After taking a week to consider the question “Should the City of Odessa move to seize 8-liner machines from game rooms?” the Odessa City Council decided to take a completely different path Tuesday night.
The city council directed its attorneys to continue amending the city’s ordinance regarding game rooms and to see if they can rush to finish an inter-local agreement with Ector County by next week’s county commissioners’ meeting.
In the end, only one of them can be implemented, but both are being written to tighten up restrictions on the businesses, which are proliferating throughout the City of Odessa and unincorporated Ector County.
According to officials: there are 26 game rooms within the city limits and 40 in unincorporated Ector County.
For months, the attorneys for Ector County and the city have been discussing ways to tighten up existing ordinances because of the belief that game rooms are causing an increase in crime and causing dire financial issues for those who can least afford them.
Last week, Mayor Javier Joven told council members he and outside attorneys he’s consulted with believe that a recent opinion issued by the Texas 2nd Court of Appeals may render the issue of ordinances moot. In that opinion, the court ruled that 8-liner machines are “lotteries” and therefore unconstitutional. The court opined that the machines are not, in fact, like those found in Chuck E. Cheeses, where the prizes are worth less than $5.
The mayor asked the council how they felt about issuing the city’s 26 game rooms a “cease and desist” letter and seizing the 8-liner machines of those that did not comply within 30 days.
The council tabled the matter for further discussion during Tuesday afternoon’s workshop session.
On Tuesday, Odessa City Attorney Natasha Brooks said she and her staff think the city should continue to pursue entering into an agreement with the county, which would mean the county game room ordinance would also cover game rooms within the city’s jurisdiction.
Council member Steve Thompson told the other council members he thought the council would be moving “too fast” if it opted to seize machines and he recommended the city wait until the Texas Supreme Court rules on the matter, noting the decision in the 2nd Court of Appeals is likely to be appealed.
Because state law allows county ordinances to be more stringent than municipalities’, Thompson said he thought the city’s attorneys should continue to work on the inter-local agreement with the county. Under the city’s ordinance, game rooms can’t operate within 300 feet of schools, churches and neighborhoods, but under the county’s, that distance is 1,500 feet.
Joven pointed out the county’s ordinance doesn’t specify game rooms can only operate within areas deemed light industry, which is included within the city’s proposed ordinance. He also worried that by waiting on the inter-local agreement to be adopted, the city would experience an explosion in the number of people applying for game room business licenses. Whether there’s an inter-local agreement or a new city ordinance, existing game rooms will be grandfathered in under the current rules.
He also pointed out that if the city council continues to allow game rooms to operate 8-liner machines despite the court’s ruling them unconstitutional, the city will continue to take in sales tax money. During the first three months of the year, he said the city received $626,000.
Thompson asked if it would be possible to adopt an inter-local agreement and place a moratorium on game room license applications, but Brooks said that wouldn’t be legal.
After much discussion, the council directed Brooks and Senior Assistant City Attorney Monique Wimberly to see if Ector County Attorney Lee McClendon would be willing to include language in the inter-local agreement that would limit the number of game rooms within both the city and the county and also limit their placement to locations zoned as light industry.
The council also directed Brooks and her staff to continue working on amending the city’s ordinance, which would address everything from location to hours to appearance.
If the county is unwilling to include the city’s suggestions or if the commissioners are unable to get the inter-local agreement onto their agenda for Tuesday morning’s commissioners’ meeting, the council can move forward with adopting the city’s new proposed ordinance at Tuesday night’s council meeting. If the ordinance has to be adopted first, the council said they could later decide to rescind it once the inter-local agreement is finished and approved by the commissioners.
The city’s proposed ordinance will have to be publicly read twice and wouldn’t go into affect for another 30 days after the second reading.
All of the council members bemoaned the fact game rooms exist, but all agreed they have to follow the rules and procedures in place, even if it means an avalanche of business permit applications.
In other matters, the city council:
>> Heard euthanasia statistics from Fix West Texas, a non-profit animal rescue organization which strongly urged the council to consider putting money toward a spay and neuter voucher program. According to the organization, the animal shelter euthanizes roughly 50% of the animals taken to the shelter annually. The organization also recommended the city bring in outside experts to provide other suggestions on ways to lower the euthanasia rate. The council indicated they want city staff to investigate further.
>> Heard from SCS Engineers, a company hired in 2019 to analyze the city’s solid waste management program for ways to streamline and improve it. There were discussions on changing the size of containers, the frequency with which trash is picked up and improving recycling efforts. The city council will decide at a later point, which, if any, suggestions will be implemented.
>> Received updates on efforts by Keep Odessa Beautiful and they learned of upcoming events.
