The Texas Rangers won’t be investigating Ector County Utility Board President Tommy Ervin and the legality of his holding office saying “the merits of the allegation did not rise to a level of Texas Ranger investigative involvement.”
On Nov. 15, Odessa Headlines Publisher Jeff Russell filed a complaint with Ector County District Attorney Dusty Gallivan stating state law prohibits Ervin from holding public office because he was arrested and convicted of delivery of dangerous drugs (cocaine) in 1976.
Russell argued Ervin and public records searches have failed to turn up proof of the pardon Ervin said he has received. Texas Department of Public Records note Ervin’s supervision status was discharged and he was granted clemency in January 1989.
When Ervin applied for the ECUD board in 2016 and 2020, the form did not ask applicants if they had felony convictions, but the current form does.
Gallivan asked the Texas Rangers on Nov. 16 to determine if Ervin violated the criminal laws of Texas and stated if they determined he had, he would prosecute the case.
On Feb. 27, Gallivan received notice from Major Wayne Matthews of the Texas Rangers who said the Rangers would not investigate. In addition, Matthews said he asked the Texas Attorney General’s Office to review the matter and that office, too, “declined to investigate this matter.”
“Thank you for the visibility and consideration regarding potential violations requiring our assistance,” Matthews wrote in a letter to Gallivan.
Reached Tuesday, Irvin said, “Is that cool or what? I’m glad that this part is over with. The folks that created this issue still have a lawsuit against me and hopefully, they’ll get that over with and drop it pretty quick also.”
Last October, Will Kappauf and Troy Walker, two directors on the Ector County Utility District, along with local resident Jesse Taylor Christesson filed a lawsuit against ECUD and three other directors in the hopes of having November’s election halted.
According to the lawsuit, filed in Ector County District Court Sept. 28, under state laws passed in the late 1990s, two cohorts of directors are supposed to be elected every other even year and ECUD has failed to do so after 2002 and until 2016.
The lawsuit alleges that in 2016, 2018 and 2020, the wrong people were put up for election and the same thing was getting ready to happen in November. The lawsuit further alleges the Water Code “has its own specific directive that elections are to take place in May of each even numbered year.
Kappauf asked an Ector County District Court judge to cancel November’s election, but his motion was denied.
Walker said Tuesday he has asked to be removed from the lawsuit, which remains pending.
“It’s a law that’s on the books, but there’s no teeth behind it. There’s no one to enforce it,” Walker said. “I don’t think that going to court is going to have any positive outcome for the citizens of Ector County or ECUD’s financials having to pay extra lawyers. I just felt like dropping the lawsuit was the right thing to do for the citizens of West Odessa.”
Ervin also said Tuesday his Austin attorney recently informed him an ombudsman with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has found boxes from 1987 through 1993 in a state building and is going through them in the hopes of finding his pardon paperwork.
However, Ervin said he’s spoken to several people who believe “that if DPS has that in their records, you can take it to the bank.”
