SAN ANTONIO -- The Bexar County Probation Officers' Association has issued a vote of no confidence for its Chief.
The group wants the administrative judges over Chief Jarvis Anderson to investigate a long list of complaints.
Chief Anderson joined the Bexar County Supervision and Corrections Department almost 21 years ago and earns a salary of $135,000 per year.
Chief Anderson oversees 450 workers. Almost half of them are probation officers who said employee morale is at an all time low and working conditions are intolerable.
Felix Rosel worked as a Bexar County probation officer for two decades. He retired last July but is still involved as spokesperson for the Bexar County Probation Officers' Association or BCPOA. He said members of BCPOA forwarded their concerns to the Administrative Judges who are responsible for Chief Anderson's performance. The judges are prohibited from commenting on such complaints.
"I think Chief Anderson has had many opportunities to turn this thing around," said Rosel.
The association listed 100 items of concern.
The association's primary complaint surrounds claims the department has several staff members with criminal records who have access to sensitive databases. One reportedly oversees the Substance Abuse Outpatient Program for the Probation Department.
"You can't maintain good status in the community knowing that you've got felons running some of your internal programs," said Rosel.
Union members are also concerned the chief recently created a new position of general counsel which comes with a salary of $80,000 per year. They said base pay for a probation officer continues to lag behind other counties at $34,400.
"Pay raises are not coming in like they should and then being able to allocate $80,000 plus dollars a year for a position that they consider an attorney or counselor for the agency? It should be full-time and the information we're getting is she's teaching at UTSA full-time," Rosel said.
KENS 5 confirmed the staff attorney Catherine Torres-Stahl is an adjunct professor who teaches one class per semester at The University of Texas at San Antonio.
Reached by phone Wednesday afternoon Torres-Stahl was at work and said she teaches twice a week at the University and does so during her lunch hour.
Chief Anderson said he'll need a few days to review the complaint and he'll respond in the near future.
