HHSC Former Official in contract scandal Jack Stick: I was ‘the whipping boy’
Jack Stick says he’s “the whipping boy,” the guy who became the face of the 21CT contract scandal as Texas officials pointed fingers and scrambled to save their own jobs.
“I think in December of last year, people began to feel seriously threatened and scared,” Stick said during his first sit-down interview with reporters since he was forced to resign late last year from his job as top lawyer of the state’s sprawling health agency.
“And I think they needed a sacrifice, a person who could put a face to what appeared to be a colossal screw-up, and I was that face.”
In the end, everyone went down.
Stick was first. Then Inspector General Doug Wilson resigned under pressure. Next was Stick’s wife, Erica Stick, who was never accused of wrongdoing but was pressured to resign from the agency because of their personal relationship. Jack Stick’s chief of staff, Cody Cazares, recently resigned after being on paid leave for eight months. Stick’s boss, Health and Human Services Commission head Kyle Janek, held on until June before stepping down, a year of contract foul-ups and the specter of state and federal criminal investigations in his wake.
Read more: http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/jack-stick-i-was-the-whipping-boy/nns9c/?icmp=statesman_internallink_referralbox_free-to-premium-referral
[font color=330099]Stick was also convicted of DWI this week, but received a sentence of only six days and two days were already served so he may have already completed his sentence.[/font]
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