By Ronnie Lewis
Politicians love to throw around certain words like ethics, transparency and accountability. TGAA stands for Texas Government Accountability Association. Yes, another word Odessans heard a lot in the last election was “accountability” as in Odessa’s Accountability Facebook page. Y’all remember that train wreck of dishonesty during the last election. Luckily, voters weren’t fooled.
I’m going to break down how unethically and non transparent our city manager John Beckmeyer, Mayor Javier Joven, council members Denise Swanner, Mark Matta and TGAA Chairman Anthony Wilder executed a contract with Odessa.
The contract was partly negotiated by Matt Armstrong who is Joven, Swanner and Matta’s out of town campaign manager. This was not disclosed to other members of the City Council on the day the contract was unanimously approved, although it is definitely a conflict of interest. Anthony Wilder will tell you that Armstrong’s involvement “stems from his expertise and experience” but a simple Google search will show that Armstrong hasn’t always been ethical or transparent. John Beckmeyer was also not honest with the Council to divulge he and Armstrong are old political buddies. Beckmeyer or Wilder did not inform the Council that TGAA was only a few days old and had only one customer, a town with less than 200 people.
The contract cannot be broken without a costly city wide election. But the Council entered into the contract without an actual election. Anthony Wilder says this prevents a politically motivated city council from terminating the contract without citizen input. Ironically, the most politically motivated city council in Odessa’s history agreed to the contract without “citizen input”. The contract dictates the actual ballot language that will be required to be put on the ballot to vote out the contract and of course in that language are the words ethics transparency and accountability. Alluding that voters will lose those traits with a no vote.
Why would an organization made up of three politicians from the DFW area need to come out to Odessa to launch? Why are they not being sought after in their own backyard? Could it be they are not typically associated with the words ethical or transparent? We don’t know. But we do know TGAA aided by our city manager was not transparent or ethical with our City Council in presenting the contract.
City manager John Beckmeyer tells the Odessa American “he’s not political” while his friend and TGAA Chairman Anthony Wilder touts his “background in politics”. Beckmeyer also tells the OA that his wife, Teresa is not meddling in our local elections but that’s just not true. Speaking of meddling, why is Joven, Swanner and Matta’s controversial political consultant meddling in our local government?
This is all very mind boggling and I could go on because there is more to this story that involves arbitration and our city attorney. Joven, Swanner and Matta keep spinning the narrative “what’s wrong with wanting ethics and transparency” while it’s obvious this contract was absolutely not negotiated ethically or transparently. All I can say now is we can vote this nonsense out in November and restore integrity to our City Hall by voting Cal Hendrick for Mayor, Craig Stoker, Eddie Mitchell and Steve Thompson for City Council.
Ronnie Lewis is a longtime Odessa businessman who founded Dos Amigos. He is an elected GOP precinct chair.
