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To Casey Hallmark, it seemed like a dream job. In early 2022, the 37-year-old native Odessan was named the executive director of Downtown Odessa, a government-funded nonprofit dedicated to revitalizing the city’s historic center. Hallmark, who had previously served on the boards of several other local nonprofits, couldn’t wait to get to work. Shortly after being hired by Odessa city manager Michael Marrero, she addressed a meeting of businesspeople, politicians, and other civic leaders. “We live in the greatest city ever,” she said, “and my job is to help everybody else fall in love with it as much as I have.” But Hallmark believes her centrist politics—in an interview with Texas Monthly, she described herself as “fiscally Republican and socially Democratic”—soon made her the target of…

The post A Right-wing Cabal Took Over Odessa’s Municipal Government. City Employees Are Heading for the Exits. appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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