TCRP DENOUNCES SEARCH FOR NEW TYC DIRECTOR THAT IS LIMITED TO 5 WORKING DAYS AS “SECRETIVE, A SHAM, AND HARMFUL TO TYC REFORM EFFORTS”

Jan. 27, 2008

PRESS RELEASE

The Texas Civil Rights Project has denounced the “secretive” posting of the job advertisement for Executive Director of the Texas Youth Commission as “a sham and harmful to TYC reform efforts.”

TCRP Director Jim Harrington said that the notice of the Executive Director is “deliberately hidden and buried” in the general list of scores of employment advertisements. “Unless someone knew what to look for, you could easily miss it,” said Harrington, “and I think that is clearly intentional.” Virtually all the top-level administrative positions are “open until filled.” The executive position, however, is limited to a 5-workday application period.

“This position is the most critical one for TYC, especially after all the scandal abuse. The State should be conducting an intensive search for the right person for this leadership position, a search that could take as long as three months. 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.

“We are calling upon the Governor and Legislature to demand that the search process for a new Executive Director be expanded and extended. This is a further example of the ineptness of the current operation of TYC that recently spent $500,000 on office and administration furnishings, including a $11,000 for carpeting the Acting Executive Director’s office, rather than spending the money, as the Legislature had required, on improving TYC generally. That $500,000 was wastefully spent when it should have been used for staff and programs.

“Of all the state agencies, TYC is one of the most important in the lives of children and young adults. In TYC, they can either straighten their lives out or become more of a problem for the community later on. The importance of this work should be reflected in a careful and thorough search nationwide for the best Executive Director possible, one who can reform TYC from what it has been and re-make TCY into what it should be,” said Harrington.