By Commander James (Jim) Dodson
Odessa, I need to be transparent and make a confession. I have not always liked or spoken well of the Odessa American (OA). However, in my prayer time lately I have promised my Heavenly Father that I would never do that again and would only say positive things that add value to them.
I believe that all of Odessa needs to thank God for the leadership of the OA and for the investigative reporting of OA reporter Kim Smith.
She has uncovered a hidden “extortion plot” that has been laying low and dormant in the form of “paper landmines” in personnel files of some top leadership positions at city hall. The truth was revealed through an open records request. The “extortion plot” is in the form of “self-inflated” employment contracts of a few of our city officials and the “extortion plot” involves the separation clause of the “self-inflated” employment contracts often referred to as, “A Golden Parachute Clause.”
Because of the lack of high standards of ethical conduct, transparency and accountability the citizens of Odessa are being extorted for what could be over 1 million dollars plus and there is absolutely no one who is willing to take responsibility for placing the “paper landmines” in the path of the citizens of Odessa. Mayor Javier Joven is blaming City Attorney Dan Jones and Jones is blaming Joven.
We have all heard so much from Mayor Joven, Councilmembers Mark Matta and Denise Swanner and City Manager John Beckmeyer about how important and critical that high standards of ethical conduct, transparency and accountability are in the setting of an organizational culture. Well, this is the perfect time, situation/circumstance for them to demonstrate to all of the citizens of Odessa exactly what they mean by these terms. Through transparency, please tell us who the person/persons are that are responsible for the “Golden Parachute Clause” in the “self-inflated” employment contracts that were all done for the sole purpose to hold the citizens of Odessa hostage and extort money from them.
We have a circle of less than 10 city officials who are entrusted to advance our city forward in pursuit of a wholesome and flourishing quality of life for our citizenry, to be good stewards of the citizen’s money and to protect the public trust.
Only four have spoken out about the extortion plot. Two of them blame each other and the other two have been transparent and accountable for their part and the other three have remained silent.
Councilmembers Steve Thompson and Gilbert Vasquez admitted that they had not read the employment agreements and felt that they were intentionally setup/deceived by others on the council. They advised that they depended on others to be truthful and forthright when asked for any changes or update to the contract.
The OA reported from an open records request that Swanner offered to read the items in question and appeared to read all of them except the “landmine” “Golden Parachute Clause”. Basically, the clause states that it does not matter why they may separate from (whether under good or bad conditions) the city will have to pay around 2.6 times their annual salary. Odessa, this is how City Manager Beckmeyer stands to benefit if he left today: $250,000 x 2.6 equals $650,000.
I believe that others like City Manager John Beckmeyer and City Attorney Dan Jones appear to have sat in silence while in possession of relevant material facts that they had a duty to reveal and did not. There is no other way to describe these actions other than self-serving, deceitful, misleading and underhanded. These actions appear to have been done with the sole intent and purpose to “blind-side” their peers and cause the citizens of Odessa to suffer financial harm all because of a self-serving political agenda. I find these actions to be very unethical and unacceptable and they should shock the conscience of every citizen of Odessa.
The conduct of City Attorney Dan Jones really concerns me. He appears to be one of the co-conspirators in the effort to get approved the “self-inflated” employment contracts and stood to receive direct financial gain. He appears to have had full knowledge of what was going on. He has a legal duty to the members of the council and citizens, not just a few benefactors.
When council members Thompson and Vasquez asked what the updates/changes were in the employment agreement, City Attorney Jones sat in silence holding relevant material facts to the discussion and he failed to reveal the fact-sensitive information.
Basically, City Attorney Jones knew that a speeding vehicle was approaching and presented a clear danger to Councilmembers Thompson and Vasquez and the City of Odessa and rather than push them out of the way he allowed them to get run over.
His actions in my opinion constitute “bad faith” and do not conform to high moral standards or the high degree of professional care that his position requires. His actions in this matter should be officially reported to the State Bar of Texas and a thorough investigation conducted to see if he crossed the line and had a breach of fiduciary duties of a City Attorney. If so, he as well as others should be held personally liable for their actions.
Mayor Joven’s, City Attorney Jones’, City Manager Beckmeyer’s and Council member Swanner’s actions appear to be intentional and in no way indicative of actions done in “good faith”.
It is not that uncommon for city council members not to read all of the documents and every word of them. This is the duty of a professional and highly qualified city manager, his staff and the city attorney to help guide all council members to make the most of their time and that the right information arrives at the right point to ensure that they have all of the information to assist them in their decision making.
