ECTOR COUNTY, Texas — Ector County Utility District President Tommy Ervin is currently facing an ultimatum to step down from his position as ECUD President by the Ector County District Attorney's office.
Ervin is on vacation right now, but he only heard of this ultimatum until recently.
"[I heard] when somebody called me, I think it was Wednesday morning or somebody sent me a copy Tuesday afternoon of the letter," Ervin said.
According to Ervin, the contents of that letter from District Attorney Dusty Gallivan are asking him to step down from his position for having been convicted of a crime in the past.
“The only thing I know is that the letter was dated October 9th and that I had ten days to show a pardon or that the District Attorney had to turn my case over to an investigator to investigate wrongdoings," Ervin said.
Those wrongdoings were for a felony crime he committed back in the seventies when he was 21-years-old.
Ervin tells NewsWest 9, to his understanding, that a previous felony conviction affects those who run for public office.
"If you've been convicted of a felony, which I was back in 1975, that you cannot run for public office," Ervin said. "I have been on ECUD's board of directors as a candidate - I want to say a candidate - in public office, [since] 2007."
According to the Ector County Utility District website, officers are elected from the Board of Directors for one-year terms. As of now, Ervin is still listed on the website as the president.
Meanwhile, Ervin tells us that he served his time already for the crime - he served less than three years in prison before getting out.
“In seventy-five, I pleaded what was called nolo contendere," Ervin said. "Nolo contendere means that I committed a crime, and I wanted the jury to give me my sentence. My peers either want me to do a be a probation or go the penitentiary, which I did.”
Ervin said he does have that pardon the District Attorney is asking for.
According to Ervin, he was pardoned for the crime back in the eighties.
It’s also not the first time he has been investigated.
“The Texas Rangers, they investigated me, and they said there’s not much there to do enough investigating, that was their opinion on it, and they dropped it," Ervin said. "[The] attorney general's office, they investigated it, that was their opinion."
While Ervin says he has his thoughts on why he was issued this letter, he won’t make a decision on it until the afternoon of Oct. 19 after he has gotten all the advice he can get on this.
Even if he does step down, Ervin says he will continue to help ECUD however he can.
Newswest 9 has reached out to District Attorney Gallivan for comment, but we have not received a message back.