The City of Odessa has a new city manager.
After interviewing three finalists for two hours each, the city council unanimously chose John Beckmeyer to replace Michael Marrero, who was fired in December.
Details of his contract still need to be worked out and he’ll have to go through a background check, but Councilmember Steve Thompson said he’s confident Beckmeyer will soon be at work.
Back in March, the city council crafted exactly what they wanted in a new city manager.
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’s 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 T2 Professional Consulting narrowed the list of finalists to four. Three candidates were interviewed Monday; the fourth withdrew.
Thompson said all three were excellent candidates who reside in Texas, which was important to the council.
Beckmeyer specifically has the organizational skills they were looking for, Thompson said.
“It was a tough process. They were all qualified and they all scored very high on the TriMetrix evaluations,” Thompson said. “He just seemed to be a very good fit. He’s got a lot of experience in a lot of different areas. There’s going to be a little bit of a learning curve, but he’s a very smart man and I don’t think he’ll be easily influenced.”
The TriMetrix assessment is a patented way to look at candidates’ behavioral style, personal motivators/drivers and competency levels.
T2 Founder Mike Wilson said the names of the other two finalists will remain confidential.
“What came before the council were great candidates and we were really excited to present all of them to them,” Wilson said.
A 2015 Texas Scorecard article described Beckmeyer’s wife, Teresa, as a “big voice in Texas politics.” She founded West Texas Voice, a blog educating readers on legislative and political happenings.
She told Texas Scorecard that after living in Washington, D.C., she and her husband knew they needed to move back to Texas because of all of the corruption going on at the national level.
She and her husband have served in a variety of positions within the Mitchell County Republican Party. She has also served as the legislative chair for the Republican Women of West Texas.
