So far, the City of Odessa has been billed nearly $40,000 by a law firm hired to re-investigate an incident in which Odessa Fire Rescue cadets were injured. The first investigation resulted in the five-day suspension of a training chief and a written reprimand for a training captain.
Davidson Sheen was hired in early January to investigate OFR and as of Feb.24, had billed the city $38,811.71. The investigation remains ongoing.
Back in August, now retired OFR Chief John Alvarez sparked an investigation after noticing cadets with bandaged hands and discovering they’d received blisters during a physical training exercise.
An investigation was launched and punishment meted out, but the city opted to hire Davidson Sheen to re-investigate.
According to records obtained under the Texas Public Information Act, Davidson Sheen is one of seven law firms currently representing the city and one of three hired just since January. The firms’ hourly rates range from $175 an hour up to $450 for its attorneys and at least one of the firms bills $100 an hour for its paralegals.
According to the city’s website, it is currently seeking an assistant city attorney for just under $38 an hour.
Davidson Sheen was also the firm hired to investigate bullying complaints made by former Downtown Odessa Executive Director Casey Hallmark against the mayor and two councilmembers.
On March 14, Tommy Sheen told the city council many of the instances cited by Hallmark came down to “She said, he said.”
In his written report, Sheen said “This report is not intended to comment or opine on the veracity of Ms. Hallmark. Rather, the report is to document that after numerous interviews, document review and further investigation, our firm was unable to find sufficient evidence to corroborate the allegations levied by Casey Hallmark against Mayor Javier Joven, Councilman Mark Matta and Councilman Chris Hanie.”
As of Feb. 24, Davidson Sheen had billed the city $12,616.50 for its work in the Hallmark matter.
The hiring of the three firms comes on the heels of the city council’s decision to fire City Attorney Natasha Brooks and the subsequent resignations of three of the city’s five remaining attorneys.
The council voted 5-2 to fire Brooks without explanation and in the weeks following, three other attorneys quit with two citing a toxic work environment as the reason.
In addition to hiring Davidson Sheen, the city hired the James Law firm to handle three motor vehicle accident lawsuits filed against the city and two other civil lawsuits.
The city also hired the law firm of Kelly Hart and Hallman to defend it against a lawsuit filed by local attorney Gaven Norris, who alleges the city violated the Open Meetings act by firing Brooks and City Manager Michael Marrero Dec. 13 without allowing the public to speak.
Although the council later held a special meeting to fire the pair again after hearing from citizens, the lawsuit remains active. At $450 an hour, Kelly Hart and Hallman commands the highest hourly rate of all the law firms contracted by the city.
The law firm of Kelly, Morgan, Dennis, Corzine and Hansen is also currently representing the City of Odessa in a separate motor vehicle accident lawsuit. According to the City of Odessa, the law firm does not have a contract. It’s unclear what its billing rate is, but the firm had billed the city a combined $1,235 in December and January.
The city also continues to pay three additional law firms to defend itself against the Odessa American’s lawsuit, which was filed three years ago.
The OA’s parent company, AIM Media, alleges the city was violating the Texas Public Information Act a few years ago by not releasing “basic” public information contained in public crime records within 10 days, as required by law. That information included a description of the crime committed, the time and location of the crime, the names of the officers involved and the identities of those involved.
So far the attorneys’ fees for those three firms, Cotton Bledsoe Tighe & Dawson, Brockett & McNeel and Keith Stretcher, is more than $300,000.
Odessa City council members Steve Thompson and Gilbert Vasquez said they only learn about lawsuits after the fact, often when potential settlements are discussed in executive session. Typically attorneys are hired by the city attorney and assume the city manager is consulted ahead of time, they said.
Vasquez, who just joined the council in November, said he doesn’t know how common it is for municipalities to hire outside firms and under what circumstances that might occur.
The city has seven budgeted attorney positions, up until Dec. 13, six of those positions were filled. The seventh has remained vacant since the death of Robert Carroll in January 2021.
