Episode 92: Wichita Falls Showdown: Sam Pack vs. Austin Cobb

The latest episode of *Get It Right Texoma* features an insightful discussion with local city council candidates Sam Pack and Austin Cobb as they navigate the upcoming runoff election for the at-large position. With less than 200 votes separating them from the previous election, both candidates share their visions for the future of Wichita Falls, emphasizing the need for economic development and community engagement. The conversation also delves into the importance of local businesses and the role they play in shaping the city’s economy. The hosts, Mike Hendren, Terry McAdams, and Trey Sralla, guide the dialogue with their trademark casual banter, ensuring a lively yet informative atmosphere throughout.

In addition to the political discourse, the episode highlights the local dining scene, featuring Samurai of Tokyo, a beloved Japanese restaurant known for its delectable hibachi dishes and addictive fried rice. The hosts discuss their personal experiences with the restaurant, adding a touch of culinary insight to the political discussions. Overall, this episode encapsulates the spirit of *Get It Right Texoma*, blending local politics with community highlights and engaging conversations that resonate with the Wichita Falls audience.

Takeaways:

• The discussion centered around the importance of local elections and community involvement, emphasizing the significance of voting in the upcoming runoff election for city council.
• Sam Pack and Austin Cobb, two candidates vying for the city council at large, shared their insights on community development and economic growth in Wichita Falls.
• The podcast highlighted the necessity of growing the population and tax base in Wichita Falls, addressing the local economy's challenges and opportunities.
• Listeners were encouraged to support local businesses and restaurants, such as Samurai of Tokyo, which was featured for its exceptional fried rice and sushi offerings during the episode.
• The hosts discussed the evolving dynamics in local service clubs, such as the Optimist Club, and the impact of declining memberships on community initiatives and fundraising efforts.
• The episode concluded with a call to action for listeners to engage with local events and initiatives, fostering a sense of community and local pride.

Links referenced in this episode:

• facebook.com/SamuelPackForWichitaFallsCityCouncil
• cobbforwf.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• SpaceX
• Elon Musk
• Trump
• Ronny Jackson
• Ted Cruz
• Austin Cobb
• Sam Pack

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You make this rather snappy,won't you?
I have some very heavythinking to do before 10:00.
Hey, welcome to anotherepisode of Get It Right Texoma with
the trio Mike, Terry and Trey.
Thank you so much for beingwith us.
We appreciate it.
We get together here toentertain, inform and educate you
and hopefully enlighten you insome, some way with local news events

(00:21):
and information and things of,you know, regional, state, national,
international, intergalacticinterest, whatever.
Speaking of intergalactic, bythe way, just, I want to throw this
in here real quick.
Elon Musk is doing successfullaunch after successful launch after
successful launch of SpaceX.
It has become routine.

(00:41):
I watched a video the other day.
He and Trump and a bunch ofother dignitaries.
Ronny Jackson was right therebehind Trump.
Yes, he was.
Ted Cruz was right next to him.
Watching this latest launch.
At this point, I'm going tosay it.
SpaceX is the future of spaceexploration for the world.
Oh, sure.
And not just this country,because what.

(01:02):
They'Re doing also what that,what that launched the other day,
they were working on recovering.
Yes.
And that's, that's the wholepoint behind it.
You can't just blow and go,okay, we use this $20 million piece
and now it's throw it away.
It's pile of shit.
Yeah.
It falls under the end of the ocean.
It's gone.
Yeah.
No, now it's, it's, it's goingto fall into the ocean or we're going
to try to catch it with the chopsticks.

(01:22):
That didn't happen.
But they did fell in the oceanand then they went, sent out a boat
to recover it.
So that's the whole thing.
That's the new key isrecoverable stuff.
Right.
And I think they're, it lookslike they really are perfecting this.
Oh yeah, and they will,they're getting, they're getting
this now down to a science,literally and figuratively.
Right.
And it's, it's looking, Ithink it's looking good for the world

(01:46):
to benefit from what SpaceX isdoing here.
Obviously, I think that'sreally Elon Musk's aim.
He seems to be doing it betterthan anybody else can at this point.
And then you, but you haveBezos, you have some other people
that are in the game as well.
You do.
But that's good though.
It's competition.
Oh, sure.
So yeah, it's competition.
It'll be great.
You get these rich, ultra richguys and get them something to do

(02:08):
and space is the next thing.
Hey, by the way, we have anempty chair here.
We do.
So we do have a guest.
We actually have two guestscoming up.
We do.
We have our the two candidatesleft in the city council race for
the city council at large,Wichita Falls.
Sam Pack and Austin Cobb willcome in.
They're going to have a runoffelection coming up and we'll talk
about all that.
We'll interview Sam, thenwe'll interview Austin and then stay

(02:32):
tuned at the very end there.
Terry, Terry.
Terry has a face off.
He's got.
Got a special thing with thetwo guys there.
Yes.
The one thing I will say aboutthese two, they're both, they're
both very skilled people.
They're both very qualified people.
So whoever you vote for,you're going to be voting for a good
candidate.
I like both of them personallyand I think both of them would do
a great job.
And I'm going to make prediction.

(02:53):
By the way, my politicalpredictions are usually pretty good.
I predict that Austin Cobb andSampac will both be on the City Council
at some point.
They may not be on the citycouncil at the same time but.
And I don't know who's goingto get it this time and who's going
to be next time.
But they live in different districts.
Right.
So not only is it the at largebut they have so they each have opportunities

(03:14):
to run.
Otherwise and it may be 10years from now, I don't know.
But at some point I believethat Austin Cobb and Sam Pack will
be on the City Council.
I, I think you're absolutely right.
We got a few things happeningaround the area.
Let's talk about here the CityLights parades coming up on December
21st, 7pm it's going to start8th in Austin, downtown Wichita Falls.
It winds through the heart ofdowntown up Ohio, the nice street

(03:37):
and then up to Bluff.
Pretty good, pretty goodfootprint there for that parade.
Lots of great places.
You can view it from anywhereyou stand.
You're going to have a good view.
And this has been a massive parade.
I haven't been there the lastcouple of years.
My kids aren't involvedanymore and stuff.
But.
But I've heard it's a.
Turned out to be a really good parade.
Yeah, it used to be a huge parade.

(03:58):
It's been very large in thepast and I think it still is and
hopefully everybody can turnout for it again.
It's going to be the 21st 7pmI would advise getting there at least
by 6.
Oh yeah.
For parking purposes.
And also make sure you get youa good spot.
Good spot.
There's gonna be vendors.
There's gonna be some thingsto take advantage of.
There'll be some businessesopen that you can visit while you're

(04:19):
down there, while you'rewaiting for the parade to start.
So it's not like you're justgonna be standing around.
There are things to do whileyou're there.
But I would advise gettingthere at least by 6.
If not, maybe even 5, 30.
And give yourself good position.
Visit some of our downtownvendors down there.
Because there's a lot ofpeople downtown.
There's a lot of neat thingsgoing on downtown.
Sure are.
If you don't get.
If you don't go downtown,Wichita Falls, make a point.

(04:39):
Go downtown and see what'sgoing on.
There's a lot of things goingon downtown.
I really get irritated when Ihear people say, oh, downtown, Wichita
Falls is dead.
No, it's not dead.
In 20 years, when Trey and I.
Were in high school, downtownwas dead.
Absolutely dead.
I mean, it was.
It was barely on.
Life looks like zombie landdown there at about 2 o'clock in
the morning.
Yeah, well, it was sketchy.

(05:00):
The last retailer down thereat the end during that era was Sears.
Yeah.
They left in 1991.
And then from that pointforward for several years, you could
fire a cannon off down ScottAvenue and you wouldn't hit anybody.
Right.
Like I said.
Except for the zombies.
Yeah, except for the zombies.
Yeah.
And the drunks leaving the bar.
Yeah.
So, I mean, you really.
But today it's a totallydifferent atmosphere.

(05:21):
It's a totally different vibe.
It's a totally different downtown.
It really is.
It's improving a little bitall the time.
And there's a lot of peoplethat are investing money in buildings
down there and businesses down there.
But in order to keep thosethings viable and moving forward,
they need your support,Wichita Falls.
They need your money and therest of the surrounding communities

(05:42):
too.
You know, we need everybodyelse to show up.
You know, I've said it before.
I'm going to say it again.
I've said to the two guys thatare going to join us on this show
today, as Wichita Falls goes,the rest of the area communities
go.
Absolutely.
If Wichita Falls issucceeding, everyone else is benefiting
from it.
Everyone.
So it's.
It's to the mutual benefit ofevery community within 25 miles of

(06:07):
us, if not more, to make adriving to make sure that Wichita
successful.
I was going to say, is thatjust an example of.
Of.
I guess it's kind of a growthwe have.
We had one farmer's market andthrough however it happened, a little
bit of conflict.
But you know what?
It actually turns out.
It could be a positive or it'sturning out.

