Running for the Midland City Council at-large seat is John Burkholder. In an interview with Midland Times, the candidate reveals his motivations, vision, and strategies for addressing key issues within the city.
MT: Can you provide a brief introduction about yourself?
My name is John Burkholder and I am running for the Midland City Council at-large. I was born in Pecos, Texas in 1977 and moved around a lot as a kid before finally planting roots in Midland in 1991. I graduated from Midland High and started off at Midland College before moving back to Pecos to work for a family business. I decided to go back to college and I then moved to Odessa. While in Odessa, I worked at Circuit City and spent ten years of my life working at different levels of leadership. I moved around the state quite a bit and ended up on a team trying to rewrite standard operating procedures for the company to put it in a better position financially.
I moved back to Midland to be closer to family since I was moving around a lot and also because family is extremely important to me. I left the retail world and got into oil and gas and went to work for a company called Omni Air & Nitrogen as regional sales manager. I was able to take a lot of the corporate knowledge and leadership training and incorporate it into a really small but growing business. We grew it into one of the largest nitrogen companies in the Permian Basin area.
We have a family ranch located right outside of Pecos in Ward County. My grandfather was a rancher, tried and true. He was not much of an oil man but there was a lot of activity that started to pop up right in that area. He did not necessarily know how to handle it and we had an attorney who was not doing their best job, so I stepped in and said, “Hey, I can do this. I might make a mistake, but it will only happen once where I’ll learn from it and we’ll move forward if you so choose to let me run this,” and he agreed. I started running the operational side where there was a lot of oil and gas activity with negotiations, resource allocations, and just a lot of pieces we were putting together. I’ve found through all of this that I am a very communicative person where I feel like in order to get things done, we need to come together and communicate, and that's the best way to move forward. We began this networking by communicating with other ranchers and that eventually led to the creation of a multi-ranch effort which we call Ranch Water Resources. That put me in the position I am in now which is director of Ranch Water Resources while also serving the president of Burkholder Holdings.
I have been married for 15 years and I have three fantastic children, and like I mentioned previously, family is very important to me.
MT: What motivated you to run for the Midland City Council at-large seat?
It all really started about a year ago – we had this project that was coming to our neighborhood where the development was unsafe in our eyes as a neighborhood and ill planned. When we tried to communicate with the individuals of the development, it was not going anywhere, so we began to work with Amy Stretcher Burkes and Dan Corrales. I'm the type of person where if I want to fix something or to help the problem, I need to understand all aspects like who is involved and what the process is to get there. So we began to have community group meetings with the individuals of the development and I started to work with the city officials just to understand the entire process.
Through our advocacy, I created a group called Responsible Growth Midland and we advocate for safety because in this particular situation, we did not see the safety aspect being addressed which was extremely concerning. Through our advocacy group, we got the city to move the needle on some things like fixing roads and installing traffic lights.
That led to something bigger – it led to the fact that I wanted to learn more. I joined Midland 101 which is an organization through the City of Midland where they walk you through every single department of the city and help you to understand how it works. After that, I got appointed to the planning and zoning committee. I’ve been serving there since last year and it allowed me to see from a bigger perspective the growth of Midland, which is something I have taken a huge interest in. We need to make sure we have eyes on all different aspects of our city’s growth for the safety of both citizens and businesses.
MT: What specific experiences do you have that makes you well-suited for this role?
I have a magnitude of years of experience. Working in a corporate environment, I've managed hundreds, if not into the low thousands, of people who all have diverse personalities and backgrounds. I’ve learned that if you’re going to be successful, you have to learn how to work together. Whether you agree or disagree on a matter, you can always find a common denominator where you can all at least agree on some level. The ability to bring people in, to communicate, and to show leadership is needed. I also have experience in both the landowner aspect and oil and gas aspect.
With absolutely no disrespect to anyone since everyone has their own skill set, I feel as if I bring something to the table that no other city council member has complete understanding from, given all these different multitudes of areas that I’ve been in and have experience with. Does that mean I am a pro? No, but it does mean I have a pretty good understanding of those areas and I believe that that would be very advantageous with the city council.
MT: What key issues do you consider the most pressing for the city of Midland, and what is your vision for addressing them?
One of the biggest things I consider pressing is road infrastructure and evolving the city in a safe and fiscally responsible way. We are a growing city and we want to promote the right businesses to come here for sustainability and we want to be able to diversify. Oil and gas is our life blood here, but if you’ve been here long enough, you understand that there are ups and downs. We have to diversify into other key areas and bring businesses in that can help offset hard times. That is one of the most important things Midland can do to make sure that all of these wonderful businesses being brought in can have sustainability even through the difficult times. The infrastructure build is a huge part of that, as well. Again, making sure we are developing the city in a way that is that we are good fiduciaries stewards of the taxpayer’s money and we’re investing in projects that are most important.
