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Odessa Council weighs internal search for city attorney, emphasizes need for municipal experience
Summary
Council members debated using an outside search firm versus an internal HR-led process to hire a new city attorney, highlighted required municipal-law experience, and asked staff to begin drafting a job description; staff flagged high municipal-court volume and public-record workload as key job demands.
The Odessa City Council discussed the process to hire a new city attorney on July 8 and directed staff to begin preparing a job description and recruitment plan, with several members favoring an in-house search rather than hiring an outside search firm.
A staff legal representative told the council the city needs a candidate who can “hit the ground running” and has municipal-law experience, citing municipal-court workload this year of about 796 pretrial hearings and 292 bench trials, and roughly 4,500 public‑information requests so far in the year.
Council members outlined two paths: retain a search firm (staff estimated a full search could cost about…
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