Odessa’s District 2 Councilman Steve Thompson said that despite the fact the last four years have been highly controversial, he has some reasons to be proud and he’s running again because he wants to see some other things through.
“There’s so much work to be done and I’ve got the time,” Thompson said. “You know, this is home. I was born and raised here and I made a good living here for my family and this is just a way to give back.”
“As contentious as a lot of it has been, there have been moments I’ve been very proud of,” he said.
Thompson said he is especially proud the city’s water treatment plant is well on its way to being completely rehabilitated.
In June 2021, he, Tom Sprawls, Detra White and Mari Willis out-voted Mayor Javier Joven, Mark Matta and Denise Swanner to approve the use of a certificates of obligation bond to pay for a $95 million major rehabilitation of the plant.
City administrators had said the 60-year-old plant was in dire need of repairs and upgrading and warned the system could fail at any time, potentially leaving thousands of Odessans without water.
“Oh, it’s beautiful,” Thompson said. “It’s getting real, real close.”
Thompson will face political newcomer Nayely Urias in November for the District 2 seat.
Thompson is also proud of the work he has done to get a $70 million sports complex built in Odessa.
His good friend Larry Bell agreed to donate 100 acres of land worth $5 million to the project and a memorandum of understanding is scheduled to be signed with the company financing the project this week.
Once completed, the complex will be 140,000 square feet with 30 pickle ball courts, 20 volleyball courts, 10 hardwood courts, a portable 200-meter banked competition track, fitness centers, conference rooms, offices, a concession area, a cafe and a retailer. In addition, outside there will be 12 fields for soccer, football and lacrosse and up to eight softball and baseball fields. There are also plans for athletic training and physical therapy.
After Sprawls, White and Willis opted not to run for re-election in 2021 and were replaced, Thompson often found himself on the losing side on several key votes. For example, he voted against the December 2021 firings of City Manager Michael Marrero and City Attorney Natasha Brooks.
Those firings, Thompson said, directly led to a significant number of department heads retiring or leaving the city.
It’s because the finance department was decimated that the city lost its bond ratings with S&P and Moody’s earlier this year, Thompson said.
Still, the city has replaced many of the department heads with good people who are helping the city address serious issues, such as broken down trash trucks and aging water valves and water lines, he said.
Thompson said he didn’t want to blame previous councils or administrators for any of the issues the city is currently facing, preferring to focus on the positives.
The city is now steadily replacing the trash trucks and City Manager John Beckmeyer has allocated $25 million to replace the water valves and water lines, he said.
Beckmeyer has said $20 million of those funds were sitting in an account set up after Pioneer Natural Resources agreed to buy waste water from the city.
“I think we’re moving in the right direction, that’s moving in the right direction finally,” Thompson said.
In addition, he, Beckmeyer and Rep. Brooks Landgraf have met with the Texas Water Development Board to see about obtaining state funds to assist the city, Thompson said.
Thompson actually voted against hiring Beckmeyer to replace Marrero, but he said he’s been pleasantly surprised by the job Beckmeyer has done. He said a recent article by Odessa Headlines publisher Jeff Russell accusing Beckmeyer of using city resources to further his own agenda was just a case of sour grapes.
In fact, Thompson said the removal of Russell and Kris Crow from the Odessa Development Corporation was “huge.”
They were a “huge obstruction because they thought they knew more than what the law says,” Thompson said.
The two men were using their positions for their own political gain, he said.
“They lost sight of the fact that they work at the pleasure of the city council and that’s what they found out. The city council had enough of it because they were saying, We can’t do this. We can’t do that and they made Mr. Bell do an industrial district which never had to happen. They took it upon themselves to do that,” Thompson said.
As a result of their removal, Thompson said the city will be able to use sale tax revenue shared with the ODC to address some of the city’s infrastructure needs.
“Moving forward, I’ll be working on getting some of these dadgum roads done,” Thompson said. “That’s my number one priority and one of the reasons I’m continuing to run for the city council.”
It’s imperative the city starts to be proactive when it comes to roads instead of reactionary because of growth, Thompson said.
He wants to see Yukon become a five-lane road and road improvements need to be done near the future Bass Pro Shop.
Thompson flat out rejects the idea he is ignoring regular Odessans in favor of “elite” residents in his district.
While it’s true his district has a lot of business owners in it, many of them, like long-time Odessan Bro Hill, worked incredibly hard to build their businesses. They’re not elite, Thompson said.
“It’s not my fault that all of the growth is occurring in my district,” Thompson said. “If something comes up on the west or south side of town, I’m just as much for that as I am anyplace else and I always will be … When somebody asked me what my agenda was when I ran the first time, I said, ‘I don’t have an agenda. I just care about the City of Odessa.’”
