When Mayor Javier Joven, Council members Mark Matta and Denise Swanner all won seats on the Odessa City Council their election platform was to demand, high ethical standards, accountability, transparency and eliminating the” good ole boy” system in Odessa.
Now let’s address the agreement with the Texas Government Accountability Association (TGAA).
On April 23, 2024, the entire city council gave City Manager John Beckmeyer the go ahead to engage in an inter-local agreement with the Texas Government Accountability Association (TGAA.) TGAA is an organization that is committed to promoting transparency and ethical standards across various levels of government in Texas. (Website ttxgaa.org.) A cursory review of services they provide appear to be very contemporary and designed to protect the public trust. I am and have always been for very sound policy and procedures that protects the public trust.
Later, through an open records, request the, Odessa America (OA) discovered evidence that linked City Manager John Beckmeyer, Mayor Joven, Council members Matta and Swanner with controversial Texas political consultant Matt Armstrong who played a part in TGAA securing the inter-local agreement with the City.
The OA questioned the verbiage and legal obligation in the inter-local agreement signed with TGAA. There is no end date for the agreement. The first year is free, but after five years, the 20 cent rate per resident fee ($24,000 annually) can increase and there is no limit on the increase. The only way that the city can terminate the agreement is by holding an election at tax payer expense. Even when the citizens vote to terminate the agreement, the city must continue to pay TGAA for two more years.
On Sept. 21, 2024 the OA editorial disclosed all of their concerns. Council members Steve Thompson and Gilbert Vasquez after being made aware of the article said they were not aware of the relationships that posed a conflict of interest nor the concerning legal obligation in the agreement. They shared that they felt mislead by such things including that the company was well established and many cities were utilizing TGAA services. Council member Chris Hanie admitted that he did not read the document nor do his homework and asked for forgiveness from his voters. TGAA was brand new and had only one other city.
On Council member Swanner’s Facebook page for reelection, Swanner states “correcting the record on TGAA.” “Mayor Joven, Council members Swanner, Matta and Greg Connell, all basically scold Council members Thompson, Vasquez and Hanie for not reading the TGAA document and/or not paying attention to the presentation. All of them state that they read the information presented to them to make great decisions. “We all had plenty of time to review the documents”. Council member Swanner stated in an email to the OA, “I read the agreement thoroughly, and was happy to see that it would take a complete transparency to leave this good government association. “It appears as if the political insiders in Odessa are afraid of maximum transparency and accountability and higher standards of ethics.”
The above statement is a very interesting because both City manager John Beckmeyer and the Executive Director of TGAA Anthony Wilder have all made the same claims, as if it’s a strategic political talking point. Basically what they are all saying to us is this. “Oh my goodness, what type of person would even begin to question and oppose any attempt to put higher standards of transparency and accountability in place and what could possibly be their ulterior motive in doing so.”
Well, let me speak frankly to Joven, Matta, Swanner, Connell, City manager John Beckmeyer and TGAA Executive Director Wilder. The answer to the question is this; good law abiding and concerned citizens of the City of Odessa who feel that they have been “high-jacked,” lied to, manipulated and misled by some of their own city officials who appear to have a direct conflict of interest with controversial Texas Political Consultant Matt Armstrong who played a role in the negotiations of the inter-local agreement with TGAA and the City of Odessa.
To this day, as far as I am aware of Beckmeyer is the only one who offered somewhat of an explanation by trying to explain his relationship/association with TGAA players. However, to me he never fully addressed directly the big question; do you have a “conflict of interest” in the signed agreement and or recommendation of the inter-local agreement with TGAA and the City of Odessa?
Joven, Matta and Swanner have not addressed any conflict of interest in the TGAA agreement. Truly, professional individuals know that it is not only important to avoid a conflict of interest, but also to avoid even the appearance of one. None of them have subscribed to this and constantly remind us how important transparency, accountability and higher standards of ethics are.
Basically, they are policing everyone but themselves.
If Council members Thompson, Vasquez and Hanie, for whatever reason, did not fully read the agreement, misunderstood the agreement, were distracted, not paying attention or whatever the reason was, they should and can do better. However, what is far more concerning conduct is for Joven, Matta, Swanner and Connell and Beckmeyer to have thoroughly read the agreement, and believe that it was good for the citizens of the City of Odessa. They approved of it and were happy to see that it would take a complete transparency to leave this “good government association.”
