Pub. 60 2019-2020 Issue 2

20 Ritch Wheeler —The Dealer’s Strategic Partner and Texas Community Leader A number of Texas franchised dealers have served their hometowns as a councilman or mayor. These family owned businesses throughout our state provide community leadership as well as essential transportation for Texans. Another family owned business and TADA’s endorsed partner for finance, insurance and training is American Financial and Automotive Services. AFAS and the Hetland family are an important partner for TADA and Texas dealers and have been for almost 20 years. Arden Hetland’s son- in-law is Ritch Wheeler, who has taken the next step in community service like many of our dealers, and has successfully run for a political office in Shenandoah, Texas, where he and his wife Laura Hetland Wheeler are raising their family. Here is an interview with Mayor Ritch Wheeler that reflects his level of commitment to community service and to Texas: R itch Wheeler assumed his first elected position as the mayor of Shenandoah after voters took to the polls to support him in May of 2016. He was then re-elected in May of 2018 to his second term. A native of Houston, Wheeler moved to East Texas with his family when he was in middle school and graduated from high school in Longview. From there, he continued his education at Norwich University in Vermont, where he ran track and played soccer until transferring to Baylor University. After spending some time in the U.S. Navy/Navy Reserve, Wheeler worked in retail automotive car dealerships. Most of his career was split between East Texas and DFW, where he held the positions of salesman, finance manager, finance director, sales manager, and general sales manager. After 12+ years in retail automotive, he was recruited by American Financial & Automotive Services Inc., where he has worked for the last 13 years. He has held the positions of dealership development manager, regional sales manager, and is currently the vice president of training. Wheeler and his wife, Laura, have been married for more than 10 years and moved to Shenandoah eight years ago to start a family. They now have three boys: Matthew, 8, Jacob, 6, and Andrew, 8 months. Before beginning his mayoral duties, Wheeler was involved with the Shenandoah Civic Club as well as the city’s Planning and Zoning Committee. What are your daily job duties as the mayor of Shenandoah? The most important part, of course, is the two City Council meetings per month that we have. As mayor, part of your job is to run those two City Council meetings, so obviously I have to be at those. I also serve as the president of our Municipal Development District, and I serve on the board of the Economic Development Partnership. It seems like as mayor, I spend a lot of time in Austin working with our state senators. I enjoy those trips to the capital building. That’s probably the history major in me coming back out. Over and above that, I attend a variety of community events and help establish goals, budgets, policies and changes in city ordinances. I also get involved in contract negotiations and project development. And then lastly, a lot of it is just trying to increase awareness for the city of Shenandoah. What is your vision for Shenandoah? We have a great city, and I want to help it get better. My vision is to con- tinue, as we grow, to add great businesses that can provide either a service or product that our residents can be proud of, and that our residents can use — businesses that generate a good revenue stream for the city. But overall, I want to build those types of successful businesses that we can be proud of, and then use that revenue stream to help add benefits and amenities for the residents. My top three priorities have stayed pretty consistent: responsible