(06:27):
There's two now.
So that's, I mean, just asample of things that can happen
that get better.
Both are downtown.
But like you said though,Mike, I mean, the three of us, none
of us live in Wichita Falls.
No, we work in Wichita Falls.
We're in Wichita Falls every day.
That's right.
But we don't live here.
And that's.
That happens because you dohave people who want to live in Wichita
Falls, but then you havepeople who, like Terry and I want

(06:49):
to live out in the country orlike Mike that wants to live in a
little bit smaller community.
But you still have Wichita Falls.
If Wichita Falls issuccessful, it'll still draw people
to the area.
Yes.
They may live in Electra, theymay live in Henrietta, they may live
out in the country, they maylive in Burke Burnett Iowa park,
but they come to work inWichita Falls.
This is where they make their living.
So, yeah, you're right.

(07:09):
It's success in Wichita Fallsbreed success everywhere.
We, we try to focus on a local restaurant.
Every time we do this, thisprogram, we try to focus on a locally
owned, family owned restaurant.
Hungry right now.
Thinking about this, y'all,and this, this particular episode
we're going to talk aboutSamurai of Tokyo.
I, I don't know the recipe forthe rice.

(07:32):
I don't either.
I know almost nobody who tellsme who says that they have found
better rice fried rice somewhere.
It's.
Oh, yeah, it is like crack.
That stuff is.
So, I mean, you think I'm justgoing to eat a small bowl of it?
No, you could eat it all day.
I mean.
No.
Well, we just went thereTuesday, I think it was.
So I'm.

(07:52):
Yeah.
You're familiar with it recently?
Oh, yes.
And, and the thing is theyhave a special and they, it's.
It's surf and turf every otherweek that they go through a cycle
every four weeks.
And it's.
They do a special one weekthis week.
Hibachi beef.
Hibachi chicken.
This week it's fish.
Yeah.
And then.
Yeah.
So then it's.
Yeah.
So it's.
It alternates between shrimpand beef and chicken and, and fish.

(08:16):
So there you go.
So that's 10 bucks or I guess.
It depends on lunchtime.
Yeah, lunch.
Yeah.
And the nice thing is if yougo to lunchtime, you don't get quite
as big a show, but the food isthe same.
Right.
And all that.
So it's but it's fun to sitthere and you sit family style.
So you kind of sit somebody.
Yeah.
You talk to people.
It's pretty cool.
And they, they've got a prettygood sushi selection too.

(08:36):
Yes, I would know.
I'll take your word for it.
Not a huge sushi fan, but I dolike theirs.
They, they do some good stuff.
I've never eaten sushi and Iwill never try sushi.
I have no desire to try sushi.
I just don't want to do theraw fish.
Oh, no, no.
I don't do the raw.
I didn't cook.
No, no, no desire, no desireto try it.
But if you like sushi, you're right.
They have a big sushi place there.

(08:57):
There's a lot going on.
It's like a little meal in a circle.
But, but it's a, it is areally, it's a top notch environment
restaurant.
Good people that.
Oh, yeah, run the place.
Very friendly.
The everybody's.
The food is great and like yousaid, the atmosphere is kind of cool.
Now you are going to smelllike it when you walk out.
If you go, everybody knowsyou've been to Samurai for lunch.

(09:18):
Dogs will follow you.
Yeah.
But here's a hot tip, guys.
Get your, get your special.
Get your rice.
Get an extra fried rice to gobecause that stuff warms up.
And when you get home.
Yeah.
Just a little pat of butter.
Don't put margarine, by theway, quit using margarine.
Do you realize that margarine,butter, margarine is one.
Are two little components awayfrom plastic.

(09:39):
Yeah, no, it really is.
It is.
So, so use real butter.
Put it in a pan.
Butter's good for you, by the way.
Butter fat is good for you.
Says a fat guy.
Put it in the pan and warm itup in there and it's.
Oh, it brings the flavor right back.
It's awesome.
Well, it's their sauce too.
There's some.
That's a secret sauce.
Mushroom sauce is what theycall it.

(10:00):
Oh, that's mushroom.
They call it a mushroom sauce.
Well, see, I've heard it called.
Okay.
Anyway.
Okay.
It's good.
Yes.
Oh, it's good.
Yeah.
And now I learned this from abuddy of ours.
Well, I think you know him, Max.
Whenever we, he was workingfor us for a while, we would go to
Samurai.
He takes his rice and he putsit upside down on the plate and then

(10:21):
eats out of it.
That's what I do now.
Because it keeps it hot.
Yeah.
It's upside down.
Yeah.
And you take it and you mix in.
If you want to put some of thesauce, you put it over and it keeps
it hot.
While they're making yourfood, go check them out.
Samurai Tokyo.
They're on Mallard.
Yeah.
2518 Mallard Drive.
It's actually.
They're right off of camp, right?
Yeah, right off camp.
And it nake calls moved inright next door.

(10:44):
And they've got a little 1889,which maybe we'll talk about them
one time.
But anyway, so.
But yeah, right there.
Plenty of parking.
It can get busy, though, at lunch.
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
On the holidays.
Yeah.
Yes.
When people are coming backfrom college.
The nice thing is, well, theydo have takeout, so you could call
in and go.
Go pick it up and take it home.
Yeah, yeah.
But if you're gonna go.

(11:04):
If you're gonna go atlunchtime or you're gonna go on a
weekend around the lunch hour,you can expect a little bit of a
wait, you know, 15 to 12, 20minutes maybe.
That's not bad.
They get them through there.
Samurai Tokyo.
Check that out.
All right.
All right, we're gonna take abreak here.
When we come back, Sam Pack isgonna join us.
Austin Cobb's gonna join usafter that.

(11:25):
Both of these guys are in arunoff election for Wichita Falls
city councilor at large.
Less than 200 votes separatedthem in the election, and early voting
for the runoff is coming up.
We'll talk about that andwe'll visit with both candidates
here in just a few seconds onGet It Right Texoma.
Stay tuned.

(11:57):
Hey, welcome back to Get ItRight Tech Soma with trio Mike, Terry
and Trey.
And as promised, our firstguest of the day.
We got two guests comingtoday, but our first guest today
is Sam Pack.
We're guest poor today.
We're awash with guests.
We are awash.
Yeah.
Awash.
Yeah.
If you have a lot of stuff,they say you're, you know, you're

(12:17):
something wash.
Okay.
Well, yeah, Okay.
I guess we.
Yeah.
Oh, that's.
Guess that's one way to lookat it.
Okay, so we're guest poor today.
Sam is a local businessman,and he's also currently a candidate
for Wichita Falls City Councilat large.
Correct.
Correct.
And you're in a runoff now you.

(12:38):
So we had.
We had the regular electioncame down to a runoff between you
and Austin.
Cobb, and it was a real close election.
What was the difference in votes?
It's a little under 200.
Yeah.
Wow.
Citywide.
And this is at large, so it'severybody in the city who's a registered
voter.
In the city of Wichita Fallsis eligible.
What were the number of votes that.
Other than you and Austin.
Yeah, it was, like, two.

(12:59):
Over 2,000.
So.
Okay, so, no, so I had 9,900.
He had like, 9,700.
And then Larry Nelson had,like 5,000.
500.
O.
5,000.
Wow.
So there's.
So y'all gotta fight forthose, basically.
Well, Larry's already, like.
He called me that night,endorsed me that night, did a video
for me the next day.
And I think that's a reallybig testimony about who I am, because

(13:22):
last year, I ran against Kevin Hunter.
He's endorsing me.
I ran against Larry Nelson,and he's endorsing me.
You know, if you guys knowGary Silverman, he's been a.
He's also a financial advisor,and he's been, I guess, my competition
for the last 24 years, andhe's endorsed me.
So I think what that says ispeople who really get to know me,
know my character, go, look,you know, I know who Sam is.

