Ector County commissioners at 10 a.m. Tuesday will consider the final adoption of realigned commissioners’ and justices of the peace precincts according to guidelines from the U.S. Department of Justice and recommendations from Austin law firm Bickerstaff, Heath, Delgado and Acosta.
Effective Jan. 1, Commissioner Don Stringer’s Precinct 3 and Commissioner Armando S. Rodriguez’s Precinct 4 will move west into Commissioner Mike Gardner’s Precinct 1 because Precinct 1 had become overpopulated since the 2010 U.S. Census.
Stringer currently represents 32,457 people, Rodriguez 36,596 and Mike Gardner 53,831 while Precinct 2 Commissioner Greg Simmons’ constituency, at 41,505, is within one percent of the newly required 41,098 and does not need to be altered, Bickerstaff, Heath attorney Claudia Russell told the court Oct. 26.
The Census showed that the county had experienced a 19.9-percent growth in population from 137,083 to 164,399, Russell said.
Precinct 1 encompasses western Odessa and the west side of the county, Precinct 2 northeast Odessa and the Gardendale area, Precinct 3 most of the city and Precinct 4 southeast Odessa and the county’s south side.
In other business, the court will consider making a $302,600 appropriation to equip the 27 Chevrolet Tahoe patrol vans that were recently been delivered to the sheriff’s office.
After the vehicles were received from Parkway Chevrolet in Tomball, north-northwest of Houston, they were equipped with laptop docking stations and input car adapters from GTS Technology Solutions of Austin, in-car cameras and AED First Response defibrillators from Axon Enterprise of Scottsdale, Ariz., and H2S Gas Monitors from Loaded Dice Safety of Odessa.
Sheriff Mike Griffis has said the Tahoes would give him enough vehicles to allow deputies to take them home at the ends of their shifts, increasing the law enforcement presence in their neighborhoods and enabling the deputies to respond to emergencies more quickly. The vans were bought with $2.5 million generated by the 1.25-cent rural sales tax that the voters approved in November 2018.
Departing from their usual pattern of meeting on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month in deference to the Christmas season, the court will also accept a $23,000 donation from Barnhart Bolt & Special Fasteners to the sheriff’s office and review a ground lease contract between Permian Basin Supply and Blackwood Investment Properties at 194 Terminal Dr. at Odessa Airport-Schleymeyer Field.
