The Odessa City Council came out of executive session Tuesday night without taking any action regarding Municipal Court Judge Carlos Rodriguez and then “tabled” any discussion about accepting applications for his position.
Rumors were rampant the council was going to fire Rodriguez because he allegedly got sideways with Mayor Javier Joven over an email he sent to Rodriguez and Associate Judge Keith Kidd in June regarding Operation Graduation. People were concerned since Rodriguez was evaluated in October, just as City Attorney Natasha Brooks and City Manager Michael Marrero were. Brooks and Marrero were terminated Dec. 13.
In the letter, Joven wrote, “I request that you consider the maximum penalty for any social host violations and for any minor in possession citations.”
There was also speculation as to whether unlawful access to juvenile court records was being given to council members, especially Denise Swanner, who is the assistant Teen Court coordinator.
Prior to going into executive session, three local attorneys, Gaven Norris, Anthony Robles and Jason Schoel, took the opportunity to support Rodriguez and voice concerns. Robles also expressed his displeasure the council was getting ready to sign contracts with Interim City Attorney Dan Jones and Interim City Manager Agapito for figures he did not consider fiscally responsible when Joven, Swanner and Council member Mark Matta promised to be fiscally responsible when on the campaign trail.
The contracts will pay Jones $3,269.23 per week and give him a $600 a month car allowance. Bernal is to be paid $3,846.15 per week and he’ll get the same car allowance.
Robles repeatedly asked Joven how they arrived at those figures. He pointed out the city is already having to pay Brooks’ severance pay, which is the same as her annual salary of $184,500 and the city is already being sued by Norris for failing to allow the public to speak in advance of the Dec. 13 terminations.
Marrero earned $238,000 a year and had a $950 a month car allowance.
Sanctioned
Robles also pointed out Jones was sanctioned last year by now-retired Ector County District Court Judge James Rush while Jones was representing the city in a lawsuit filed following a garbage truck accident.
Rush found Jones filed a frivolous motion, signed pleadings that were “groundless and brought in bad faith” and contained unsupportable factual and legal allegations and he filed a motion “for the purpose of harassment and interposed for the improper purpose of causing needless increase in the cost of litigation.”
The judge ordered the city to pay the plaintiff’s attorney for the more than 23 hours she spent on her motion for sanctions at a cost of $300 an hour. The city was ordered to pay $5,000 and Jones was ordered to pay $2,050.
“Believe me, I practiced in front of Judge Rush. I screwed up a lot. But you really have to screw up or be really lazy in order to be sanctioned by Judge Rush and not only to be chastised by him, but also be ordered to pay money,” Robles said. “He’s cost us money and y’alls actions have cost us money as well and I’d really like an explanation from the council as to how y’all are being fiscally responsible, financially responsible the way y’all promised you would be.”
When the council moved on to discuss Bernal’s contract without responding, Robles said he found it “cowardly.”
The council voted unanimously to award the contract to Jones and they voted 5-1 to approve Bernal’s contract. Council member Steve Thompson voted against Bernal’s contract and Gilbert Vasquez abstained, but both said they didn’t believe Bernal was qualified for the position.
Prior to being appointed to assistant city manager, Bernal was the head of the billing and collections department.
According to Bernal’s job application, he started as a Midland animal control officer in October 1994 before becoming the assistant director in July 1996. He left that position in March 2000. He became the director of animal control for the City of Mansfield in April 2001 before accepting the job as billing and collection manager with the City of Odessa in April 2006.
Operation Graduation
Norris called out Joven for the letter he wrote to the judges in June.
“So, he’s the mayor. As someone said, this is King Joven’s court. But the question is, do we want mayors or city council people telling our judiciary what to do?…At best Mr. Mayor you attempted to practice law and at worst you attempted to improperly influence judges,” Norris said.
Norris said if they fired Rodriguez they would likely go about it the wrong way and get sued again. He said he’s already working on two or three other lawsuits against the city.
Joven told Norris he was asked to write the letter to the judges by law enforcement officials and the organizers of Operation Graduation who felt parents and teens were not being held accountable for providing alcohol to minors and underage drinking.
