Voters in Ector County’s Precinct 4 will have two Democratic county commissioner candidates to choose from in the primary, Armando Rodriguez who is running for his fifth term and Savannah Morales, who is seeking her first political office.
Another Democratic candidate, Joe Davila, did not obtain enough signatures to run.
The winner of the March election will go up against Billy Hall, who is running unopposed in the Republican primary.
Armando Rodriguez
Rodriguez, 61, is a native Odessan who graduated from Ector High School and holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio.
Rodriguez said he is proud of the fact he’s the sole Democrat and minority commissioner on the court. The former health inspector said he is also the only commissioner who has made the court his full-time job.
He has always been committed to making Odessa a better community, Rodriguez said.
“Being born in Odessa I’d like to see more opportunities to improve the area. I was born in South Odessa and going to school in San Antonio I saw a lot of differences. We were not having the same opportunities as other places were,” Rodriguez said.
Asked about his legacy, Rodriquez said he is proud citizens can now vote early at various sites and they can vote anywhere they like on election day.
“Before they had to vote at their precinct and some people might be on the north side and have to go all the way to the south side. Now they can vote anywhere on election day,” Rodriguez said.
He takes credit for pushing for new rules regarding new subdivision roads and would like to see additional work done in that regard.
“There were a lot of problems. We were accepting a lot of roads that were caliche roads, which was a problem because they’re more expensive for us to maintain,” Rodriguez said. “We made rules that if they didn’t want to maintain the roads then they had to make them private, that way we wouldn’t be responsible for it.
Of particular concern to him right now is an area near Loop 385, which he described as “a mess.”
“I do have a problem on 385, an area that has ETJ (extraterritorial jurisdiction). The city approved it to some extent and they shouldn’t have approved it, but they did and they do have a road that they have not forced the development to pave that road,” Rodriguez said.
“Now that we’re receiving sales tax for the county we’d like to fix roads that we accepted as caliche and pave them,” he said.
Rodriguez said he is also proud the county will soon have a new juvenile detention center and if re-elected, he hopes to find a solution for the aging courthouse and to encourage more economic development in his precinct.
“We do need to do something about the courthouse,” Rodriguez said. “The thing is I’m afraid something is going to happen. I don’t feel very comfortable when I have to go in the elevator. I’m afraid somebody’s going to get stuck on the elevator.”
He believes rehabbing the current courthouse will be too expensive and said it will be difficult to find space for a new facility downtown. He can see why some are in favor of building a new facility on the southside near the jail.
After having served so long on the court, Rodriguez said he is proudest of the fact he’s been able to help residents from all over the county, not just Precinct 4.
“Being bilingual does help a lot, I get calls from all of the other precincts because of the barriers of the language,” Rodriguez said.
He fields calls about a lot of different things, from potholes to septic tank issues to procedural matters.
“I can work with the health department and other departments to try to solve some of the problems,” Rodriguez said. “We sit down and talk and see if we can come to some sort of agreement that doesn’t break the rules and regulations. I do a lot of the translation, to see what they want and how they want it. I can also give them directions, telling them it needs to go before the board and how they can do that.”
Rodriguez said he stands by the court’s recent decision to hire a consultant to help the county discuss how to spend $32 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds.
At least one commissioner court candidate said it’s the commissioners’ job to determine how to spend that money.
“It is our job, but we have to go by the rules and regulations. We have an auditor that can help us, but he doesn’t feel very comfortable doing it,” Rodriguez said. “There are a lot of rules that we don’t exactly know, ways we can use the money and ways we can’t. We might use the money (on things) that don’t qualify and the taxpayers would have to pay back the government. Hiring a consultant that knows more than we do, they can take some of the responsibility.”
Personally, Rodriguez said he’d like to see the aging health department building replaced and expand services. He’d also like to provide more assistance to the volunteer fire department as their call volume continues to grow.
Medical Center Hospital and Odessa Regional Medical Center have asked for additional funding, but Rodriguez said the county needs to know “for a fact” FEMA will reimburse the hospitals before granting those requests.
He’d also like to know exactly what the hospitals would spend the money on.
Rodriguez and his wife Rosa Isela, hope people recognize that he’s often the lone vote on many issues and that he’s tried to make a difference.
Voters also need to know that “People can talk to me. They know where I live at. They know where they can find me. Anytime they call me I do my best to respond.”
Savannah Morales
Savannah Morales, 36, is another Odessa native. The married mother of four children grew up helping her grandparents run Soto and Sons Concrete.
The Aim High School graduate also spent 15 years working with her husband Daniel at Melody’s Bakery on the southside, which is owned by her in-laws.
She decided to run for office shortly after joining the county’s public works department in September.
“I was on the phone with citizens and hearing all of their problems. I’m an observer so sitting back and listening to how they run things it really frustrated me. Who’s here to talk for these people? I just felt like their voices were being ignored. It pushed me and I educated myself on what do they do, how do they run and I saw how nothing can get done unless it’s approved by the court,” Morales said. “I feel like some of the leaders have got content in their places and have forgotten why they’re in that position and it’s because of us voters who have voted them in. They were supposed to be the voice for us.”
Again and again, Morales said she hears complaints about road conditions.
“It’s frustrating. It’s heartbreaking on the phone with these citizens. It’s heartbreaking when these citizens come in and these developers are selling land to them and disappearing after telling them Ector County will come in and take care of their roads when they sell 20-30% of the block and that’s a lie, we don’t,” Morales said.
If elected, Morales said she’d do what she could to hold developers accountable for the roads in the neighborhoods they build.
Morales said children and seniors are also high on her priority list. She’d like to see a community center built on the southside so kids could have more positive activities to engage in. She also wants to make sure children have more opportunities once they graduate from high school.
“These children are growing up and they’re thinking ‘As soon as I hit 18 I’m leaving Odessa’ and that’s the mentality we don’t want them to have. We want them to be able to stay here and establish, even trades. Not everybody is made for college, they can go off and have an awesome trade and build,” Morales said. “I want the young and the citizens to know we can stay here and have a good city. You don’t have to leave and go somewhere else and take your taxpayer dollars or your education there. We can do something here.”
She’d quit her job so she could have more time to get out into the community and hear from her constituents.
“I want to advocate for our community. I want to be a change because I think about the future and what it will hold for my children, what are we leaving them?” Morales said. “I want to be able to improve things. As I sit there and talk to the citizens they feel like they’re not being heard. They feel like they’re just being shushed out or they don’t deserve any of the new improvements or that anyone who comes in is going to speak for them. That’s something that frustrated and pushed me.”
Morales said she’d also like to make sure there’s more of a police presence in the Pleasant Farms area and better funding for the volunteer fire department.
“We should be giving them more funds. I know Ector County does give them funds, but it’s not sufficient,” she said of the fire department.
Morales admitted when she decided to run she wasn’t sure what she needed to do or what party she wanted to run under, so she met with representatives of both parties.
“I wanted to meet the parties to see who I really affiliated with. I feel like I’m more purple than blue or red. It’s very hard…I’m for the people. I don’t know how to explain it, I just want to help the people, I want to be able to be there to be their voices, but in order to do that you have to pick a party,” Morales said.
After friends told her she could be a “conservative Democrat,” she chose to run as a Democrat.
“I have nothing against Republicans. I have Republican friends and family and I think both parties should be able to work together in order to make change. We can’t keep butting heads on things or we won’t do nothing. Things will stay the same,” Morales said.
“My goals are to be able to work as a family and to be able to take care of the families in Odessa.”
The last day to register to vote is Jan. 31. Early voting begins Feb. 14 and ends Feb. 25.
