Members of the City of Odessa City Council and Ector County Commissioners’ Court spoke about a variety of interlocal agreements during a joint workshop hosted by the Odessa Development Corporation.
Though no action was taken on any of the agenda items that were discussed during Tuesday’s nearly two-hour workshop, Ector County Judge Dustin Fawcett said he’s happy these discussions have already started less than two months since he’s been sworn in to office.
“This is not going to be the last time we have this,” Fawcett said. “It’s the first time that we’ve had all three entities to my knowledge. I know that we’ve had some joint city council and county commissioner sessions in the past, but they haven’t been done for several years. This is going to be the first of many, even just this year.”
Odessa Mayor Javier Joven said he’s glad ODC, City of Odessa and Ector County left their silos to meet face-to-face.
“We are laying down a foundation that future board members can use to be able to continue to negotiate,” Joven said.
Tuesday’s meeting took place at the Saulsbury Conference Room located in the Electronics Technology Building on the Odessa College campus.
The items that were discussed included interlocal agreements about Odessa Fire Rescue, Ector County Law Enforcement Center and the Odessa Animal Shelter. There was also a discussion about the Ector County Assistance District, which has been a sore subject between the City and County since the sales tax district was created several years ago.
At the end of the meeting, the group agreed to keep the interlocal agreement about the animal shelter status quo.
Ector County can bring animals to the Odessa Animal Shelter as long as they have room for those animals. Ector County Sheriff’s Office Captain Tony Bass said the sheriff’s office is only currently required to quarantine its own animals.
The workshop included a 30-minute discussion about the interlocal agreement for Odessa Fire Rescue to do runs in the county. The county currently has a yearly price tag of nearly $800k for OFR services.
Fawcett asked OFR Interim Fire Chief Jason Cotton about the county exploring private EMS services. Cotton told Fawcett that would be a bad idea. Cotton said “it’s our county and it’s our people.” Fawcett after the meeting said he wanted Cotton’s opinion.
“I appreciate him giving me his honest opinion,” Fawcett said. “I needed to hear that. I knew from previous conversations that it’s not apples to apples. I’m not familiar with the private EMS services in Odessa or Ector County or in the region.
“I do think it’s fair to get a cost estimate for what service would cost for that area. That way we could compare the two and see how it looks and is it worth trading off the quality for x-amount of dollars.
“I’m under the opinion that it’s hard to put a dollar value on a human life. … It’s one of those unquantifiable measures. It’s about quality. It’s not just about saving a million dollars. If the citizens aren’t getting proper care or proper EMS services, that OFR was providing then did we really do our community a service by saving money?”
The Ector County Law Enforcement Center was also discussed during the meeting. The City of Odessa has a yearly price tag of $450k for jail services. The yearly budget cost to run the jail is $34.2 million.
The workshop attendees also discussed the Ector County Assistance District that has helped Ector County bring about $32 million in just last year, which is the most it has ever collected. The roadblock between the City of Odessa and Ector County is how to split the sales tax money for parts of the county annexed in to use city services.
