Attorney Gaven Norris described Tuesday night’s Odessa City Council meeting, the one where they fired two key city employees, a “gift.”
In an interview Wednesday night, Norris said his law firm was hired within the last month by an Odessan who is interested in pursuing litigation against the city and that lawsuit will be filed sometime between now and early January.
“We’re going to name the city and each council member…that’s standard practice since each member represents the city, but the primary facts that we will lay out for this case are primarily based on the actions of the mayor,” Norris said.
The lawsuit, which will likely be filed in U.S. District Court, will allege violations of the First, 5th and 14th Amendments, Norris said. The 5th and 14th Amendments guarantees equal protection and due process to all citizens, he said.
At this point, Norris said he was unwilling to provide specifics, but said Mayor Javier Joven’s acts Tuesday night will help in their cause.
On Tuesday night, the city council voted 5-2 to terminate City Manager Michael Marrero and City Attorney Natasha Brooks without explanation.
The following language appeared on Tuesday’s agenda just prior to the possible terminations: “Any member of the public may address the City Council regarding any of its agenda items before or during the consideration of the item.”
However, the public was not allowed to speak on the matters until after the city council went into executive session and after they had voted.
Norris repeatedly interrupted Joven Tuesday night demanding to know if citizens could speak, but was told by Joven they were in the middle of a process.
“We were already working on (the) separate lawsuit that had nothing to do with what happened last night. We got a gift last night that gave us more ammunition,” Norris said.
Norris said he doesn’t know of any other city council that has not heard from citizens with opposing viewpoints “after they expressly provided the opportunity to speak.”
Those who wanted to speak filled out the required paperwork, but they weren’t allowed to speak at the appropriate time, Norris said. Instead, they were allowed to speak after the vote and during the time set aside for non-agenda items.
“That, in and of itself, was a violation of the city’s policies,” Norris said. “So not only did the mayor disregard basic constitutional due process rights, he’s violating city policies that he’s sworn to uphold. I’m just dumbfounded by it all.”
Elaborating on the upcoming lawsuit, Norris said, “The mayor’s held himself out in his official capacity in ways that have violated the rights of all citizens….and it’s happened unabashedly. I would say that and we believe that we have enough on its face to follow suit and we have the evidence to prove it. I believe once litigation has started we’ll be able to get even more discovery than what we have now and depose him. I believe the facts will bear out that what we are filing is not frivolous. There’s merit to the case.”
Norris, who has spent time in Washington, D.C., working on policy and legislation with the NAACP, said he received several calls.
“We have lawyers who reached out who have been made aware of what happened last night who believe that what happened did violate the citizens’ rights and they reached out to be a part of this and help, either being in front or behind the scenes,” Norris said.
Norris said he’d be pleased if civil rights activist Gene Collins follows through on his threats to launch an effort to recall Joven, District 1 City council member Mark Matta and At-Large City council member Denise Swanner.
“They go hand-in-hand. I think both of the efforts will attempt to hold our representatives accountable, to provide a result that shows the council is still responsible to the citizens of Odessa and not to their political obligations or their campaign obligations or to the right wing of the Ector County Republican Party,” Norris said.
Thanks to recent appointments, the mayor’s “political friends within the Ector County Republican Party” are now the leaders and presidents and governing heads of the Odessa Development Corporation and other boards. It’s very clear what’s going on,” Norris said.
Following Tuesday night’s meeting, Joven gave a statement during a brief press conference. He said “adjustments needed to be made on the day to day leadership.” However, he said he couldn’t answer any questions as he had to return home to his ailing, 92-year-old father.
He told reporters to schedule follow-up interviews through City Secretary Norma Aguilar-Grimaldo. She called Thursday and said the earliest the mayor could meet with the OA is Jan. 9 as he’s going out of town. A one-hour interview has been set up.
Joven sent out a news release late Wednesday afternoon reiterating what he said during the press conference. Messages left with Joven and some of the other council members who voted to fire the pair have gone unanswered. Those council members are Denise Swanner, Greg Connell and Chris Hanie.
Matta released this statement Thursday afternoon:
“We are dedicated to working with the staff to make this a successful and unified transition. At this moment, we want to assure the city employees that we are in a great position and have their best interests in mind. We are prioritizing city-wide initiatives and confident that our city management will match those initiatives with our highest performing and most capable leaders. We as a council look forward to introducing these plans and involving the community as we improve Odessa. I am very proud of our city employees and will work with them to make this city not only a great place to work, but also a great city to live.”
Gilbert Vasquez, who, along with Steve Thompson voted against firing the pair, said prior to the vote he hadn’t had sufficient time to properly evaluate them as he was just sworn in Nov. 22.
“I had individual discussions with Mr. Marrero and Ms. Brooks sometime ago. I was interested in learning more about their job responsibilities to the city council and to the citizens of Odessa. Upon exciting their presence, I left feeling comfortable that both seemed extremely knowledgeable and passionate about their employment responsibilities in serving the council and the citizens of Odessa,” Vasquez wrote in a statement.
