The Odessa Development Corporation voted unanimously Thursday to replace CVA Advertising and Marketing with Current Media Partners.
The ODC’s marketing compliance committee met with
Christi Callicoatte and Brittney Mann from Current Media, Hancock Media and CVA recently to discuss how they would go about attracting new companies to Odessa.
“All three were very impressive, I have to say. I think it unanimous among all three of us that Christie’s proposal was probably the most current, up-to-date on the digital…I think that’s what tilted me in that direction,” said board member Tim Edgmon.
Current Media will work with Craig Van Amburgh, CVA’s owner, through the transition period, Edgmon said.
Following the meeting, board member Kris Crow said it had been at least a decade since the ODC had gone out to bid for marketing. He said he found Current Media’s ideas “fresh.”
In other matters, the ODC also voted unanimously to go out to bid a second time for an auditing firm that will be responsible for looking at companies to make sure they are in compliance with their contracts before incentive payments are made.
Crow has long said he is uncomfortable the ODC’s current auditing firm, Weaver,which also audits the City of Odessa’s books. He also said the compliance committee has found issues Weaver had failed to find.
Moreover, Crow said it has been a long time since that contract has been up for bid, too.
Assistant City Manager Cindy Muncy reminded the board the request for proposals went out in July to a variety of companies. She said the purchasing department followed up with phone calls and sent emails, but didn’t receive a response from them.
In the end, only two companies submitted bids and only one was qualified – Weaver, she said.
The ODC voted last month to continue on with Weaver on a month-to-month basis.
On Thursday, Muncy told the board she’s not heard back from Axiom, which had expressed an interest in the contract after being contacted by Crow.
Crow told his fellow members Thursday he has since reached out to Whitley Penn, which has an office in Odessa, and the firm expressed an interest in bidding on the contract. He also volunteered to reach out to the groups the purchasing department tried to contact to again remind them about the process if the board decided to try again.
The board voted unanimously to go out to bid again and to allow Weaver to continue its work until further notice.
The board also spent some time Thursday talking about amending the language used in incentive performance contracts so everyone has a better idea about when capital expenditures qualify and what constitutes a “discrepancy” or “construction.”
The board needs to determine, for example, if a company is in the construction phrase if it’s only been plugging wells or conducting environmental studies? Or must they have broken ground?
Rather than “make sausage in public,” board president David Boutin said he and the city’s legal team would work on some proposals and bring them back at a later date.
Last month Crow voted against paying Nacero it’s first $2 million incentive payment because Nacero included amongst its expenditures those made in 2018-2020 when the contract with the city wasn’t signed until June 2021.
He was the lone dissenting vote.
Nacero plans to build a $7 billion natural gas processing and production facility near Penwell. The project is expected to create 3,500 construction jobs and 350 permanent jobs.
