Valdez creates transition team
Kirk, four others to help sheriff-elect 'hit the ground running'
11:31 PM CST on Monday, November 29, 2004
By JAMES M. O'NEILL / The Dallas Morning News
Dallas County Sheriff-elect Lupe Valdez today will announce that former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk and four others will head up her transition team as she prepares to take office Jan. 1.
Ms. Valdez, who defeated Republican candidate Danny Chandler this month to become the first Democrat elected sheriff since the 1970s and the first woman ever elected Dallas sheriff, has chosen an eclectic mix to advise her in the coming month before taking office, including a retired judge and former military lawyer.
Several of the team members have expertise specifically related to government contracts, an issue that has tripped up outgoing Sheriff Jim Bowles.
Ms. Valdez named business lawyer Scott Chase, who as a military lawyer in the U.S. Army worked as general counsel for the agency that handled food service contracts. Sheriff Bowles came under intense public criticism in 2003 when he granted a major jail food services contract to a vendor who had paid for trips and meals for the sheriff.
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