Former Odessa Development Corporation board member Tim Edgmon made a plea last week to all Odessans concerned about the future of the city: Get involved.
“We’re going in the wrong direction,” Edgmon said.
Now two years into the terms of Mayor Javier Joven and council members Denise Swanner and Mark Matta, Edgmon said it has become obvious to him the three have an agenda and it’s not one he can get behind.
“The new council people that were voted in two years ago, their whole plan, it’s pretty obvious now, is they want control of everything,” Edgmon said.
When city council members Mari Willis, Detra White and Tom Sprawls opted not to run last November and people didn’t come forward to fill their seats, Edgmon said Joven, Swanner and Matta were able to install “puppets” and tip the scales in their favor.
Those “puppets” then turned around and changed the power dynamic on the ODC board, Edgmon said.
Joven, Swanner and Matta are working along with Ector County Republican Chairwoman Tisha Crow, her husband, Kris Crow, and local businessman and Odessa Headlines Publisher Jeff Russell to push their agenda, Edgmon said.
Kris Crow, the new chairman of the ODC, agrees citizens need to become more involved, but he disputes the idea that recent changes revolve around achieving power.
Steps are being taken, he said, to finally get the city going in the right direction.
Shifting dynamics
Without Willis, White and Sprawls, the new majority was able to terminate Odessa City Manager Michael Marrero and City Attorney Natasha Brooks Dec. 13, Edgmon said.
Those terminations also allowed Joven to sign a $338,000 contract with a consulting company without seeking input from the entire city council, Edgmon said.
He also suspects the terminations led to the resignations of most of the city’s legal staff. Since Brooks’ termination, three attorneys of the five attorneys left in the office have handed in their resignations.
“What they’ve done is like a dog chasing the car. When the dog finally catches a car, it doesn’t know what to do. I think that’s exactly what they’ve done,” Edgmon said. “They’ve gone out and they’ve wiped us out on the ODC. They’ve got the council, they’ve got five votes out of seven, but they have no idea how to accomplish what they want because they’re firing people that you can’t fire that way. They’ve made big mistakes.”
Edgmon said Joven should stop listening to the people who are bending his ear.
“I think if Javier is getting any information he’s getting it from the wrong people because everything he’s done here lately has been wrong or back asswords,” Edgmon said.
Crow scoffed at that idea.
“It should be very clear to anyone who has been paying attention that City Council speaks for themselves. The idea that the Crows or Jeff Russell are working to ‘grab as much control as possible’ is absolutely ridiculous,” Crow said. “You will note that Mr. Edgmon provides no details to back up his accusations and a reasonable person would have to ask ‘control of what or for what?’”
No one has made any accusations that friends of his, Joven, Mata, Swanner or Russell have received city contracts, tax abatements or other incentives, Crow said.
However, there have been such allegations made against current City council member Steve Thompson and past council members and mayors including Peggy Dean, David Turner and Dewey Bryant, Crow said.
Crow specifically cited the fact STA Benefits, which was owned by Thompson and is now owned by his son, Marty, has been the city’s insurance broker for 29 years without having to face other bidders.
“Looking at the facts it seems pretty clear to me that the current council wants to take away any insider control over our city that has been in place for over three decades, and return that control to the hard working, tax paying citizens of Odessa,” Crow said. “Take a quick look at the makeup of any city boards, committees, the chamber, the ODC, the OIDC, etc. from prior to two years ago. You will quickly notice the same names over and over again, that all have deep ties to Mr. Edgmon and his friends.”
Thompson has only been on the council for the last two years.
Matta called all of Edgmon’s allegations “outlandish.”
“One of the things I like to live by is ‘stay in your lane.’ There’s only so many things we can do. All of these outlandish accusations that are being made by the group that’s probably benefited the most from the former appointees that we terminated. They’re just outlandish. They should know. They’ve been in local government. They’ve been in these positions. They should know how the city council works,” Matta said.
He accused Edgmon and his supporters of using the media to advance a false narrative.
“The reason they say this stuff is because they know that the Odessa American will pick up on it. They know that they’re gonna say, ‘Oh, this is a great story. This is going to hopefully sell some papers.’ They know that they know this stuff isn’t true. But here we are addressing it because what? A small minority group of people seem to control this whole city. So whatever they say it must it must be gospel and it’s just not the truth.”
Swanner is offended at the suggestion she’s advancing anyone’s agenda other than her constituents.
“How does that benefit any of us? I make $10 a meeting. How does that benefit the Crows or Russell? I know I was elected for my constituents and the taxpayer and to look out for that. I’m not a rubber stamp…They use the word puppet a lot. I’m grown. I’m nobody’s puppet. I mean you can look at my voting record, my past voting record. And I’m not a puppet for nobody.”
Matta said the people accusing certain council members of being a “rubber stamp” should consider the voting records of past council members. The fact is, past council members did the exact same sorts of things he, Swanner and Joven are now being accused of.
