Hocutt’s tenure in Lubbock, the man is a survivor who mastered the art of
keeping the people who help keep him in place secure in their belief that he knows what he is doing. He has done that much
right, at least. He also knows how some of this looks. And how some of this can look is that people in his position have
been fired for far less than what has transpired during some of his time on the Plains. “They know who I am as a
man. They know who I am as a leader. They know my core values and how I operate,” he said in an interview with the
Star-Telegram. “One of our guiding principles, and we only have four for our department, is that success is built
through quality relationships. Healthy relationships. We have done that. “When I was at Miami, the president (Donna
Shalala) told me, ‘Kirby, there are going to be issues every day that we have to address. Never walk past an issue and
not correct it, or address it.’ Any time a situation that has been brought to me, we’ve addressed it.”
