Staffing shake-up at Texas Veterans Land Board
The Veterans Land Board, overseen by Land Commissioner
This month, retired Army Col.
By Friday, at least 10 employees at the agency had been dismissed, according to several people who have worked under Bush at the Veterans Land Board.
"The ones who are going to suffer are our veterans," said one person who was fired. The person asked that their name not be used for fear of harming a chance at future employment in state government.
Elledge, who was a Bush hire, told the
Bush, who, as land commissioner, is the chairman of the three-member Veterans Land Board, has not returned requests for comment.
Elledge earned
The changes come as the Veterans Land Board goes under sunset review by the state. In a report last month, the staff of the
"The board itself needs to be more involved in overseeing the contracting process, particularly when entering into multimillion-dollar contracts," the report says.
It's not clear who will present for the Veterans Land Board when it comes before lawmakers at a sunset hearing tentatively scheduled for the end of the month.
The developments at the agency echo Bush's moves at the beginning of his tenure.
Within the first nine months of Bush's first term, which began in early 2015, at least 111 state workers were fired, retired or quit the
"We face many threats, asymmetric threats that were probably not around 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, and many of the threats aren't external, though we can say that legislators sometimes present those challenges, externally we're doing fine," Bush said then. "The real threat is internally."
In 2017, the Veterans Land Board had 113 employees, according to the
McLemore was appointed to the top spot at the Veterans Land Board by then-Land Commissioner
"
McLemore served four combat tours -- three in
In that
In
During the course of his career in the Army, Elledge deployed overseas as part of operations in
Elledge in 2017 wrote a book called "The Buy-In Theory," about how to attract and retain "quality people with the knowledge, training and experience to propel your business forward."
To promote the book and make himself available for talks, he started a business called Embrace the Edge. As of Thursday, the website for Embrace the Edge appeared to be disabled. But a banner photo posted on the site before it was taken down showed Elledge in Veterans Land Board apparel, in a photo apparently taken from the
Elledge did not respond to a request for comment about the website.
Officials who remain at the agency directed all requests to Bush's communications department. Those calls and emails over the past several days were not returned.
Bush faced a challenge for re-election from Patterson and other candidates in the Republican primary but won nearly 60 percent of the vote.
In the general election in November, he faces Democrat
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