(13:43):
I know he's gonna do the right thing.
I'm gonna endorse him.
So he, like, immediatelycalled me that night and said, sam,
I'm ready to help support you.
You're getting better at as.
Cause, you know, I know that'snot comfortable for you to really
promote yourself and.
But you're getting better andmore confident, which is great.
The good news is, once this isover, you don't have to do that.
Yeah, seriously.
No, once you get there, youdon't have to worry about promoting

(14:04):
yourself.
Any stuff like that.
Well, and the interestingthing here is, is you haven't spent
any money on this.
I mean, you've not dumpedthousands of dollars into a campaign.
So the rules are, as long asyou spend less than $1,080, then
you don't have to do acampaign finance report.
Year to date, I spent $797.87a day, and I did that out of my own

(14:25):
money.
And almost all.
Could you get more specific, please?
Yeah.
I spent, like, 150 bucks on cards.
I spent, like, 120 bucks onthree T shirts.
Like, they're pretty expensivewhen you have small bulk.
And then the rest of it wasjust Facebook advertising.
Beyonce, Jay z, and then $1million on Oprah.

(14:47):
No, but it's all been justFacebook because, you know, I don't
have the money.
I don't even have a website.
I don't have any TV advertisements.
I don't have any yard signs.
And what's really been amazingIs people have been coming up to
me going, sam, we really wantto donate to your campaign.
And I've said it from the verybeginning, I'm taking no money, Please
give it to a nonprofit.
I know there's money that'sbeen given to the community foundation,

(15:09):
money that's been given to thefood bank and other organizations
because I said I'd just ratheryou give that money to something
that's going to be a worthy cause.
Because if I lose, then atleast the community still wins.
And I don't, I really don'twant anyone to even have an inkling
of an idea that I owe anyoneany favors.
I'm not saying that myopponent owes anyone any favors,
but we all know that on anational level, special interests

(15:34):
and lobbyists and PACs, theytend to have the ear of our elected
officials.
And I think that's wrong.
And that's a, that's a, that'sa whole other.
We don't have time, we don'twant to take your time to do that
one today.
But we've talked about that ad nauseam.
Limiting lobbyists andlimiting term limits and stuff like
that, which we are termlimited in Wichita Falls.
Okay, so.
So you're explain to everybodywhat position you're actually running

(15:56):
for.
Just so everybody's on thesame page.
So at large is the entire city.
So anyone in Wichita Falls canvote for me.
My position, my main positionis economic development.
So I'm a financial advisor for23 years.
My award winning financial advisor.
And so what I actually do fora living is go, okay, what are our
assets?
What are incomes or liabilities?

(16:17):
What are our future goals?
What do we need to do to get there?
And what kind of rate ofreturn do we need?
What kind of tools do we haveto make that happen?
How do we look at taxes?
How do we look at inflation?
My job is to analyze people'sand businesses assets and do financial
plan.
So I kind of wrote, I didwrite one for the city.
I don't think there's everbeen a city councilor or anyone who's

(16:37):
ever run for any kind of citycouncil position who's written a
financial plan for the city.
Can you guys think of one?
No, not aware of one.
So I've written one and said,look, and I may be wrong.
And I tell people all thetime, I may be wrong, but at least
I'm addressing the issues andI have a solution for them.
If you have a better way tobuild a better mousetrap, please
call me.
I'm Willing to listen.

(16:57):
Yeah, but at least you have,you have a structure of a plan that
you can bring to the table andthen maybe work on it.
You know, you're not 180degrees off.
I mean, you may be off alittle bit here.
And that is part of it is.
And I've told people thisbefore, when you become an elected
official, there's a lot ofthings you don't know.
You don't know what you don'tknow until you don't.
Till you know it.
That's right.
And there's a lot of thingsyou think and you, you have guess

(17:18):
and you're very involved andkeyed in as much as anybody is.
But there's still things thathave to do with nuances and things
like that that you won't understand.
But, but also structure.
Right, but it's the same thingin a.
When you're advising a client.
It's.
It's what.
We're starting with a plan,and we make adjustments along the
way.
And you may real figure outreal quickly, oh, wait a minute,

(17:40):
let's.
Let's change that.
And then, so most of my clients.
I mean, at least, at minimum,at least once a year, because we
know that tax laws changes,you know, the economy changes.
We know things can change.
We sit down or the jobchanges, or they get another family
member or someone dies.
We have to make thoseadjustments on the move.
But planning to me is likesaying, hey, I want to go on a trip
to New York.
Some people go, okay, I'mgoing to get in a car, truck driving.

(18:02):
My job as a financial planneris going, okay, I've been to New
York a million times and backfor a bunch of other people.
I can tell you the best routes.
I can tell you where to get gas.
I can tell you where to take a break.
I can.
I can tell you the easiest wayto get there and make sure that your
tires are aired up and yourcar is in working order before you
leave.
And to me, like, people whojust do stuff are just people who
just like, get in a car andgo, oh, I'm just going to go do this.

(18:24):
Like, there's got to beplanning in everything that you do.
How do you, based on whatyou've witnessed, examined, looked
at, what is your assessmentright now of the financial health
of the city of Wichita Falls?
I mean, do you think it's in areasonable place?
I mean, you come up with aplan, so obviously you think there's
some tweaks that can be made.

(18:44):
They didn't need to be made.
So there's a couple of things.
We have a couple ofobligations that are coming, coming
due.
And so if you look at ourchart, our net cash flow is supposed
to increase because ourobligations are going down.
But that doesn't, that uses ametric that we're currently at with
sales taxes.
Okay, our sales taxes.

(19:05):
We've had a bit big windfallfor the last three years because
of inflation.
If we continue that, then yes,that looks good.
Which we don't want tocontinue that.
As far as the inflation part.
Exactly.
I mean, I highly doubt we'regoing to have 23% inflation over
the next three years like wedid the last three years before.
It's going to be.
We cannot sustain yourself asa, as economy, as an economy or as

(19:25):
a country.
So if we can, we can normalizeour like around $34 million in sales
tax revenue.
If we can kind of keep that asour benchmark, then yes, we should
have some, some wiggle room inthe future because of some of the
obligations coming up.
But that doesn't mean, andlet's be very, very frank, I 100%
expect people on city councilto want to do other projects which

(19:49):
may be good or not, I don'tknow yet because there may be some
other projects that come up.
And I'm a big fan of capitalinvestments with a good rate of return.
Right.
If we can put money in to getjobs, to get 200 jobs that pay $100,000,
let's do it.
Yes.
Okay.
If we're putting in $5 millionto get minimum wage paying jobs,

(20:13):
let's not do it.
And we've done that in the past.
And what is that old?
It's a food line over there.
It's been a call center and itkeeps rotating.
It's nothing now.
I think it's empty now, but yeah.
But for years we just keptgiving money to the same thing over
same kind of company and waspaying minimum wage and no one there.
Every, almost every singleperson there was either below poverty
levels or working two jobs.

(20:34):
Well, on that note, there's aguy out of Dallas I think that bought
the building and is wanting toturn into a data center and he's
hoping to do more.
Right.
But of course, you know,there's not many bodies there.
Kitchens address that a littlebit too though.
That was kind of replying.
I mean, yes, somebody hasbought the building and he said that,
but it has been a big headlineand a splash and that's it.
So the other thing that I'vebeen Being tagged about, talking

(20:55):
about the state of the economy.
The newspaper quoted mesaying, no, I wouldn't have done
the raises.
The answer is I would havedone the raises.
Not the way they did it.
They sat down.
The city council sat down andkind of revised the budget within
a couple months because theywanted to push all the stuff through.

(21:15):
And I get that.
But they should have, theyshould have done planning for the
last year before and go, hey,what do we need to do?
How do we make things moreefficient and how do we make sure
that everyone gets raises?
Because as much as we like,and I'm a huge fan of the firing
police, I think people getthat wrong.
And last night Austin wrote,sam doesn't support our first responders
or fire police.
I'm like, I've been supporterfor over 10 years.

