Local artist and teacher Paul Schexnayder is dipping his toes into public service this election season.

Schexnayder, who is running for the position of New Iberia’s mayor pro tem in this November’s election, says he wants to bring a fresh, new position to the city council as well as add to the traditional responsibilities of mayor pro tem.

Schexnayder is facing two other candidates for the position, former New Iberia City Councilman David Merrill and former Iberia Parish Councilman Ricky Gonsoulin.

Election day is Nov. 3.

What’s your history with New Iberia?

I was born and raised here. I went to school at Catholic High and graduated in 1984, then went to LSU and graduated in ’88. I moved to the Boston area for four years, taught there and really had the desire to move home and be an artist. That’s what I’ve been doing ever since.

Why did you decide to run for mayor pro tem?

I think the progress that we’ve seen the city make in the past 10 years is exciting and very much needed, and I want to be a part of it and add to it. My experience in the community and all the different projects I’ve been involved in has made an impact for New Iberia and I really want to continue that. My work as a teacher, listening to all points of view and gathering information with different people is my strength. Turning all that information into successful planning and seeing the results, I think I can bring a fresh new perspective to the council.

What projects will you focus on?

Currently we have the museum expansion and George Rodrigue Park that is on their second phase, the park will (comprise) the whole park as well as the back parking lot, which is exciting. The museum is going to build out almost double their space, which is awesome.

We’re about to start putting art paint on the gas station on Lewis and Main, so that’s a great thing. There’s little and big things happening all around the city which is exciting, especially the Little Brooklyn neighborhood project. That’s an awesome project that the community has taken it on themselves to do.

As those little things start happening around the city, people take more pride in the city. Hopefully our city will be cleaner and safer and we can have an impact that way. What I’m interested in doing is bringing a lot more tourism into the city. I was on the Iberia Parish Tourism (Board) for four years as a volunteer and we have such great assets here, but as a city we don’t really have an identity as far as marketing ourselves.

I’d like to really listen to all the districts and council members and come up with a plan. But before you invite people over you have to clean up, and we have to clean up, we have so much litter. It goes back to that pride thing and I’d like to see us get back to that. As a teacher, I travel to different schools teaching students so I know the districts and how and where people live. I see a lot and I think I can help pull all that together into a central marketing plan for us.

That will create an economic impact for us too, what if we have tours of things along the bayou or things for children. We can use aqua tourism, use the bayou and what we have.

What does being mayor pro tem mean to you?

Walking the different neighborhoods, a lot of people have asked me what is a mayor pro tem, they don’t really know. It’s a city wide position, that person has a vote on the council, they are kind of the liaison between the city council and mayor’s office.

What I’d like to do is expand that role and be more like the lieutenant governor’s office, and that is a promoter and creator of the state, someone who cheerleads and promotes what we have around here.

Whether it be an industry or business coming into town, cleaning up the neighborhoods, getting that word out and bringing back that pride about the city, and hopefully that will help us have a richer city. As a business owner, teacher and artist I will hopefully bring that fresh new perspective that we need for the position of mayor pro tem, and I love New Iberia.