TYC Conservator Moves To Hire Executive Director
January 29th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
It looks like Conservator Richard Nedelkoff is ready to name an executive director over at the Texas Youth Commission. The state’s juvenile justice department posted the job on its web site on Thursday, Jan. 24. Only GritsforBreakfast noted the posting, pointing to a Dallas Morning News editorial criticizing the agency’s diversion of funds for correctional officers to office renovation.
On Sunday, however, Austin civil rights watchdog Jim Harrington took issue with the job posting — noting that applications are only being taken for five business days and alleging that the commission had “buried” the posting on its site.
The job posting is not prominently displayed on the TYC site. You have to search the jobs alphabetically to find it. And the window from job posting to closing is, clearly, small. The job pays up to $160,000 per year and suggests applicants have the “ability to maintain high tolerance to mental stress.”
Nedelkoff was appointed in December by Gov. Rick Perry. He replaced former TYC Conservator Jay Kimbrough. The conservatorship was put in place by legislation passed in 2007 after Nate Blakeslee broke the story in the Observer of alleged abuse at the Pyote TYC facility — a story that moved a shocked Texas legislature into action. Blakeslee writes about three legislative staffers that shaped the reform legislation here.
“The posting is actually unnecessary,” said TYC spokesman Jim Hurley. He said the conservatorship statute directs Nedelkoff to hire an executive director, and he said Nedelkoff’s reputation has attracted the attention of professionals in the juvenile justice field. “Mr. Nedelkoff is a national figure. He knows national figures.”
Hurley said the fact that Nedelkoff will be hiring is and has been obvious. “It’s not like we haven’t been in the news,” he said.
Another point to consider, Hurley noted, is the fact that once the conservatorship ends, the executive director will be in charge, and needs to be in place. Until recently, Demetria Pope has been acting as executive director but doesn’t seem to be in the running for the permanent job.
“When the governor’s ready to move this thing out of conservatorship, the conservator goes away,” Hurley said.
Still, as Harrington says on the Texas Civil Rights Project web site, “When a job opening like this is only posted for 5 workdays — and not even prominently displayed, but buried deep in general employment listings — one smells duplicity and that a ‘fix is in’ for a particular candidate.”
