Brinlee caps off 40 year career in Odessa

Dec. 29—Whenever someone asks Randy Brinlee about his job, his response is immediate.

"It's not bad for a temporary job, until something better comes along," Brinlee said.

By "temporary" Brinlee means 40 years.

On Nov. 16, Brinlee celebrated his 40th anniversary with the City of Odessa's Development Services.

On Friday afternoon he'll walk out of City Hall for the last time as a city employee. The 67-year-old is retiring as the Director of Development, a role he accepted 11 years ago.

Development Services is the department that issues building permits, inspects construction projects and unsafe buildings and helps create and interpret zoning ordinances. Brinlee and his staff take their direction from state laws and the city's advisory boards and city council.

Over the last 40 years, Brinlee has seen the city grow from 33 square miles to 52 square miles. He and his staff have had a hand in making sure Odessans' quality of life hasn't been diminished. For example, they ensured industrial businesses weren't built right on top of neighborhoods.

"(We oversee) all of the aspects of development. It goes from raw land, which planning has a lot to do with, the platting and stuff, up to the construction aspect of it, which is the issuing of permits, the inspections, finalizing and the building's ready to be occupied," Brinlee said.

He can't drive through town without seeing a neighborhood or commercial development he worked on in some fashion, from the Parks Legado Town Center and Chimney Rock Shopping Center out east to the Walmart and H.E.B. near the west loop. In each case, Brinlee said the developer had a vision and he and his staff tried to ensure it came to fruition whenever possible.

As about his proudest accomplishments, Brinlee pointed to his staff.

"We've been able to keep up with the growth rate of the City of Odessa with a staff of six and I've been very proud of that. There's been times that the whole staff has just worked itself nearly to the bone because we've had just fairly extensive agendas that's had to be presented to both the planning and zoning commission and then ultimately to the city council for zoning requests and stuff," Brinlee said. "Just being able to keep up with it. That's been pretty remarkable on the staff's part."

Over the years, Brinlee and his staff have also worked on creating and updating ordinances.

"We've been able to have some what I call amenity-type ordinances put into place. We have a landscape ordinance now, you know, things are getting a little bit better. I mean, we're still West Texas desert, Odessa, but we're getting some landscaping in there when somebody comes in and has commercial development," Brinlee said. "We've also had some development standards that were upgraded for placement of mobile homes, where you had to put in some better entryways, skirting, safety issue as far as having to be tied down, not just placement on the lot."

Although the council hasn't had a chance to vote on it yet, Brinlee said he's also proud of rewriting an ordinance that will make it easier to subdivide land within subdivisions. The ordinance is a "bit more developer-friendly" and by taking the project on instead of hiring outside help, he and his colleagues saved the city a lot of money, he said.

His department has also made the permit process much quicker and user-friendly, Brinlee said. Developers can also now see, in real time, where inspectors are in the review process by just jumping on the computer.

He has a deep sense of pride in his community, Brinlee said.

"Being born and raised here, I feel like I had a stake," Brinlee said.

When he was a kid the '74 Permian High School graduate used to help out his grandfather, a carpenter and loved the smell of saw dust. He then went off to Texas A&M and ended up taking urban planning courses.

"I thought 'That's pretty neat. I'll look into that a little bit more," he said.

He ended up graduating with a degree in urban planning and spent a year working for the City of Austin.

"When I left to go off to college I can remember thinking 'I'm never coming back to this godforsaken country and the first chance I had to come back, I took it and I've been here ever since," Brinlee said.

Brinlee spent a year working as a code enforcement officer for the city before being lured by more money out in the oil fields. He quickly learned he wanted a more stable job however. He came back to the city as a code enforcement officer in November 1982 and steadily moved up the ranks.

"The city's been good to me. I can't emphasize that enough. The city's been very good to me and I'm very appreciative of that, being able to be moved up after each level. I appreciate the confidence that they showed in me to be able to do that. To say 'We'll trust him to do that and get the job done,'" Brinlee said.

He never dreamed he'd be the guy going in front of the city council to discuss projects and ordinances, but in his 11 years as the director, Brinlee said he's only missed seven council meetings.

He also takes pride in the many, many urban planners he's trained over the years, Brinlee said.

"I've had some very good employees that have worked here that got some experience and moved on to bigger and better things. I'd like to think that I helped in that," Brinlee said. "It kind of feels good when you see them later on, or they come back and visit and say, 'What you told me about this and this, I learned something from you. I appreciate you.'"

Brinlee, who lost his mom in September, plans to travel with his father when he's not playing golf, bowling on the city's employee/retiree team or spending time with his sister and her children.

He's a history buff so he intends to hit Lincoln County, New Mexico where Billy the Kid roamed and other areas of the wild west, like Montana, Wyoming and Arizona.

Brinlee said his successor has not yet been named.