He asked the judges for stiff penalties, but the letter wasn’t meant to intimidate, it was meant to keep the community safe, Joven said.
Schoel corrected the mayor, pointing out the letter called for maximum penalties. He said the mayor would be disqualified from jury service because jurors must swear they could impose the full range of punishment.
“I practice all over the state of Texas. I’ve been in front of many judges, good judges, bad judges. A good judge has integrity, is impartial, is unbiased and is professional. I can tell you Mr. Rodriguez fits all four of those qualifications,” Schoel said.
Rodriguez is efficient and the more cases closed, the more money the city of Odessa makes, Schoel said. He also pointed out Rodriguez is a native Odessan who brings in and houses Jackalopes players and does nothing but good for the city.
Juvenile records
Norris, who is also a civil rights activist, also suggested the council is upset Rodriguez closed juvenile records – records no one other than court officials should have access to.
Robles, saying he was alarmed at the idea, then made a point of specifically asking each council member if they had gained access to juvenile records.
Each answered the question no, but Swanner elaborated a bit.
“No. I do work for Teen Court, but I don’t access juvenile records,” she said.
“Nobody was accessing juvenile records. How would we have access to juvenile records?” Joven asked.
“That’s a great question because I have to get court orders from a judge to get them and it would be very concerning,” Robles said.
Teen Court Coordinator Rebecca Grisham, who said she prefers to fly under the radar, also spoke out on behalf of the judge.
“To my knowledge, his most recent review was glowing, but if there are issues or questions pertaining to his ‘handling of things’ or whatever, I implore you to have those conversations with him,” Grisham said. “He can explain what has or hasn’t been done or why from his perspective, but you have to have those conversations with him in order to get those answers.”
Rodriguez has not been reported to State Commission on Judicial Conduct, Grisham said.
“He is in the middle of his term here and firing someone in this position can have a lasting repercussion with his career,” Grisham said. “Please do not remove him from our court as it can have negative ramifications for not only him, but those of us that work with him.”
Following the meeting Grisham said up until three years ago she accessed juvenile records solely to determine if kids were eligible for her program. She no longer has that access and believes Rodriguez has unfairly been caught up in the situation.
While Swanner occasionally accessed the files also, Grisham said the new policy prohibits her, Swanner and other city employees who had access to the files from accessing them.
On Nov. 28, 2022, Municipal Court Director Kimberly Jozwiak sent an email to Marrero and the staff members of Municipal Court and Teen Court mentioning court security. In it, she said door security code access was removed for several individuals who no longer work for the city and for people who work outside the prosecutor’s office, judge’s office and court clerk’s area.
“This should help with the situation with the active warrants being viewed or accessed by individuals outside of the Court, and having to be concerned about what is viewable on your desktop, or on your desk, by making the Court a more secure location now,” Jozwiak said.
She went on, “Please advise them of that access should they try to enter the Clerk’s work area. Be kind. We do not want anyone to feel as if their inability to have free access to the Clerk’s area is a personal statement.”
Transparency
Rudy Sanchez, a local resident, also spoke during Tuesday’s meeting.
“The way this council has been operating the past couple of months has been pretty non-transparent. Some of the decisions you’ve made Mr. Joven in the past couple of months, you ran on transparency, but have been the complete opposite. For you to make decisions firing city managers and attorneys and attempting to fire a judge, it seems more like you’re trying to put somebody in place that’s just going to go along with what you want him to do,” Sanchez said.
He reminded the mayor he’s not above the law even if he is doing what he thinks is best for the community.
He also warned Council member Greg Connell that if he went along with the vote to fire the judge he would not have his vote in the future. “I will do everything in my power to make sure you won’t get any votes in my district and that’s my promise.”
Favoritism?
Odessa Development Corporation Board Chairman Kris Crow, speaking as a citizen, said he is concerned because there haven’t been any jury trials in municipal court since before COVID.
Crow said he was also concerned that most of those who spoke out on behalf of Rodriguez were attorneys.
