ODESSA, Texas — Some concerned citizens came to the Ector County Commissioner's Court meeting Thursday to bring up issues that they had with the Ector County Utilities District.
The citizens claim that they have been having low water issues for years but are still receiving high water taxes from ECUD. Many of these low water issues have been hitting West Odessa specifically.
“These people out here, they don’t have any water. They don’t have the luxury of turning on the faucet and washing their hands or taking a bath," Shirley Jo Kelley said. "If that tank out there in the yard is not full or if it doesn’t have water in it, then they are out of luck.”
More claims that they were making is that ECUD - who have positions that need to be filled on their board - haven't been involved with a general election in years.
Instead, positions have been made by members of the board.
“We had one in 2022, there were problems with that because ECUD failed to give the elections office updated district boundaries, so the voting rosters were incorrect," Jennifer Woodall said. "So there were people who showed up to vote that weren't supposed to, others that were weren't given that opportunity. It was a vast debacle and those things still have not been remedied.”
The people are also claiming that ECUD is failing to follow state elections rules and their own bylaws.
Since ECUD was created by order of Ector County Commissioner's Court back in 1976, they do have some jurisdiction over them.
Ector County Judge Dustin Fawcett says there is also an issue with a meeting that took place on Nov. 8.
“Some of the things they brought up was the Open Meetings Act violation that took place last week where they put out an occupancy sign that was not put out by the Odessa fire marshal," Fawcett said. "They put out an arbitrary occupancy sign and then locked the public from entering into the building to attend a public meeting. That’s a clear violation of the Open Meetings Act."
Fawcett does agree with the people, and is making a game plan to tackle the issue.
“We are looking into what legally can the Commissioner’s Court do. The way I read law is different from the way the county attorney reads law which is different from what a separate attorney reads law," Fawcett said. "We’re trying to come up with a game plan that doesn’t open us up to lawsuit. That isn’t something that is a negligible action."
If you ask the citizens, they want change.
Some of them hope that change means a clean slate with a more diverse and transparent board.
“I would love for them to get rid of the board, the ECUD board and appoint somebody new. That will give us transparency, give non-Anglos opportunity to serve," Sylvia Garcia said. "We’re willing. We’re here. The diversity is here in this courtroom, it’s obvious that we are concerned citizens.”
NewsWest 9 reached out to ECUD to ask for comment regarding what was said at the meeting, but they didn't get back to us.