Following a series of public hearings and an Odessa Headlines investigation which involved filing a number of public information requests (PIR) we’ve come to conclusion that the Odessa City Council and the city management team continues to have a poor grasp on the city’s financial situation and doesn’t understand that the city is currently sitting on a mountain of cash money.
While some of the funds sitting in the City’s bank accounts are restricted and can only be used for certain categories of expenses and improvements, the vast majority of the over one-half BILLION dollars scattered amongst twenty one different bank accounts certainly shows the city has the money needed to address Odessa’s most urgent needs today.
Over the past decade – and from both the present and former City Council, Mayors, and city administrators – we’ve heard an endless litany of excuses as to why Odessa’s crumbling water, sewer, and trash facilities haven’t been fixed, but the most common refrain is that the City just doesn’t have the money. We have recently heard this tired mantra from all those currently running for re-election including Councilmembers Steve Thompson, Denise Swanner, and Mark Matta, as well as Mayor Joven.
To this we call horsefeathers.
Recent budget meetings in which both I, and Kris Crow, spoke at every opportunity to highlight the simple fact that despite many budget workshops and months of work on the City’s budget that the current Council and City management, no one has a real grasp or understanding of the city’s current financial position nor do they understand the budget they just voted on. They could not explain, for instance, how a 3.5% increase in our water, sewer, and trash rates was budgeted to yield a net decrease in the gross revenues received by these departments.
When we spoke before Council we questioned why the city is currently sitting on many times more reserve funds than is suggested by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA). City Manager John Beckmeyer stated that they were only being prudent as a lot of the city’s income comes from sales tax revenue which can be “volatile”. However, according to the GFOA’s advice a city would be considered ultra conservative to maintain 25% of their annual budget in fund reserves. Also, remember, that most cities at least in Texas take in a significant portion of their tax revenue from sales tax and maintain budget reserves in line with the GFOA recommendations.
Our analysis of the just approved budget shows fund balances totaling $272,146,294 which would be almost a full year’s total budget versus the recommended 3 months or about $75,000,000 in reserves. Just a small $200 million difference: $200 million that could and should be put to work to fix Odessa’s crumbling infrastructure.
Looking at the over $366 million maintained in what appears to be unrestricted city accounts (ie. not funds obtained through the issuance of certificates of obligation or belonging to restricted city accounts like the $52 million in the Odessa Development Corporation (ODC) accounts or the Parks Foundation) the city is maintaining fund balances many times larger than the suggested amounts.
CITY BANK ACCOUNT INFORMATION AS PROVIDED FROM PUBLIC INFORMATION REQUESTS.
When fund balances were brought up before the City Council recently, Mayor Joven stated the Council had just heard about these fund balances and indicated that they did not fully understand them. However, the fact of the matter is that these large fund balances have been presented as a part of the same budget year after year – including the four years that Thompson, Swanner, Matta and Joven has been on the council. It seems that it took a citizen pointing out these overly large balances to the Council, before they became aware of these fund balances which could be used to fix Odessa’s crumbling infrastructure, provide raises to police and fire officers, or fund any host of other needs.
After reviewing the public information we received, Odessa Headlines would question whether or not the $272 million amount is even correct. We requested account statements from every account where City money is held and we received bank statements from twenty-one different accounts. We have summarized these accounts in the above chart which show that as of the end of July 2024, City accounts contained $529,375,879.01.
That sure is a lot of money for a City that constantly wants to increase our taxes and fees because it’s broke. And yes, we know that some of that money can only be used for certain expenditures but it’s still a mountain of cash.
The other interesting thing we uncovered was that we could estimate that the city is raking in a staggering $46 million dollars in interest income every year. Disclaimer… since we only had access to one month’s statements, we had to multiply one month’s income times twelve months to estimate this number, so it could be a bit off but it’s still a VERY big number.
The recently adopted budget shows less than $1 million in projected interest income so our question is where is the other $45 million?
The bottom line? Odessans deserve a Council that will put in the work to understand every dollar that comes into city coffers and those that go out and that won’t blindly rely upon what City staff is telling them. Odessa taxpayers deserve a mayor, city council, and city manager that understands how taxpayer money is being spent and what resources we have to deploy to fix Odessa’s infrastructure problems. This November Odessa voters should demand that we have a City Council that truly prioritizes our infrastructure needs instead of one that just gives lip service to our needs while whining they don’t have enough money to fix what’s broken.
Article image generated by AI.