“I’m sure they have a great working relationship, but I would just be concerned that there might be some favoritism or something there for these attorneys and maybe that’s why you guys are being threatened,” Crow said.
While the council was in executive session, Schoel and Robles pointed out it’s defendants who decide whether they want to invoke their right to a jury trial, not judges. In addition, jury trials cost a lot of money and if Joven and Crow were really interested in the city being fiscally responsible they should be pleased few cases go to trial.
“It’s shame what the mayor is trying to do to the judge,” Robles said. “That’s what happens in dictatorships. It doesn’t happen in our country.”
After the council came out of executive session and voted to table advertising Rodriguez’s position, Norris spoke again.
Obviously being facetious, Norris said he was considering applying for Rodriguez’s job.
“I have no experience, but apparently that doesn’t matter to this council so I think I fit right in for that. I’m not qualified at all,” Norris said. “You don’t have to pay me almost $200,000 because that’s a pay cut and all right, I’ll gladly take that. Mr. Mayor, I won’t even troll y’all. If I need to troll y’all, I won’t do it like your attack dog Tim (Harry) here. I won’t do it on Facebook. I’ll do it to your face.”
After the meeting
Following the meeting, Joven said Bernal and Jones are being paid far below what Brooks and Marrero were, and said Brooks and Marrero also had Odessa Country Club memberships.
“I’ve been accused of not being transparent and not being frugal. I think they were being very frugal in bringing those down,” Joven said.
As for Bernal’s qualifications, he urged the media to get Bernal’s resume.
“His resume is impressive. He’s been in different aspects of municipal service, in other areas, not just the City of Odessa,” Joven said.
As for Jones being sanctioned, the mayor said he doesn’t know any of the details.
Joven said he also has no idea what Norris was talking about when he mentioned juvenile court records being accessed and complained he was cut off when he asked Norris to explain.
“These are lawyers that wouldn’t get away with this type of conduct in their court, but here they disregard the civility of this chamber and continue to mock that it’s Joven’s Court. That right there, they’re not insulting me, they’re insulting the system,” Joven said.
Although Joven said he could not discuss what happened during the hour-long execution session, he complained that people are “running to conclusions and making up their own narratives.”
He said Kidd and Rodriguez have staggered appointments and they don’t know “whose starting point is when and when their ending points.”
Rodriguez graduated from Odessa High School and the University of Texas. He received his law degree from St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio in 2013 and joined the court as the associate judge in July 2020. According to the State Bar of Texas, he has no public disciplinary history.
According to the Texas Municipal Courts Education Center, most municipal judges serve two-year terms.
“Regardless if written agreements are utilitized to specify compensation, benefits and expectations, it is important for city officials to distinguish municipal judges from contract employees and at-will employees. Texas appellate courts have held that municipal judges are not employees,” the center wrote in January 2020.
The center continued, “because municipal judges are not ‘hired’ (they are either appointed or elected), a municipal judge cannot be ‘fired.’ Like other public officials, however, municipal judges may be removed from office.”
The Center also notes that under Texas law, a municipal judge may be removed from office by the city’s governing body for incompetence, corruption, misconduct, or malfeasance in office. A municipal judge may also be removed from office by the Supreme Court of Texas through formal proceedings initiated by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct upon a finding of judicial misconduct.
Joven acknowledged Rodriguez was placed on the agenda to be evaluated in October, but said it was over his objections.
Kidd was also evaluated in October. He, Rodriguez, Brooks, Marrero and City Secretary Norma Aguilar-Grimaldo were on the Dec. 13 agenda to be evaluated again, but those discussions were tabled. Brooks and Marrero were terminated under another agenda item that same night, but Kidd and Aguilar-Grimaldo have not been placed on the agenda since that time.
In other business, council members agreed to begin reviewing master plans with city staff and to start holding town hall meetings to discuss prioritizing the city’s needs and discuss ways to meet those needs.
Thompson and Connell will be looking at roads. Matta and Swanner will be taking up a sports complex and Vasquez and Chris Hanie will be looking at water and sewer systems.
