Odessa City Council members on Tuesday voted 5-1 to appoint a new city manager with a bit of discussion prior to naming Texas Republican Party Executive Director John Beckmeyer to the city’s top spot.
Beckmeyer’s appointment will come nearly eight months after the council voted 5-2 to terminate City Manager Michael Marrero without explanation. He is scheduled to begin work Aug. 10.
Prior to the vote, Councilman Steve Thompson said he wanted to make a statement. “I am having a real problem with all this … I don’t understand … We had specific criteria of what we wanted … It bothers me that he (Beckmeyer) would even submit an application when he doesn’t meet any of the criteria.”
Back in March, the city council worked with Fort Worth’s T2 Professional Consulting to outline exactly what they wanted in Marrero’s replacement.
The council stated the new city manager must have a bachelor’s degree or higher in public administration, business administration, management or a related field. In addition, they must have three or more years experience as a city manager, assistant city manager or as a department head in a city of similar size to Odessa.
According to LinkedIn, Beckmeyer has an associate degree in animal science from Western Texas College and a bachelor’s degree in animal science from Sam Houston State University.
Beckmeyer has been the executive director of the Republican Party of Texas since July 2021 and is the chief operating officer of the STEM Software/Musketball Group in Odessa since January 2019. He joined the Musketball Group in 2017.
LinkedIn shows he has held a variety of positions for companies involved in software development and e-commerce industries.
Fifty people applied for the position, but the list of finalists was narrowed to four. Three candidates were interviewed; a fourth withdrew.
Thompson on Tuesday questioned how T2 “jumped” him over 47 other people when he had no “qualifications whatsoever.”
Thompson, following a council executive session, said he contacted T2 to ask them how they picked him over other qualified candidates and was “met with silence over the phone.”
The Odessa American also asked T2 about that matter on July 15. In an email, Michael Wilson of T2 did not answer questions about how Beckmeyer ended up a finalist when he did not meet the minimum qualifications and instead wrote: “Council made it clear from the beginning that they had an interest in a nontraditional candidate. T2 presented four excellent candidates to the Odessa City Council, and they made a hiring decision.”
Thompson on Tuesday continued saying he had a problem with it and Councilman Mark Matta questioned him about why he didn’t speak up during the previous executive session about his misgivings and asked Thompson if he was speaking up because of opeds in the OA particularly one from Odessan Kirk Edwards.
Edwards wrote: “…what a laughingstock this council continues to be. As they ran on waste of taxpayer money on downtown sculptures to get elected and then spend upwards of $300,000 for a search firm with direct orders to bring to them the most qualified candidate with drum roll, please – city manager experience and to name a finalist that has none. And now they will offer him a fat salary well over $250,000 per year with the perks included. We as citizens of Odessa must ask ourselves why? Why are these folks making us the joke of Texas. We will now have over $500,000 dollars invested in a guy that has never passed a budget, never hired a police chief or fire marshal, or know what they even do. Never held a management leadership position with over 1,000 employees which Odessa now has.”
Thompson said he has heard from a number of constituents who question the pick. He also added he knew any choice for city manager he had would not be considered. During the back and forth with Matta and Thompson both Matta and Councilwoman Denise Swanner said the council voted 7-0 “during executive session” to move forward with Beckmeyer.
City Attorney Dan Jones following Matta saying they voted in executive session said a vote was taken “on the dais” as votes are not allowed during executive session and are a violation of the open meetings act.
According to his proposed contract, Beckmeyer’s base salary will be $238,000 annually and he’ll receive a $600-a-month car allowance. Should the city council ever terminate Beckmeyer, he’d receive six months’ salary plus any unused unileave days.
Marrero’s annual salary was also $238,000 and he had a $950-a-month car allowance. Under the terms of his contract, he was due an entire year’s salary upon his termination.
Documents obtained by the Odessa American under the Texas Public Information Act revealed Marrero’s attorney, Iwana Rademaekers, told City Attorney Dan Jones back in March the city had paid Marrero some of what he was due, but he had not yet received his annual salary as his contract dictated.
Councilman Gilbert Vasquez was not at the meeting Tuesday and the council voted 5-1, with Thompson a no, for Beckmeyer’s appointment and contract.
During the Tuesday meeting the council also accepted P Bar Parks Bell Ranch’s donation of 100 acres for the new sports complex.
Council members named a board of directors with each councilperson allowed to name one person to the board. Those named included Collin Sewell, Daniel Howard, Bradley Marquez, Kerri Evans, Bob Thayer, Jeff Stenberg and Teresa Vasquez.
Larry Bell and his family announced a few months ago they wanted to donate 100 acres to the city so it can build a $50 million sports complex in the Parks Bell Ranch area, north of Faudree Road.
The 80,000-100,000 square foot complex will feature 20 volleyball courts, 10 basketball courts and a track, plus 8-12 multi-purpose fields for soccer, football and lacrosse and up to eight baseball/softball fields.
The only thing the Bell family asked in return was for a five-acre park to be included in the project that will be dedicated to Amy Doris Bell, who died at the age of 33 in May 2014. On Tuesday, the Council voted to name the sports foundation after Amy Bell.
Attorney Tommy Sheen presented findings from his investigation into a series of Odessa Fire Rescue hazing incidents.
Sheen, in a nutshell, said the human resources department at the City of Odessa needs to be empowered to conduct investigations and not just give advice.
He said the internal investigation by the OFR handed out punishments internally instead of bringing in HR. He said training of new employees over the last 30 years has been watered down and needs to be beefed back up to include what to do if an employee has a grievance.
Sheen said investigations need to be more objective and the process over the years has had a drop in orientation and training leaving employees unsure about what to do if they have an issue or injury.
The city already has had a safety policy since 2002.
“You need to review and update the safety policy and make sure the employees have access to how to do this … Employees need to know they can go to the safety director,” Sheen told the council.
“HR needs the ability to conduct an investigation … as we have been able to find in city rules now that is not unless the city manager tells them to.”
HR needs to have oversight and not just an advisory role, he said.
