By Kim Smith and Royal McGregor
[email protected] and [email protected]
When Odessa Assistant City Manager Aaron Smith stood before the city council Tuesday night he faced some hard questions from Mayor Javier Joven.
Smith told the council he wanted to amend the city’s April 2020 master thoroughfare plan. He wanted to eliminate the connection of the Desert Ridge subdivision to the Sunset Heights neighborhood and the connection of Dawn to Yukon.
While he acknowledged the existing plan currently conflicts with Schlemeyer Airport’s runway protection zone, Smith insisted his primary reasons for wanting to change plans for 61st Street and Dawn Avenue were safety, walkability and quality of life. The best neighborhoods, he said, are those in which streets lead to them, not through them.
Joven had already been suspicious about the county, the RPZ and Schlemeyer Airport before the meeting.
The county was scheduled to hold a meeting Wednesday for a new five-member Joint Airport Zoning Board. Joven said that while he knew the county had created the board and City Council member Greg Connell and Traffic Operations Superintendent Hal Feldman joined it last week, Joven said he was not aware of the scheduled meeting.
More importantly, Joven said Tuesday morning he became aware of the board in November, but he has been unable to get the county to answer any of his questions.
During an interview with the OA on Tuesday morning, Joven said both former Ector County Judge Debi Hays and current Judge Dustin Fawcett informed him in November the county was in violation of Federal Aviation Administration rules requiring counties and cities to have a joint airport zoning board.
He was further told the original board dissolved and the city was in danger of losing hotel-motel taxes and the county was in danger of losing the ability to land big planes in the future, Joven said.
He was also informed the FAA says the traffic lights at Dawn and Yukon are too tall.
He heard through the grapevine that Smith, who was hired by former city manager Michael Marrero two weeks before Marrero was fired on Dec. 13, has been included in some discussions, but Joven said Interim City Manager Agapito Bernal has not been included in the loop.
“I’d just like to know if we’re creating another bureaucratic board, shouldn’t we know why we’re creating that? What’s the purpose of it? Is there a fiduciary responsibility, statutory responsibility? I mean we have more questions and none of them are being answered other than ‘You have to do it,’” Joven said.
Last year, the Texas Department of Transportation hired Coffman Associates to look into possible ways to economically develop the area around the airport safely and to make sure the RPZ was working properly, Ector County Commissioner Precinct 3 Don Stringer said last month.
Joven’s not convinced.
”My suspicion is that it’s a consultant that’s driving this. I don’t know the purpose of the consultant for the airport, other than they’re going to apply for this $15 million the commissioner’s court communicated to the community that they were gonna give this money back,” Joven said.
The Ector County Commissioners Court turned down $15 million from the state for a runway extension in July 2021.
If the county is going after that money now, Joven said there would be many angry residents near the airport.
Joven also questions whether the county and city ever had an airport zoning board. The city has no records of such a board forming.
“If it existed and the FAA was apart of it, how does a board dissolve and go away? Did it ever really exist?” Joven asked Tuesday morning.
He also was led to believe the county has been meeting for a year about the zoning board and the RPZ.
“My question to the former judge was ‘If you’ve been meeting for a year why am I just now hearing about it? If it’s such a concern that we know, why didn’t she ever pick up the phone and call?’”
While questioning Smith Tuesday night, Joven insisted the existing plan for Dawn and 61st would alleviate overflow from the main streets and he repeatedly asked him if safety and walkability were truly behind Smith’s request.
“Have you going to Yukon? Well, we know what’s driving that and that has nothing to do about destination, walkability or anything. It has to do with the acreage of the county,” Joven said.
When Stringer approached the podium, Joven asked if nobody truly knew in April 2020 when the plans were drawn there was a five-acre RPZ.
Stringer said they did not.
He further denied keeping the city out of the loop.
Stringer read emails from June 15 between himself and city council member, Mark Matta, about the RPZ and whether the Dawn Avenue extension had been approved.
Matta told him it had been discussed and it would be on an agenda soon, but said the city was searching for funds for it.