Beckmeyer, did or should have known, that TGAA was a recently founded company with no proven track record of success. Their term “good government association” is an attempt to portray TGAA as an established and attractive company in order to justify their selection. The language is very misleading. Actually, the truth is TGAA had only one other city under contract and that was the city of Kingsbury, which is close to the size of the city of Goldsmith, TX, population 236. I think that their use of term “good government association” was a phrase they had to use because they could not tell us the truth that they were actually doing business with some “ good ole political buddies from the metro-plex.”
Now Odessa, does that sound or appear to be a company with an established and proven business track record of a success?
TGAA appears to be not only a newly founded company, but also a sole source provider. These two factors “new company” and “sole source provider,” are and should be nothing but red flags when dealing with vendors. In years past, the executive management teams that I was a part of would never, ever, recommend a vendor like TGAA to the city council without a very thorough background investigation being conducted by a member of the city staff.
The purpose of the background investigation was to protect the integrity of the taxpayer funds. One of the first steps was to identify those entities who have already used these services and contact them. Odessa, this is the most prudent manner to conduct business and is just a common sense,” best practice,” called protecting the public trust.
I have assisted in drafting, reviewing and submitting numerous inter-local agreements and contracts. I would have never, ever, thought of recommending an agreement or contract that contains the legal obligations that the TGAA wants to subject our city to. It is very restrictive and burdensome and way too expensive when our city desires to separate from the inter-local agreement.
In my opinion, what TGAA is marketing sounds very good and attractive, when it first comes across your big screen TV. However, when you really read the “fine details” conditions are more to TGAA benefit than the City of Odessa. Basically, they make it very easy to enter into the agreement/contract, but very difficult for you to get out of it. TGAA’s justification for this is all in the name of high standards, transparency and accountability.
It could also be said that the exit clause for their agreement is a wonderful business strategy to guarantee TGAA has reoccurring business which translates to profit for them and has very little to do with protecting the public trust. Easy to get into and very difficult to get out of reminds me of friends who got caught up in a “time share agreement,” that turned into a nightmare.
Many of the functions that TGAA wants to provide, I believe already exist in most Texas municipalities in the form of policies, procedures, best practices and some may also be governed by state law (the government code). Many Texas cities are members of the Texas Municipal League (TML) I believe that TML may already offer some of these functions to member cities in a different manner and format. They provide model polices, operating procedures and are very much on top of all the best practices in Texas Municipal Government. TML also has an Intergovernmental Risk Pool that insures Texas cities and provides regular leadership, ethics and integrity training along with other training topics. After my retirement from the Odessa Police Department my training company provided contract training for the TML intergovernmental Risk Pool for over 20 years on the topics of leadership, integrity and ethics.
Most of the leadership teams that I had the privilege to be a part of the during my 27 year career with City of Odessa and 17 years of them as a member of the executive management team, worked diligently to protect the public trust of Odessa. One of many ways that this was accomplished was through regular audits and inspection. Here was the process. Employees were well informed and aware of what was expected of them. From time to time the city would go inspect different areas to make sure that what the city was expecting was being respected.
When violations or deficiencies were detected, those responsible were held strictly accountable. Strictly accountable included formal disciplinary action up to and including termination and when actions were found to be of a criminal nature the employee was referred for criminal prosecutions. I am not saying from time to time that outside companies/vendors don’t have a legitimate role in city government, because they most certainly do.
Again, I personally see no benefit or value in paying an outside organization to do what progressive municipalities should already be doing for themselves in the form of best practices. “Best practices” begin with hiring professional, well qualified and fundamentally sound individuals.
Joven, Matta and Swanner are constantly promoting high ethical standards, accountability, and transparency and eliminating the “good ole boy” system in Odessa.
The evidence is very clear in the unethical and deceptive manner that they conducted their business in the hiring of Beckmeyer and the handling of the inter-local agreement with TGAA. Both were underhanded and deceptive and their talk absolutely does not match their walk.
Again, if a “good ole boy” system did actually exist in Odessa prior to them taking office, they have only replaced the one that they intended to get rid of with one of their very own. They have become exactly what they said that they desired to get rid of. So, Odessa we now have a new “good ole boy” and a “good ole gal” system that makes up the much of the Odessa city council.
I would encourage our citizens that when they drive around our city and observe all of the political signs, or hear or read political ads that say re-elect Mayor Joven or council members Matta and Swanner, please let it be a motivating reminder of exactly who you DON’T WANT TO VOTE for when you go to the ballot box.
Commander James (Jim) Dodson retired in 1999 from the Odessa Police Department. He is a fourth-generation Texas police officer with 27 years with the OPD. In June of 2006, he was awarded the Texas Police Association “Wallace Beasley Award” for outstanding contribution to law enforcement training and education.
