AG forces city to turn over records again

Records reveal more details on terminations

Aaron Smith

The City of Odessa recently lost another legal battle with the Odessa American and was forced this week to release more details about a former city employee who plays a role in Aaron Smith’s whistleblower lawsuit against the city.

Smith, a former assistant city manager, was fired by the city on March 1. At that time, Mayor Javier Joven would only say there was an “active investigation” into Smith by the city.

On April 20, Smith filed a lawsuit against the city alleging he was fired because he reported Joven, the city council and city employees had illegally hired T2 Professional Consulting Services and violated the Texas Open Meetings Act.

According to the lawsuit, Smith claimed Human Resource Director Charles Hurst threatened and targeted him over his actions during a meeting Feb. 27. Smith had been summoned to Hurst’s office that day because 11 days earlier, Smith had gone to the Odessa Police Department to report a city employee for tracking a female OPD officer with GPS, actions he saw as potentially criminal.

On March 3, the Odessa American filed a Texas Public Information Act request asking for all emails, texts and memos concerning Smith’s behavior, job performance, work ethic or any human resource issues. The city fought to keep those documents secret, but on May 17, the Texas Attorney General’s Office informed the city it had no legal grounds to do so.

On Wednesday, the city released an unsigned investigative summary on Leonel Ibarra, a garage supervisor, who was fired the same day as Smith was for “illegal harassment.” They also released Ibarra’s termination letter and an email sent by Interim City Manager Agapito Bernal to Hurst, OPD Chief Mike Gerke, City Attorney Dan Jones and Joven the day after Ibarra and Smith were fired.

The email, without mentioning any names, reads: “In recent weeks we have become aware of two severe incidents targeting Odessa Police Officers and their safety by our own department, Equipment Services. There is a semblance of corruption and a lapse of good judgment, endangering our OPD officers’ safety and welfare. I want to impress upon you that I take these matters very seriously. It is my understanding the actors knew where the officers resided and monitored their movements. As Mr. Hurst pointed out, ‘information is worth money.’ Any efforts to impede this investigation will not be tolerated, as our officers deserve our utmost vigilance. Corruption and ill behavior by anyone will not be tolerated. We have a duty to ensure our officers are not monitored and can serve our community effectively and safely. We are taking steps to protect our Police Officers against corruption and ill intent.”

According to an investigative summary about Ibarra’s case, a city employee lodged a complaint against Ibarra after he learned Ibarra had used GPS to track him while he was on a work assignment in Plainview. Around the same time, it was discovered a female police officer had also been tracked by Ibarra.

On Feb. 21, Smith provided Hurst with a copy of an OPD report on the matter, the summary stated. Investigators had determined they didn’t have enough evidence for a stalking charge to be filed.

Whomever wrote the investigative summary stated Ibarra inappropriately used the city’s AVL system to monitor the whereabouts of employees and commented to others about the addresses of female employees, gave preferential treatment to female employees, gave unwelcome hugs to female employees and inappropriately stared at them.

The writer of the summary recommended Ibarra be terminated.

It is believed the second incident Bernal mentioned in his email involved Harvey Gutierrez Sr. On Jan. 13, the city had fired Gutierrez, an equipment services employee, for sharing pictures of an undercover police vehicle with his son, who was later arrested on suspicion of murder in an unrelated incident.