“You all need to talk to TxDOT Aviation, there’s a great chance they would shut down the project because it is directly under the takeoff and landing of the runway for Schlemeyer Airport,” Stringer read. “I was telling him, ‘Don’t waste your money on Dawn.’ I think I gave plenty of warning as soon as I knew about it.”
Stringer said he’s sure Matta, “a good guy,” informed the rest of the council about their conversations.
“They just put their fingers in their ears and la, la, la, la, la,” Stringer said.
Stringer said he reminded Joven about the need for a joint airport board during a swearing-in ceremony in November, but didn’t get a response.
However, City Utilities Director Tom Kerr said during Tuesday night’s meeting he met with Coffman, other city staff members and possibly county officials in December. He was told back then the county was considering changing the size of the RPZ.
Following the meeting, Stringer also provided the OA emails sent to city officials, one dating as far back as March, about the need to meet for planning purposes. Letters sent in December by Hays and Fawcett included Joven, all of the council members, Bernal, Interim City Attorney Dan Jones and Kerr.
Stringer insists he sent several other emails to city officials following his June meeting with Matta, but did not get any responses until last week when he was informed Bernal had appointed City Council member Greg Connell and Traffic Operations Superintendent Hal Feldman to the board. He could not immediately lay his hands on those emails.
The OA has filed a Texas Public Information Act request for all joint airport board emails with the city.
“Like I told Joven, if he’d ever returned my dad gum emails we wouldn’t be here today,” Stringer said.
After learning Wednesday the FAA has no record of an original joint zoning board, Stringer reached out to his consultant to clarify. He provided the Airport Zoning Act passed by the Texas Legislature in September 1987 stating cities and counties “may” form such boards.
“I was made to believe it was mandated,” Stringer said Wednesday afternoon.
After a lengthy discussion involving developer Larry Lee, Lee and the City agreed to stop 61st and Dawn Avenue shorter than originally intended.
Stringer said Wednesday he believes that will eliminate any issues with the RPZ, but on Tuesday night Joven instructed Council member Steve Thompson to see if there’s a way to move the RPZ.
Stringer pointed out the RPZ is owned by the county.
On Wednesday morning, the five-member Joint Airport Zoning Board held its first meeting and spoke about airport safety for Schlemeyer Airport.
Stringer said after the meeting this board was formed to make sure an airplane doesn’t land in someone’s living room.
Mark Merritt, the chairman of the Airport Advisory Board, explained the board was also formed for the safety of the pilots that fly in and out of the airport.
“The public safety and pilot safety are our main concern,” Merritt said.
The other three JAZB appointed members are Bill Ritter of the Airport Advisory Board, Connell and Feldman.
Stringer expressed the importance for the county and city to work together, not just on the JAZB, but everyday.
“It’s paramount,” Stringer said about the county and city working together. “We need to work together period.
“We are all Odessans. We are all Ector County people. I think we are going to have a good working relationship and I’m looking forward to it.”
There were only four agenda items for the JAZB for its first meeting, so the meeting lasted about 30 minutes in the Ector County Commissioners’ Courtroom.
The items that were discussed included operations and responsibilities of the JAZB, discussion about whether to seek out professional services for the JAZB and discuss adopting JAZB bylaws. There were no items voted on for the JAZB other than the ability to ajorn.
“There already is and has been cooperation between the developers, city and county,” Merritt said. “We don’t have it cohesive where there’s constant understanding yet and that’s what this zoning board will be tasked to do.”
The next meeting for the JAZB is set for 10 a.m. March 15.
Stringer believes it will take about six months to get ordinances and bylaws in order and from there the JAZB will meet as needed. The JAZB will also get its own webpage on the Ector County website. Stringer said it will be about three to four more weeks before the website is complete.
“Once we get everything in place, the board won’t have to meet as often,” Stringer said.
Stringer also said the city has lowered the traffic lights at Dawn and Yukon and Feldman is researching to see if the street lights also need to be lowered. He also said Oncor is studying all of the lights along Yukon to make sure they don’t interfere with the RPZ.
Stringer stressed the county turned down the $15 million two years ago because it would not have covered the cost of improving the airport’s aprons and turns. The county would also have had to match 10% of the $15 million, he said.
He also said the county and county residents are not interested in making changes that would allow big planes like 737s to land.
