With the oath of office and a signature, the city of Wichita Falls welcomed in two new city councilors: Tim Brewer, who defeated Nicholas Schreiber, will represent district four. Steve Jackson, who came out ahead of incumbent Mitesh Desai and Chris Reitsma, will represent district five.

“I was accepted real well and I appreciate it,” said Councilor Jackson.

“I feel great. I think it went well,” Councilor Brewer said.

Both new councilors say it’s somewhat of a challenge being the new guy.

“There’s a lot of things I thought I knew before I got here that I found out I didn’t know,” said Brewer.

“That’s the way to learn: just sit back, take notes, that’s what I did during this meeting and just work forward,” Jackson said. 

Also taking the oath of office again, returning District three Councilor Jeff Browning and Wichita Falls Mayor Stephen Santellana. Browning ran un-opposed in the November 6th election and Mayor Santellana defeated Lowry Crane. The mayor said his re-election demonstrates citizens are happy with his leadership so far.

“Citizens see that things are going good. They know that his position is more of an ambassadorship,” Mayor Santellana said.

Regarding Councilors Brewer and Jackson, the mayor said he’s glad to have them aboard and encourages them to ask questions and learn as much as they can. The mayor pointed out that though it may not seem like it, electing two new council members could have a big impact.

“We’ve added two older members. It really changes sometimes the thought of maybe how we look at appropriation of money or maybe how we look at downtown development,” said Santellana. “But right now, I’m telling both those new councilors things are going really good. Let’s try not to change the direction too much,” Santellana said.

Whether those who voted them in agree on the direction the councilors choose on controversial issues will be determined the next time their names go on the ballot.

And one of the items the new councilors approved Tuesday was the purchase of equipment upgrading the city’s traffic signal system to try and get emergency personnel to those who need help as fast as possible.