This November, Caldwell County voters will select their next Tax Assessor-Collector with the incumbent Darla Law retiring. The position importantly oversees the registration, titling, and transferring of all motor vehicles, including handicap placards. 

The race features Democrat Joy Morris Pardo, the current Chief Deputy Tax Assessor, versus Republican Debbie Sanders, who worked in the Caldwell County Tax Office as a clerk from 2012 to 2015. 

Documents obtained by the Examiner via public information request indicate Sanders was terminated by the Caldwell County Tax Office in September 2015. 

According to a Facebook post on Oct. 8 of that year, Sanders claimed her firing was politically motivated, accusing Law of targeting her for not supporting “her policies and political views.” Sanders immediately announced her candidacy against Law in the November 2016 election.  

Several months later, Sanders filed an official complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) via the Texas Workforce Commission Civil Rights Division. This time, however, she did not claim her firing was politically motivated – instead, Sanders alleged Darla Law discriminated against her for being a Hispanic woman.

According to Law’s affidavit in response to the EEOC complaint, “Ms. Sanders was only released from employment due to the budgetary decrease for my office required by the County budget. Ms. Sanders was not discriminated against because of her sex, a female, and National Origin, Hispanic, as alleged in her complaint.” Law noted “Without the reduction-in-force required by the budget, I anticipate Ms. Sanders would have remained an employee of the Tax Assessor/Collector’s office.”

Law’s affidavit also laid out the county’s cause for terminating Sanders, explaining how she “evaluated each clerk’s productivity and determined that Ms. Sanders’ productivity in assisting citizens was far below the other clerks, Mrs. [Cindy] Johnson, and Ms. [Dolores] Garcia.” The county supported this claim with extensive documentation, reviewed by the Examiner, which showed Sanders’ clerk drawer brought in significantly less revenue compared to her colleagues.

The Examiner phoned Dolores Garcia – who retained her job when Sanders was fired – to request comment on Sanders’ allegation that she was unfairly terminated due to being a Hispanic woman, but did not hear back.

Caldwell County’s response to Sanders’ discrimination allegation also included written notice of multiple disciplinary issues, including excessive absenteeism and excessive cell phone use. These reports were filed in March of 2015, nearly half a year prior to Sanders’ firing. The write-up noted that “immediate corrective action must be taken” as her conduct was “causing an undue hardship to the department.” It was not the first time the issues had been raised to Sanders, as she received informal verbal counseling in the 12 preceding months.

Law’s affidavit also noted the conspicuous timing of Sanders’ discrimination claims: “Finally, I believe that it is worth noting that Ms. Sanders did not file this complaint until February 9th, 2016, months after the budget reduction and her release from employment in September [2015].” 

Sanders’ complaint was eventually dismissed, and she went on to lose to Darla Law in both the 2016 and 2020 general elections for Caldwell County Tax Assessor-Collector.

The Examiner invited Sanders to comment on her failed EEOC complaint but got no response.

Law, her former employer, told the Examiner, “There were a lot of issues I had with her. She was unprofessional with customers, very rude, not showing up on time, always on her phone, and rude to her co-workers. She sued me, she sued the county, and it never went anywhere. She was always negative toward me. When I found out the budget was set to be reduced, I had to let the poorest performer go.”

BY JORDAN BUCKLEY