By Brad Torch

Two years ago this month, my family and I took a chance on a new start, in an unfamiliar place after a tumultuous and relatively short residency in Arizona. Most people do not know the details behind our unexpected move to Amarillo, and I will share that with you now. It is amazing to me how decisions that we make in our lives have certain rewards and consequences, that we cannot foresee when we make such decisions. My father has always had a strong interest in physics, and I remember from a very young age, he would reiterate Sir Isaac Newton's Third Law of Motion, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” This law is certainly true. In every facet of life, we make decisions that create both positive and negative reactions, and these cause us to again react, make changes, and adjust. This is my story of actions and reactions.

In February of 2011, while living in my hometown of Albuquerque, NM, I was in a bit of an occupational crisis. I had ended my run of running my own retail consultation business, mostly due to the stress of traveling and being away from home too long, and was working a monotonous job as a customer service representative in a call center. I received a phone call from a long time friend whose family ran a non-profit fiduciary and guardianship firm. As it turned out, they were in dire need of an Organizational Representative Payee. A Representative Payee is an individual who manages Social Security benefits for beneficiaries who are deemed by the Social Security Administration to be incapable of managing them effectively themselves, due to mental or physical disabilities. I gladly took the position and I absolutely loved it, as well as the company I was working for. I saw this company as my future and it even motivated me to go back to school and complete my degree.

After about two years, I was promoted to Guardian, taking on a role that had higher expectations and responsibilities. I again excelled at my, and extremely enjoyed this rewarding work. In 2014, there was word that the company was wanting to expand. They were looking at opening an office in Mesa, AZ, a suburb of Phoenix. I immediately volunteered myself for this opportunity and by July of 2014, I was planning my move to Arizona, to become the Administrator for our new office. I started with strong momentum and by the time I knew it, our office was self sustaining, with 300+ clients, we were well on our way to being a success, or so I thought.

July 17th, 2017 started as any normal day. I went into work a bit early that morning to get ahead on some paperwork. I opened the doors at the normal time, 8:00 a.m. What happened next was definitely not normal. Two officials entered my office and presented me with a court order. It included a restraining order for myself, along with a number of other individuals within the company, including the President, CFO, and two Directors, one being my friend who helped me get the job almost 7 years prior. Two more officials arrived moments later, they were a bit later because they tried to catch me before I left home, but remember, I left a bit earlier than usual. They took my keys to the office, my alarm codes, my computer passcodes, and my safe code. As you might imagine, I was in a bit of shock. I know I hadn’t done anything wrong. I asked them if I could call my supervisor, and that’s when they told me that they were currently being arrested in our Albuquerque office. It wasn’t until about a week later that I found out that they were indicted on multiple federal charges including theft, money laundering, and mail fraud. They had been siphoning money from our clients, made up of veterans and disabled individuals to the tune of 4 million dollars over about 10 years.

In the week following, I communicated with the U.S. Marshals and cooperated with anything they needed. They took control of both of our locations and rescinded the restraining order that was placed on me after determining that I was not involved in the scheme, and that I knew more about the business operations than any other employees that did not still have a restraining order. I worked to help account for missing funds and to transfer clients to new organizations until we closed the doors on September 9th, 2017. In those two and a half months, I lived with a lot of guilt. How did I not see this happening over my tenure with the company? I knew I unknowingly benefited from the stolen money, but I wasn’t in on the scheme. I just felt that I held some type of responsibility to have stopped it. I also had to figure out a way to continue paying bills and supporting my family. Due to the relationships I had built in the community, I was able to obtain employment right away, however I was not making close to the same income. We slowly fell farther and farther behind until we had no choice but to seek help from family. After many discussions, we decided that our best opportunity was Amarillo, where my in-laws were well established and could help us get back on our feet again. I applied for a position with Texas Panhandle Centers, where I was pretty quickly hired and at the end of January 2018, we packed our belongings into a U-haul and headed West to Amarillo.

That is how my family and I ended up in Amarillo, but the struggle continued and as many of you know, it certainly didn’t end there. More decisions led to more reactions. After almost a year of livMore in Amarillo, I decided that I was going to be bold and do something that I always wanted to try. I saw Amarillo as a great place with wonderful people, but that wasn’t getting the proper attention from its leaders. I decided that I wanted to be a part of some positive change, so I took a run at the Amarillo City Council. Shortly after the election, I was fired from my position at Texas Panhandle Centers. I take full responsibility for the minor infraction that ultimately was the reason for my firing, but I have many reasons to believe my termination was politically motivated. In almost a year and a half of employment with no infractions and nearly stellar performance reviews, there is no other logical explanation and while I’ll never be able to prove it, I know in my gut, that my firing was a consequence of my ambition and desire to do something good for my community.

It really played like a broken record. We were finally back on our feet, moving in the right direction, and just like that, everything changes. I was out of work for the whole month of June before I started a new job, again, making considerably less than before. My job search in Amarillo has continued for months, even after I secured employment and I couldn’t get a call back, let alone an interview. In January, my wife and I decided that maybe I would have better luck finding better employment elsewhere, so I began submitting applications in the field of case management in the State of Colorado.

In less than two months, I have received numerous call backs, and plenty of interviews. With that said, it is truly bittersweet for me to announce that I have accepted a position in Denver and will be leaving Amarillo within the next few weeks. I know that there are those of you that will celebrate my departure, because I was just too outspoken, opinionated, and let’s be honest, just too liberal for your taste. It gives me great resolve to know that I am leaving you with my memory. Regardless of your negativity, I still enjoyed my time in Amarillo. What’s most important to me is the people who my family and I will miss and will hopefully miss us as well. The friendships we made will last forever. Thank you to all who touched our lives. Thank you to those who I didn’t know personally, who found a way to make a difference in our day. Thank you to The Amarillo Pioneer for giving me a voice. Every experience in life is an opportunity to learn and grow and the two years living in Amarillo has taught me a lot. I will definitely be back to visit, and who knows what the future holds. I know that I would not trade my time here for anything, but I look forward to what lies ahead in the great State of Colorado. With that, I say farewell Amarillo.