City of Longview’s environmental health manager resigns in lieu of being fired | Local News

Leisha Kidd-Brooks, who had served as Longview’s environmental health manager for 12 years, resigned earlier this month instead of being fired.

City spokesman Richard Yeakley said the resignation came as the Development Services Department was pursuing disciplinary action for a “pattern of behavior primarily centered around communication with both her supervisors and her staff.”

“It was a monthslong process that culminated this month,” he said.

Kidd-Brooks started working for the city as a health inspector in September 2005. She was promoted to environmental health manager in February 2012. During her tenure, she also served as the president of the Texas Environmental Health Association and in 2023 was appointed to serve as an alternate to a national conference that advises the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Yeakley said Kidd-Brooks had in recent months exhibited a “recurring series of failures to follow the processes and policies that are in place to help the department respond to residents and to make sure the administration knows what’s occurring in each of the divisions.” He said efforts were made to discuss how to improve, but there was no progress, and the city moved on from corrective efforts to disciplinary or “restorative” efforts.

While there was an incident involving what Yeakley described as a food permit that was improperly issued to the nonprofit organization One Love Longview, he said the city already was discussing other issues with Kidd-Brooks.

“That did occur, but the process was ongoing (with Kidd-Brooks) before that incident,” Yeakley said. “The pattern of behavior is distinct from that incident.”

Kidd-Brooks disputes what the city says about the situation, saying Wednesday that she had never been written up in her career working for two different employers. Her professional reputation speaks for itself, she said, and she loved her job and the city’s residents.

“I am not OK, because someone is impacting my livelihood,” she said. “I have a daughter in college, and I need health insurance, and for an employer to think it’s OK to casually relieve someone of their service to this community for the past almost 20 years is unfortunate.”

Longtime city of Longview employee Deidra Smith is interim manager for environmental health. She was first hired by the city as a health inspector in 2011.

The environmental health office’s duties include restaurant permitting and inspections, mosquito control and enforcement of swimming pool and smoking ordinances.