CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The new City-run Health District has a new interim director.
Steve Viera, who is the current assistant city manager in charge of human relations, is assuming the duties of health director.
Effective Tuesday, March 1, the City of Corpus Christi will take full management authority of the existing Health District.
Viera was appointed Assistant City Manager in the City Manager's Office on August 13, 2019, according to the city's website. Viera has over 19 years of human resources experience and has held various positions within the City of Corpus Christi HR department.
The outgoing Health Director, Annette Rodriguez, was fired from the position Tuesday morning, officials said. 3News was present when Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales got the news.
"This is what this particular move was all about," Canales said. "It was always all about firing the public health director. It was always about the city manager gaining control and it's always been about the wrong things."
Corpus Christi City Manager Peter Zanoni said it was always about providing more resources for the department that manages pubic health.
"We're the eighth largest city in Texas. We're a big city and as we see in those city's above us, seven above us in population, they all have a city run health, either district or department," Zanoni said. "And for efficiency sake, and for a good work environment for our employees and even county employees and for better health outcome.
According to Zanoni, all previous health district employees had to reapply by Monday when the County and City agreed to merge the departments.
"Every position from the front line person all the way up to the director is being asked to reapply for their jobs," Zanoni said. Viera said he recognizes the hard work of the current health district employees.
"We've got a bunch of fantastic employees here at the health district and that was something that we already knew coming into this process," Viera said. "But we rediscovered that and it enforced our belief that we have great personnel here."
Viera has a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), both from the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, according to the city's website.
Negotiations began back in October of 2021 when Corpus Christi's City Council voted unanimously to form their own health department. Nueces County Commissioners expressed concern about the plan, and since then have been in negotiations with the City to develop the alternate business proposal.
This is a developing story. Stay with 3News for updates.
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