(21:39):
I've donated money and giftcards and, like, served food with
them.
And so I'm not sure where thisdialogue, this narrative is coming
from.
Like, I don't support thepolice officers.
I 100% do.
For the last two years, youcan even ask the chiefs of police
and the chief of the fire.
I've sat down with them withhours and said, how do we do?
How do we improve?
What are the things that youneed and how can we accomplish those

(22:01):
things?
But no one here knows aboutthat because I don't sit there and
go, look what I did.
Look what I've been trying to do.
I sat down with the citymanager, I sat down with the city
finance person.
I sat down with the city humanresources to find out, like, I'm
a data driven person, what areour needs?
How do we keep them here?
So one of my solutions wasdoing a 457 plan at deferred comp

(22:22):
and saying, like, especiallyfor a police department, because
we were at the most bottleneckthere, saying, hey, look, we want
to give you a bonus of maybelike five or ten thousand bucks a
year, but you cannot get thatmoney until after 10 years.
If you leave after threeyears, the money goes back to the
system.
And the reason why is we knowafter five or 10 years, they're invested
their families here, they grewup here, they're gonna want to stay

(22:43):
here.
And so that extra $15,000 tomove somewhere else is not gonna
look near as good.
Yeah, in the school district,you do step increases, correct?
And you'll set the level whereafter one year, two year, three.
But at 10 years, you get kindof a big step increase.
It's not necessarily a bonus,but it's a.
It's an increase in pay, butit's a sizable increase and it's
more increase.

(23:03):
So same concept.
Yep.
I know.
It just.
We talked about theseprojects, all these things.
We've had some pretty bigannouncements recently.
Amazon's opening a last miledistribution center here.
That's going to be a big deal.
It really is.
The data center thing thatTerry was talking about, apparently

(23:24):
there are people who want todo multiple data centers here.
There's a.
There's some motivation for them.
I'm not exactly sure what themotivation is to put them here.
Probably the price, the cost,the cost of doing business is here
and stuff like that.
Well, the cost of commercialreal estate arguably here is a lot
less than it is in some placelike Dallas or Austin or most of
other parts.

(23:44):
Of Texas that have infrastructure.
Yeah, yeah.
So.
So we've got.
I think Wichita Falls got alot of things going for, but I think
one of the most importantthings is if we're going to grow
that tax base.
We talked about sales taxes.
Well, one way you can growthat without inflation being out
of control is to add more people.
Correct.
You need more bodies here,living here, buying homes here, buying

(24:05):
things here, only.
More people buying gas.
More people with more money.
Yes.
So 49% of Wichita Falls livepaycheck to paycheck.
About 18% live under poverty levels.
Our national average inWichita Falls, I mean the national
average in Wichita Fallsaverage is about $10,000 difference.

(24:26):
We are not making it.
We have less than 1% of peoplelive in Wichita Falls that make six
figures.
We have a very.
We have almost diminished themiddle class.
We cannot go out to buy, goout to eat anymore.
We cannot go shopping anymore.
So there's a really, really rich.
And then there's kind of likethe rest of us.
We need to get better payingjobs because with better paying jobs,

(24:50):
that means they have morediscretionary dollars.
Do you have more sales taxesto keep the doors open for these
restaurants and these placesthat we want to see here?
And to buy motorcycles and.
To buy motorcycles and houses.
And houses.
Well, I need a financial advisor.
You don't need a financialadvisor if you make $5.23 an hour.
Well, but the federal minimumwage of $7 is, what is it?

(25:11):
$7.25 an hour, something like that.
It's a moot point.
It's a moot point.
Now nobody, you can't getanybody to even show up to do an
application for $7.25 an hour.
Now.
You just, you can't do it.
I know most restaurants InWichita Falls are having to pay 10,
11 plus per hour just to get help.
So.
So how high do we need to go?

(25:33):
Where do we need to be wagewise to really improve on that situation
that you're talking about?
I'd like to see our medianhousehold income around about 65.
So that means both.
Both incomes.
Household incomes.
Right.
Our median household incomeright now is around 55, maybe closer
to 60, but that's because of inflation.
But inflationary costs havegone way higher.
I want us to at least be closeto the national average because that

(25:56):
way we can have money to go.
Spend on, benchmark this, workon that.
Correct.
On the last minute here.
Is there anything else youwant to say to wrap things up?
Thank you.
Everyone who came outsupported me.
I appreciate it so much.
Who could have ever thoughtthat a little Korean boy in Wichita
Falls growing up here?
And I'm being serious because,I mean, there's not a lot of Koreans

(26:17):
here.
How many Koreans you guys knowhad a chance?
I think you make three.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Had a chance of running for acity council position, especially
for someone who spent.
Who received no campaign contributions.
I did it just 100% based uponmy merit and my character and who
I am.
I hope that my campaignresonates with people in saying,

(26:39):
if you really want to get toknow me and know why I'm doing it,
you'll know I'm doing it forthe right reasons.
I hope you vote for me.
I have nothing against any ofmy competitors.
I think they're all greatpeople, but I think when you elect
someone, you should ask themwhat their motivation is and look
at their past.
If their past says I'm doingit because I want to help and they've

(26:59):
actually done it, please votefor them.
If they say, I want to do itbecause I want to help, if they have
no history, then I sometimesquestion myself of why are you running?
So thank you so much.
Please go up, vote.
December 2nd through the 10thwill be early voting, and December
14th will be the day of voting.
Thank you guys for having meon here again.
I always enjoy talking to you guys.
And again, if people want tolearn more about you, they can go

(27:22):
to.
My Facebook page at SamuelPack for.
For Wishaw Fall City Councilat large.
Or you can call me directly.
My personal cell Phone numberis 940-867-9396.
There you go.
Sam Pack, thank you very muchfor being here.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.
All right, guys, we're gonnatake a break here, and when we come
back, Austin Cobb.
Is gonna join us for hisinterview with us, his second interview

(27:44):
with us, to talk about hiscandidacy for the same position,
which tall fall city councilat large will be back with.
We'll make sure we'll get thefistfight out of the way beforehand.
Yeah, no, they need to dorock, paper, scissors and then call.
Hang on.
We'll be right back after this.

(28:10):
Hey, welcome back to get itright Tech soma.
And as promised, we haveanother guest in the studio with
us today.
Austin Cobb is with us.
He is one of the twocandidates vying for the position
of Wichita Falls city councilat large.
Good morning, guys.
Thanks for having me again.
Hey, Austin, how you doing?
How are you?
Enjoy hanging out with us?
Third time might be a char.

(28:34):
How you doing?
I'm doing well.
I'm doing well.
You know, it's.
We're going a million miles an hour.
It's been fun.
We debated last night.
That was fun.
You know, we've done forumsbefore, but this is actual debate
live on television.
So my first live debate live,you know, hour long.
That was.
It was.
It was a lot of time.
I debated in high school andcollege, and people don't realize
sometimes how.
How long a debate can be.
Oh, yeah.

(28:54):
You know, and they get, youknow, they took away the comfy counselor
chairs and put us on theseplastic little chairs.
We just sit the whole time.
I was like, oh, my gosh, guys.
And moderators are in thesebig, comfortable chair.
Just, you know, relax.
Discussions of dogs beingeaten or anything.
Nothing like that.
Nothing like that.
Yeah.
I'm trying to focus on local issues.
Yeah.
The things that matter.
We don't have any dogs.

(29:15):
Also, you were in a very tightrace, you and Sam, and it came down
to less than 200 votes betweenthe two of you.
Did.
And so what does that tell you about.
Does it just tell you that youguys are just neck and neck and.
It'S neck and neck?
I mean, I think it's acombination of three things, really.
I mean, there was three, youknow, known candidates on this.
On this race.

(29:35):
It wasn't just Larry Nelsonwas in there, too.
He was being blown out.
He had over 5,000 votes.
Yeah, he sure did.
He sure did.
So it was three well known people.
So, you know, I.
I expected a runoff.
You know, just looking at thelaw of averages and who the candidates
were, you know, we worked.
We tried to avoid a runoff ashard as we could and.
Yeah, but that's where we are.
That's, you know, that's wherewe are today.
And we're Excited.

(29:56):
And.
Yeah, we haven't stopped.
It's been.
It's been a lot of fun.
Well, I think it's areflection that people in the community,
the people that voted, becausewe never have 100% voter turnout.
I mean, we're lucky if we get 20.
But the voters seem to agreeat least that you guys are fairly
even, I think, on what youbring to the table.

(30:19):
I mean, obviously both of youare saying things and putting things
out there that majority ofthese voters agree with.
To be that close in anelection, that's not the tightest
election we've ever had inWichita Falls.
I mean, we had a mayoralelection many years ago that was
decided by, I think, like 36votes or 34 votes.
Jerry.
Luke.
Yeah, that's.

(30:39):
KK got that one.
Yeah.
You know, that was a verytight race, but still less than 200
votes.
I mean, that's a very tight race.
And I think it says somethingabout the messaging that you're both
putting out there.
What would you say is thebiggest issue in your message?
Is there one thing that juststands out for you as a glaring issue,
good, bad, or indifferent inthe community?

