Dismissed

The Commissioners Court voted unanimously on Tuesday to dismiss personnel director Richard Aguirre, whom the court had placed on paid suspension two weeks ago.

His assistant, Human Resources Chief Deputy Melissa Welborn, was named interim director.

Several reasons were cited for Aguirre’s termination, but the main issue appeared to be his failure to obtain legal representation from the Texas Association of Counties (TAC) for Sheriff Roger Deeds, who was sued in April by a former jail inmate.

According to Deeds, the inmate claims that records sent to prison officials from Hood County caused him to be denied certain privileges while he serves his sentence. Deeds said the inmate, who was in the jail six years ago, caused damage to the facility that might have indicated an escape attempt.

Deeds told the HCN two weeks ago that he had contacted Aguirre immediately after being served with the lawsuit and believed that the personnel director had forwarded the court documents to TAC. The organization has lawyers that represent counties in legal matters.

Instead, Deeds was served with additional papers in June informing him of a default judgment against him because the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas Fort Worth Division never received a response to the inmate’s claims.

The vote to fire Aguirre, who had worked for the county for five years, occurred after a brief closed session meeting. The court closed the regular Commissioners Court meeting to go into closed session at 10:51 a.m. and reconvened into open session at 11:17 a.m.

After Precinct 4 Commissioner Dave Eagle made a motion to terminate the county’s relationship with Aguirre “for cause,” Aguirre went to the podium and asked for “more specifics on cause.”

This kicked off a 25-minute exchange between Aguirre and members of the Commissioners Court.

COURT LISTS REASONS

Eagle outlined the situation with the lawsuit and said that had Aguirre been an attorney his failure to act would have been “malpractice.”

County Judge Ron Massingill then weighed in, telling Aguirre that a check of Aguirre’s computer revealed email exchanges about the lawsuit between him and Deeds in April.

In a response to Deeds’ email informing Aguirre that he had been served with papers, Aguirre instructed the sheriff to scan the court documents and email them to him.

Deeds did so, Massingill said, but Aguirre failed to forward the documents to TAC.

“There is no email from your computer or any computer here to discuss this matter with TAC,” Massingill said, adding that TAC also reported having no record of any communication from Aguirre in April in regards to the lawsuit.

Massingill told Aguirre that after TAC attorney David Iglesias was enlisted to try to reverse the default judgment, Iglesias and Deeds worked until 8 p.m. one night so that Deeds could sign an affidavit for Iglesias to send to the federal judge.

Massingill said that he sent Aguirre an email after that asking why he had not followed through by enlisting TAC’s help, but Aguirre never responded.

“I did not get that email,” Aguirre told the judge.

Aguirre asserted that his office carefully handled documents and had a system for processing paperwork.

As for why he didn’t contact TAC in April, he stated, “I didn’t have a document to push.”

Massingill responded by reiterating that the county has evidence that Deeds provided Aguirre with the court papers but that Aguirre did not fulfill his responsibility to notify TAC.

Eagle told Aguirre that his response to Deeds, in which Aguirre instructed the sheriff to scan the documents and email them to him, was sent at 3:21 p.m. on Wednesday, April 17. A PDF of the requested documents was emailed to Aguirre by the sheriff’s assistant 22 minutes later, at 3:43 p.m., Eagle stated.

Although the inmate’s lawsuit did not seek monetary damages, Massingill said that such a mistake could bankrupt the county. He said that those involved in trying to reverse the default judgment were “on pins and needles.”

The situation has not yet been resolved. Both the default judgment and the lawsuit still stand, though the county has filed a motion to have the lawsuit dismissed.

Other issues with Aguirre were also touched upon during the discussion.

Massingill referred to an incident in which Aguirre provided inadequate information to him and County Auditor Becky Kidd as they were preparing the proposed 2019-2020 Fiscal Year budget.

Precinct 1 Commissioner James Deaver said that issues pertaining to Aguirre were discussed in closed session last year by the previous Commissioners Court, including how much time Aguirre was spending at the office and the amount of comp time Welborn was racking up due to her workload.

Massingill noted that the check of the personnel department’s computers revealed that Aguirre sent “about two emails a month” while Welborn sent “about 150 every two to three days.”

Aguirre told the court that he accepted its decision. The court then made his dismissal official with a unanimous vote.

Aguirre asked, “Who does my attorney contact?”

Massingill replied that County Attorney Matt Mills would be the point of contact.

kcruz@hcnews.com | 817-573-7066, ext. 258