McCary’s alleged efforts to sway the hiring process came despite the city signing a $30,000 contract with Pennsylvania-based executive-recruiting firm Affion Public in January to conduct an independent search for the position. The city is still in the midst of a search to replace ACS Director Shannon Sims who resigned in May.
According to emails between City of San Antonio Executive Recruiter Jeff Baldwin and Affion Public CEO Scott Reilly obtained by the Current, the city government outsourced ACS’s director search to the recruiting agency because McCary himself didn’t want to give potential candidates the feeling that there was any outside influence in the hiring process.
“[McCary] is very sensitive on how things can be perceived with the process with this particular position,” Baldwin said in an April 29 email to Reilly.
Even so, other electronic correspondence obtained by the Current suggest that McCary told Baldwin in conversation to order Affion Public’s Reilly to move District 1 ACS Advisory Board Member Charlene Ducote onto the finalist list, bumping another potentially more qualified candidate from outside the Alamo City from consideration.
That request came despite Affion Public making an earlier determination that Ducote wasn’t qualified enough for the position, according to emails.
What’s more, city correspondence shows that McCary appeared to have told Baldwin that a separate ACS director candidate, Christy Ortiz-Andrews, became confrontational with him when asking about her job application. McCary later recanted that story in a letter to someone in his own department.
In a statement to the Current, Ortiz-Andrews accused McCary of “single-handedly influencing the candidate pool with his biased and unprofessional conduct.”
In an emailed statement to the Current, McCary declined to comment on why he felt the need to push Ducote ahead of the final round of interviews, or why he changed his story about his interaction with Ortiz-Andrews.
Despite the city’s pricy contract with Affion Public to conduct the candidate search and interview process, McCary said, “It is ultimately the City’s responsibility to vet and choose the next director of Animal Care Services.”
City Manager Erik Walsh didn’t respond to the Current’s request for comment.
Public money
San Antonio began its search for a new ACS director last December. It launched the effort after then-ACS Director Sims said he planned to retire sometime during the summer but would stay on to train the new hire if needed.
Sims’ two-and-a-half-year tenure became mired in controversy after a series of headline-grabbing dog attacks, and he retired earlier than expected. Sims left in May after giving an acerbic speech at an ACS Advisory Board meeting, during which he referred to those leaving critical comments on the department’s Facebook page as “social media terrorists.”
Watchdog group Foundation of Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) this summer accused ACS of violating residents’ First Amendment rights by deleting critical comments from its Facebook page. City Attorney Andy Segovia earlier this month said ACS will no longer remove such comments.
Despite ACS posting the job listing for the director position on the city website in December, only 18 potential candidates applied within the next month, McCary said at a May meeting of the department’s advisory board. In January, “a decision was made” to hire Affion Public to help conduct a national search and vet candidates for the job, McCary also said at that gathering.
Affion Public’s contract with the city included three payments of $9,333, according to records obtained by the Current. The city made the first of those once the company launched its search, and the second came when it provided a selection of candidates.
The last payment, which is still outstanding, will be paid after the city hires a new ACS director, records show.
“The City of San Antonio sometimes uses executive search firms to help hire high-level positions, such as this critical role in Animal Care Services,” city officials said in a statement to the Current on the process. “This allows the City of San Antonio to tap into search firms’ expertise in specific industries and national networks to help find a diverse and highly qualified slate of candidates for consideration. Ultimately, the city will choose the next director of Animal Care Services.”
‘Short list of candidates’
Indeed, City Manager Walsh — McCary’s boss — will make the final decision who becomes the next ACS director, according to city officials.
However, email correspondence makes it appear that McCary, who acts as a liaison between ACS and Walsh as part of his city position, disregarded Affion’s recommendation and urged the contractor to move forward a candidate previously deemed unqualified.
On April 15, city recruiter Baldwin emailed Affion Public CEO Reilly asking about the status of ACS D1 Advisory Board member Ducote’s application for the director position.
“Per our conversation — David McCary was asking about Charlene Ducote,” Baldwin said in the email. “Can you tell me what sort of process she went through with you guys and/or any information you have regarding her candidacy[?]”
In his reply, Reilly explained that Ducote’s application did “not meet the qualifications we were looking for.”