“We’re the exact opposite of a rubber stamp. These people are upset now because we’re asking questions. We’re questioning the status quo. So it’s ruffling feathers, but that’s what we were elected to do. We were elected in there to ask these tough questions. Now does it make everybody happy? No, it doesn’t make them happy. But we’re not here to make a small certain small group happy, we’re here to make sure that the whole city of Odessa benefits from decisions made at city council.”
Matta again accused the Odessa American of playing favorites.
“There was never any mention of Councilwoman Willis, Councilwoman White, Councilman Sprawls and Councilman Thompson ever being a voting bloc to what we wanted. They just skated free. But yet we go in and we have the majority now and ‘Oh my God, there’s a voting bloc. Now they’re going to they’re going to destroy Odessa. The sky is falling,” Matta said.
ODC changes
Changes on the ODC board have Edgmon worried about its very future.
On Nov. 22, the day newly city council member Chris Hanie was sworn in, he replaced Edgmon with Russell, who had been thrown off the ODC board by the old city council.
Russell, an active Republican party member who once ran unsuccessfully for Ector County Commissioner, and Thompson have accused each other of voting on items despite having a conflict of interest.
During the same Nov. 22 meeting, newly council member Greg Connell appointed Mikky Navarrete to replace board president David Boutin, who often voted with Edgmon. However, Vasquez saved Boutin, but in order to do so, he had to sacrifice Chris Cole, who also frequently voted with Edgmon, Boutin and board member Melanie Hollmann.
Edgmon, Boutin and Cole’s appointments weren’t due to expire until Dec. 31, 2023.
“I figured that I would be replaced based on the dealings I’ve had with that power group. I knew I would be most likely be replaced,” Edgmon said. “But what was the urgency? There was nothing coming out ODC that was urgent, but they took it upon themselves to immediately throw us off.”
Normally, when new council members are elected Odessa City Secretary Norma Aguilar-Grimaldo calls each of the outgoing council members’ appointees to see if they are interested in staying on.
That call never came this year, Edgmon said.
“Why would they not just wait until the end of the year comes up?” Edgmon said.
Crow said he was once replaced on the ODC board midterm.
“One meeting I was on the board, the next meeting I was gone, but I thought nothing about it, as I served at the council’s pleasure,” he said before going on to cite other examples.
Swanner and Matta agreed with Crow. Changes happen and that includes city staff.
Although they declined to comment on Marrero’s termination, citing pending litigation, they did say the average city manager only lasts four to five years. Marrero was promoted to city manager in 2018 after spending years as the assistant city manager.
“New city managers come in with new ideas, fresh ideas and stuff happens, you know. I’m not saying that’s that’s what’s holding us back here. We can’t really discuss anything else besides that, because there is an ongoing investigation on that. But, rest assured the decision that we made on there, they’re not easy decisions. They’re not easy choices, but we feel that it’s the right decision that we need to make to make sure that the city of Odessa grows and prospers and heading in the right direction,” Matta said.
Sales tax revenue
Edgmon suspects now that the power has shifted on the ODC board too, an attempt will be made by the city to regain control of the sales tax revenue now used to pay economic development incentives.
After being kicked off the board last January, Russell said the ODC was in need of “serious reform.” He complained it hadn’t done enough to diversity Odessa’s economy.
Russell cited instances in which incentives were given despite the fact the companies hadn’t met their goals.
Once he was gone, Crow took up the mantle.
During one meeting Crow told his fellow members that “co-mingling” ODC’s assets with the city’s seemed dangerous to him. Although he stressed he wasn’t alleging any wrongdoing, he said he was only getting the financial information the city and the city’s auditing firm, Weaver and Tidwell, wanted him to have.
Assistant City Manager Cindy Muncy, who announced she was leaving one week after Marrero was fired, assured the board there are plenty of checks and balances in place and there are benefits to having the same firm conduct city and ODC audits, including familiarity with the books.
Hollman, Cole and Boutin expressed confidence in the status quo at that meeting, with Hollman saying the way things are done comports with industry standards. They agreed they thought forcing the city to separate the books and audits would be onerous.
However, city staff sent out a request for proposals to various auditing firms in July, followed up with phone calls and emails. Muncy said of the two companies that responded, only one company was qualified. The board voted to go out to bid a second time in November.
Nacero
Edgmon and Boutin have also disagreed with Crow over Nacero, a $7 billion natural gas processing and production facility that is supposed to be built near Penwell.
Crow objected to Nacero receiving its first incentive payment in October because it only met 99.58% of its first benchmark goal and that was only after taking into consideration investments made prior to the contract being signed.
Edgmon said he takes no issue with Crow and others wanting to review policies and procedures, but he doesn’t think that’s all they want to do.
“I think you gotta go look at your past and not make the same mistakes. If you go back, we’ve gotten a 40% rate of return. We had some bonehead deals back before I was on there. We’d give them money up front and there’s no way to get the money back when they didn’t do the job,” Edgmon said.
Motives?
But, now that the power dynamics have changed on the city council and ODC board, Edgmon thinks Joven, Crow, Russell and their supporters have their eyes on the sales tax revenue used to provide incentives to companies looking to relocate or expand in Odessa.
The ODC was formed in 1997 when voters agreed one quarter of the 1 cent sales tax going to the Ector County Hospital District should be redirected toward economic development.
