Wow. There’s so much going on this week in the circus we call Odessa city government we have enough fodder for multiple editorials. But, for now, let’s talk about Mayor Javier Joven.
Joven put on a brave face and his big boy pants Wednesday to face a razor sharp, hard as nails inquisition from KWEL AM 1070 host Craig Anderson on such subjects as the City’s bond ratings, failing water systems, pothole-filled roads, stinking trash, and undermanned police and fire departments.
Just kidding.
Oh, well… Joven did go on the radio, but aside from asking Joven about the bond ratings, Anderson didn’t ask Joven a single question. In fact, after praising Joven’s youthful appearance and making sure his audience knows who he’s voting for come November, Anderson just let Joven do what Joven does best, ramble on and on in his best word salad style.
But our beef isn’t so much with Anderson; it’s really with Joven.
Joven actually had the brass to out-and-out lie about the City of Odessa’s bond ratings.
Never mind that Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s put out reports on the matter. Never mind that City Manager John Beckmeyer confirmed the losses and said steps were being taken to get them back. But Joven said the City never lost its bond rating, that it was just fake news.
We know it will be painful to get through, but this is exactly what Joven said on the matter:
“Local people will look at CNN and MSNBC and everybody else and say fake news, but yet they won’t look at their dying sources of paper and that type of platform and it serves more of a political action committee and sit there and put out information that the City of Odessa’s bond rating had been lost. That never occurred. As we were continuing to finish up and trying to solidify our audits and close down the year 22 and so it was never lost, but they came into question that it was. You had some former people that were put on some committees that were removed because they were very toxic, they put out this false information. The bond rating was never endangered. The bond rating was never lost.”
Yep. Joven sure is eloquent, isn’t he?
Joven then went on to say the City doesn’t need to go out and borrow money to address the city’s needs, bragging that the City is “moving, we’re progressing, we’re addressing the issues.”
He then lied again and said the Odessa American has it out for him because he’s never run from his faith. He said the council “has stepped up and outlawed abortion, has taken a stand on the bathroom ordinance to rectify and have standing when the federal government comes in and says, ‘Hey, you know what? You’re going to (unintelligible) the pronouns and we’re going to allow men to be in the bathrooms with young women.’”
So let’s break this down.
Does the Odessa American have it out for Joven because he’s a man of faith? Nope. Javier Joven could spend every Sunday on his knees praying to a Jackalope statue while wearing Mickey Mouse ears and we wouldn’t blink an eye.
What we care about is a mayor and a city council who spend money thoughtfully, plan for the future, follow rules and laws, and address the needs of its citizens.
In January 2021 and again in August 2021, Joven wasted time trying to get abortions banned in Odessa before finally succeeding in November 2022. It didn’t matter that the federal government and the State of Texas already had laws on the books, Joven wanted to be able to brag that he, Denise Swanner and Mark Matta were doing the Lord’s work when it came election time. All the while ignoring Odessa’s water and road issues.
Next.
We submitted a Texas Public Information request asking for complaints about City bathrooms. There were only a few and they had nothing to do with men in women’s restrooms. Just a few complaints about access and cleanliness.
2023 FBI crime data for Texas can be found here.
Next.
Joven bragged about how healthy the City’s coffers are.
Does the City have a healthy fund balance? Absolutely, but it is only because they DIDN’T spend the money they budgeted for roads, water lines and water valves. That’s right. The money for addressing your roads and water system was budgeted for the last four years but only about half was spent in both those categories. That includes 2022, when we all did without water for several days.
Has the City bought new trash trucks? Yes. Are they fixing water valves? Yes? Do they have some road projects coming up? Sure.
So, yeah. Thank you.
Thank you for doing your job, finally.
But quit preying on people’s fears, people’s fear of those who are different than they are.
We can’t begin to tell you how much our hearts hurt and how disgusted we were when The Squad’s No. 1 cheerleader, Jamie Tisdale of the Odessa Accountability Project, took to Facebook this week to spout hate about mayoral candidate Cal Hendrick’s church being on a “pathway straight to Hell” for supporting LGBTQ people and how the “evilness of grotesque sin” has become normalized. She then went on to question the “morals and motives” of Hendrick and council candidate Craig Stoker, who happens to be openly gay.
In both that post and the following, Tisdale called upon Christians to head to the polls to vote for righteous candidates.
Joven, during his radio address, did much the same. He spoke about former President Donald Trump being anointed and chosen by God. He talked about “If we lose the United States, so goes the world and if we lose Texas, so goes the United States.”
Again, let’s frighten people.
Shouldn’t we be basing our decisions on what the incumbents have or have not done for all Odessans? Shouldn’t we be looking at candidates and judging them for their qualifications and ideas, not for what they do in the bedroom?
We are so weary of the shenanigans, oftentimes very nasty ones at that. We truly hope voters make a change come November. It would be so nice to write stories on normal city hall happenings instead of the latest bizarre decision, the latest hate-filled rant, the latest City staff departure, the latest crisis.
We want to be very clear. We support all those who choose to worship in the religion of their choice. We believe in faith and family and know Odessa has many fantastic institutions of worship. We would never disparage any religion or person of faith. But we will call out elected liars.
Oh, and by the way, we want to educate those of you who believe the United States was created as a “Christian nation” and therefore feel compelled to vote strictly because their candidates profess their faith from the rooftops.
It was not.
James Madison, the father of our Constitution, said religion in politics would make men “vex and oppress each other.” He also praised the new Constitution believing it would welcome people “of every description, whether native or adoptive, whether young or old, and without regard to poverty or wealth, or to any particular profession of religious faith.”
Thomas Jefferson also wrote the following: “It does me no injury for my neighbor to believe in 20 gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”