“I spoke with David [McCary,] and he wants to include her in the screening of his short list of candidates,” Baldwin wrote in response. “He is currently working on a schedule and dates for the screenings.”
Despite Affion’s reservations about Ducote — a University of Texas at San Antonio grad who currently works as a veterinary technician — she made it to a list of final eight finalists for the ACS director position — a job with a salary range of $150,000 to $250,000, according to applications obtained by the Current.
In a separate, April 19 email, Baldwin told Reilly to replace Esteban Rodriguez, executive director of the Seattle Animal Shelter, with Ducote on the list of finalists.
“We will interview all of the finalists with the exception of Esteban Rodriguez,” Baldwin wrote. “We will instead replace that spot with Charlene Ducote.”
McCary didn’t respond to the Current’s questions about why he intervened in Affion Public’s recruiting process or why he singled out Ducote, only saying via email that “it is ultimately the city’s responsibility to vet and choose the next director of Animal Care Services.”
Ducote couldn’t be reached for comment by press time.
‘Something must be done’
While McCary’s intervention appeared to give Ducote a leg-up in the hiring process, another candidate for ACS director, Christy Ortiz-Andrews — an applicant with two master’s degrees from the University of Texas at San Antonio — alleges the assistant city manager worked to push back her application.
At the end of an April ACS Advisory Board meeting, Ortiz-Andrews approached McCary to discuss her application, saying she hadn’t yet heard back from the city, a source familiar with the matter told the Current. The person declined to be named over concerns about legal repercussions.
That source, who witnessed the interaction between McCary and Ortiz-Andrews, described it as being cordial and civil.
Even so, Baldwin told Affion’s Reilly in an April 24 email that Ortiz-Andrews “confronted” McCary after the meeting.
“She wasn’t too happy about not being referred as a finalist or something along those lines,” Baldwin wrote.
However, in a September letter to Interim Assistant to the City Manager Joe Frank Picazo, McCary appeared to change the official tune about the encounter.
“At no time did I feel Ms. Andrews was confrontational in my conversation with her,” McCary wrote. “Andrews was not confrontational in my conversation with her. Ms. Andrews was very professional and was only seeking clarification in the recruitment process.”
In her statement to the Current, Ortiz-Andrews accused McCary of meddling in the hiring process and attempting to smear her.
“Nobody wins when two stories don’t converge, but when an employer’s comments become disqualifying and defamatory, something must be done to mitigate it.”
Where the process stands
As of press time, the official line from the city is that the search for a new ACS Director is ongoing. However, that statement also may be a bit misleading.
On July 1, officials hastily announced that the city wouldn’t be hiring either of the two finalists for the ACS director position — Monica Dangler, director of Tucson’s Pima Animal Care Center, and Aaron Johnson, executive director of Montgomery County Animal Care Services near Houston.
“The ideal candidate will strengthen and foster relationships with the animal care community, our partners and stakeholders; champion a healthy and thriving workforce; and support the placement of pets for life with a focus on enforcement,” San Antonio City Manager Walsh said. “The process will continue until the best candidate is found.”
Despite Walsh’s comments, San Antonio Deputy Director of Human Resources Krystal Strong on July 2 informed Johnson, who only holds an associate degree from Houston Community College, that he’s still the city’s preferred candidate to take the position.
“Although the recruitment process is ongoing, you have not been removed from consideration,” Strong wrote. “In regards to the current state of the hiring process, the recruitment of this position remains a priority of the City and our City Manager. However, we are beginning our annual budget process, which is our busiest time of the year and may impact our anticipated timeline.”
Dangler didn’t receive a similar email.
Further complicating matters, Johnson was accused of wrongfully euthanizing 70 animals confiscated from a hoarder north of Houston in September 2018. Johnson was placed on administrative leave from his job in Montgomery County, but he was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing.
Emails obtained by the Current show that the city and McCary were aware of the accusations once made against Johnson, according to a background check conducted by Affion Public. The company shared that background check with city officials, the correspondence shows.
The city has released no official timeline showing when a new ACS director might be hired. In the meantime, former San Antonio Development Services Department chief Michael Shannon has been leading the department.
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