Now it appears even those convicted of lesser crimes are at risk.
A commenter brings news of an internal memo that "was sent Monday at 5:01 PM and revised at 6! Info is due Wednesday! (Try getting old court records that show your case was dismissed in 24 hrs!)" writes our frustrated correspondent. Here's the relevant portion of the text:
If you have ever been arrested, indicted, or received other official notification that you have been charged with a crime which includes Felonies, Class A, or B misdemeanors, you must report these to Karen Collins Giles, Director of Human Resource Management by 4:00 on Wednesday, April 4, 2007. Secondly, you must also report any change in the status of any criminal charge against you (e.g., dismissal, conviction, the initiation or termination of proceedings to revoke probation, etc.)My question: We knew the dictum about felonies was coming, but since when did A and B misdemeanors get into the mix? Is anybody allowed to have made a mistake in their life and still qualify for the crappy, underpaid, undertrained, unsafe jobs TYC has to offer?
If Kimbrough doesn't intend to fire those with misdemeanor convictions, why have them all report? This memo leaves the impression TYC's new conservator doesn't care about alienating his employees, but he'll soon discover that's a mistake. With turnover already at a ridiculous level (about 50% annually agency wide), the truth is the state desperately needs a critical mass of veterans with institutional memory to stay on and help fix things.
A better solution IMO, would be that advocated in HB 3521 by Bolton, restricting offenders (misdemeanor AND felony) who committed crimes against children, but not necessarily other types of crimes. It was an overreaction to hysteria IMO to target reformed felons indiscriminately at TYC for ouster, but the 102 employees affected make up just 2% of the agency's employees. It begins to look like a much wider "witch hunt," as our correspondent called it, when they target those with misdemeanors, too. This memo will certainly affect a lot more than 2% of the agency's workforce.
UPDATE: The more I think about this memo, one other thing doesn't make sense: What's with the self reporting? If I were running TYC I'd tell the HR department to simply run thorough criminal background checks on everyone (or better, ask DPS to do it), then discretely call in those affected one by one. One of the only reasons I can imagine for asking people to self-report misdemeanors in such a cattle-call like fashion would be to later run the background checks and nail people for lying who didn't divulge old offenses.
This is potentially treacherous ground, so I'd encourage all TYC employees affected to answer truthfully about misdemeanor convictions. I can imagine a situtation where an omission gives cause for termination, where a past offense admitted might not. I say that because if they're not playing "gotcha," I'd think they'd just run criminal histories without creating an agency-wide disturbance.
Another possibility, one I'm willing to concede as plausible, is that management doesn't know what it's doing. If that's the case, time will tell.
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17 comments:
I had that same thought...that this is an attempt to play "gotcha" later. And I'm pretty pissed off about it.
BTW, Class C Misdemeanors were included in the original email. Got an update this morning that they are not included. I think you're dead on in your analysis that management here doesn't know what the hell they're doing.
Some misdemeanor charges can be expunged (erased). It is a bit of paperwork and there may be some fees but might offer some relief. See article 55.01 Texas Code of Criminal Procedure.
I would urge everyone in Texas to take advantage of this law. It avoids the "there was an arrest record as long as your arm" influence upon prosecutors!
Many criminal record checks just show an arrest date and charge. It is up to the courts to update the record after it is disposed. Few courts update the record, even when the case is dropped. In all cases, the employees have the burden of providing official documentation on how the case was disposed.
That may be difficult to provide by Wed. 4pm.
Maybe Mr. Kimbrough learned his employee relation skills from the idiot Chief probation officer in Bexar County. Always blame the guy in the trenches. The fact that someone's past behavior was less than desirable, doesn't mean that they should carry the past with them once they've paid their debt. I wonder how many people came into this country with criminal past behavior which was not found. If Mr. Kimbrough believes that FIRING anyone with a criminal past will help he is sadly mistaken. The youth of TYC are watching and will LEARN that there is "NO REASON" to change their behavior, since once convicted/arrested you will be labeled forever! Time to get rid of knee-jerk reactionists in AUSTIN.
Kimbrough has changed the grievance process for employees convicted of past crimes. You only have 3 days instead of 10 days to contest your termination. He calls it his fast track process. What I call it is treating one class of employee differently than another class of employee. Due process rights are highly diminished under Kimbrough’s new policy. The only decision maker is Mr. Kimbrough himself. Talk about a stacked deck!
In reviewing related statutes I find no authority for Mr. Kimbrough to violate the Constitutional Rights of over 100 people. Even as Conservator, Mr. Kimbrough must show the person terminated must have directly been responsible for TYC being placed under Conservatorship.
I find it interesting that we have not heard about any of the ex-felons being involved with the criminal wrong doing at TYC! I would be willing to bet, if even 1 of the ex-felons had done something wrong at TYC Kimbrough would have made sure it made the front page above the fold.
Since Mr. Kimbrough is a lawyer how could he be so unskilled in this above situation? I don’t believe he is! I think this is a planned situation to cause a big uproar and legal battle. The only reason I can think of for Mr. Kimbrough to do what he is doing, is to take the focus off of the real problem. Mr. Kimbrough is trying to draw our attention away from Rick Perry while he works his magic which is making the elephant disappear right before our eyes! The elephant put Dwight Harris in charge of TYC and ignored numerous complaints of sexual wrong doing. Then the elephant hired Ed Owens after the TDCJ sex scandal cover-up that good old Ed was part of. (Elephant equals Republican Governor)
This is just more overtaking by the TDCJ with their policies. I smell alot of lawsuits coming TYC's way...
and guess what?
