REPRESENTATIVE Stanley T. Torres says he does “not normally interfere with any personnel problems in any department,” but added that he was forced to write to acting Public Health Secretary James U. Hofschneider to tell him about the complaints of some of the secretary’s employees.
In a letter dated April 3, Torres said he had “personal knowledge and documents” on the complaints against the secretary. Torres said he “was troubled” after being informed that Hofschneider had been “vindictive and unfairly treated” some of the employees in his department.
Hofscheneider declined to comment on the issue, but told Variety he had received Torres’s letter.
Torres told Hofschneider that based on the complaints he received, the secretary, while the attending physician for STD/HIV/AIDS, “did not seem to be satisfied with the setup of the clinic” and also “did not seem to want employees working their best to meet the standard requirements of the programs near (the secretary’s) sight.”
The lawmaker was also told by complainants that since Hofschneider left the HIV/AIDS clinic in June 2001 up to his appointment as secretary, “there was a disruptive period for six months in the program due to your attitude toward the employees in the clinic.”
Torres said it took two doctors to take over Hofschneider’s assignment in the clinic operations “which are now resuming smoothly.”
He also accused the secretary of “getting rid” of David Rosario who had been public health advisor of CHC for six years and had “become very instrumental to the progress of the program.”
Torres expressed disappointment over Hofschneider’s seeming lack of concern for the program.
Torres then apologized to Hofschneider for coming out with the letter. But he said he had to do it as he “listens to (his) constituents first when problems affect their lives because of harassment from superiors like you.”
