revenue. Though he stated he is against raising taxes all round, Scherlen stated that there are situations that he would be in favor of raising taxes, but it has to be a thing that there is no other answer to a excellent want for the city.

On the situation of single-member voting districts for councilmembers representing a section of the city, Scherlen stated that he is in favor of expanding membership on the council, with most members representing a certain district and two other councilmembers that would represent the city at huge. He stated that there has to be a way to get extra people today in the city to participate in the voting course of action, and perhaps this is a way to get people today extra invested in these commonly low-turnout elections.

“I agree that there must be some ownership and accountability to regions of the city, but with some serving at huge, we can greater represent the entire city, with no regions becoming left with no a voice,” Scherlen stated. “I really feel like the council as it has been more than the years only speaks for a minority of the people today in Amarillo. The mayor must not have as a great deal handle as they do in votes. How a lot of four-1 votes have we had more than the final handful of years?”

He stated that if councilmembers had to answer to districts, he does not believe that the Amarillo Civic Center vote would have gone the way that it did.

“I would have asked every member of council if you represented a district, would you have voted the way that you did?” Scherlen stated. “Initially they wanted a public-private partnership, and they had been not capable to come up with any takers. We must have reduce our losses when the judge rejected it the initially time, and we are nonetheless fighting the choice in court.”