When it is critical for documents to be read by all council members, professional city managers, their staff and the city attorney will instruct them to do so. The success of the overall process must be based on trust, teamwork, and a commitment to high ethical standards, transparency and accountability.
Everyone involved in this process has an oath and duty to act in a RESPONSIBLE manner that is in the best interest of our city. Again, this is just a simple “best practice” called PROTECTING THE PUBLIC TRUST.
The bible is very clear, that to whom much is given, much is expected, and all matters should be handled in order and decent. Mayor Joven, Councilmembers Matta, Swanner and City Manager Beckmeyer appear to have failed to follow these principles.
It is very evident that some matters were done under the table rather than on top of table for all to see. The citizens of Odessa have been taken hostage and the hostage takers are attempting to extort our money that does not belong to them.
Our citizens did not ask to be put in this horrendous situation. We have been placed in this position by some of our very own city officials who took an oath to watch out for our best interest.
I have two formal public requests for City Manager John Beckmeyer.
1. For Mr. Beckmeyer to demonstrate for the citizens of Odessa his self-proclaimed leadership skills, high standards of ethical conduct and ask the council members for permission to contact the leadership of TGAA and get the City of Odessa released from the one sided inter-local agreement that the city does not want or need. Mr. Beckmeyer, I challenge you to give our citizens a front row seat to your transparency and accountability that you and others so often speak of.
Mr. Beckmeyer, you can use the same set of skills and connections to walk us out of this inter-local agreement that you made to walked us into it. It is a simple resolution and involves absolutely no risk or cost to the City of Odessa. The TGAA inter-local agreement began with a friendship call, and it should end with a friendship call.
2. Second, Mr. Beckmeyer ask the council for permission to dissolve the “self-inflate” employment contracts that were done with subterfuge and draft new ones that are reasonable and fair to all parties and accurately reflect your time and value to our city. You have been employed by the City of Odessa for just over 1 year.
The truth, Mr. Beckmeyer, is that our city invested $338,000 of taxpayer money into a search firm to find our city a professional and well qualified city manager. The integrity of the search process was compromised when it was manipulated by some of our own elected officials. The citizens did not get a very good return on the investment of their money because you were a friendship/political hire.
You were never qualified to lead the City of Odessa in the capacity of city manager. Those who hired you set you up for failure and the day you accepted the position, you doubled down on your own failure as well as ours. The biggest victims in all of this is not you, Mr. Beckmeyer, it’s the citizens of Odessa, Texas.
Previously I wrote about citizen and businessperson, Jeff Russell, former vice president of the Odessa Development Corporation, who alleged in his social media post in the “Odessa Headlines” and in an ad in the Thrifty Nickel titled The City Manager’s Political Power Play” of a private meeting he attended at the Beckmeyer home shortly after the heated elections in March. Jeff Russell related that he felt much of the motivation for the meeting was to re-elect the incumbents Mayor Joven, Council members Matta and Swanner in order to protect John Beckmeyer’s job as city manager.
The very next month is when the “self-inflated” employment contracts were drafted in secret by an outside attorney and surreptitiously ran through and approved by the city council.
It appears to me that City Manager John Beckmeyer and co-conspirators, highly suspected that they are going to lose the city elections and a change at city hall was coming, therefore they needed a really good insurance policy and would like for the citizens of Odessa to pay for it.
I personally believe the TGAA inter-local agreement and any of the “self-inflated” employment contracts could be considered “unconscionable” contracts, therefore viewed as potentially invalid and illegal if challenged in a judicial setting and would be voided because they were done in a manner that constitutes fraud. We need to retain the professional services of some highly skilled investigators/attorneys with backgrounds in investigating political corruption cases and turn them loose on these matters and let them prove our case.
The OA has already uncovered many facts. Surely, someone can identify who authorized assignment/payment to an outside law firm with City of Odessa funds to draw up the “golden parachute clause contacts” for “self-inflated” city leaders, since the mayor or city attorney can’t. Seems like they would want to know.
As a community, we need to decide if we are really “ODESSA STRONG”. Our city is at a real crossroads and some of those in charge of running our city have failed us and are responsible for putting our city in this horrendous situation.
Now is the time to play absolute “hard ball” with them and remove this undesirable element from our city government and then engage in damage control. I am not sure if we know the extent of the internal damage that we may have suffered.
