Texas Veterinary Board Moves to Close About 150 Complaints Without Discipline Oct. 20

The nine-member board that licenses Texas veterinarians meets Oct. 20 to vote on closing roughly 150 complaint files without any disciplinary action, settling 37 more by agreement, and filling its own committee posts. Anyone who wants to speak, in the room or by video, must email the board by noon Oct. 19.

The dismissals come in three batches, and the labels say how far each complaint traveled before it died. Twenty-four would be dropped after an informal conference, the settlement meeting where a veterinarian sits down with staff and board representatives. Twenty-seven would be dropped after a staff conference, a lighter version of the same thing. The remaining 99 would be dropped after medical review, the stage at which a veterinarian under contract reads the patient records and judges whether the care fell short. The agenda lists case numbers and nothing else; the board publishes no reasons alongside the list.

A separate list of 37 proposed agreed orders — negotiated settlements in which a licensee accepts a penalty rather than contest the case — goes to a single vote. Two matters are further along. Both were tried at the State Office of Administrative Hearings, the independent agency that hears contested licensing cases, and both now return for the board to accept, reject or change what the judge recommended. No findings have been made against either veterinarian, and the posted notice describes neither the allegations nor the recommendations.

The board also elects its executive committee and names standing committees, which matters more than usual this year. Since 2023 it has operated as an advisory board to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, which holds its policymaking power under an attachment the statute ends Sept. 1, 2027. The agency keeps its own staff, licensing and enforcement work, and the board still writes the rules on scope of practice and standards of care — though the department’s commission reviews each one and can order that it never take effect. The presidency is not among the posts in play: the governor names the presiding officer and may replace him at will, and Dr. Steven Golla of New Braunfels holds it.

A second, shorter session at 10:30 a.m. takes up the executive director’s annual training manual for board members. The heavier work sits off this agenda: the licensing department must review every one of the board’s rules by Dec. 31, and the board voted in July to publish rewritten licensing and professional-conduct chapters for public comment.

Meeting at a glance

Board members

• Steven C. Golla, DVM — president; New Braunfels; veterinarian, Innovative Pet Care.
• Sandra “Lynn” Criner, DVM — vice president; Needville; equine and small-animal veterinarian.
• Victoria Whitehead — secretary; Lubbock; public member; home builders association chief executive.
• Randall Skaggs, DVM — Perryton; owner, Animal Clinic of Perryton.
• Stacy McLeod, DVM — Weatherford; veterinarian at the county animal shelter.
• Larry Moczygemba, DVM — Berclair; ambulatory beef cattle veterinarian.
• Sue Allen, LVT — Waco; the board’s licensed veterinary technician member.
• Keith Pardue — Austin; public member; attorney and former board chair.
• Raquel Olivier — Houston; public member; certified public accountant.

Names, credentials and officer titles are from the board’s member page and the October 20 board book, checked October 12, and match in both. Cities and employment are from Governor Abbott’s appointment releases of 2021, 2022, 2024 and 2026. No employer is published anywhere for Sue Allen, so none is given here. Victoria Whitehead is listed with a law degree on the board’s own page but is described by the governor’s office only as a home builders association executive. The board elects its executive committee at this meeting, but not its presiding officer, whom the governor designates. Draft minutes for the July 21 meeting, printed in the October 20 board book for approval, record all nine members present with Golla presiding; the board’s older minutes archive stops in 2024 and current minutes now appear inside each meeting’s board book.