McALLEN — The Hidalgo County Head Start Program’s Policy Council will meet Thursday to discuss the employment of two longtime administrators who vocally criticized the council over its termination of former executive director Teresa Flores last month.
The council will discuss the employment of Chief Financial Officer Elma Carreras and Assistant Director of Operations Services Edmundo Garcia, along with complaints related to them and possible disciplinary action.
Legal counsel for the program declined to comment on the complaints since the two employees will be discussed behind doors in executive session.
Both Carreras and Garcia have publicly criticized the council over the past month and voiced their support for Flores.
The council voted to terminate Flores after a heated dispute over bylaws regarding community representative eligibility divided leadership in August.
Flores characterized her termination as retaliatory and politically motivated when she was fired last month, and said she plans to sue.
Garcia, a 26-year veteran of the program, was proposed last month as an interim replacement for Flores after her removal.
He declined, saying he didn’t agree with the way Flores was treated and that he didn’t feel he could work with the council as executive director. Garcia and Carreras both addressed the council in public comment on Sept. 15, the night of Flores’ termination.
Largely, Garcia stuck to speaking about the program’s accomplishments. Carreras was vocally critical of the council.
“During the 19 years that I have been employed with this program, I have never witnessed such anger and animosity from the policy council members towards legal counsel, towards our executive director,” she said, referring to a particularly fiery meeting in August that featured plenty of fighting and raised voices.
Claiming she saw policy council members texting audience members during that meeting, Carreras criticized the council for being indecorous and ignoring legal advice. She also urged members to carefully consider their actions, saying Flores deserved a “fair and unbiased evaluation.” The address had a good dose of Golden Rule moralism.
“In Peter 3:13, it says: ‘Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed,’” she said. “And so, in the end, the righteous will be exalted.”
Discussion on Carreras and Garcia was added to Thursday’s meeting as an addendum, and that talk will happen in a special meeting slated to occur directly before the council’s regular meeting on Thursday.