An “ODESSA STRONG” community should absolutely refuse to pay one dime of the TGAA inter-local agreement and/or any of the “self-inflated” employment contracts that were drafted and approved with subterfuge.
In fact, all employee contracts on file in the city should be reviewed to ensure that they also don’t include “self-inflated” and unreasonable payouts that were done with subterfuge and in “bad faith.” One could say, well Mr. Dodson all you are going to succeed in doing is getting us involved in a lawsuit.
The truth is Odessa, we were potentially injected into one already by the incompetent and misleading actions of some of our own city officials. Our game has already been scheduled for us. All that really matters at this point is to make the strategic decision; do we want to kick off or receive? What matters is to retain the very best coaches in the game and let’s get to playing ball and plan to win this battle in an overwhelming manner.
We need to decide whether we are going to fight or roll over. We are being “shaken down” by some of our own city officials. We need to fight and hold those responsible strictly accountable for their individual “bad faith” actions for which they can be and should be held personally liable. Regardless of the cost, we need to put the full force of the City of Odessa and her citizens in motion and defend our city’s honor and reputation.
After Beckmeyer was hired as city manager, Mayor Joven was speaking with the media and was so excited about Beckmeyer’s influence in Texas and in Washington, stating, “He knows how the game is played” … I find this funny, but sad and I can’t help but think also how when working on the search committee for desired qualities of a city manager to be placed in the job description, Mayor Joven declared so boldly, “Integrity, is what you do when nobody is looking.”
This also leaves me smiling and just shaking my head. Their talk absolutely does not match their walk.
After the firing of City Manager Michael Marrero, Mayor Joven and the city council invested $338,000 of taxpayer money for our city officials to find us a very qualified “EAGLE” to run our city as city manager.
In the meantime, Mayor Joven, Councilmembers Matta and Swanner skipped over qualified “EAGLES” and put an unqualified interim “DUCK” in charge of our city as interim city manager.
When the search consultant group presented a list of very qualified “EAGLES” who were interested in leading our city as city manager, Mayor Joven, Councilmembers Matta, Swanner, Greg Connell and Chris Hanie skipped over qualified “EAGLES” and went to the bottom of the list and selected another unqualified “DUCK” to lead and oversee a nest of very qualified EAGLES as city manager, while promoting the unqualified interim “DUCK” to a permanent position of city leadership.
Over a few months many tenured “EAGLES” of the City of Odessa recognized that the “DUCKS” did not know what they were doing, had no leadership skills and were not adding value to the nest. The tenured “EAGLES” knew that they were no longer secure, nor significant and could not be successful so they chose to leave the nest. The new “HEAD DUCK” was later interviewed by the media about all of the qualified “EAGLES’ leaving the nest and said, “that he was not really concerned about it and it is always not bad, because it can create a new look from others and that can be a good thing.”
Odessa, the “EAGLES” refused to follow the leadership of a “DUCK” because “DUCKS” cannot soar at great heights. The loss of the internal “EAGLES” has and will continue to have a negative result on our city for some time. Us as citizens should also refuse to follow.
Early on in my research I came across a very interesting comment by City Manager Beckmeyer when he first assumed his position of city manager on or about August 16, 2023. He was speaking with the print and electronic media and stated,
“Back-room deals, and cronyism have no place in the public,” Beckmeyer said. “They’re a disease to an organization and the light of transparency is needed to disinfect that disease.”
Beckmeyer said he looks forward to knowing the people of Odessa and serving the community transparently.
“I work very hard, and when I get tired, I work twice as hard because I’m half as efficient,” he said. “I pride myself on transparency and integrity and if I’m ever seen to not have that, I want people to let me know that.”
Well Mr. Beckmeyer, I want to take advantage of your personal invitation, and I do want to let you know that you have not been acting with transparency and or integrity. I chuckled the very first time that I read what you had to say, because you being hired as city manager appears to have been done in a back room, with cronyism and the room was dark.
I will agree with you on one part of your quote that is very true and that is,” the light of transparency is needed to disinfect the disease.” A very bright light is going to shine on the disease and disinfection is going to occur.
I would like to close with two verses of scripture: Proverbs 10:9 (NIV) Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out.
Luke 12:3 (ESV) Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.
Commander James (Jim) Dodson retired in 1999 from the Odessa Police Department. He is a fourth-generation Texas police officer with 27 years with the OPD. In June of 2006, he was awarded the Texas Police Association “Wallace Beasley Award” for outstanding contribution to law enforcement training and education.
