Pay hike 'end run'

By Anita Miller
News Editor

San Marcos May 03, 2008 04:45 pm

— District Clerk Cecilia Adair would like to have a throng of employees at Tuesday’s Commissioner’s Court meeting to stand in opposition to proposed pay raises for deputy sheriffs.
Though it won’t happen, she expects Sheriff Allen Bridges will likely have lots of uniformed personnel on hand to try to sway the vote.
Adair, who like most other county department heads has already submitted her budget proposals, calls the late addition to the process proposed by Commissioner Pct. 3 Will Conley an “end run around the rest of us” that is using scare tactics under the umbrella of public safety to “circumvent the budget process.”
“I don’t mind if they want to raise pay but let’s be equitable,” Adair said. “The people in my office haven’t gotten a decent raise in a long time,” while just five years ago, some senior sheriff’s office personnel saw a pay hike of up to 40 percent.
Conley’s proposal would bring Hays deputies’ pay more in line with nearby counties, the commissioner has said. It would also modify the department’s “open range” policy and provide money for uniforms, which deputies must now buy themselves.
In an April 29 letter to the editor printed in the Daily Record, Conley said, “Recently, the County Sheriff's Department did a study comparing Hays County compensation plans to 11 surrounding law enforcement groups including, the Austin Police Department, the Kyle Police Department, the San Marcos Police Department, the New Braunfels Police Department, the State Department of Public Safety, the Texas State University Police Department and the sheriff's offices from Comal, Guadalupe, Hays, Travis and Williamson Counties. Of those surveyed, Hays County offers the second lowest base pay without a step program for retention of officers and is the only agency that makes the officers purchase their own uniforms.”
“We buy all our own work clothes and drive our own vehicles to and from work,” Adair said in a Friday memo to County Judge Liz Sumter and commissioners.
Hays Maintenance Supervisor Ron Knott said his staff also feels “like they’re slighted” by the process. “People are paying $3.50 for gas and struggling to make ends meet and also doing exceptional work for the county,” he said.
“The way it’s being presented, the sheriff’s office is more important and that’s not the case,” Knott said. “The sheriff can’t run the county by himself, it takes everybody. There are policies and procedures in place in the state of Texas for counties to do business and they don’t make exceptions. It leads us all to wonder why some follow the rules and proper budgetary process and some don’t.”
Adair has requested one additional employee in the 2009 budget and says that person is desperately needed. “I’m just trying to get one more body so my people can take vacation. I’m having to monitor vacations to the point morale is just terrible. We’re too vulnerable.”
In her memo, Adair noted, “It seems every year there is not enough money to staff other county offices sufficiently because, in the name of safety, the Sheriff’s Office has sucked the budget dry for their purposes.”
Knott pointed out that his department recently saved the county $11,000 by building out leased space for computer services, something he says illustrates creativity in the face of budget crunches. “You learn to live with what you’re given and how resourceful you can be.”
As for Tuesday’s meeting, Adair said she expects the courtroom to be “ringed” by deputies. “That really is insulting to me. There’s another 600 employees in this county that need to be considered but we cannot take off work to be in the commissioner’s courtroom.”