City reacts to Telvista closure

A banner on the walls outside Telvista’s Odessa call center still read “Telvista Wants You” Tuesday morning.

But instead, human resource workers weren’t meeting with prospective new employees, they were preparing current ones for what’s next.

Telvista’s 270 Odessa employees were being given options for the facility’s planned September closure, said company spokeswoman Ayn Owens. Interview requests at the Odessa site were referred to Dallas-based Owens.

“The majority of our employees will be given a offer to relocate to Dallas,” Owens said.

Those who take the offer to move will be offered relocation packages, she said. But those who want to stay in Odessa will be given options too.

“Various employers in the Odessa area have contacted us and said ‘we might be able to use your people,’ ” she said. “We will make our employees aware that those options exist.”

Owens said she couldn’t name the interested employers until Telvista could make sure the skills the other companies are interested in match those that Telvista’s workers have.

The company is also looking into the logistics for hosting a job fair for its employees, Owens said.

Willie Taylor, chief executive officer of Workforce Solutions Permian Basin, said he visited Telvista’s call center Tuesday morning and met with human resources representatives. He expects around 70 percent of its employees to stay and find other jobs in the Permian Basin, while 30 percent could take offers in Dallas.

But he will work to keep as many in the area as possible.

“No area likes to lose civilian workforce population,” he said. “If they are staying, we are going to do everything we can do to have some kind of workforce training.”

Like Workforce Solutions did when the closure of Flint Hills Resources’ Odessa petrochemical plant was announced, as well as the shutdowns of call centers for First American Home Buyers Protection Co., Taylor said his people are preparing a “rapid response.”

“We’re going to be working real, real close with them,” he said.

Ultimately, Owens said Telvista, which opened in 2004, didn’t make it because of “macroeconomic” factors. Translated, that means its relatively low-paying jobs couldn’t compete when oilfield activity picked up.

“Indirectly or directly, that would definitely be the case,” she said.

She said the facility has often struggled to attract and retain workers.

“It’s something we have struggled with the majority of the time since we have been in Odessa,” she said.

Gary Vest, economic development director for the Odessa Chamber of Commerce, said he already showed Telvista’s 50,000 square-foot building to a “prospect” Tuesday. He is hopeful of finding a buyer for the site, which Telvista owns.

“One thing we don’t have a lot of in Odessa is vacant office space,” he said. “It can be adapted for a lot of different uses.”

Telvista met its obligations on a five-year contract for receiving a $2,839,800 grant and paid back a $1 million loan from the Odessa Development Corp. last year, though it still has time left on a 10-year, 100 percent property tax abatements from the area’s taxing entities in 2004.

Vest said he expected Telvista to wait until the end of the tax abatement before pulling up shop, though that won’t be the case.

One thing Vest said not to expect to go into Telvista’s space is another call center. He said he hasn’t pursued those since he took over as economic development director in 2007. The need for the facilities has declined with increased use of the Internet as well as “do not call” lists.

“It’s not just unique to Odessa,” he said. “It’s happening all over.”

Vest said he has been working with ODC’s compliance committee to develop a “numbers matrix” in which companies with higher-paying jobs are weighed more heavily toward getting incentives from ODC than lower-paying jobs.

“It’s going to have to be pretty good paying jobs to get incentives from ODC in the future,” he said.

Tom McMinn, an ODC board member, said he was surprised to see Telvista now has 270 employees when it reported having 505 to ODC in January.

“It sounds to me like they’ve been winding this down for some time,” he said.

No current ODC board member was serving when the Telvista agreement was passed, but McMinn said the local economy was different then.

“When they came out here, the oilfield was down, and there weren’t many jobs,” he said. “This seemed like a good fit for them.”

Meanwhile, Chris Mandrell, executive director for the EZ Rider bus system, said the transit organization plans to continue its service to its stops on JBS Parkway near Interstate 20, where Telvista and Family Dollar’s Texas Distribution Center are located, though that could change after future surveys. He said that around 10 to 15 Telvista employees use EZ Rider daily.

“We’re not anticipating any route changes,” Mandrell said. “There are other businesses along that route we will continue to serve.”

Telvista
>> ODC required jobs: 500.
>> 2009 reported jobs: 505.
>> Current employees: 270.
>> ODC incentives: $2,839,800 grant, $1 million loan. Five-year contract ended Aug. 1, 2009.