Pilecki elected by landslide margin; discusses hotel tax

RED OAK — A majority of Red Oak voters overwhelmingly chose Rev. Fred Pilecki at a special election Tuesday to serve the remainder of a city council term.

Pilecki received 260 of the 467 votes cast in the four-candidate race, or 55.7 percent.

Former Council Member Roger Waggener finished second with 105 votes, followed by John Haisiak with 71 and Russell Williams with 31.

Once sworn in Feb. 28, Pilecki will serve the remainder of Mark Gregg's term, which experies Jan. 1, 2014.

Pilecki, who has served as the pastor at First United Methodist Church for more than three years, attributed his victory to his community involvement. He’s a member of the Chamber and Industry Association board, the YMCA board, and is active with the Optimists and Montgomery County Court of Honor.

After attending last week’s council meeting featuring the hotel/motel tax, Pilecki said he wants to see additional discussion on the topic.

“The last council meeting, it kind of bothered me these committees were trying to take control of the hotel/motel tax,” he said. “They want to control 100 percent of it. To want 100 percent of it, to me, is a little bit greedy.”

While state law requires 50 percent of the funds go to tourism, cultural and recreation, the other 50 percent can be used elsewhere.

“If we get the hotel/motel tax, we could use part of that to clean up the city and I think that in itself could help attract tourism, business and residents,” he said.