Mr. Kimbrough and his cronies won't be around to clean up this mess, their contract is up at the end of the session.
Talk about a bunch of fools running the show and I'm sure getting paid a ton of our taxpayer money.
The firing of TYC employees with criminal records started today. I am did not get tagged today but I am sure it will not be long before I am fired. After speaking to several employment lawyers it looks like Mr. Kimbrough has created a very large mess that will have a high price tag. The price not only includes the cost of litigating several hundred wrongful termination suits. Since the net was widened to include A and B misdemeanors less than 5 years old along with any felony there will probably be 300 or more TYC employees terminated without cause.
People who have worked hard to provide for their families and do a job many other folks would never do. TYC has new employees walk off the job after one day in service on a regular basis and now Mr. Kimbrough fires a few hundred more that were willing to do the tough jobs.
I am looking forward to getting out of Hell TYC and letting the lawyers go at it as Senator Whitmire said on the record. One lawyer I talked to today told me the hearing records and news paper quotes will come home to haunt who ever has to defend the state. These guys are lawyers? Where did they get their law degrees? They can not be this stupid! They have their own agenda and it has nothing to do with protecting the kids in TYC! They also do not care what it costs the families who have lost employment or the tax payers! These politicians act just like the old TYC administration; screw people who did nothing wrong and let the tax payers pick up the tab!
I heard, and later confirmed, that at least three (3) Central Office personnel were let go today. They were secretaries, accountants and one offical, all of whom have had absoultely no contact with kids. They had prior felony convictions years ago for, most likely, cocaine (or other drug) possession in their younger years. Yet there has been no action on Brookins and Hernandez? When the class b and a's start falling, watch the war begin. Watch this one folks.
How can a man live with himself knowing that he is distroying hundreds of lives. The lives of people who have not done anything to give TYC a black eye. The destroyed live multiply by two or more because it affects the lives of the family members just as much. People are being fired because they did something criminal when they were the same age as the children at TYC. As they say they did the crime and did the time. Many of whom went on to collage to get degrees so they could help children not go down the same path. People who have worked for TYC doing just that. They are being punished by this man who now thinks he is God and can do what ever he wants. I would like to know about his childhood, his collage years and just how many DWI's he has gotten. We know nothing about him except he is no better than the people he has replaced. In fact he and Perry are worse. They better hope they have a back up plan to man the forts if we all decide to walk.... We will see how well they can take care of these little children. God be with us all and the families that has been ruined by these men. Remember you to shall face the true God and may he help you.
Kimbro, Owens, et al are not bringing anything new to TYC, least of all the attitude that employees can be mistreated, disrespected and fired "at will" as long as it makes someone at the top look good. This attitude has pervaded TYC for a long time. The only reason some of us stay for a long time is because we believe that there is always a chance that we might make a difference in the lives of these kids...that they just might make a turn-around. What I'd like to see is the LBB admit that some of the problems at TYC just might be related to their insufficient funding.
To 10:03 pm- Who was the "official" who was let go (when you said there were three people)? Was it because of a criminal record or because of the mess going on?
Anybody have the name & number of a good constitutional lawyer? An employment lawyer that would take this case on without money up front?
Grits, they did run all TYC staff discreetly last month that is where they (newspapers) came up with their numbers for felons and misdemeanor cases. This latest is to see if you will report (even though they already know) about these cases and if you do not, it gives justification for you to be fired for failure to report, pretty sad we are using these type of tactics.
if you have ever been arrested, please report it. Better yet run your own criminal history. I ran mine and there was an error on the conviction that could have possibly meant losing my job. Kimbrough does not give a shit about any of the good hard working employees, it's all about "cleaning house". Yet all have failed to realize the hard working employees did nothing wrong........why are all the executive council still there? I am sure they are walking a straight line now but that JUST started happening. I don't know about you but I am tired of all this POLITICAL DRAMA
There is a good employment attorney in Austin- Craig Deats. He's very good.
And for those of you complaining about the "tactics" used in running the background checks first before asking if you have a record. I AM GLAD they did it this way rather than TRUST people to come forward. At least in asking you- they are giving you a forum to provide information. Otherwise, they could have just run the checks and just canned everyone without ANY kind of correspondence. How else did you expect them to do it with all the corruption they have seen within this system?? They need to weed A LOT of these people out. I know of at least 4 people who have serious assaultive charges against them after being hired who never reported it. I'm also confident in saying these 4 people are absolute aholes to work with. They don't respect anyone much less the rules. I'll be glad to see them go because nothing else in the system has touched them when people complain about their behavior!! For the rest of the people who did things like 30 years ago- I am sorry for what it taking place against you. That is not right. Especially if you have letters from the prosecutors on your behalf. Call the attorney I provided above.
Well one of our hard working troops had the rug pulled out from him on Tuesday and it has only made me madder. A fellow who is 65 and has given the last 12 years if that total to TYC. His offence occoured 48 years ago. It was not a serious thing back then and has students are in TYC for the same thing. Lets see if it comes back in 48 years to bite their butts, or even better will they be back at TYC next month..... This stuff is for the birds.
The thing that really gets me about checking employee criminal records and terminating people is that it's a cheap shot. The leg and Kimbrough are talking big about reforming the agency, but true reform would mean changing policies, procedures, and culture. It would mean hard work, real work. Dumping people at the lower ranks for old convictions /mistakes is a quick, easy, and dirty move.
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