Tarrant County Public Health Director Veerinder Taneja’s response to three allegations leveled against him by newly hired county administrator Chandler Merritt are revealed in public documents newly obtained by the Fort Worth Report.
The county released a Feb. 2 termination notice Merritt sent to Taneja and Taneja’s written response dated Feb. 3. In the notice, Merritt laid out three issues he wrote “created an irreparable level of distrust in your ability to satisfactorily perform the duties of your position.”
Merritt was appointed to the job following the retirement of 35-year administrator G.K. Maenius in September. Democrat Alisa Simmons was the sole vote against his appointment, citing her preference for another candidate.
Maenius’s resignation occurred after significant turnover on the Tarrant County Commissioners Court. County Judge Tim O’Hare and two other new commissioners joined the court last year following the retirement of longtime County Judge Glen Whitley. Both Whitley and Maenius were involved in Taneja’s 2014 hire. Neither responded to requests for comment about the new documents.
Merritt’s allegations against Taneja pertained to HIV tracing policy revisions, COVID-19 testing contracts and staff complaints in an internal human resources report. He cited six violations of the civil service rules and placed Taneja on administrative leave pending a final decision.
Taneja disputed the allegations and questioned why Merritt immediately jumped to possible termination when Taneja had never been subject to discipline before.
“My performance appraisals have been great, with stellar scores,” Taneja wrote. “I have never had a disciplinary action ever in my entire career. Not even a verbal or a write-up. In fact, I was lovingly called the ‘hardest working man’ in Tarrant County, by several of our county-elected officials.”
If the county was unwilling to let him stay, Taneja asked they reconsider putting a formal termination on his personnel record and instead let him resign after he found another job.
Two days after Taneja sent the letter to Merritt, the Star-Telegram published the HR report referenced in the termination notice. A day later, Taneja submitted a resignation letter, where he said he left the county in good standing.
In a statement Feb. 23 to the Fort Worth Report, Taneja said he was proud of the work he and his team did over the past 10 years, and referenced serving Tarrant County through the COVID-19 pandemic, Zika and Ebola.
“I’m thankful for the collaborative efforts that our community pulled together to address the challenges,” he said. “I’m honored that I got to lead a great team of passionate and dedicated public health professionals. We served our community with integrity, honesty and compassion. I will forever cherish the love, respect and friendship they bestowed upon me. I wish my team and the Tarrant County community the best in health as I look forward to the next chapter in my life.”
The Fort Worth Report reached out to all members of the Tarrant County Commissioners Court for comment. County Judge Tim O’Hare’s office and Commissioner Alisa Simmons’ office did not respond by the time of publication. Commissioner Gary Fickes declined to comment.
Commissioner Roy Brooks, a Democrat who was on the Tarrant County Commissioners Court when Taneja was hired, said he was the best public health director the county has ever had.
“Vinny Taneja is a magnificent human being,” Brooks said. “I wish him well on all his future endeavors because his service here was impeccable.”
Brooks was concerned the back and forth between Taneja and county administration, publicized by the Report and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, may hurt Tarrant County’s ability to recruit a worthy candidate to replace Taneja, he said. Brooks, who will step down following the November election, hopes the search for a new candidate remains an apolitical process.
Commissioner Manny Ramirez, a Republican, said in a statement he is confident Merritt conducted a thorough investigation of all allegations before sending the intention to terminate notice.
“I support the direction of Mr. Merritt to move forward, and I am excited to work with the new Public Health Department leadership to ensure that Tarrant County continues to provide world-class service to our community,” Ramirez wrote.
‘Lapsed’ internal policy change led to accusations of coercion
At a December Commissioners Court meeting, County Judge Tim O’Hare questioned Taneja about the public health department’s HIV contact tracing program, which is intended to help track how the virus is spread throughout the community.
When the public health department comes across an instance of an adult having sexual contact with a minor, the county’s 2018 policy requires officials to report it to the state Department of Family and Protective Services, which then contacts local law enforcement as needed. Under that policy, the department should only directly contact local law enforcement when there is an imminent danger to the minor.
After a March discussion with then-county administrator G.K. Maenius, Taneja said, the health department took steps to amend the 2018 policy and require reporting to local law enforcement independent of the state, regardless of imminent danger to the child.
“I have to assume… that when we do this contact tracing, we find adults with minors,” O’Hare said.
“Rarely, but yes, it can happen, sir,” Taneja responded.
