Matt Pepper leaves Memphis to take Albuquerque top post

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  September 2011:

MEMPHIS--Memphis Animal Shelter director Matt Pepper resigned effective on August 12,  2011 to become director of Albuquerque Animal Services,  beginning in mid-September.

Pepper,  35,  was hired by the city of Memphis in March 2010 to succeed Ernest Alexander,  who had headed the shelter since 2007. “Before landing in Memphis,” recalled Amos Maki of the Memphis Commercial Appeal,  “Pepper served as head of Caddo Parish Animal Services in Shreveport,  Lousiana.  When he took over at Caddo in 2008,”  Mako noted,  “that shelter’s director,  veterinarian and two others had been terminated amid accusations of mismanagement.”
This was almost the same situation that Pepper inherited in Memphis.

Alexander, a former director of Albuquerque Animal Services, is now facing six counts of cruelty to animals for alleged mismanagement at the Memphis shelter,  as are former shelter supervisor Tina Quattlebaum,  and former shelter veterinarian Angela Middleton.  Middleton in early August 2011 sued the city for alleged wrongful dismissal,  contending that she was made “a scapegoat for years of administrative malfeasance.”