By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
County commissioners court during its most recent meeting on July 31 approved a series of pay increases funded by the state of Texas to improve rural sheriffs’ and prosecutors’ offices.
The proposed pay increases were included in the July 18 through July 31 human resources report presented to the court by County Human Resources Director Juanita Barrera and were filed for five members of the county attorney’s staff and six members of the district attorney’s staff.
The raises were approved for three assistant county attorneys, one county attorney’s office investigator and the crime victims advocate for the county attorney’s office, as well as for two assistant district attorneys, two district attorney’s office investigators, a data manager and a victims advocate for the district attorney’s office.
The pay increases, as well as for an earlier series of pay increases for a number of sheriff’s office patrol deputies, were funded by the Texas State Comptroller’s Office as part of Texas Senate Bill 22 (SB22).
The Texas Legislature passed SB22 in the spring of 2023 “to provide financial assistance to qualified sheriff’s offices, constable’s offices and prosecutor’s offices in rural counties.”
After County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. announced the agenda item, County Commissioner Pct. 3 Beau Nettleton made a motion to approve the human resources (department) monthly report as presented, with County Commissioner Pct. 2 Juan Carlos Vazquez giving the second.
After the motion and second, Owens said of several of the line items on the report, “You’re going to see some annual salaries there, and it’s an annual salary, but it’s going to be paid with part of the money is coming out of the general fund and part of it is money out of SB 22.
“The amount of money, and I’ll take (Item) B as an example. The annual salary (for this individual) is set at $158,578.95, but in reality, the amount of money that he’s going to be getting paid, over what was already budgeted in the budget, in the next five-and-a-half pay periods, is $13,500, and the reason I’m bringing this up is because each one of them (on the list) is different,” Owens said.
He explained further: “The reason that we’re doing this is that there are funds through SB22 that they’ve applied for that came in a little bit late, and at this point, we needed to go ahead and adjust it, and that’s how come when you look at the salaries, you’re probably going to look at them and say that they’re inflated.
“They are, but there’s so much money that they’re going to be getting over the next five-and-a-half pay periods,” the county judge said.
“It isn’t like they’re going to get $175,000 or $135,000 or $125,000, that’s not the case,” he added.
County Commissioner Pct. 4 Gustavo “Gus” Flores asked, “I have a question: Salaries will revert back to 2023-2024 budget?”
Owens replied, “The salaries will revert back . . .Whatever was posted in the 2023-2024 budget, before this action was taken, that’s what those salaries will revert back to when it comes to what the county is paying. Now, we applied for SB22 money again, but we’re in a little bit better shape than we were last time because now we know how much money we’re getting, and we can do this ahead of time starting our fiscal year.
“So that money will still have to come back to the court for approval, but these salaries right here, commissioner, that will have to be something the court will have to discuss in our next budget,” Owens added.
The county judge then pulled one of the line items in the report to give an example, using the same line item he had earlier.
Owens told the court, “The (individual’s) regular salary, paid from county funds and included in the 2023-2024 budget, is $97,000. The proposed salary (for that position) that we’ll be voting on right now is $158,578.95, but in reality, he is going to make the $97,000, plus $13,500, so he will not be at the $158,578 this year.
“Then next year in the county budget, the people that are getting paid completely out of SB22, is not in our budget. (That position) will have to come back to the court for approval on whatever that dollar amount is, but (several other positions), those are in our budget,” Owens explained.
“But once that grant money is gone?” Flores asked.
“When you look at what I handed you earlier, you’re going to see SB22 money, you’re going to see a line item that’s county money and you’re going to see SB22 money, that way we keep track, that way, if that money goes away, we’re not obligated to pay it. The county isn’t,” Owens said.
He then asked County Attorney David Martinez, “Is that correct?”
“That’s correct,” Martinez replied.
“And it’s the same when you look at the sheriff’s office, and you look at his patrol deputies, there’s a dollar amount that’s county money, and you’re also going to see SB22 money. Those dollars, the SB22 money, if the state doesn’t keep paying it, those dollars are going to go away,” Owens said.
“That’s correct, judge,” Martinez said.
Owens said, “The reason I’m bringing this up right now is so, the commissioner had a question, and I’m sure that when you grabbed the agenda and you looked at the dollar amounts, you thought, ‘what the heck?’”
Martinez added, “And I think it’s important to state, judge, that the SB22 restrictions on how we can spend the money only allows us to spend it in this manner, so we either spend it or we send it back.”
“And at the end of the day, there were concerns, and both you, our county attorney, and Matthew, our county auditor, were on the phone (with state officials) to make sure everything we’re doing was up to par, and Ms. West was on calls with the same people, to make sure we were doing it right, and everything that we got back was, this is the way you need to do it,” Owens said.
The court then passed Nettleton’s motion without further comments or questions.
Owens said after the meeting the county has once again applied for SB22, including $350,000 for the sheriff’s office, $250,000 for the county attorney’s office and $250,000 for the district attorney’s office.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com.