“My question would be, back then when we were fully staffed with attorneys were we taking care of our own lawsuits from within our legal division and not hiring people outside our legal division?” Vasquez said.
Thompson said he doesn’t understand why the city hired law firms to investigate the Hallmark and OFR allegations, but he’s more upset the city is being sued by Norris. He’s also worried the city will be sued by former Assistant City Manager Aaron Smith, who was fired earlier this month.
Smith’s attorney, Bobby Bland, believes city officials were upset Smith had asked the Ector County District Attorney’s Office, Texas Attorney General’s Office and the Texas Rangers to determine if Mayor Javier Joven had illegally signed a contract with T2 Professional Consulting and if the city had violated the Texas Open Meetings Act while firing Brooks and Marrero.
“I’m not happy with the lawsuits. They’ve created the lawsuits, the interim city manager and the mayor. They created the lawsuits because of the way they’ve handled things. They never gave cause and I don’t understand that. I’m just suspicious of that…I can’t tell you what they’re up to, but I’m sure not liking all of the lawsuits,” Thompson said.
Interim City Attorney Dan Jones, Interim City Manager Agapito Bernal, Joven and all six members of the city council were emailed a list of questions about the outside law firms and their bills on Wednesday morning. They were asked for interviews or statements and given a deadline of noon Friday.
Thompson and Vasquez were the only ones to respond.
Among the questions:
- How common is it for municipalities to hire outside firms to handle such things as lawsuits and HR investigations?
- How common is it for municipalities to have seven outside law firms working for them at once? To be specific: Cotton Bledsoe, Brockett, McNeel & Pocsik, Keith Stretcher, Davidson Sheen, Kelly Hart & Hallman, The James Law Firm, and Kelly, Morgan, Dennis, Corzine & Hansen.
- Can you please justify the expense of hiring these outside firms for routine car accident/trip and fall lawsuits since city attorneys roughly earn $48 an hour? The mayor and several other councilmembers are often quoted as saying they wish the city to be more fiscally responsible, leaner and more accountable.
- Can you explain the hiring of outside law firms to conduct HR investigations, again considering the fees they charge?
- Can you please explain why the OFR cadet investigation was re-opened?
- Given the expense of the AIM Media lawsuit ($300,000 and climbing) what would you say to those people who believe the city should be looking for ways to reduce its legal fees?
Thompson and Vasquez also said they don’t know if the city’s legal staff was bloated prior to Brooks’ firing as Joven recently suggested during a recent radio appearance.
Joven said, “We had a $1.2 million payroll within our legal department, 16 employees. We radically reduced it. So the thing is, it’s promises made, promises kept.”
In the email sent to Joven and the council, Joven was asked about his statement in light of the increased outside legal fees and the fact the city recently filled one of the empty attorney spots and is advertising another. The annual salary listed is $78,512 or $37.75 an hour.
Vasquez wondered if the outside firms had to be hired because the city is short-staffed.
“We’ve got all these lawsuits and we’re having to have help from the outside to take care of them. Naturally, as a public citizen and as a councilman, I’d be concerned. If we’re going to be open season for lawsuits, we need to have the legal division filled to whatever budgeted number of positions we have to be ready for those things to happen,” Vasquez said. “We need to make use of the expertise of our own legal division to take care of our needs. That will be what I would want as a public citizen and as a council person. Why would we be paying a certain individual and then let someone else do their job for him?”
Records show no one from the legal department has left aside from Natasha Brooks, Laurie Means, Monique Wimberly and Jan Baker since December.
Jones, Bernal, Joven and the council were also asked:
- How much was budgeted for the city’s legal fees in ‘FY22-23? How far over budget is the city at this point? How will the city make up the shortfall?
Joven and/or the city council itself has signed several other unexpected contracts over the last several months. One day after firing Brooks and Marrero, Joven signed a $338,000 contract with T2 Professional Consulting to, in part, help find a new city manager.
The council also spent $115,500 on a compensation study, $15,000 for a sports complex feasibility study and $10,000 to have the employee handbook rewritten and the city’s personnel policies and procedures updated.
