Ector County commissioners on Tuesday adopted a realignment of commissioners’ and justices of the peace precincts to correct an untenable population growth in the western Precinct 1.
Consulting by Zoom call with Claudia Russell of the Austin law firm of Bickerstaff, Heath, Delgado and Acosta, the court voted 4-1 to accept one of the firm’s two proposed plans.
Precinct 4 Commissioner Armando S. Rodriguez voted “no,” explaining that he preferred the alternative because it would have made a more even distribution of road maintenance responsibilities.
Don Stringer’s Precinct 3 and Rodriguez’s Precinct 4 are moving west to claim part of Precinct 1 with Stringer currently representing 32,457 people and Rodriguez 36,596. Precinct 1 Commissioner Mike Gardner currently has 53,831 constituents. The changes will take effect Jan. 1.
Before the 10 a.m. regular meeting at the 1010 E. Eighth St. administration building, Precinct 2 Commissioner Greg Simmons said his jurisdiction, having 41,505 people in the 2020 Census, would be left unchanged because it was within one percent of the required 41,098.
Simmons said he was satisfied with the U.S. Census Bureau’s new county-wide total of 164,399, which is 19.9 percent more than the 137,083 who were counted in 2010.
Precinct 1 currently covers western Odessa and the west side of the county, Precinct 2 northeast Odessa and the Gardendale area, Precinct 3 most of the city and Precinct 4 southeast Odessa and the county’s south side.
In other business, the court voted to appoint a permanent advisory library committee whose members will be announced in two weeks. An item related to the county’s $49,038 donation to the Friends of the Ector County Library was withdrawn.
The commissioners also:
>> Named Shawn Oglesby to the 9-1-1 Emergency Board of Directors, effective till Sept. 30, 2023.
>> Reauthorized the county’s annual grant to Odessa Meals on Wheels.
>> Appointed on a 4-1 vote Jennifer Martin, Lindy Wright, Kevin Mann, Patricia Patton, Randy Donner, Shawn Callendar and Simmons to the salary committee with Rodriguez voting “no,” he said, because the committee had no minority members and no representatives of the lower and middle economic classes.
>> Awarded a contract to A&H Transport for medical examiner’s transportation services for $551 for one person and $826 for two people in the South Plains region and $185 for moving the remains of one person in Ector County.
>> Awarded a $301,415 contract to Axon Enterprise of Scottsdale, Ariz., for TASERs, body cameras and in-car videos for the sheriff’s office.
>> Amended the county’s contract with Tyler Technologies of Plano to add 11 users of Odyssey Online Licensed Software for the City of Odessa.
>> Authorized the building maintenance department to pay new employees $16.57 per hour.
>> Approved Coliseum Director Aaron Martin’s proposal to hire an event coordinator $18.93 per hour.
