ODESSA, Texas (KMID/KPEJ)- Craig Stoker, Director of Meals on Wheels Odessa and long-time volunteer, has won his bid for the Odessa City Council At-large seat, a position elected to represent all of Odessa and not just a single district.
Stoker edged out incumbent challenger Denise Swanner, who was elected to her first term in 2020, in a 56% to 44% vote, according to early results.
It was a hard campaign for Stoker, who faced at times nasty opposition by Swanner advocates and some area Political Action Committees that hoped to help Swanner keep her seat.
In an interview to announce his candidacy, Stoker said he has an incredible “vision” for Odessa.
“It’s really just fun to think about what could be,” Stoker said. “That’s what I really wanted to talk about today…my vision for Odessa. What we can have in the future.”
For Stoker, there are big issues at hand that need to be addressed in order to keep moving Odessa forward in a positive way.
“We’ve got some pretty big issues with our water infrastructure, with our roads. I know there was some money run through council yesterday to start some of the repairs. $25 million was passed and that’s an amazing first step. My understanding is there are close to half a billion dollars’ worth of repairs that are going to be made. So, we’ve got some big issues to tackle. We have to do that in ways that don’t cause a huge burden on the taxpayer. You have to remember that not every Odessan can afford to have their taxes raised,” Stoker said.
Stoker, who has served with area non-profits for more than 10 years, said the key to tackling some of these issues is partnerships.
“I was with the West Texas Food Bank and now I’m at Meals on Wheels. I’ve served on multiple non-profit boards. I’ve been able to, very tongue-in-cheek, I’ve been told I’ve got the best Rolodex in town. So just being able to make a call and find somebody to help. You’ve had so many issues that have come up. You look at the…problem right now with our trash trucks. Over half the trash trucks are broken. And how come we can’t reach out to a neighboring community and say, hey, can we borrow one or two to help fix that? Building that kind of network, I think it is so important to have those partnerships.”
Stoker referred to an on-going issue in Odessa after numerous trash truck broke down earlier this year; residents have been limited to once-a-week trash pickups for months as the City waits for new trucks to be delivered.
Stoker wants to tackle these issues and more responsibly.
“Keeping a very conservative eye on the budget. We only have so many dollars to spend. I have to do what I do (in his non-profit work) with very limited funds, and so, we have to spend them wisely. And I intend to bring that same mentality to city council. I know we can’t just go out and write a check. We can’t ask the taxpayers to just fund wild projects that we come up with. So, I intend to bring that value with me to be mindful that…everybody in town can’t just take that, ‘hey it only costs as much as a cup of coffee’ mindset. Because so many folks in our community can’t afford Starbucks, so we can’t ask them to foot the bill for a lot of these large infrastructure projects.”
Some of those pricey projects include continued water projects, including the water treatment plant.
“We’ve got a significant number of investments that we’re going to have to make in order to completely fix the problems we have. My understanding is our sewage treatment plant is at the end of its life. And the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is knocking at our door saying, guys, you’ve got to replace this. You’re not going to have a choice in the matter.”
For Stoker, it’s all about fiscally preparing for the future, completing projects as planned, and staying out of “crisis mode”.
“Many of the issues that have come up recently, the kind of crisis mode that we get in to…the very first thing you hear is, well, that’s their (previous council members) fault. That happened because of them, and that happened because of this or that. And while on the nose, that’s not necessarily true. Yeah, the maintenance has been pushed off because we haven’t had the money to do things. But what have you done about it? We talked earlier today about looking at the water infrastructure budget. There was a study done in 2019…that identified 25 years’ worth of projects that we need to do and parsed them out, five years, 10 years, 15 years. And if you look at the projects that were laid out for those five years, they were budgeted, and when you look at the budget amount spent, this year there was $7 million in the budget. $1.1 million has been spent. So why? Why do you blame the past when you’re not even spending the money in the budget? And I’m sure there’s an explanation…but the public perception is nothing’s being done. At the end of the day, it is your responsibility. You’re in charge of those things. So, should I end up in that seat, I would hope to be able to take responsibility and really bear the responsibility.”
Stoker said he will make sure that budgeted money is spent and that projects are completed, all with one goal in mind, to keep moving Odessa toward a brighter future and ensure that it’s a place people want to live.
“If you look at the economy of Odessa, the economy of the Permian Basin, and the future, the study suggests that we’re going to need 190,000 people added to our workforce by 2050. And in order to do that, you’re going to have to have people move to Odessa. And in order to do that, you’re going to have to attract them. And so, when somebody is in Houston, and they’re reassigned to the Permian Basin, and they start Googling…where do I want to move? And when they see the shenanigans and things that have gone on for the past several years, I don’t know why they would choose to move (here). I think we have a PR issues. I think we really need to work on our image. We need to instill a better sense of pride in Odessa. We need to clean up our community,” Stoker said.
Attracting future residents begins with attracting businesses, and Stoker said he wants to create an Odessa that’s attractive to developers and those wanting to invest in the area. He said the current state of things has prevented many small business owners from wanting to come to Odessa, according to a recent survey.
“Small business does not want to establish here in Odessa because of impact fees and because of City retail (ordinances) that keeps businesses from growing here. You know, when you look at the difference in the way our community supports small businesses, Midland versus Odessa, I think it’s pretty obvious. When you drive into Midland, it’s chock full of small businesses. And yes, Odessa has a great small business community, but I don’t believe we do our best job supporting them. You see it in the way that we have hindered food trucks. You had a tragic fire that destroyed at least two local small businesses this past weekend- what is the City going to do to help them? There has got to be something the City can do either through the Small Business Administration or something to help get those businesses back on their feet rather than just post their well wishes on Facebook.”
Other items on Stoker’s radar include continuing with downtown revitalization efforts, addressing literacy, combating the drug and alcohol crisis, especially fentanyl, and fighting food insecurity Odessa-wide.
“You’ve seen big strides downtown. We’ve had one of my personal projects in the revitalization. Lots of hurdles that have been thrown up. We’ve kind of struggled to overcome. But I know that (with the right) leadership, we can kind of put those back on track. You’re going to have the ability to really start moving these plans forward. One of the issues I talked about today was literacy. The question about…what role does the city play in that? To me, if you look at our type A sales tax funding through the Odessa Development Corporation, one of the tenants that it can fund is a library…we have city funds available to that. That is one way that the city can address literacy. Other ways that the city’s funds can help the non-profits. There are funds available that do flow to the city that help non-profits. Both in literacy and food insecurity. Again, we’ve talked about the drug and alcohol crisis that we’re facing. The fentanyl crisis, again, we had a very tragic loss a couple of weeks ago. So, we know that there’s more investment needed. And I want to continue growing,” Stoker said. “We’ve got real issues in this city, and I really hope we can focus on those…and really come up with a great roadmap to get there.”
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