“They’re trying to get full control over that. They’re trying to get that quarter cent sales tax,” Edgmon said.
Again, Crow scoffed at that idea.
“Mr Edgmon might want to take a quick look at state law and the rules that surround the ODC’s quarter percent sales tax,” Crow said. “If ODC were disbanded, it would take a vote of the citizens of Odessa to decide where that money goes. The mayor and the council, would not have a say in the matter. What a novel idea….. giving the citizens of Odessa a vote. This is completely contrary to past council actions of just issuing certificates of obligation, as opposed to letting the public speak isn’t it?”
Swanner agreed with Crow.
“They give us so much credit as council. That’s gotta go to the voters. We can’t take the ODC money away from them and we’re not trying to. I don’t know where Mr. Edgmon’s coming up with that power hungry statement,” Swanner said.
Crow said he believes the future of the ODC and compliance committee are stronger than they’ve ever been.
“As the compliance committee serves at the pleasure of the ODC Board and as the ODC Board has changed recently, there could conceivably be future changes to the appointments of compliance committee,” Crow said, adding they’ll be looking more closely for any conflicts of interest.
Recent terminations
As far as the terminations of Marrero and Brooks, Edgmon said it’s fine to fire people for cause, but he’s not aware of any in this instance.
“You don’t go and have a evaluation in October and everything’s fine and then pull what they did, which screwed the whole thing up and that’s why we got lawsuits,” Edgmon said.
The people in Odessa who are working in concert with Joven, Crow and Russell are also meddling in Ector County Independent School District affairs, Edgmon said, citing Facebook posts about ECISD’s efforts to pass bonds for new and expanded school facilities.
“They want control, I think. Everyone you talk to says to get a hold of politics, you’ve got to start at the grassroots, your city council and your school board. That’s what you gotta get,” Edgmon said.
Crow said he can understand Edgmon’s “angst” over the new direction of Odessa.
“It is clear that the current Council fully intends to root out corruption and to stop the millions of dollars in tax abatements, incentives and other giveaways that have so freely flowed into the pockets of all of his friends. There is a new day dawning,” Crow said.
He is looking forward to the city getting back to basics and addressing the needs of the city and not the wants, Crow said.
There needs to be a focus on priorities, such as first responders, water and sewer systems and roads, he said.
“Fancy Christmas trees in front of the Marriott and a goofy gumby looking statue in front of the police training facility that cost thousands of dollars are nice, but not before we have paid for our basic needs,” Crow said.
Matta said he is ready to move past the terminations to focus on the future and the things past council members ignored, such as the need for a sports complex, grocery stores on the south side, infrastructure improvements.
Matta said last month “we had certain city leaders step up and talk about know how they’ve been a leader in this community for 25 years. 30 plus years, however long they’ve been a leader here, and even had some from the south side, my district, speak up and talk about that. My question is W’hy hasn’t anything ever been done those times when they were the leaders in this community?”
There’s city-owned land that is just sitting vacant, Matta said.
Matta and Swanner said they’re excited to start talking about the positive things going on, including the formation of a Quality of Life committee that will be looking into building a new sports complex.
Lack of interest
Edgmon bemoans the fact Hanie, Connell and Gilbert Vasquez, who voted against the firing of Marrero and Brooks, all ran unopposed.
”We need to get involved. Our community needs to get involved if you want to have a community….City council meetings need to be standing room only so you know what’s going on,” Edgmon said.
”Instead of hearing it from Odessa Accountability (Project) or hearing it from these different folks, hear it first hand,” Ector County Republican Women Board Member Theresa Edgmon said.
”The council was full the other day when they had it because but that’s reacting to something. We’re need to be proactive. You need to take time to go down there and listen to what’s going on and see how it all works,” Edgmon said.
Edgmon said he continues to stand “100%” behind Thompson, Hollmann and Boutin and he’s in the process of trying to convince people to run against Joven, Swanner and Matta in November 2024.
“We need to get the right people in the right positions,” Edgmon said. “What we’ve got to do, my opinion, is we’ve got to go into damage control right now. They talk about a recall, I haven’t heard anything about that. But I think we need to get involved and try to do as much damage control as we can. If you don’t like the way it’s gone, you got to go out and vote someone else in.”
The future
Edgmon said he believes Odessa should take a look at Midland and Lubbock for inspiration. Midland is using economic development money for parks and recreation and Lubbock is building roads before developments.
“You can go back and blame all the past councils as you want to, and they’ve got to own up to most of it. Odessa has never been proactive, we’re reactive. A prime example is you build a school out there on 87th Street and you don’t have the money to pave the road to get to the school. So you go back to all the people that are building out there and you try to force it on them,” Edgmon said. “You go up to Lubbock, you got a six lane road going out in the middle of nowhere. That’s the first thing that happens and then within a year and a half it’s loaded up with (developments).”
Because somebody wasn’t looking ahead, city staff is now trying to make Loop 338 into an expressway, Edgmon said.
“You can’t do it. You’ve got homes, residential streets that come out to the loop. You can’t put an overpass over everything,” he said.
