The Texas Government Accountability Association’s (TGAA) rules for its members sound great.
Every city must conduct an outside audit every three years to look for fraud, find ways to save money and identify revenue possibilities, and they must post the audit for citizens to read.
Every city vendor must disclose conflicts of interest with city officials.
Every city must list every elected and city officials’ wages, salary, overtime and benefits.
Every city must create a searchable database of its vendors and the amount of their contract.
Every city official must post their conflicts of interest on the city website.
If the City doesn’t abide by the agreement, the City can be sued by citizens to enforce its compliance.
Well, there’s more, but you get the idea, and if you were paying any attention on April 23 when the Odessa City Council unanimously gave City Manager John Beckmeyer permission to sign a contract with TGAA you probably heartily approved of the decision.
But there are some things you may not have known.
For starters, the contract doesn’t have an end date.
The first year is free, but after five years, the 20 cent rate per resident fee ($24,000 annually) can increase, and there’s no limit on that increase.
And the only way the City can terminate the contract is by holding an election — at taxpayers’ expense — for citizens to determine its fate.
Even if citizens vote to kill the contract, the City must pay for two more years.
If that doesn’t raise your eyebrows, how about this?
Emails obtained by the Odessa American under the Texas Public Information Act suggest controversial political consultant Matt Armstrong — despite not being on TGAA’s website — was knee deep in crafting the interlocal agreement between City Manager Beckmeyer and the TGAA.
Who’s Matt Armstrong? Well, he’s the same guy former Odessa Development Corporation Vice President Jeff Russell says crafted a campaign strategy for Squad members Mayor Javier Joven and Councilmembers Denise Swanner and Mark Matta that Russell claims included a plan to stir up racial tensions to get them re-elected.
Russell says he attended a meeting at the Beckmeyer home in March to review that campaign strategy, John Beckmeyer, Teresa Beckmeyer and Bubba Saulsbury (who attended via Zoom).
Armstrong is also the same guy who was fined $37,500 by the Texas Ethics Commission in November 2022 for some shady actions the commission said he took while involved with three political action committees.
Beckmeyer flat out denied Russell’s allegations about stirring the pot when it comes to race. He also said he had nothing to do with The Squad hiring Armstrong, and said his wife has nothing to do with city politics.
But should we believe him?
Beckmeyer, the former executive director of the Republican Party of Texas, actually had the nerve to tell reporter Kim Smith earlier this month he’s not political — that he and his wife, who is a Saulsbury family political adviser, work hard to keep their jobs separate from each other.
“I’ve known Matt for a long time, but I don’t have any part of that,” the city manager said, when asked about Armstrong consulting for The Squad.
“I’ve known Matt forever, but in the political world, you know a lot of people,” Beckmeyer said, before explaining he met him when Odessan Josh Crawford ran against State Rep. Brooks Landgraf in 2016.
“Mr. Russell talks about Matt Armstrong. That’s their resource; it’s not my wife,” Beckmeyer said. “Matt is a good, honorable guy, too. I’m glad they’re using somebody good. There’s some pretty bad political consultants out there.”
He met Armstrong when Landgraf was running against Crawford?
Hmmm.
Well, Beckmeyer was listed as one of two “key people” — along with Armstrong — in the 1836 Group, which was paid thousands of dollars in 2016 by the Crawford campaign as they sought to unseat Landgraf. Josh Crawford listed the group on his campaign finance report and the Secretary of State’s website detailed the 1836 Group incorporated in 2015 and seems to have disbanded about 2018 or 2019.
Trying to unseat Landgraf has been big business for the Beckmeyers over the years. A 2021 social media post by Teresa Beckmeyer declared “we have an amazing number of grassroots candidates running for our state legislature who have stepped up to run after we asked. They have done what we’ve asked and signed their names on the line.” She then asked for donations and listed the candidates, including Casey Gray, who lost in 2021 to Landgraf by about a whopping 80 percent.
Yep. That Casey Gray. He ran a vile campaign against Landgraf, who despite the Beckmeyers’ efforts, remains the most popular politician among Odessa voters. Oh yes, there’s also a photo of John Beckmeyer posing with Casey Gray that was posted on social media at the time.
