So, as we count down the days until the Nov. 5 election, Mayor Javier Joven & Co. are desperately trying to convince you they’ve done a fantastic job over the last four years and deserve four more.
Yes, it’s true the City is finally replacing our failing water valves and water lines. The city council approved spending roughly $25 million on the project using unused bond money and funds generated by selling wastewater.
They did so back in July — 43 months into their 48-month term.
Yes. They’re buying new trash trucks.
Yes. They’ve got some road projects underway.
But, before you head to the polls or mail in your ballot, we’d like you to consider some things.
Water
The Bob Derrington Wastewater Treatment Plant is still failing. Yes, a company has been hired to evaluate the plant and come up with a plan to rehab it, but we have no idea where the funds will come from to pay for it.
Sure, Joven, Denise Swanner and Mark Matta will tell you their removal of their former buddies from the Odessa Development Corporation (ODC) gets us closer to using ODC funds for infrastructure, but if that’s truly the case, why did they appoint them to the ODC in the first place?
Oh, and we’re still not convinced the council can use the money sitting in ODC’s bank account. City Manager John Beckmeyer said back in June that they can’t.
And while there’s been much talk about the City applying for grants, the City completely blew it this year. The Texas Water Development Board issued hundreds of millions in grants and how much did the city get? Zero. Zip. Nada. And that is because the City didn’t bother to apply. They haven’t applied for those grants since 2022 (when they were turned down).
We also feel compelled to repeat something we’ve already reported when it comes to the Derrington Plant.
The City’s own records show the repairs and equipment budget for the wastewater treatment plant hasn’t increased under Joven & Co., the same Squad that insists it’s all about seeing to citizen’s basic needs.
The budget has decreased!
The budget was just under $1.3 million in 2020. It fell in 2021 to just under $905,000, then to $838,000 in 2022 and back up to $844,000 in 2023. The repairs and equipment budget for the wastewater treatment plant for this year was a mere $664,050.
The City also did a spectacularly bad job of spending money on fixing and replacing water valves and water lines during The Squad’s first three years in office.
Back in July, we told you that in 2021, $2.7 million was budgeted for fixing and replacing water valves and water lines and $1.7 million was spent. It got worse in 2022; $3.7 million was budgeted and roughly $1.78 million was spent. Last year, $4 million was budgeted and $1.75 million was spent.
Oh, while we’re on the subject of water. Don’t forget the council has raised water, sewage and trash rates every year they’ve been in office.
Sure, they gave seniors and disabled folks a break for the coming year, but that was only after the council started getting slammed for raising the rates in the first place.
Seriously, there were no discussions about discounts during meetings leading up to the final vote, but once mayoral candidate Cal Hendrick and at-large council candidate Craig Stoker pointed out the consecutive increases, Swanner suddenly voiced her concerns for our senior citizens and the disabled.
Also, don’t forget The Squad concocted a lame non disclosure agreement and forced their political rivals (Hendrick and Stoker) to sign it before they could tour the water plant. The ONLY folks EVER asked to sign such silliness.
The morale and conditions are so bad at the Derrington Plant, the operations manager, Melissa Looney, left in June 2023. They were only able to convince her to come back eight months later by increasing her salary from $79,000 to $105,000.
Roads
So, yeah, there are some major road projects underway and in the works, but Joven & Co. seem to have the same problem with roads as they do with water.
Again, records the OA received under open records laws, detail the City budgeted $8.7 million for roads in 2021 and spent just under $3.6 million. They budgeted $10.5 million in 2022 and spent just under $4 million. It was the same story in 2023 – $12.6 million budgeted, less than $7.3 million spent. And so far this year, $4.3 million has been spent out of the $6.9 million budgeted.
We honestly think that a competent, engaged, smart city council would be on top of things like this. Why on earth didn’t they know money was just sitting around not getting spent? Didn’t they see the roads crumbling? Didn’t they notice the crazy amount of water line breaks? We know the breaks were happening even before June 2022, when the entire city went without water for nearly a week.
We have our suspicions on how it got to this point. Keep reading.
Sports Complex
So, you may be thinking, “OK, but what about this fabulous new 80,000-100,000-square foot sports complex we’re getting?”
First, Councilman Steve Thompson can be thanked for Larry Bell’s generous donation of 100 acres. We’re sure his long-term friendship with Bell had a lot to do with the gift and that members of The Squad don’t have any of those connections.
Secondly, we don’t think The Squad should be crowing at all when the project isn’t even funded yet.
Sure, the memorandum of understanding with project management group Centurion finally got signed after months of delays, but Centurion has yet to sell any bonds for the project, and there are plenty of people wondering if they’ll be able to do it. They’ve never done it before.
Money saved?
So if you follow the Odessa Accountability Project on Facebook, as well as Joven, Matta and Swanner’s Facebook pages, you’ll likely remember the rave reviews for Chris Adams, who was hired in June 2023 as the City’s new director of equipment services.
