A special meeting of the Odessa City Council with a single item is scheduled at 3 p.m. today at City Hall.
The item, “discuss former city attorney’s forbidden access to the City of Odessa’s email system after her termination,” is followed by an executive session.
Mayor Javier Joven has also called a news conference at 2 p.m. after having city staff send out a news release that said “a serious data breach was recently uncovered at the City of Odessa. Accounts assigned to a terminated high-ranking employee have been recently accessed, and sensitive information was transferred. An investigation has been launched.”
According to records obtained by the Odessa American under the Texas Public Information Act, Interim City Manager Agapito Bernal fired Information Technology Director Michael Parrish June 28.
Parrish had been with the city since April 2015 and IT director since January 2018.
In his termination letter, Bernal accused Parrish of repeatedly failing to follow his directives in a timely manner, being insubordinate and showing “argumentative defiance” of his authority.
“This repeated misconduct is inexcusable. It denigrates the chain of command, harms the workplace order and ignores that you report to me,” Bernal wrote.
Parrish refused to sign the letter.
Bernal was appointed as the city’s interim city manager on Dec. 13, the night the Odessa City Council voted 5-2 to fire City Manager Michael Marrero and City Attorney Natasha Brooks without explanation.
In January, Parrish was asked by City Secretary Norma Grimaldo to retrieve all emails exchanged between Marrero, Utilities Director Tom Kerr, then Assistant City Manager Phillip Urrutia, then Fire Chief John Alavarez, Odessa Police Chief Mike Gerke and former city spokeswoman Mariann Cedillo about the major water line break in June 2022 that left most Odessans without drinkable water for nearly a week.
In an email exchange with Public Information Coordinator Jennifer Reynier that afternoon, Parrish said he didn’t think he was allowed to comply with the request under city rules. The next morning, Grimaldo informed him the request was made by Mayor Javier Joven.
Parrish told Grimaldo he wouldn’t be able to comply without proper documentation/protocol and attached the city policy.
“Internal records requests will have to come with explicit and specific documentation from the city manager and legal departments,” he said. “If it involves a criminal investigation, instruction will have to include the PD.”
It’s unclear if an additional request was made for the records.
Records show Parrish, who was hired at just over $101,000 a year, consistently “exceeded expectations” on his annual reviews. He was described as reliable, a self-starter and having the ability to see the “big picture.”
Since November, the city has lost several high-level officials either through retirements or resignations. In addition to the majority of the city’s legal department leaving, the city has lost Assistant City Manager Cindy Muncy, Finance Director Larry Fry, Budget Manager Zackary Besiril, waste water treatment plant director Melissa Looney, Odessa Fire Chief John Alvarez, Parks and Recreation Director Steve Patton, Traffic Operations Superintendent Hal Feldman, OFR Assistant Chiefs Rodd Huber and Saul Ortega, Director of Development Randy Brinlee and OFR Training Chief Martin Moya.
The city also fired Assistant City Manager Aaron Smith, who has since filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the city. He believes he was fired because he asked several law enforcement agencies to investigate Joven.
Smith believes Joven violated the Texas Open Meetings Act by not allowing the public to speak before the council fired Marrero and Brooks Dec. 13. He also questioned the legality of Joven hiring T2 Professional Consulting within hours of the terminations without having the city’s legal department, city manager or council members vetting/approving the contract or the company.
The Texas Rangers have declined to pursue an investigation. Ector County District Attorney Dusty Gallivan has said he is thinking about asking the Texas Attorney General’s Office to pursue one.
Late last month, the Odessa City Council chose Texas Republican Party Executive Director John Beckmeyer as the next city manager. He is currently undergoing a background check by T2.
T2 was hired to help find a city manager and meetings with the Odessa City Council established a listing of criteria for T2 to use in narrowing the applicant pool to finalists.
Back in March, the city council crafted exactly what they wanted in a new city manager.
The council stated the new city manager must have a bachelor’s degree or higher in public administration, business administration, management or a related field. In addition, they must have three or more years experience as a city manager, assistant city manager or as a department head in a city of similar size to Odessa.
Beckmeyer’s resume doesn’t show that he meets any of that criteria.
According to LinkedIn, Beckmeyer has an associate degree in animal science from Western Texas College and a bachelor’s degree in animal science from Sam Houston State University.
Beckmeyer has been the executive director of the Republican Party of Texas since July 2021 and is the chief operating officer of the STEM Software/Musketball Group in Odessa since January 2019. He joined the Musketball Group in 2017.
