Odessa city employees fired after City Council gains new Republican members

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LUBBOCK — When Progressive-era advocates pushed for municipal elections to be nonpartisan, they sought to take away get together politics from native authorities. More than a century later, get together politics seem to have seeped again into down-ballot races, injecting political ideology into municipal affairs in locations like Odessa — an oil city in West Texas.

During a city assembly this week, the Republican-backed majority on Odessa’s nonpartisan City Council voted as a bloc to terminate two city employees — the city supervisor and city legal professional — with out clear trigger. The vote got here simply weeks after three new City Council members have been sworn in to workplace, and earlier than these new members had spent important time working with the employees they let go.

Mayor Javier Joven and 4 council members — all of whom have been supported by the Ector County Republican Party — voted to fireplace the 2 employees, City Manager Michael Marrero and City Attorney Natasha Brooks.

Marrero, who has been employed by the city since 1994, declined to remark for this story, and Brooks, who has labored for the city since 2015, couldn’t be reached for remark.

The council’s choice to fireplace the 2 staff was met by uproar from Odessa residents.

“I’m flabbergasted by what just happened today,” Filiberto Gonzales, a former Odessa city council member, stated throughout the assembly. “People came into the City Council without doing their due diligence.”

Historically, municipal governments’ tasks, corresponding to waste administration, water distribution and public security, haven’t been thought-about extremely political. That’s why practically all native elections throughout the nation are nonpartisan, which means a candidate’s get together affiliation shouldn’t be printed on the poll.

But even normal housekeeping duties have change into extremely polarized alongside political traces in recent times, inflicting friction on even essentially the most mundane points.

Perhaps most notable are college boards throughout Texas and the nation. Disagreements over critical race theory, library books and historical past curriculums have turned schoolboards into political battlegrounds. In Tarrant County, for instance, the conservative PAC Patriot Mobile Action spent about $390,000 on 4 conservative candidates working for a neighborhood college board.

“It’s harder to govern when you have partisanship,” stated Brandon Rottinghaus, a political scientist on the University of Houston. “It affects the way business is conducted and it’s harder to create consensus.”

During the Odessa City Council assembly, neighborhood members stepped as much as the rostrum one after the other to inform their elected leaders that they have been out of line and had acted with out listening to their constituents. Many spoke favorably of the 2 fired employees and stated they have been confused about why council members fired competent staff with out an evidence.

Although a number of neighborhood members spoke up throughout the assembly, they have been upset they acquired an opportunity to remark solely after the council had already booted out the 2 employees. They ought to have been allowed to talk previous to the vote, residents argued.

In a heated handle to the council, one native legal professional stated he intends to sue the council for violating residents’ rights.

“Mr. Mayor, please understand, I’m filing a suit against the city,” legal professional Gaven Norris stated. “You’ve disenfranchised my voice.”

Norris stated the lawsuit was within the works earlier than the assembly passed off and that he’d add the occasions from this week’s assembly to the lawsuit. He declined to touch upon the unique motivation for the lawsuit. The lawsuit has not been filed.

“Local politics aren’t supposed to divide the community,” Norris stated in an interview with The Texas Tribune. “We have a group of leaders hell-bent on dividing us.”

In a statement, Joven defended the council’s motion with out offering a purpose for the 2 terminations.

“The citizens of Odessa voted for change in the November election, and the majority of our City Council and myself are onboard with continuing to move our community forward,” he stated. “Council is committed to continually improving every aspect of the City. After extensive review, Council determined this type of change would require an adjustment in the day-to-day leadership of the City.”

The Ector County Republican Party didn’t reply to requests for remark. In a previous interview with native media, get together chair Tisha Crow stated she was excited that Odessa could be “represented by a new city council majority comprised of conservative God-fearing Republican patriots.”

Hannah Horick, the chair for Ector County Democratic Party, stated there are actually severe considerations about whether or not this was an excellent transfer for Odessa, and even authorized.

“When these substantial changes happen, in concert with local Republican leadership including precinct chairs and a county chair, it’s hard not to wonder if there are blatant violations of the Open Meetings Act,” Horick stated. “Or just efforts that might skirt the letter of the law.”

While Horick works to get Democrats elected, she stated partisanship shouldn’t be in city authorities as a result of it shifts native focus into nationwide tradition wars. One latest instance, she stated: Odessa grew to become a “sanctuary city for the unborn” final month, regardless of the Supreme Court hanging down Roe v. Wade in June and Texas having one of the restrictive bans on abortion within the nation.

Joven attempted to cross the ordinance in January 2021, however three council members declined, noting that it was not a city challenge and there have been different priorities. Joven tried that August to get a particular election on the matter however was rejected once more. The ordinance grew to become considerably of a marketing campaign promise throughout this yr’s election, with a minimum of one newly elected council member, Chris Hanie, saying it could be a high precedence in the event that they have been elected.

In a vote of 5-1, with one abstaining, the new City Council passed the ordinance throughout their second assembly.

“To me, that is such a reflection of partisanship and not a reflection of what’s in the city’s best interests and our destinies,” Horick stated. “We see so much of that under this mayor’s leadership and the leadership of some members of the council.”

Horick stated Odessa has change into extra politicized below Joven, who’s the primary Hispanic mayor of Odessa.

“We’ve seen a partisan and divided city government since he took office in late 2020,” Horick stated. “It’s no surprise to me that, now that they have secured additional votes in this bloc of Republicans, that they would go and try to make a substantial change.”

Disclosure: The University of Houston have been monetary supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news group that’s funded partially by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Financial supporters play no position within the Tribune’s journalism. Find a whole list of them here.