So, back to TGAA.
If Beckmeyer isn’t a political guy, why is it that he put Armstrong and TGAA on the council’s radar? According to the council’s Feb. 13 work session agenda, it was Armstrong who was originally scheduled to give council members the lowdown on TGAA.
If Beckmeyer isn’t a political guy, why did he take Armstrong to meet with Ector County Judge Dustin Fawcett in November 2023 about Ector County joining the TGAA?
If Beckmeyer isn’t a political guy, why did he tell the City Council “there’s an organization that I’ve been connected to a time or two in the past” when TGAA didn’t have its first board meeting until May 31 of THIS year, AFTER the council voted to contract with the group.
If you watch the TGAA board meeting of May 31, you will discover their only other client is the small Texas town of Kingsbury, which has a population of 134 souls and which signed its contract only days before Beckmeyer signed the City of Odessa contract that can only be undone by an election.
During that same online May meeting, TGAA elected its officers, discussed its bylaws, the group’s “Constitution” and its hopes and dreams for the future, including eventually charging cities, schools districts and counties fees for their services above and beyond their contracts as part of professional services offerings.
If Beckmeyer isn’t a political guy, why is it Joven, Matta and Swanner have neglected to fill out conflict of interest forms citing their affiliation with Armstrong? Surely, as city manager, he would make sure they followed the rules, right?
That’s right. By the time the City Council gave Beckmeyer permission to negotiate a contract with TGAA in April, The Squad was already consulting with Armstrong about their campaigns. You don’t have to take Jeff Russell’s word for it. Beckmeyer himself told our reporter Armstrong was “their resource.”
If Beckmeyer isn’t a political guy, why didn’t he, himself, sign a conflict of interest form regarding TGAA and Armstrong? Remember, he’s known Armstrong “a long time.”
Oh, and by the way, TGAA hasn’t filed a conflict of interest form either. As a city vendor, their own rules say they must! The fact Armstrong isn’t on the TGAA website doesn’t mean much. Beckmeyer not only linked him to the group during council meetings, a series of emails from Armstrong to Beckmeyer in January, February and March show Beckmeyer was already in discussions with TGAA months before the City Council gave him permission to do so.
In those emails, Armstrong provided Beckmeyer an interlocal agreement, talked about changes made to it and compared existing city policies with those TGAA intended to create.
So much for transparency, huh? We’ll get back to this in a minute.
As an aside, take a look at the City’s website. So far, it doesn’t appear as though the City has taken any of the steps required under the contract, except perhaps posting the councilmembers’ conflicts of interest when it comes to other organizations. (It’s not clear how long the City has been posting them.)
If Beckmeyer isn’t a political guy, why did he use the smoke and mirrors routine on the council the first day TGAA ended up on their agenda?
While introducing TGAA representative Aaron Harris during the February work session, Beckmeyer never mentioned TGAA was a newly formed organization. Instead he told the council, “Him and Mr. Armstrong both have been working with localities, municipalities, counties, whatnot for quite some time.”
He did not elaborate on how they were working with these governmental entities. Funny, since the group was newly formed and only had Kingsbury and Odessa as clients.
If Beckmeyer isn’t a political guy, why was he dodgy when Councilman Steve Thompson during the February meeting pointed out the City already pays the Texas Municipal League for guidance on ethics, among other things?
He told Thompson during that meeting he’d just paid TML dues of $9,000-$10,000 for the year. He then went on to say the TGAA wasn’t a replacement for TML “yet” and TML’s rules are “get aroundable” for member cities.
What kind of a city manager would convince a city council to sign an agreement with an unproven organization? An agreement that is essentially in perpetuity? An agreement that doesn’t have a fee limit? An agreement that requires AN ELECTION to get out of?
We’ll tell you.
A politician.
Worse yet, the kind of politician that hides conflicts of interest.
The kind of politician who is surrounded by other politicians who will do anything to gain and maintain power.
When contacted Thursday, Beckmeyer said he welcomed any questions, but seemed perplexed as to why anyone would question the wisdom of signing such a contract.
Holding governmental organizations to a high standard is bad, Beckmeyer asked, incredulously.