(31:01):
Yeah.
The issue in our community iswe've had the same population since
1960.
We've got to grow.
No one likes potholes.
Our city staff and cityworkers want to be paid more.
So do our public safety.
How do you do that?
Right.
Our tax burden on theresidents is way too high.
How do you offset that taxburden on the residents?
Growing industry spread theburning commercial business.

(31:23):
And so it's.
There's got to be a focus ongrowing commercial business, because
where we sit today, flatpopulation cost of everything continues
to go up.
If we don't grow ourcommercial industry.
I mean, there's no otherrecourse to keep the status quo but
to raise taxes.
And our.
And our population keeps aging.
Sorry about the populationkeeps aging as well.
So that was just kind of whereI was going to go there.
55/plus has been the onedemographic that has grown with any

(31:45):
consistency at all here.
But that's because we are anaging population.
But we've been talking aboutthis for years and years now, and
we never seem to get to an answer.
And I don't know that there'sany one thing.
Growing commercial, bringingmore industry, growing the tax base.
Yes, but growing the population.
I don't know that there's anyone thing you can do.

(32:07):
I think you've got to do acombination of things.
I'm not sure exactly what allthat needs to Be what that needs
to look like.
But everybody that I talk to,and you tell me if you've got the
same experience.
Everybody that I talk to aboutit here says in various, you know,
putting it in various ways, itcomes down to quality of life.
Yes.
It comes down to what doesWichita Falls have to offer to entice

(32:29):
people to come here?
It's not jobs alone.
Doesn't do it.
Now, apparently, you got to domore than that.
So what can we do?
Well, I mean, quality of life.
Everyone wants something to do.
Well, sure.
The thing I think WichitaFalls in the past has done bad is
promoting itself.
Absolutely.
Yes.
Do not promote ourselves.
There's stuff to do everysingle weekend.
Every single weekend, there'sdifferent stuff.
Whether you're into arts orgoing to the brewery or there's art

(32:51):
walk, you name it.
We don't promote ourselves.
We've got to promote ourselves.
I think if we do a better jobof promoting ourselves.
Industry moving to WichitaFalls and we've done a bad job of
recruiting as a city, as a whole.
Texas grew rapidly.
No one moved to Wichita Falls.
Yeah, you're right.
We don't have that luxury.
I've explained that to peopleall over the country.
Right when they talk, Texas isblown up.
And I'm like, yeah, not inWichita Falls.

(33:13):
But we.
We have to.
Sorry, I just one quick point.
We've got to start working together.
We finally have new leadershipat the chamber in the MSU and Shepherd,
and we're starting to work together.
In the past, we've.
We've kind of all gone ourseparate ways.
Wichita Falls doesn't have theluxury to do that.
You've got to work together.
And the most importantdecision that the next councilor
at large is going to make ishiring that city manager to fit in

(33:33):
with the rest of the chamberand the base and everything.
That is such an important decision.
I brought this up with anumber of people is Midwestern State
University.
And that relationship thatdoesn't exist between the city and
msu.
It pains me that people candrive through our city and not know
that MSU is there.
Right.
And not know that collegeexists here because the signs are

(33:56):
not there.
I know how to fix it.
Trace had a great idea on that.
I think there's a lot of people.
I mean, we had the MSUpresident on the show here a while
back.
She's obviously invested indoing something about this.
Mayor Short is you are.
Sam is.
Everybody seems to be on thesame page of, yes, we need to do
something to make thatrelationship Better, but we better

(34:18):
get to work on it.
Yes.
And I think you're starting tosee that.
I mean, you really are withPresident Haney and Ron Kitchens.
I mean, he has been superinvolved with pulling MSU in, and
she's vice versa.
Pulling the chamber in andpulling the city in.
You're starting to see that momentum.
You really are.
You know, we've got newbusinesses coming.
You know, MSU just did apartnership with Shepherd Air Force
Base to train some of theirstudents there while they get the

(34:40):
college credit, keep them inthe community.
And you're starting to seethose wheels.
But you're right.
You just still don't see signsdown the.
Down the street.
You know, MSU grew theirundergrad this year.
You know, we saw one littleblip about it.
We need to keep promoting it.
MSU is growing, not the otherway around.
Talk about an ad nauseam.
Correct.
Well, I just wanted to talkabout Abilene real quick.

(35:00):
And what can we do to go toAbilene and find out what the heck
they've done?
Because they've.
From the 90s, they were at alittle more than we were, 100, 1500
20,000.
And now they're approaching,if not right at about.
I think.
I think they focused on downtown.
Yeah, that was their downtown.
They focused on a lot.
They focused on downtown.
They focused on growing industry.
Being on the interstate helpedthem or the, you know, how close

(35:21):
they are to Dallas and you getstraight out to West Texas.
But you can kind of see thattheir chamber was very involved in
their community.
You could see that AbileneChristian is very involved in their
community and the banks.
And if you start to worktogether, I mean, Abilene was in
the same spot we are.
You know, they weren't growing.
What did they do?
They started working together.
You know, we've.

(35:42):
We do not have that luxury.
We've got to have a sharp spear.
I've said it a hundred times.
Find the businesses that fityour community that are looking to
relocate and go get them.
Bring them here.
You know, go sell your town to them.
Target customer.
Well, and another thing, too,you know, talk about the change in
leadership.
We're going to.
We have an interim citymanager right now.
We're going to have a new citymanager six months to a year down

(36:05):
the road.
We're going to have a new citymanager, depending on how long that
process takes.
And one of the things I thinkthat's got to happen, and I think
this needs to be a mandatefrom the council that the city manager
Needs to also be involved inthat community outreach.
Yes.
I practically begged at onepoint, our previous city manager,

(36:26):
these businesses that arewalking around going, hey, the city
is not business friendly.
They don't want business togrow here.
They don't want business tothrive here.
They don't try to make it happen.
Go and talk to these businessowners, these decision makers, these
leaders in the community.
Sit down with them and listento them.
Give them an hour of yourtime, take an hour of their time
and try to figure out how thehell do we meet in the middle.

(36:46):
And that's got to happen withthe new city manager.
And I think it has to be amandate from the council.
You're going to do this.
Oh, I agree.
And I agree 100%.
Our previous city manager,look, he did a lot of good things.
I'm not going to sit here andbash him.
I think, you know, duringCOVID you know, the guy on is a spreadsheet
wizard, you know, managing avery tight budget that we have.

(37:07):
But, you know, I never reallysaw him in the community and I'm.
He doesn't need to lead everycity parade and be at every function.
But, you know, your communitywants to see you and wants to see
you be involved.
And so, yeah, you know, whenwe hire a new city manager, there's
gotta be a list of expectations.
And one of those has to be,you know, you have to be out, you
have to show face, you have tomeet with some business owners.
There has to be accountabilityin the city.
Managers crystal clear thatthis is your expectations and you

(37:31):
need to meet them.
Well, that you're in charge.
That's part of the problem.
The problem is people thinkthe mayor's in charge, the mayor's
not in charge.
The mayor, the mayor has someresponsibilities and leads.
That leads the council.
But the mayor by himself andcity councilors by themselves have
very limited authority.
It's the group that has the authority.
But the city manager has a lotof authority on the day to day operations.
He's the CEO of the CEO of the city.

(37:54):
And I think as such should bea face.
Doesn't need to be the facenecessarily, but a face of the city
that people can identify.
And particularly our businessleaders in the community, they need
to see that person, whoever heor she ends up being, they need to
have a relationship with thatperson and they need to feel like
that person wants arelationship with them and that they're

(38:16):
invested in seeing businessimprove and things.
It goes back to what I said earlier.
We've got to start Working together.
And it's going to take all ofus to do it.
And the next city manager is avery important hire.
And, you know, I want somebodythat's got a proven track record
of success, somebody thatwants to prove themselves.
You know, I would love nothingmore than to have a city manager
come in and promote growth andgo grow and bring growth in.

(38:40):
You know, Wichita Falls isripe for opportunities.
We want somebody that hungrythat's looking to make a name for
themselves.
Not, you know, I want to stayhere for the next 25 years and just.
Okay, so that's what I wasgoing to ask you that.
So that what would you be yourexpectation for someone?
Because you said somebody make.
Use this as a stepping stone.
So that means that we're goingto have to do this on a regular basis.
I mean, that's typically whatcity managers last.

