AACOG Chief Placed on Leave: While on administrative leave for a short time, the Alamo Area Council of Governments (AACOG) chief is in a strange position. After talking with AACOG board members, it was found that the group was full of complaints from workers, as on Monday showed.
On a terrible Friday, the board was publicly told that Executive Director Diane Rath had been suspended because of an investigation that was still going on. The specifics of the complaints still need to be more precise as the strange veil falls. But there is still some suspense because one board member said they knew about an anonymous report from an employee as early as September 29.
The AACOG stayed mum about Rath’s position when they were asked. In a short email response, they said, “In accordance with the law, AACOG is unable to provide comment on any personnel matters.” It looked like a wall of silence surrounded them.
James Teal, the head of the AACOG Board and the county judge for McMullen said in an email, “We won’t comment on Personnel (sic) matters.” Confidentiality was like a castle with thick walls.
Interestingly, when people tried to email Rath through her AACOG account, they got an automatic message saying she was “currently out on leave.” For some reason, she seemed to like talking in silence.
Rath couldn’t be reached in any way, not even in the virtual world. It added to the mystery when someone asked her to respond through her page on X, the new social media site that replaced Twitter, but she didn’t.
The 13-county AACOG is made up of local governments and organizations. Its board of directors comprises state lawmakers and people from these groups.
It is said that Clifford Herberg Jr., the general attorney and senior director, took over as head of AACOG while Rath was away. It was in 2014 that Rath was named executive head of the group.
ALSO READ: Simchat Torah San Antonio Jewish Community: Unites in Mourning and Prayer for Peace
Jimmy Hasslocher, who was on the AACOG board for University Health, discovered that Rath had been suspended with pay that terrible Friday. No one knew where the rumours about an unsigned letter going around in the dark came from. “No one has sent me anything indicating ‘I’m complaining about Diane Rath,'” the sender told me. As a result, they are worries or even complaints that other people may have heard people share.
One of the three people from the City of San Antonio on the AACOG board of directors is Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia. She confirmed that Rath had been suspended and shared the other board members’ worries.
Manu Pelaez, another San Antonio councillor on the AACOG board, needed to learn about Rath’s required leave of absence. Still, he knew there might be a probe. It seemed to him that the problem was more significant than one person and affected more than one person. To help solve the riddle, Pelaez said, “I can also tell you that, you know, I’ve worked closely with Diane over the past two years, and I find, you know, she’s a friend and I find her to be a very, very competent professional.”