O’Hare’s interaction with Taneja was cited in Merritt’s letter two months later. The agreed-upon revisions never happened. Merritt accused Taneja of attempting to conceal the nine-month delay after O’Hare’s public comments.
Taneja denied that he intended to conceal anything from county leadership and said he made immediate attempts to correct the county’s policy after he discovered the revisions were never implemented. Taneja described the delay in implementing the revised policy as a “lapse” by a subordinate. The policy still hasn’t been finalized, Taneja said.
Taneja was also accused of coercing the county’s medical director, Dr. Catherine Colquitt, to sign a backdated version of the policy following the December meeting.
“I never forced her or coerced her into signing or backdating this policy,” Taneja wrote in his letter to Merritt. “She did it at her own free will, and we both agreed that the signing was merely perfunctory because the decision was already made back in March.”
Colquitt did not respond to the Report’s request for comment by the time of publication.
Cost-sharing contract with Fort Worth prompts questions of oversight
Merritt also accused Taneja’s team of lowering the city of Fort Worth’s bill for COVID-19 saliva tests without seeking proper approval from county leadership.
The county and city entered a cost-saving agreement in December 2020 to split the cost of COVID-19 tests from Vault Medical Services. Taneja’s department was responsible for paying 60% of the cost and sending invoices to the city to pay the other 40%.
The agreement went awry in 2022, when Tarrant County received a late invoice for about $1.2 million. After Fort Worth initially refused to pay 40% of that sum, Merritt alleged that members of Taneja’s team unilaterally lowered the invoice amount for the city from $514,476 to $299,500.
Taneja described reaching out to a city employee for the purpose of “keeping the dialogue open between the two parties,” but denied there was ever any negotiation between himself and the city.
Taneja explained that members of his team told him that the original invoice sent to the city of Fort Worth was based on incorrect data and included dates outside of the contract’s term. The lowered bill was a “simple correction to the previous incorrect invoice” given to the city.
In a statement, city spokesperson Lola McCartney confirmed the city discussed concerns about the accuracy and timing of invoices before staff were willing to make payment. The final invoice was paid in 2023, she said.
Spike in staff complaints precipitated termination notice
Since the beginning of 2024, seven public health employees have submitted complaints about public health leadership to either county commissioners, county administration staff or human resources. Several of the complaints were related to Taneja, according to Merritt’s letter.
“This demonstrates TCPH employees’ lack of confidence in their leadership to objectively conduct management related investigations,” Merritt wrote.
A 2022 report, issued while Whitley and Maenius were still leading the county, found a group of 15 current and former public health employees “did not feel valued” under Taneja and assistant public health director Angela Hagy’s leadership. Several employees, who were not named, accused Taneja of persistent bullying that led to mental health issues for staff.
The county’s human resources department concluded that no laws had been broken. County spokesperson Bill Hanna declined to comment on personnel matters.
Maenius met with Taneja in fall 2022 to discuss staff perceptions and offer guidance on how Taneja could improve morale. Maenius’ advice was for Taneja to talk directly to his team, walk around the department and allow experts within the department to take the lead as appropriate.
But, according to the county administration, the environment within the public health department did not change.
“Despite these directives and clear indication from Mr. Maenius that you needed to take the initiative to improve TCPH, the number of management related complaints being submitted outside of the department cause great concern in your ability to manage personnel matters appropriately,” Merritt wrote in the letter.
In his Feb. 3 letter to Merritt, Taneja wrote that he heard of an increased number of complaints by all county employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, but he never saw the findings or was given an opportunity to address them despite re peated requests.
According to Taneja, Maenius said the increase in staff dissatisfaction was not only limited to the public health department but other county entities, like the Sheriff’s Office, because of the high stress environment following the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I have been addressing things that come to my attention,” Taneja wrote in the Feb. 3 letter. “I was never made aware of a specific complaint against me and any findings related to that. I can’t address what I don’t know about.”
Taneja wrote he attended several meetings with Maenius and other county administration staff in which he offered to engage workplace culture experts to address dissatisfaction among public health employees.
“I was met with a lot of nodding heads but no real action,” he wrote.
Emily Wolf is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at emily.wolf@fortworthreport.org or @_wolfemily
Rachel Behrndt is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at rachel.behrndt@fortworthreport.org or via X.
David Moreno is the health reporter for the Fort Worth Report. His position is supported by a grant from Texas Health Resources. Contact him at david.moreno@fortworthreport.org or @davidmreports on X.
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This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.