The Odessa City Council gave City Attorney Natasha Brooks and her staff additional rules Tuesday to include in the city’s proposed game room ordinance, including one that goes against Brooks’ recommendation.
The council has been working for months on amending its game room ordinance due to an explosion in the number of game rooms over the last couple of years.
They had hoped the Ector County Commissioners would negate the need for an ordinance amendment by voting on an inter local agreement Tuesday morning, but Brooks said the county did not respond when she reached out to them following last week’s council workshop; nor did they put the inter local item on the commissioners’ Tuesday morning agenda.
Council members and commissioners believe game rooms bring an unwanted element into neighborhoods and take money from the poor and elderly. Chief Mike Gerke and Sheriff Mike Griffis also believe many of them are engaged in illegal gambling.
The council had already agreed on changing the hours the city’s game rooms can operate, but on Tuesday, they agreed by a 4-2 vote that future game rooms should not be allowed to have automatic locking mechanisms and window coverings that prevent law enforcement officers from seeing inside from the street. In addition, they won’t be able to have more than 50 games each or operate outside light industrial or heavy industrial areas. Nor will they be able to limit their patrons to members only.
All of the council members agreed on the above new language, but District 5 Council Member Mari Willis and District 3 Council Member Detra White voted against the motion because the other council members also want the newly amended ordinance to say game rooms cannot operate within 1,500 feet of each other, neighborhoods, churches, schools, day cares and hospitals.
Brooks and her staff have told the council repeatedly that while counties are allowed to impose a 1,500 foot limit, municipalities are only allowed to impose a 300 foot limit.
Mayor Javier Joven said the 2nd Court of Appeals recently upheld Fort Worth’s ordinance, which includes the 1,500 foot restrictions. If the game rooms sue the city, Joven said the matter would likely end up at the Texas Supreme Court, which he suspects will end up declaring game rooms illegal anyway.
White also said she was worried about the light/heavy industry zone restrictions included by the other council members.
Once finished, the ordinance will have to be publicly read twice and it won’t go into affect for another 30 days after the second reading.
Odessa resident Larry Robinson told the council he believes the existing ordinance is confusing in that it says serial numbers must be placed on the “upper front right side panel,” which he said is contradictory and confusing for many game room owners and operators, especially those who are Asian.
In recent weeks, several game room owners and operators have received citations for violating that part of the ordinance and Robinson said he feared the city could end up in litigation over it.
Police Chief Mike Gerke announced his office is working on separate manuals for both his officers and game room owners that will include pictures of where the serial numbers should be. The manuals, which are expected to be finished by the end of the week, will also clear up other issues that have come up in recent weeks.
Roughly 700 citations have been issued since 2019 to game room owners, with more than 400 of them being written since early April, one of Gerke’s officers said.
In other action, the council voted unanimously to give city council appointees a 4% raise and a one-time $1,250 payment. All full-time employees recently received the same raise.