Adams thought it’d be a good idea for the City to open up its own tire shop and to purchase its own fuel tanks so City employees could gas up their city-owned vehicles.
Adams said the City would save $600,000 a year with the tire changing shop. He also said the City would save $750,000 the first year employees began using city-owned fuel.
Guess how much the City has saved?
Again, using figures provided to the OA under the Texas Public Information Act (TPIA), over the last year the City saved $200,000 with its tire shop and $300,000 under the gasoline initiative.
The records show the City budgeted $3.8 million for “maintenance automotive equipment” and spent $3.6 million. Records also show the City budgeted $2.2 million and spent $1.9 million for the gas program.
Sure, saving that money is better than a kick in the head, but it’s not what was promised and we’ve got to wonder how much money the City sank into the cost of the equipment that was required to make these ideas a reality.
Wasted time
So while money was in the bank not getting spent and our roads and water lines were crumbling, what was The Squad doing?
They were fear mongering and grand standing.
Even though Odessa Police Chief Mike Gerke didn’t consider game rooms any more of a nuisance than bars, they spent months having staff write and re-write city ordinances to force them out of business.
Even though the pandemic was long over, they passed a no mask/vaccine mandate.
Even though state and federal laws already handled the abortion issue, they made Odessa a “Sanctuary City for the Unborn.”
And even though citizens were more concerned about potholes and drinkable water, they brought back the National Day of Prayer.
OK, we know there are those out there who are “all in” on Joven & Co., bringing their faith into city hall. So let’s talk some more about The Squad’s “accomplishments.”
Forgive us if we sound like we’re beating the same old drum, but this stuff is important. We’ll put the list in bullet points to make all of it easier to follow.
The Squad:
- Fired, without explanation, City Manager Michael Marrero and City Attorney Natasha Brooks in December 2022.
- Violated city rules by hiring T2, a company with a “mental scientist,” within hours of the firings without running it by the legal department or city council first. T2 was tasked with helping them find a new city manager. The violation of city rules led to Assistant City Manager Aaron Smith asking authorities to investigate. Smith was fired and filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the City, which is pending.
- Hired Beckmeyer, who had zero of the job qualifications they and T2 agreed the new city manager should have.
By the way, Marrero and Brooks’ terminations led to a whopping 18 — 47 percent — of the City’s 38 department heads leaving within the year.
The departure of the majority of the City’s legal department led to the hiring of outside counsel, which led to a $411,000 shortfall in that department’s budget in 2023.
And, the departure of the majority of the City’s finance department led to delays in the 2022 and 2023 audits and the City losing its bond ratings with Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s.
- Defended the signing of an open-ended contract with the non-profit Texas Government Accountability Association that will require a vote of citizens to terminate.
- Never mentioned the campaign manager Joven, Matta and Swanner just so happen to share has strong ties to the Texas Government Accountability Association and never signed conflict of interest forms about that relationship.
- Approved three-year contracts for Beckmeyer, City Attorney Dan Jones and City Secretary Norma Aguilar that will pay them for the life of those contracts even if they leave the City before those agreements expire, no matter the circumstances.
If these things aren’t enough for you, how about…
- Joven falsely reported to OPD Chief Mike Gerke that a political adversary was acting suspiciously in former Ector County Republican Chairwoman Tisha Crow’s neighborhood. When this was revealed, he tried to hide that fact even going so far as to claim to the Texas Attorney General he was a confidential informant.
- Matta’s admission that he sent “inappropriate” texts to the wife of an Odessa firefighter.
- Matta, who faces Odessan Eddie Mitchell for the District 1 seat, on Facebook made wild accusations that someone must have hacked some Facebook accounts apparently to make him look bad.
- The hiring of a communications director for $155,000 when her predecessors’ salaries were in the mid-’70s. Instead of using Facebook to educate people about the issues the City is facing or how to access City services, a big part of her job appears to be following around The Squad for photo opportunities apparently aimed at furthering their campaigns for re-election.
- The blatant support of fake Facebook profiles that routinely denigrate others while boosting their images. Swanner went so far as to say she’d met one of the fake personas and he’d paid for her lunch. When asked about the bullying the fake profiles were engaging in on social media and how Odessans were afraid to speak up, Swanner replied that was fine, that maybe no one would run against her this election.
- Joven, using his position as mayor, sought to influence a municipal judge’s decisions on teens caught drinking during Operation Graduation.
- The many times Joven berated and/or embarrassed city staff and contractors from the dais during city council meetings. Remember KDC Associates? Tom Kerr? Casey Hallmark?
- And of course, there are the emails. Joven has both claimed he doesn’t have any “government official emails” and that he was taught to delete emails. Public officials are required to keep all emails dealing with public business regardless of whether the email is from a government-issued email address or a private one.
Enough already. Let’s replace The Squad and get back to the real business of government.
