One day after firing two key City of Odessa employees, Mayor Javier Joven reassured Odessans he and the city council are committed to “improving every aspect” of the city, but discussions about recalling him and other members of the council are already underway.
The Odessa City Council voted 5-2 Tuesday night to fire City Manager Michael Marrero and City Attorney Natasha Brooks without explanation. Billing and Collections head Agapito “Gapi” Bernal and senior assistant city attorney Dan Jones have been named interim manager and attorney, respectively.
The following language appeared on Tuesday’s agenda just prior to the possible terminations: “Any member of the public may address the City Council regarding any of its agenda items before or during the consideration of the item.”
However, the public was not allowed to speak on the matters until after the city council went into executive session and after they had voted.
It is for that reason, longtime business leader, civil rights activist and minister Gene Collins said he spent most of Wednesday on the phone talking with upset Odessans about the possibility of launching a recall effort for Joven, District 1 Council member Mark Matta and At-Large Council member Denise Swanner.
They’re still “kicking around” the idea of targeting a fourth council member, Collins said without naming that individual.
Following Tuesday night’s meeting, Joven held a short press conference.
The mayor said the citizens of Odessa “voted for change” in December 2020 and last month.
“The majority of this council is committed to moving this community forward. This council will continue to move this community forward as a whole. After extensive review it was determined that adjustments needed to be made on the day to day leadership,” Joven said.
Joven said he and the other council members wished Marrero well, but he begged off on answering any questions Tuesday night and again Wednesday morning, stating he needed to get home to his ailing, 92-year-old father.
On Wednesday afternoon, Joven sent out a news release reiterating the council’s commitment to moving forward. He thanked both Marrero and Brooks for their service and wished them well.
Collins is a life-long Odessan who has dealt with various city councils over the years in various capacities including as an Odessa Development Corporation board member. He said he’s never before seen what he saw Tuesday night.
“To blatantly end somebody’s career like they’re doing and not even sharing (the reason) with the public…I was speechless last night because I wanted to know, first of all, what the main problem was.”
In the past, Collins said there has always been an open dialogue at city council meetings.
“This type of event, in my opinion, has not happened before. We’ve always been open. You may disagree, but at least we give people an opportunity to express their opinions or we educate them to the point where they know why the action has been taken,” Collins said. “There was that type of transparency before and now there’s not. Like I said, I was kind of blown away with what happened.”
Swanner, Matta and Joven joined the council after a runoff election that was called when they each failed to get at least 50% of the vote in November 2020. There was no election last month because Chris Hanie, Gilbert Vasquez and Greg Connell ran unopposed.
Rumors about Marrero’s future have been swirling since the three new council members replaced Detra White, Mari Willis and Tom Sprawls, who routinely voted against Joven, Matta and Swanner along with Steve Thompson.
However, Swanner did not respond to numerous emails, texts and phone calls leading up to Tuesday night’s meeting. Matta and Joven simply said the matter would be discussed at the meeting.
Thompson, who opposed the firings along with Vasquez, was the only council member to return phone calls Wednesday. He said he still hasn’t heard why the majority of his colleagues wanted to fire the pair.
“I talked to the mayor to get him to not have the circus last night,” Thompson said.
Joven wanted Marrero and Brooks’ resignation letters on his desk by 3 p.m. Tuesday along with promises not to sue the city, Thompson said. However, had they agreed, they would have lost their severance package, he said.
According to their contracts, which were obtained by the Odessa American under the Texas Public Information Act, both were entitled to one year’s salary or $238,000 for Marrero and $184,500 for Brooks.
Thompson said he is not surprised by Collins’ threats of a possible recall attempt. Nor will he be shocked if attorney Gaven Norris follows through on his Tuesday night threat to file a federal suit.
He said he was “caught off guard” when Joven skipped the citizens comments portion of the agenda prior to the vote.
“That’s not the way we normally do it,” Thompson said.
Norris repeatedly interrupted Joven Tuesday night demanding to know if citizens could speak.
“Are you going to deny us the right to speak Mr. Mayor? Are you going to deny us that right Mr. Mayor? Javier Joven, are you going to deny us the right to speak when we’ve turned in cards to speak on the issue,” Norris yelled as Joven made the motion to name the interim manager.
“We’re in the process, sir. Let’s get through the process,” Joven told him repeatedly.
When all the votes were cast and Norris was given an opportunity to speak, he said he’d be filing a federal lawsuit alleging violations of the 1st, 5th and 14th Amendments.
He told the mayor he hoped he was ready and then addressed Matta.
“I want to address this to you because when you sat down with us and asked for the vote of the black community to either support you or not support you, the one thing we had in our meeting with you was we didn’t want you to be a puppet of Javier Joven,” Norris said. “You told us that you make your own decisions. There’s a legal term in the legal profession and it’s called res ipsa loquitur and it means ‘the thing speaks for itself.’ Mr. Matta, I’ll let you know tonight, the thing speaks for itself.”
Norris did not return messages left Wednesday.
Thanks to Joven, the city is going to end up “wasting taxpayers’ money” on lawsuits that didn’t need to happen, Thompson said.
