Eddie Mitchell, owner of Ed and Tom’s Bar-B-Que, has filed to run for the City Council’s District 1 seat, saying he hopes to help make changes to what he calls the south gateway of the city.
Mitchell said he is loud and passionate and he loves Odessa — especially the southside of the city. He says the district needs a lot of changes including a change in appearance.
“We’ve got to change the gateway,” Mitchell said. “If you’re going to make downtown better, you’ve got to make our presentation much better, which means the southside.”
Mitchell said he is for all of Odessa, but if elected, he will represent the southside of Odessa better than incumbent Mark Matta. “I haven’t seen Mark Matta over here since he was elected,” Mitchell said.
In 2020, Mitchell ran against Matta, Michael Shelton and Tiki Davis. Shelton and Matta headed to a runoff and Matta won. In city races winners must get 50 percent of the vote plus one.
Mitchell is glad for a second shot at the seat and bemoans what he called poor representation by Matta.
Matta is in his first term and replaced incumbent Shelton, who was appointed by the City Council after former Councilman Malcolm Hamilton abruptly resigned earlier in 2019.
Mitchell has lived in District 1 about 30 years and said the area has a number of issues including infrastructure. He said Odessa’s recent water outages due to failing pipes and valves should have been handled long ago. He said previous councils share some of that blame but added the current council, including Matta, are too worried about other issues and are ignoring the city’s roads and water issues. Mitchell called the lack of action on water shameful after Odessans went without water for several days in 2022 and again this year after a water line/valve failure.
Matta and other members of the current council have only taken recent action on water issues because there is an election and most are being challenged for their seats, he said. Early voting begins in October. Election day is Nov. 5.
Mayor Javier Joven is being challenged by Odessa attorney Cal Hendrick. At-large Councilperson Denise Swanner is being challenged by Craig Stoker, the executive director of Odessa’s Meals on Wheels.
District 2 Councilman Steve Thompson is so far the only candidate in his district. Potential candidates have until Aug. 19 to file.
Mitchell said incumbents are being challenged because everyday Odessans are sick of the issues being ignored like water and roads and trash pickup.
He said trash pickup issues related to a shortage of trucks caused Odessans unnecessary inconvenience. Current officials have blamed the months-long spotty trash service in some areas on parts not being available for broken trucks and new trucks not being ordered in time to replace those going out of service. Mitchell doesn’t buy that explanation and said too many times in the last four years this council has blamed bad outcomes on previous administrations.
He pointed to recent news that the City’s bond ratings were withdrawn by Moody’s and Standard & Poors because both companies cited “insufficient or otherwise inadequate information” to support the City’s previous A+ rating.
Mitchell joined candidates Hendrick and Stoker in expressing alarm after the ratings were withdrawn because the City of Odessa has not completed its 2022 and 2023 audits. “I don’t care what they (Matta) say…it is a big deal to lose that credit rating,” he said.
He said losing staff to resignations, retirements and firing likely led to many of these issues.
He has a number of supporters who agree with him about Matta’s lack of attention to the southside, Mitchell said.
He also expressed disgust at Matta’s recent press release and video in which the incumbent apologized to his wife and to Odessans for what he called “inappropriate behavior.” In the release and video, Matta confessed to texting a female who was not his wife.
Matta’s statement, in part, reads:
“I am here today to sincerely apologize and take full responsibility for inappropriate text messages I sent to a woman other than my wife.
I apologize first and foremost to my wife, as I have let you down. I also apologize to my family, constituents, colleagues, and community for the hurt and disappointment I have caused.
My actions were a serious lapse in judgment, and I take complete responsibility. I understand the impact this has had on those who trusted and supported me, and I humbly ask for your forgiveness.”
Mitchell said he didn’t care for Matta having his wife stand beside him in the video. “I don’t like that … and I don’t like that he did that.”
He’s aware of speculation the woman Matta was texting was the wife of a city employee. Asked if Matta should have resigned if that were the case, Mitchell said Matta should have resigned and should not be seeking re-election.
Mitchell said this and many other things in the last four years have been distractions from the work that needs to be done in Odessa.
He says city council seats are nonpartisan and it shouldn’t matter who is a Democrat or a Republican. “It is what can we do to make Odessa better as a team,” he added.
Odessa is falling into a hole due to poor leadership and he wants to change that, Mitchell said. He cites recent lawsuits and also the city losing its credit rating as two factors that led him to run again.
“They were elected four years ago, but what have they done?” he asked.
“I haven’t seen Mark Matta on the southside since he took office. This is your district. The southside is your district and we’ve got problems … you have to care about all of Odessa when on council, but you sure have to care about your own district and I don’t see that.”
He says the “gateway” hasn’t been taken care of and isn’t as inviting as it should be to travelers along Interstate 20. “Most cities pull folks in and we just don’t do it,” he said. “The southside should bring in people who are traveling and offer them the chance to get a hotel room and have a good meal … it is not inviting and that is a shame … if they don’t stop in Odessa we don’t get any of those tax dollars … just look at what Midland has done. It draws visitors in.”
He blames the current council for a lack of action, including dumping many plans to spruce up downtown. “As a southside business owner I have a problem with that,” he said.
He also is unhappy the City disbanded Downtown Odessa, which has re-formed as a local nonprofit.
And he is critical of the City spending money on out-of-town consultants to run annual events like the Firecracker Fandango and the Holiday Parade “with people who don’t even live here.”
”Why?” he asked. “Why spend that money on those people out of Dallas or San Antonio instead of right here?”
He said he didn’t participate in this year’s Fandango and said others did not as well due to changes made by those running the event.
Mitchell was born in Odessa but grew up in Midland. He returned to Odessa and raised his two children here along with his wife, Tometra. They will be grandparents in September.
Mitchell has also traveled the country as a driver for All Aboard America! tour and charter busses before he started at Champion Chemicals, where he worked about seven years as a frac supervisor. He later drove school buses for a year while he opened his restaurant in 2016. As a business owner and someone who still preps in the kitchen and serves food, he meets a lot of people, learns about them. He said he’s also learned how to budget himself.
He said he is a member of Mackey Chapel Church in Odessa. Mitchell’s barbecue business is located at 317 E. Murphy St.
Mitchell will have a campaign kickoff event from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Aug. 22 at the Odessa Marriott.
More on election 2024:
- Oct. 7 is the last day to register to vote.
- Early voting begins Oct. 21 and ends Nov. 1.
- Nov. 5 is election day.