“It’s just one of those things that whenever you do something that is this taxpayer friendly or citizen friendly you wonder why people (question it)?” Beckmeyer said. “I guess it’s just election season.”
When asked why the City couldn’t raise its standards without paying $24,000 in perpetuity, Armstrong told reporter Kim Smith, “You and me could, but who’s going to be in here in December? Who’s going to be here five years from now?”
That’s rich. Folks, you’re either ethical or you’re not. You’re either transparent or you’re not. Do you realize how many public information requests this newspaper had to file and how much information we had to digest just to surface what we are now reporting?
How is this “contract” going to change any of that? It sure hasn’t so far.
Beckmeyer also said the difference between TML and TGAA is like “night and day.”
Beckmeyer repeatedly insisted Armstrong doesn’t work for TGAA; his good friend simply introduced him to TGAA because he thought the nonprofit was offering up a good plan.
It’s the same reason Beckmeyer took Armstrong with him to Fawcett’s office, he said.
“I guess I could show them the tax returns, but I’m not getting any kind of a kickback from them. I wonder if they (the TGAA) would consider that,” Beckmeyer said, laughing.
Asked why he, Joven, Matta and Swanner didn’t sign any conflict of interest forms, Beckmeyer said, “Matt Armstrong …wasn’t an employee or a consultant of TGAA. Two, he wasn’t involved with Mayor Joven or any of them, to my knowledge, whenever we started talking about TGAA.”
When reminded Beckmeyer himself confirmed earlier this month Armstrong was discussing campaign strategies for Joven, Matta and Swanner with Crow and Russell in March – two months before the TGAA contract was signed — Beckmeyer again insisted Armstrong doesn’t work for TGAA.
“He just connected me with the group,” Beckmeyer said.
When asked why then would Armstrong send Beckmeyer an interlocal agreement in March, Beckmeyer repeated that Armstrong doesn’t work for TGAA.
“I think you’re trying to conflate things that don’t go together,” Beckmeyer said.
When pushed, Beckmeyer said Armstrong asked for a copy of the agreement on behalf of the city manager.
We call BS.
If Armstrong doesn’t work for TGAA, why would he write the following in that March email regarding the contract: “removed the 2 paragraphs dealing with what we discussed”?
Again, we think Armstrong was involved neck-deep with TGAA.
Moreover, we’re convinced Armstrong and Beckmeyer are so deeply intertwined in politics on so many levels — including the City Council level — the TGAA agreement doesn’t pass the smell test. Again, look at the terms of the contract and the lack of transparency when it comes to the relationships.
Sure, Beckmeyer told Smith Thursday he “didn’t really” work on Crawford’s campaign, but those records regarding The 1836 Group and payments sure tell a different story.
Oh, and speaking of stories, Beckmeyer had this to say about The 1836 Group Thursday:
“We didn’t do anything,” he said. “We thought it was a neat group to have because of the 1836, we had some ideas of doing some educational programs around voter integrity and things like that, but we never got anything off the ground.”
We know this all sounds somewhat convoluted, so we’ll leave you with this to ponder:
When Beckmeyer was asked when residents can expect to see new policies and transparent documents on the City’s website, he said this: “It should be by the end of the year, because we’re having to work with them. We’re one of the larger cities that have signed with them (TGAA), so we’re working with them right now to make sure that what we’re putting out there is in keeping with the (interlocal agreement)…”
Again, “We’re one of the larger cities that have signed with them.”
If Beckmeyer is apolitical, if Beckmeyer doesn’t have anything to gain, if Beckmeyer is all about being transparent, why on earth did he go out of his way to make such a statement?
Remember, Odessa is the ONLY large city that has signed with TGAA. Remember, the only other city under contact is Kingsbury, population 134.
When Smith pointed that out, Beckmeyer admitted Odessa was, indeed, only the second city to sign on the dotted line with TGAA.
Giving Beckmeyer an opportunity to help himself, Smith asked him if any other cities have entered contracts with TGAA since May, Beckmeyer said he didn’t know.
Perhaps Armstrong doesn’t have mayoral, city council candidates and a city manager in his back pocket outside Odessa.
More food for thought this election season?