(39:01):
At a town, like a town that isour size.
You know, they're here threeto five years.
Yeah.
And they're looking to go to a big.
Yeah, we talked about that.
It's the same school districtwhich football.
Is ripe for growth.
I mean, we're putting sometogether, some real momentum, and
this should be a veryattractive job.
I have no doubt we'll probablyget 100 different candidates that
you're going to have towhittle down to five.
What are the shiny points?
The things that we talkedabout msu and we were talking about

(39:23):
the leadership side of it, butwhat are some of the other points
you talked about?
How we do such a bad job ofpromoting ourselves.
And we do.
I think we just had people inleadership positions that had marketing
as one of the tools in their wheelhouse.
It just wasn't part of it.
And I think you need.
You need some of that.
You need someone who can.
Who can be an activecheerleader and promoter and voice.

(39:46):
We do need a cheerleader.
But what are some of theshinier points about the city that
we need to promote, in youropinion, beyond those things that
we've talked about?
You know, we're starting tosee some momentum and growth.
You know, Amazon's coming here.
Yes, absolutely.
No tax incentives given.
They want to come here.
Piggyback on it.
You know, success breeds more success.
Start piggybacking on this.
We were getting a data centercoming here.

(40:06):
Oh, that's another one.
No, incentives continue to go.
We want these businesses here.
Go out and get them.
We've got to promote that.
Hey, look, we're growing.
You know, everyone sees rumorson Facebook and they go, go, go,
go, go, go.
And they become truth beforethe city ever responds.
And by that time, it's too late.
We've got to stay on top ofthese things.
You know, being chair of thelake Wichita, I've been, you know,

(40:27):
every week I get asked, oh,well, so and so wanted to dredge
it for free.
I was like, here's my cellphone number.
They can call.
They can start tomorrow.
You know that.
It's been bullshit, man.
Austin.
I personally took theinitiative to research that rumor
several years ago.
And I went out and I talked toseveral individuals and a couple

(40:49):
of different businesses that Iwas told were involved in that not
one person could provide mewith one ounce of evidence that anybody
ever offered.
No, there's a lot ofconjecture, but nobody could say,
oh, this person is who decided.
Yeah, I totally agree.
None of that.
You know, how much that costand how much we've put into this.
We want.
The city's not going to dredgeit because it costs too much money.
If someone wanted to do itfree, they.

(41:11):
My cell phone number is public.
I am the chair.
You can start tomorrow.
The last time I heard a pricetag on that, Austin, it was about
$40 million to do the dredge.
And a wet dredge, supposedlywas going to be easier to do than
a dry dredge, therefore.
That's why you didn't seebulldozers out there when the lake
was dried up during the drought.
Right, Right.
That's true.
That's all true.
Today's actually the yearanniversary of when Mayor Short sent

(41:33):
off our letter to the corps ofEngineers requesting the grant.
We still haven't heard back.
We Election year.
Right.
You know, so they haven'tappropriated funds in Congress yet.
That's what we're waiting on.
As soon as thoseappropriations go through, we should
get that grant.
We're going to start next.
This year or.
Yeah, 25, I guess next year.
We're already at next year, man.
It's been a long year.
Yeah.
But we're excited about it.
It's going to happen.

(41:53):
The first phase will happen.
But it's a 75, 25 match.
We just did the master planfor the Veterans Plaza.
I'm super pumped up about.
We should have our price tagon that this week.
And then I'm going to go raisethat money.
That's my goal.
The idea here has been to turnthat into a recreational entertainment
sort of center for the city toagain, go back to the quality of

(42:15):
life thing.
Absolutely.
And that would be part of it.
And that's still the plan.
Right.
To do that.
Oh, yeah.
It's going to be arecreational lake, a usable recreational
lake.
That's our goal.
The first phase of dredge willhelp that you'll be able to get a
boat in it once you be able toget a boat in it and that first stage
addressed.
First stage is dredged.
Sorry, excuse me.
Texas park and Wildlife.
That will make it a fishhabitat again.

(42:35):
We'll stock it with fish.
We're going to have theVeterans plaza finished.
There'll be an amphitheater.
There will be a place for reflection.
It's going to be awesome.
And my goal is to get itcompletely funded in one.
And I don't want to build itin parts.
I want to build it all at once.
And we're going to go out andsee if our community, we can raise
that money.
And that's goal number one.
Well, the last minute here,why don't you go ahead and tell everybody
why you think you're the bestcandidate for this position.

(42:57):
Yeah, well, you know, I lovethis town and you know, I'm invested.
You know, I brought my familyhere to raise, you know, and I did
that by choice.
I think we all want WichitaFalls to do good.
You know, the reason why I'mthe best candidate, you know, I've
shown through my timevolunteering in city projects that
I've got the follow through todo it.
Everything I stick, I start.

(43:17):
Whether it's the lake orheritage site or anything, I follow
through and get it done.
I've worked with city councilon my boards.
I know how the process works.
I know how to get along withcity staff.
And, you know, I've been inoil and gas my entire life.
I've been able to negotiatecontracts and Fortune 500 companies.
And I'm ready just to, youknow, give back and give 110% to

(43:39):
the city because the city'sgiven so much to me.
Amen.
Very good.
Austin Cobb, thank you verymuch for your time.
We wish you luck and we'll see.
Now again, early voting isgoing to be the third.
Second through the tenth.
Second through the tenth.
Yeah.
But no weekend voting.
Okay.
And then December 14th iselection day.
Well, if, if you voted, youdon't have to have voted in the,

(44:00):
you.
Do not have to.
If you did not vote in thegeneral election, you can, you can
vote in the.
As long as you're a registered voter.
As long as you're registeredbefore the, the deadline for the
general election.
Oh, you mean I can't vote inClay County?
Sadly, those are the rules.
I Didn't make them.
Well, he does have a bumpersticker that says vote early, vote
often.

(44:21):
But anyway, Austin, thank you again.
People.
Learn more about you Facebookpage Austin Cobb for Counselor at
large.
Email cobbforwf.com phonenumbers 940-781-5698 call me.
It rings all the time, but Iwill call you back.
All right, terrific.
Austin Cobb, thank you very much.
We appreciate it.
Guys, stick around.
We're gonna take a short break.
We'll come back and we'll wrapit up with this episode of Get It

(44:43):
Right.
Text on stick.
Stick around.
All right, hey, everybody.
I got the two guys, you know,because I talked about the doing
the rock, paper, scissors todecide it all.
So you know what?
I got the two of them here andthey're willing to do it.
So let's get it going.
So you guys.
Yeah, keep the blood down, youknow, be fair.
No below the bell.
All that good stuff.

(45:03):
All right, you ready?
Let's go.
One, two, three, go.
Yay.
One, two, three, Go.
Oh, one, two, three, go.
Oh.
1, 2, 3, go.
All right, so what's that?
So you want?
All right, well, good deal.

(45:24):
All right, thank you, guys.
All right, there you go.
Let's start here first.
All right.
Alright.
Welcome back to Get It RightTech Soma.

(45:45):
We want to thank Sam Pack andAustin Cobb for joining us.
We appreciate their views andtheir input.
And like I said, whichever oneof these guys wins, the city's gonna
win, community's gonna win.
That's it.
That's a great way to put it, Mike.
You're absolutely right.
They're both good guys andboth have great, great, A great outlook
and great heart for the city,I'll tell you that.
Yep.

(46:05):
Let's see here.
The Salvation army, they'relooking for bell ringers for there
or ding.
Don't want to bell.
Ring your bell, but yeah,yeah, look for bell ringers.
Ring my bell.
No, you don't remember that song.
You're in the right era forthat, Terry.
It was from the 70s, wasn't it?

(46:25):
Yeah, I believe so.
Yeah, late 70s.
I may have to listen to this.
I have to look it up.
But yeah, better look for bell ringers.
You'll contact me, somebody.
I don't remember.
I'm not sure.
I can't remember now, but.
Ding, ding, ding, ding.
Yep.
And so contact the localSalvation army office.
I need a ward.
Okay.

