The Amy Bell Sports Complex, audits, appointments and ARPA funds are among the agenda items scheduled to be discussed by the Odessa City Council during its work study session and regular council meeting Tuesday.
According to materials provided to the council, City Manager John Beckmeyer would like to re-appropriate $950,000 from the $93 million in certificates of obligation approved by the council in August 2019. He’d like it put it toward the Amy Bell Sports Complex.
Beckmeyer has informed the council the ordinance passed for the issuance of the certificates allows for “constructing, approving and equipping parks and recreational facilities…”
The council voted 5-1 to issue the certificates to build a new fire station, police multipurpose building and animal shelter and the rest was to be spent on roads, sewage, parks and city offices.
The groundbreaking for the $70 million sports complex is expected to be next month. It’s being built on 100 acres of land donated by the Bell family at the future intersection of Amy Bell Road and Faudree Road.
According to materials provided to the council, Beckmeyer would also like to discuss the possibility of auditing all three chamber departments: operations, Discover Odessa and economic development. However, the council will be asked to approve a contract with Weaver and Tidwell specifically for the Discover Odessa audit Tuesday night.
The council will also talk about prioritizing road projects during its work session and providing that list to the Texas Department of Transportation for its 10-year Unified Transportation Program.
Staff has suggested Loop 338 interchange projects at US 385, 87th Street, 52nd/56th Streets and West 8th Street. In addition, they’ve suggested an interchange project at Faudree Road and Business Interstate 20.
Risk Management Director Yvette Griffin is also scheduled to discuss insurance brokers and insurance coverage with the council.
After meeting in executive session, the council is expected to come out and appoint or reappoint the presiding and associate judge of Odessa Municipal Court. They’ll also set the salaries for the appointees, who will serve two year terms beginning Jan. 1.
During the council’s work session meeting held at 3 p.m., Interim Court Administrator Leah Albertson is expected to discuss the court’s data metrics, challenges and a plan of action.
The court has come under fire in some circles for a backlog of cases and a lack of jury trials.
In a March 2023 interview, then Director of Municipal Court Kimberly Jozwiak said that when she and Presiding Judge Carlos Rodriguez came on board shortly before the pandemic they discovered a backlog of 150,000 cases going back to the 1980s.
Rodriguez, Associate Judge Keith Kidd, court staff and city prosecutors began going through all of the cases to determine if they could still be prosecuted or if a collection agency might be able to collect outstanding fines and fees.
Many of them were deemed “uncollectable” and cleared off the docket, she said.
“Uncollectable is when a case is 15 years or older, without any activity that’s happened, the individual’s never shown up, they’ve not made their payment, they’ve not sent in their documentation to get their case dismissed. Something stopped 15 years back,” Jozwiak said then. “We have cases when I got here from 1980. That’s 40 years of cases in the municipal court. That’s not usual.”
To prevent any future backlogs and to ensure justice is being carried out, Jozwiak said Rodriguez and Kidd began issuing failure to appear in court warrants.
Up until they came aboard, warrants were not being issued “to any degree that I can determine,” Jozwiak said.
As for jury trials, Jozwiak acknowledged they hadn’t had any in a couple of years because the court had been unable to hire any bailiffs. At that time, they’d received 30 applications, but many of the applicants had failed a background check and the rest had found other jobs by the time the background check was completed.
However, Jozwiak stressed that the court rarely holds jury trials to begin with and when they do, they’re mostly for traffic offenses. Most defendants enter into plea agreements, she said.
Kidd and Rodriguez’s appointments end Dec. 31.
Also during the work session, Mayor Javier Joven would like to discuss giving a portion of the American Rescue Plan Act money the council recently decided to de-allocate to Medical Center Hospital for the new mental health hospital.
The Permian Basin Behavioral Health Center, which will have 200 inpatient beds, is set to open in 2025.
State lawmakers have secured just under $127 million for the the facility, which will also provide evaluation and stabilization services for patients in crisis, have an outpatient facility and office space for mental health providers.
The council unanimously voted Nov. 26 to de-allocate roughly $6.4 million of the $10.1 million it received in ARPA funds with council members stating they’d rather spend the money on infrastructure needs rather than on things like COVID testing, vaccinations, lost revenue, personal protective equipment and other services.
