An item on the city’s agenda indicates a move to discharge Inspector General Timothy Menke from his office.
By Devyani Chhetri
Dallas Morning News
https://www.dallasnews.com/
Chitose Suzuki / Staff Photographer
Dallas Inspector General Timothy Menke has been on the job for less than two months, and now, due to a crucial oversight by city officials involved in his hiring, he is likely to be ousted, according to the city’s agenda next week.
A ballot measure voters approved in November to create an independent Office of Inspector General, outside of the city attorney’s office, calls for the head of the department to be “a competent practicing attorney of recognized ability.”
Menke, however, is not an attorney.
The City Council is expected to vote Wednesday on a resolution “discharging Timothy Menke as Inspector General for the City of Dallas.”
The agenda item does not state when his last day would be, and it is unclear if he will be offered severance pay.
In June, council members unanimously hired the former federal official who held a similar role in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Menke, who started his job in Dallas on June 30, has decades of experience tracking and investigating ethics cases for various agencies in and around Texas. He has led hundreds of agents and analysts during his tenure in the federal government. He has helped recover over $15 billion in criminal, civil and administrative cases, according to his profile on the city’s website. In Dallas, he was appointed to a two-year term, with avenues for a reappointment and a $210,000 base salary.
A job listing for the position didn’t say that the applicant needs to be an attorney, though it does mention that a master’s degree or doctorate of jurisprudence is preferred, and calls for the applicant to have a skillset that demonstrates legal acumen.
This story is developing and will be updated.
Before joining the Dallas Morning News, Devyani Chhetri covered South Carolina politics and presidential primaries at the Greenville News. She went to Boston University for graduate school.
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
