For two years, the city of Odessa was governed by a group Texas Monthly describes as “far-right, hardliner politicians,” led by Mayor Javier Joven.
Joven, the owner of a local roofing company, had run for office to help Odessa “publicly repent for its sins.”
Then, last November, after years of the city council focusing on culture war issues, Odessa voters went in a different direction. Joven and his allies lost their seats.
Michael Hardy, who reported on this story for Texas Monthly, said the situation in Odessa can be traced back to 2015, when then-House Speaker Joe Straus, considered by many a moderate, faced an attempt to oust him from his role.
“There was an organized attempt to oust him from leadership, led by Tim Dunn, the billionaire mega-donor oil man. And it failed,” Hardy said. “But one of the state reps who supported Straus was a guy named Brooks Landgraf, who represents Odessa.
“And that sort of triggered some events, where a group of really right-wing billionaires tried to kick Landgraf out of office. And when they couldn’t do that, they went after Odessa City Council, and they had more success with the City Council.”
Joven was elected, as were three city council members who also aligned with him. People started calling them “the squad.”
» GET MORE NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE: Sign up for Texas Standard’s weekly newsletters
“Their top priority was to ban all abortions in Odessa. The only problem there was that there were no abortions at Odessa, and there hadn’t been an abortion clinic at least since the ’80s,” Hardy said. “They couldn’t do it for their first two years in office because they didn’t have a council majority.
“But when they finally got one in 2022, that was the first thing they did: They declared Odessa a sanctuary city for the unborn, and they banned all abortions. By that point though, Roe v. Wade had been overturned in Texas that already banned abortions.”
Meanwhile, Hardy said, critics complained the new council majority was letting basic city functions go unaddressed.
“Odessa has had problems with their water treatment plant for years. And they have aging infrastructure,” he said. “Their water pipes are decades and decades old. They’ve had a number of leaks, which has cost millions of dollars in lost water.
“The roads are in pretty bad shape. And I heard from many residents that trash pickup could not be relied upon; you could go weeks without having your trash picked up. So these are basic problems of governance that the squad was not able to tackle.”
Since Joven and his allies were replaced in November, the Odessa City Council has been working to fix some of the issues that cropped up during their tenure, Hardy said.
“There’s quite a hole that Odessa has to dig itself out of,” he said. “They were not able to complete their 2022 and 2023 audits, which are required by bond agencies. So, as a result, Odessa lost its bond rating. That means it’s going to have a harder time borrowing money in the future, or it’s gonna have to pay higher rates. So the City Council has to do that.
“They have also put in a new city manager because the last one quit as soon as the squad lost its elections and is now suing the city for $700,000 back pay that he says he’s owed.”