(46:45):
Oh, yeah, okay.
And, but anyway, I need a ward.
Has nothing to do with theSalvation Army.
She will not be ringing anybells there.
But you could Be So they needyour help with that.
We had a.
This announcement came out acouple days ago.
Kind of sad in a way, but nottotally a shock really when you consider

(47:07):
the economy and changingattitudes and preferences and whatnot.
But the Wichita Falls Optimistclub for over 70 years they have
had.
They would do Christmas treesales as a fundraiser.
It was like their biggestfundraiser annually was the Christmas
tree lot.
And they made the announcementthat that is coming to an end after

(47:29):
70 years.
They are citing a continuousincrease in supply prices, dwindling
sales each year, the drasticdrop in Optimus club memberships.
Yeah, because it takesvolunteers to go do this.
Of the last 70 years, theyraised nearly $600,000 on Christmas

(47:49):
tree sales.
And I believe that that wasthe profit.
Over 70 years they brought ina lot more than 600,000.
But once they paid the treesand everything, they're net $600,000
went to community projectsover this.
That's a lot of money over the years.
Well, and 70 years ago itwould have been a lot.
You know, the little bitincreased over the last year.

(48:11):
Well, 70 years ago if youwanted a Christmas tree, you had
a real Christmas tree.
Artificial trees, $5 probably.
I'm sure artificial trees werearound in the late 40s, early 50s,
but they.
Weren'T popular and theyweren't like they are now.
And they weren't like they are now.
And then in the 60s they camealong with aluminum trees.
Yeah.
How was that all about?
And then you had Seinfeld Festivus.
Oh, if any of you are Seinfeld people.

(48:34):
Celebration for the rest of usand whatever.
Yeah, Anyway.
But anyway.
So over the years artificialtrees have gotten better.
Oh yeah, they.
Some of them look extremely.
Got it all.
You can hear them pre lit.
Yeah.
Pull them out of the box, take.
Them out, set them up and go.
Which they are safe.
I mean it is a Safer way.

(48:54):
To LEDs because it's LEDs.
There's no heat in them.
Yeah.
And I think that there's.
We've turned it more into acountry of convenience.
And so the going to go pick upthe Christmas tree.
And my, my family, we did thatfor years.
It was kind of one of those things.
But after a while, you know,people get so busy and then all of
a sudden, well, this kid can't go.
Well, that kid's got somethingelse with this kid.

(49:16):
Well, at some point you justkind of go, Alice, just get a fake
tree.
Well, the other thing I wantto address in this too is the.
They talk about the drasticdrop In Optimus Club memberships?
Yes.
You know, they're a serviceclub, a service organization, you
know, like many others are.
And every service club that I'm.
That I'm aware of has seen adrop in membership.

(49:39):
Absolutely.
There was a time, I can'tspeak for other committees, but I
can speak for Wichita Falls.
There was a time in WichitaFalls where employers would either
pay for a portion of or all ofyour dues to be part of a service
club.
Because they wanted theiremployees to be involved in that.
Right.
They wanted you to createthose connections in the community

(50:01):
and would also give.
People could have time off togo do the meetings and stuff like
that.
Because most of their meetingshappen usually around the lunch hour
or, you know, maybe early inthe evening's afloat for years.
Was all the service clubs, theoptimist club and the Rotary clubs
and everything meeting over there.
They kept that big back roomover there full every week with someone's
organization.

(50:22):
And most of these serviceclubs will meet either once a week
or every two weeks.
And I think there's a couplethat now are down to like once a
month, but their membershiphas dropped.
You know, people are busier.
People have more things tooccupy their time.
People have more thingsoccupying their brain than ever before.

(50:42):
Well, unfortunately, some ofit is bullshit, though.
Well, a lot of it is agreed,but it's the thing here is that the
interest is not there.
And I think what the serviceclubs, if I could give them any advice
at all, it would be this.
The individual service clubsneed to figure out a way to come

(51:04):
together.
Maybe you consolidate in someway or another and focus and laser
focus your efforts onrecruitment, but in ways you haven't
done before.
And I don't know quite whatthat needs to look like.
But I think, you know, you've got.
I don't know how many serviceclubs there are around here.

(51:24):
6, 10, 12?
I'm not real sure.
Well, redneck culinary.
I'm part of one here.
But however many there are,maybe it would be to the benefit
of at least some of them tocome together, form some sort of
unified organization andcombine their efforts and not see
each other as competingentities anymore, but as complementary.

(51:47):
They see each other ascompeting entities.
Well, I think there's some of that.
I think maybe there is some of that.
There's an element, the oldschool, a.
Lot of the old school.
That's partly why I think alot of these clubs have died or gone
down is because they haven'treally kept up and learned how to
get the Younger players, folksinvolved and then, and then the competition

(52:08):
for all these differentcharities and everything out there
as well.
And I mean, look at what, lookat what United Way did.
I mean, they, they really knewmore about that than I would, being
as much volunteering as you do.
But you know that they've hadto focus in their efforts and consolidate
on their efforts to providesupport for.
Because they're really a pass through.

(52:29):
But they've, they've done,they've changed some things.
I don't want to speak forthem, but I'm just saying that things,
things even in the charityindustry have changed over the years.
Of course.
Hands to Hands, the Hands toHands organization, which is local,
that was born out of theUnited Way, changing the way they
do things.
Yep, sure was.
And all those, all thoseorganizations that.
Hands to Hands, their originalseven or eight organizations that

(52:50):
came under their wing wereorganizations that were basically
abandoned by United Way.
That's right.
For one reason or another.
But I do think with theservice clubs, as with many other
types of businesses, at somepoint you got to go, we can't do
business the way we did 50,60, 70 years ago.
And this is one of the changesthey're choosing to make.
If it's becoming a financialdrag on the club to continue to sell

(53:12):
Christmas trees, you reallycan't do it.
Well, not just a financial,but also a membership drag, you know,
because what happens is youhave the same six people out there
every night.
Yes.
And everybody else is going todo this and people are going to.
Then somebody, hey, I'm sickkids doing this.
Got this going on and thatgoing on.
Next thing you know, you havethe same five or six people doing
the same.
But I think the challengesaren't like Optimus, that's a worldwide

(53:34):
or at least nation, nationwide.
Nationwide.
And then all these other.
I mean, look at Lions Club.
All the different ones are.
Lions Club is worldwide.
Right.
So there, there's this.
Right.
So there's a top level thatit's going to be difficult for them
and there's all that history.
It's like, it's, it's kind oflike the, you're going to get resistance
because of the history of those.

(53:56):
I get that.
But history don't pay the bills.
But you're gonna have toconvince the upper.
Even if the local one wantedto there, you know, they had.
Basically that's why I saidmaybe, maybe then, maybe then you're.
A lot of times you can operateyour local chapter, however, not
however you want to.
But yeah, but you have a lotof autonomy.
Autonomy.
Moving on here the cityWichita Falls moved to comply with

(54:19):
Senate Bill 1893.
It requires all panels ofgovernment in the state to remove
tick tock from city orgovernment issued devices.
I'm for that.
Well I.
Taxpayer devices.
No, no, no, no.
For a different reason.
I.
The TikTok has on.
On certain devices there'smore leeway and I won't get into

(54:42):
much of the technical side but.
But on the.
On.
On Android versus iPhone thereare things that can or can't be done
differently as far as securitythings Apple doesn't allow a lot
of what they're being accusedof doing on the Android side which
is going across the board.
Now that being said, what doesTikTok have to do with.

(55:06):
If the city does not want topromote social media on TikTok then
you just say don't do it.
It doesn't.
It has nothing to do whetherthe reasoning behind all this.
I just think that's a smartthing to do anyway is you.
You need to.
You're.
Why does an employee needTikTok or any social media unless
they are part of the marketing?
The marketing part I think fora different reason.

(55:28):
But I think a lot of.
As much as I'm not a fan ofTikTok and I know they're China related
and all of that but.
But I think that a lot of whathappened here was less on education.
Okay.
Again, it may be true.
A lot of what you're hearingis it's true on the Android platform
but not necessarily on the.
On the iPhone platform.
And I'm not trying to defend Apple.

(55:48):
Or whatever but I was gonna say.
But you can, you can't discernwhen you're talking.
I'm talking about taxpayer money.
That's where I go to thisbecause I'm the same way.
I don't care if it's TikTok Facebook.
Exactly.
Instagram.
If you, if you are on a.
Unless you're part of themarketing and you're in your city
and your city directs that youmust use like the city of Wichita
Falls is a Facebook page.
Right.
And then.
But, but, but they're theperson who works at the, at the who's

(56:12):
over the street departmentdoesn't need a Facebook well on their,
on their city device.
Unless, unless that's part ofthe strategy that the city has laid
out.
It's not.
Then you're part of the marketing.
The person who's running thebulldozer for the city.
Are they going to be on Facebook?
That's what I'm getting at.
It's about taxpayer money.
You know the people that areusing taxpayer funded government

(56:35):
issued devices don't needaccess to that.
Yeah, do what you want on yourown devices.
And I keep hearing that thereare people making tons of money on
TikTok.
I've looked at TikTok.
I don't understand quite howthey're doing it.
There's people making lots ofmoney on lots of things.
Things I know only fans type stuff.
I mean who, who's I, I'm notgoing to disparage people.