Another thing that tends to get thrown around is transparency, but it really is a big deal. Anytime we are going to be spending large dollar amounts of taxpayers money, we have to be able to put it all out on the table. We do not want to slow down progress, but we can slow it down enough for all residents to go out and ask their questions so they can feel comfortable with moving forward. If you can ask a question and cannot get an answer, there's a good chance it needs to go back to the drawing board. If a project, good or bad, is rushed and does not give people time to talk about it, it is going to foster mistrust with the city’s government. We can eliminate this by being transparent as much as possible. Another thing with slowing down to give people the time to ask questions, we may find issues with the project that we can better tackle.
Monitoring the water supply and continuing to monitor the water supply is another key. We live in a desert and a growing city, so maintaining our water is crucial. I think the city has done a great job at establishing relationships with the Colorado Municipal Water District and the T-bar ranch at other locations, and I have a lot of experience with that. We need to take care of our water supply by making sure we are not contaminating them and making sure we are being responsible with our aquifers to ensure Midland has clean and safe drinking water. The last thing you want to do is run out of clean water in a desert.
MT: What strategies do you propose to promote economic development in Midland and ensure sustainable growth?
I think one of the biggest things we can do is utilize state and federal grants. There are a lot of grants available out there, and I think the city is doing a good job right now. We have the tenth amendment that limits the power of the federal government from acting certain things on the state and in that, there are some things of what you can and cannot do when taking a federal grant. It's important for us to understand what the stipulations are behind grants. We’re paying taxes and these grants are being granted by the federal government and somebody is going to get them. There are a lot of federal grants that we can use towards development in the city and making sure people are taken care of. We can hire the proper staffing to make sure we have the grants writers that are available to further ensure we’re getting every dollar that we can because these are time sensitive. Staffing needs to be in place, policies and procedures need to be in place, and having a good eye on it needs to be in place.
Another aspect is continuing to work with and support the Midland Development Corporation to make sure they are bringing in high-quality and sustainable businesses, which is their primary goal.
MT: What measures do you believe are necessary to enhance public safety in Midland, and how do you plan to work with law enforcement and the community?
I’ve talked to the chiefs of both the fire and police departments and they do have a lot of needs. We have patrol vehicles that are extremely old – some are still blue and white, and we changed from that a long time ago. With our expanding community, it is so vital to make sure our fire department is taken care of and that the police department has all that they need and has the necessary personnel to keep our citizens safe. We also want to make sure our departments have the necessary equipment and that has already been exemplified with generous donations from different businesses.
I know there has been support with enhancements with the pay, and we need to continue to be competitive with the pay. I’m not saying this is something I’m going to go in and fix because we already have people behind it who are recognizing it and conducting studies. With that, we can keep our personnel while also attracting more.
We keep our community safe by prioritizing and supporting our departments by not losing officers due to pay issues, ensuring their retirement is satisfactory, and looking to see if they have all they need to be successful.
MT: How do you plan to approach budgetary decisions and ensure fiscal responsibility for the benefit of Midland taxpayers?
I’ve run businesses from large to small and we’ve broken them down into something we call class category tiers where they are broken down into the smallest levels to understand our margins, and I have a vast knowledge of budgeting and maximizing in all the ways you can. It's an innate desire I have by making sure these businesses are successful financially.
Again, this also goes back to the idea of utilizing federal grants to make sure we're only using taxpayer money. Let’s make sure we have eyes on this at all times and understand what is happening and where we should go with it. We need to look at it and ask, “Is this the best decision that will benefit all Midlanders and align with what they want?”
MT: Are there specific areas where you see opportunities for budget optimization or reallocation of resources?
This is one of those things you do not know until you are able to look at the budgets. There's always possibilities for the reallocation of resources and budget optimization. If there is money left over in other areas, then let's move it to areas that may need it. We need to look at all of the city’s departments and list out what they all need, and this goes for all departments such as our sanitation, transportation, trash services, and so much more. They all play together to make up this city and we can keep eyes on their needs while also staying on budget.
MT: How do you intend to communicate with constituents and gather their input on important city matters?
Communicating with the residents is the most important thing for the at-large city council member to do. It's making yourself both visible and accessible to where people can get a hold of you at all times. Social media helps so much with this.
At-large means you are serving all the citizens in the city and not just tied to the citizens of a certain district. You’re a person just like they are, and they should feel comfortable enough to approach you and voice their concerns. The job of the at-large council person is to know what the constituents want, not what you personally want. Another aspect of that is providing the constituents with the correct information and knowledge so they are able to make the best decisions and then you’re able to gather their feedback.