Bexar official protests job loss
Veterans officer says she was pushed out; court disputes claim
Queta Rodriguez said she was pushed out of her job Friday as Bexar County’s veterans services officer in retaliation for running against longtime Commissioner Paul Elizondo in the primary election earlier this year.
The Commissioners Court eliminated Rodriguez’s job and replaced it with an expanded position with a slightly different name — military and veterans services officer. The court tapped Karen Rolirad, currently the deputy director of the city’s Office of Military and Veterans Affairs, to take that role beginning Dec. 3.
The five-member court approved the action Friday by a 3-1 vote with Commissioner Tommy Calvert against it.
Elizondo abstained. He narrowly defeated Rodriguez in a runoff election in May and went on to win re-election Tuesday to his 10th term.
Commissioner Kevin Wolff, who is the court’s veterans liaison and recommended Rolirad for the position, said Friday it was clear when the new job was posted in October 2017 that Rodriguez’s role would be absorbed into it. Rodriguez applied and was one of three finalists for the position, but she withdrew her name.
“I don’t know if I can make it
any simpler than that,” he said, after Rodriguez and other veterans pleaded with the court to keep her.
Rodriguez said she withdrew because she didn’t think she would have enough time to launch the new office after running for county commissioner. But she said she’s not upset that she wasn’t chosen for the managerial role — she’s upset that she won’t have any role at all, arguing that Wolff assured her in December that she would. Both the new job and her current one were included in the county’s budget, she said.
“Do not eliminate, but instead change the title of my current position as you originally indicated you would do,” Rodriguez told Wolff and the court, so she could continue working with the cases she was actively handling until Thursday, when her access to files was revoked.
The court did not do that. Wolff said he never assured her she
would have a job after the new position was filled. He said the personnel move is part of a years-long effort to expand county services for veterans and soon-to-be veterans.
Rodriguez saw it differently. “It’s absolutely politically motivated,” she said.
Wolff, a Republican and a Navy veteran himself, denied that charge. Elizondo, who did not speak while the court considered the change, declined to comment after the court session.
When Rodriguez challenged Elizondo, a commissioner since 1982, in the Democratic primary in March, he faced the toughest contest of his tenure. Both received enough votes to require a runoff in May, which Elizondo, 83, won by fewer than four percentage points.
Four years ago, Elizondo recruited Rodriguez to become the county’s veterans service officer. Both are Marine Corps veterans.
“I find it curious that I would get that kind of payback from a fellow Marine,” Elizondo said during the campaign. “But life is life.”
Rodriguez said Wolff informed
her that she wouldn’t remain in veterans services during a meeting Thursday morning at Pete’s Tako House. She said he told her that she messed with his plan when she decided to run for office.
“You asked me yesterday, Commissioner Wolff, why I ran for office,” she said. “What you and the court have proposed here is a great example of why.”
During the court session Friday, Army veteran Steven Price grew emotional in vouching for Rodriguez, who has been helping him with an appeal of a disability compensation claim.
Price has been trying to get the claim approved by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs since he left the Army in 1988. He said he has traumatic arthritis in the hips and a back injury from his service and is trying to get the federal agency to increase his benefits for post traumatic stress disorder.
He said Rodriguez joined him at an appeal hearing Sept. 21 and has been helping him prepare paperwork due in the next couple weeks.
“Who’s going to take care of me now?” Price asked the court, crying and lifting a box of paperwork. “You’re taking away the only person I trust to deal with my claim, that’s about $500,000 in retroactive pay that I’m about to lose if you mess this up.”
Later, Wolff said that was exactly why the county has expanded its services.
“The veteran who spoke earlier is a perfect example of why this county is more than doubling its investment in how it serves veterans,” Wolff said from the dais. “This is not about any one individual in any one job. This is about providing better service to our veterans and their families. It’s unfortunate that individuals have tried and will continue to try to politicize something like this. I apologize to the community for that.”
Calvert asked whether Rodriguez could be hired as a consultant to continue handling Price’s and other claims. The commissioners said they wouldn’t have a problem with that, but it would be up to Rolirad.