Perry adviser appointed TYC chief of staff
March 5, 2008
The aide, Alfonso Royal, is among five new top management appointments announced by Youth Commission Conservator Richard Nedelkoff on Tuesday. The chief of staff serves as a top aide to the conservator and will be based at the Youth Commission office in Austin.
Written by Staff and wire reports, Austin American-Statesman
A policy adviser in Gov. Rick Perry's office who was criticized during a scandal at the Texas Youth Commission last year has been named chief of staff of the troubled agency.
The aide, Alfonso Royal, is among five new top management appointments announced by Youth Commission Conservator Richard Nedelkoff on Tuesday. The chief of staff serves as a top aide to the conservator and will be based at the Youth Commission office in Austin.
Royal is the Perry aide who received detailed reports about allegations of sexual abuseat a West Texas youth prison in fall 2006, months before news of the scandal broke. Perry aides have insisted that Royal, whose inaction has been criticized by lawmakers, didn't keep copies of investigation reports and didn't tell the governor at the time, the Dallas Morning News reported Tuesday.
The other Youth Commission appointments were:
• Dianne Gadow, an Arizona juvenile corrections official, who will be the deputy commissioner of programs and treatment.
• James Smith, a Maryland juvenile corrections official, who will be the deputy commissioner of residential and parole services. Smith will oversee all facility operations and parole services at the agency.
• Leticia Peña Martinez, director of family initiatives in the Texas attorney general's child support division, who will be the deputy commissioner of planning and policy.
• Alan "Chip" Walters, superintendent at the Giddings State School, who will serve as a deputy to Smith. Walters will replace prison system veteran Billy Humphrey, who was forced out late last year. Humphrey resigned amid a controversy over the widened use of pepper spray to control unruly youths.
Perry spokesman Robert Black said the appointment of Royal will increase representation of the governor's office at the Youth Commission. He said the appointment was Perry's idea.
"Gov. Perry is well aware of where the buck stops," Black told the Morning News. "Folks shouldn't be surprised that the governor wants someone he knows and trusts on hand in the state agency."
Commission spokesman Jim Hurley did not immediately return a phone call Tuesday. Royal also could not be reached.
The Youth Commission scandal erupted last year when two administrators at the West Texas State School in Pyote were accused of sexually assaulting imprisoned male youths. State-level commission officials were accused of ignoring the allegations for months.
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