Citizens may be confused over why the city promoted its Budget Director to Assistant Director of Neighborhood/Family Services so soon after the resignation of James Flores, letter dated June 21. Those watching the city's press event are led to believe all is sunshine and warmth. And what luck the city had the perfect candidate internally to continue the great work started by Chief Bob Salas and sidekick James Flores.
Oddly, James Flores got the Shelter Director role in February 2015 via a similar internal promotion. Bob Salas and sidekick Flores started with the right words but quickly began excluding people wanting to help.
City Human Resources Director told a different story, one of a shelter in crisis that needed urgent attention after a string of service failures. City Manager Daniel Valenzuela, facing the crisis he'd ignored for years, asked the current Budget Director to fill Flores' role. Valenzuela charged her with addressing concerns at the shelter over the next six months.
So which version is the springboard for the new director? One would drive very different actions than the other. The rosy scenario calls for tweaking, the crisis situation for a near to total rebuild.
Citizens should remain firm in their expectation of investigations and accountability from Salas and Valenzuela. Those should already be underway. The new director can ensure their completion and share the results with the Animal Services Advisory Committee. By working through issues and concerns Animal Services can heal fractured community relationships and take concrete steps toward the rosy picture painted in the press announcement.
Burying or running around issues will not take San Angelo's Animal Services forward. That's gone on for far too long. Our community deserves better.
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