By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Raises for county employees, but not for county elected officials, will be part of the proposed 2024-2025 county budget.
County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. recently spoke about the proposed county budget he plans to submit next week. Owens’ budget won’t become official until it is reviewed and approved by county commissioners court.
Owens made his comments about next year’s county budget at the end of the court’s July 31 meeting.
Under the “judge’s comments” portion of the agenda, Owens said, “I want to say a couple of things about the budget. In the budget that I will present to the court, there are raises for our (county) employees. We (will recommend) $1,500 or 5 percent minimum. There will also be something different this year, longevity pay, based on $100 for the first year and $40 for every year thereafter.”
Owens then told the court the budget he will propose will have no raises for any county elected officials, but added the final decision on that recommendation will rest in the hands of commissioners court.
“In the budget that I’ll be presenting, the elected officials won’t get any raises, either (in) their salaries or in their auto allowances, and that will allow us also, at no extra cost to the county, to do (the proposed) longevity pay for our employees,” Owens said.
Owens also addressed the issue of placing a manned fire station in an area northwest of the Del Rio city limits, a concern that has been brought to the court by several residents in the Lake Ridge area northwest of the city.
He told the court, “The other thing that we will be looking at is, we’ve had a couple people come up and talk about a fire station on the north side of town. I don’t know if that’s going to be possible or not in this next budget, but if possible, we will try to add that fire station on the north side of town.”
“If I was the one waving the magic wand, we will not abandon the fire station in Cienegas. I think we still need to have something down there, a vehicle down there to help, a pumper truck, but we’ve talked – this court has talked – for several years about trying to build a fire station on the north side of town, and I think, at this point, it is necessary,” Owens said.
He added, “It would help with our response time to Val Verde Park Estates, the Las Brisas area, and we’re having a lot of accidents up on the north side. . . so I think this will help. I will try to put it in the budget if at all possible.”
Finally, Owens said his budget will contain recommendations for new positions in several county departments “and there will also be some changes in classifications for individuals for departments that will help with hiring in case we lose people.”
Owens said he has also asked County Human Resources Director Juanita Barrera and the county’s policy committee to come up with a way to give elected officials and department heads “the means to hire between whatever the base pay is (for a position) and whatever the position was (being paid) at the time it was vacated.”
“We’re having a hard time finding individuals that are qualified, and the employee pool is smaller now, it seems like, so that’s something that’s going to have to be brought back to the court for consideration. I don’t know if it will work or not, but I’ve asked the policy committee to look at it,” Owens said.
Owens said he will likely submit his county budget for next year on Aug. 15.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