(56:57):
I guess you, you got your ownlittle thing that you do.
But who's got time to sitaround and watch stuff like that
all the time?
I know, but I just wonder if Ishave my legs.
There you go.
Is it even possible just.
And, and get the, what do theycall it?
The S.
E.S.M.R.
whatever the, the, where the,the sound is, you know, very deep
and a lot of bass and they'retrying to stimulate various aspects

(57:21):
of your.
Well, that doesn't sound good.
But anyway, let's write that down.
Asmr.
Yeah.
So.
Asmr.
Yeah, so.
So my whole thing, but mywhole thing on banning this and banning
all social media on taxpayerfunded is I don't want my money to
be paying for somebody to messaround on their, on their Facebook,
on, on taxpayer.
On taxpayer dollar and taxpayer.

(57:42):
The truth is if somebody'sgoing to do that, they've got all
got their own personal devices.
So it really, it's.
That's what I'm saying.
This is a.
It matters though because ifyou're, if you have to be on a city
device, you may jump it onyour phone but you can't sit there
and do it on your phone.
If you're working on yourdesktop and you're super right.
The reason this is, is it'smore about security than it is about

(58:04):
anything else.
Well, to me it's about money.
It's about taxpayer money.
Right, but, but the SenateBill to.
1893 is like I said, aboutTick Tock and security and giving
more information.
And then, and then the app isactually facing a national ban that
Joe Biden signed.
The.
That was not a state of Texas.
That was the United StatesCongress passed this bill and Joe

(58:25):
Biden signed it.
I think, I think you're goingto see something major happen with
Tick Tock.
Well, they would within thenext year.
They didn't.
Well, they were.
They basically put pressure onTick Tock to move the subsidiary
or whatever it is thatcontrols Tick tock into the US and
divorced themselvesessentially from the government of
China.

(58:46):
And then they wouldn't ban it,but they still didn't want to.
And so that's where the bancame from.
There's the next move realquick here before we wrap it up here.
Talia Brooks is an Olympian.
She's a local girl fromWichita Falls.
She's from here.
Her dad actually is now on the.
City council and she hosted ayouth field and track camp over at

(59:08):
City View.
Yeah, I think this is cool.
I mean, Talia just competed inthe, in the Olympics.
Yes.
In Paris in the heptathlon,which, look, if you're not familiar,
look it up.
This, this is not a one trick pony.
This girl.
This lady can do anything.
She excels at so many things.
When you get thoseheptathletes and decathletes and

(59:30):
those sort of things, you talkabout supreme athletes.
And Talia Brooks is not.
And not only an athletic.
She's a really smart person,she's a really good person and she's
giving back to the community.
And I just think this is awesome.
So right here in WichitaFalls, an Olympian who's from Wichita
Falls, gets back to thecommunity and has a host a track
and field day.

(59:50):
And she's going to be as goodas anybody to coach and tell you
how to do it because she doesit all.
Yeah.
Wichita Falls has producedmore than a few celebrities over
the years.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Big names.
Yeah.
Well, your, your businesspartner, I mean.
Yeah.
Eddie Hill.
Yeah.
It was a world champion dragracer at one time.
So the, the world champion.
He was the fastest.
He was the quickest man in thequarter mile.

(01:00:11):
The quickest person on theplanet from a standing start quarter
mile on land and water at onetime period.
Amazing.
And I think Talia Brooks maybe one of the fastest people on land,
on foot.
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah.
I couldn't outrun her if I had to.
I couldn't outrun her when Iwas, when she's 100, I wouldn't be

(01:00:32):
able to outrun.
Yeah, no, she, she is a, she'sa gifted athlete.
She is very much.
Not only is she gifted though,with the athletic prowess, she's
also trained herself.
Yes, she's the discipline.
I mean, just imagine what ittakes for somebody to reach to become
an Olympian or a professionalat anything.
You are the best of the best.
And I don't care where you placed.

(01:00:54):
It doesn't matter.
This, she played.
It doesn't matter if you wonor you place dead last, which she
did not.
But if you place dead last toeven get there, you're one of the
best of the best of the bestof the best in the entire planet.
Well, and how many.
How many people, you know,compete for that role to be in the
Olympics?
Thousands.

(01:01:14):
Yeah.
You know, so she's that.
That makes her elite in that.
She's that one person out ofhowever many hundreds or thousands
were competing for thatposition in that Olympic Games.
And she won out.
Yeah.
By the way, she's smart andshe's a nice person on top of that.
So it's not just great athletics.

(01:01:34):
She's really bright.
And we can't forget Eddie theEagle from the Olympic Olympics a
number of years in the 90s, Ithink it was.
It was in the 80s, I think.
Yeah.
He was the ski jumper from England.
Yeah.
Because England's known forproviding all the.
Ski jumpers, so he.
He was the best in Englandthat had competed.

(01:01:56):
Yeah, that's right.
What do we used to make?
The Jamaican bobsled team.
But they did.
They competed.
I mean, there's even a movieabout it.
I know, and I.
It's like full runnings.
Who.
Who would have ever thought atone point that where could we get
a great bobsled team?
I know, let's recruit out of Jamaica.
Well, part of it was because.
Because of great athletes.

(01:02:18):
And that's part of what abobsled is, you know?
Yeah.
You have one person who'sdriving, but everybody else is pushing.
You know, Herschel Walker was.
Was.
I don't know if he ever madethe Olympics, but he was like one
of the greatest athletes everin American sports and was on an
Olympic qualifying team at least.
And that's what they did.
Bobsled people, they go, waita minute.
I don't care if anybody can ski.

(01:02:38):
Likes the snow, likes the coldor whatever.
Let's get some of theseathletes in there.
Yeah.
To help us push this damn thing.
Have you sent anybody from theNBA to the Olympics in a while?
Remember how that.
There was that push.
We went and sent NBA playersfor a.
The last.
Oh, yeah.
I haven't paid.
Yeah.
In the U.S.
swept it by.
Yeah, they did.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
No, no, the NBA has played.

(01:02:59):
The Dream Team was the first one.
Right, right.
But no, the NBA has played.
The Olympic teams have beenmade up of NBA players for years.
Okay.
I'm.
I'm not.
I've not ever really paidattention to the Olympics and beyond.
To Leah Brooks.
I.
I couldn't tell you.
I.
I love the Olympics.
I know, I know.
Talia competed.
And beyond that, I couldn'tname one person that was there.
That's it.
So.

(01:03:19):
All right, we're gonna wrap itup here, guys.
Again, we want to thank AustinCobb and Sam Pack for being with
us.
Stay tuned.
And we have, yes, we havesomething very special here.
We have agreement to settle itall and just watch.
Terry came up with a, with a contest.
I don't think there'll beknives involved, but there could
be.
You never know.
And I'm not 100% sure if it'sgoing to be official.

(01:03:42):
Well, yeah, yeah.
Well, we'll see.
I mean, we'll see.
We'll say it might be predictor.
I've got my mop and bucket ready.
Anyway, thank you very muchfor joining us.
We appreciate, by the way, theprogram brought to you by Eddie Hills
Fun Cycles at 401 North Scottin downtown Wichita Falls since 1966.
Eddy hillsfuncycles.comMacTech Solutions, 4020 Ray Road,

(01:04:03):
Suite 3B here in Wichita Falls.
Mactech-solutions.com Get your iPad.
Yes.
Hey, Christmas is coming up.
Four weeks away.
These guys both have very coolthings in stock that would make great
gifts, I'm telling you.
Go see them.
Eddie hills Fun Cycles, 401North Scott in Wichita Falls.

(01:04:24):
MacTech Solutions, 4020 RayRoad, Suite 3B in Wichita Falls.
Lollipop Sweet Shop Speakingof the holidays, speaking of the
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be sure to hit that subscribebutton and the little bell notifications

(01:05:07):
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Till next time, take care.
We shall see you down the road.