Editor’s note: All of the following information is regarding the county’s preliminary budget, not the final budget which is set to be approved later this month.
Wyndi Veigel
Content Editor Many county employees will see a significant pay increase after approval by the Erath County Commissioners.
Though the final budget is not yet approved, employee payroll for 2022-23 was set at the Monday, Sept. 12 commissioners court with departments seeing about a 12.88% overall increase – 10.73% in salary and 2.15% in benefits.
Over the past several weeks, county commissioners have examined the budget, received feedback and tweaked proposed budget numbers.
County Judge Alfonso Campos stated that each department head will be able to split their increases up among their employees as they see fit.
“We just need you to send back to us how much money you’ll be giving to each individual,” Campos explained.
At meetings on Thursday, Aug. 25, Tuesday, Sept. 6, Wednesday, Sept. 7 and Friday, Sept. 9 representatives from the Erath County Sheriff’s Department were on hand to speak on the need of a significant pay increase. Deputies and the sheriff all say the pay increase is needed not only needed to keep up with inflation but also to be competitive when hiring deputies since surrounding counties are paying more than ECSO.
According to information provided by ECSO, currently a starting deputy salary is $42,000, a starting jailer salary is $34,500 and a current starting dispatch salary is $36,500.
At the Wednesday workshop meeting, nine sheriff office representatives including Erath County Sheriff Matt Coates, along with several citizens, spoke about the need for a larger increase for their department after preliminary proposed budget numbers were released. The Wednesday numbers showed about a 13% pay increase for the sheriff’s office, a 17.24% increase for the jail and a 12.59% increase for communications. The sheriff had proposed a $10,000 increase for each employee.
“If you want the justifications for the salary increases, come spend not just a shift but a week with us in the jail,” Corrections Officer Aaron England said. “See what we have to deal with MHMR patients [mental health], people who are strung out on drugs and want to fight constantly.”
Commissioner Albert Ray emphasized the need to be responsible and look at the county as a whole, not just one department.
“We know this isn’t enough money. If we can knock off a chunk of it this year and then another chunk next year … that’s a large sum to absorb in one year. We are trying to keep the tax rate down, yes, there are new businesses coming in and that will help us in future years keep the tax rate down. We know you are underpaid. It’s a half step of where you need to be and if you can just bear with us we will get there,” Commissioner Dee Stephens said Sept. 7.
“It’s not that this person needs more or less money, it’s looking at what is another person doing the same job as I am getting paid,” Sheriff Coates said about county-tocounty comparisons. “We’ve done our background on that. It’s upside down and it has been for awhile.”
Campos said that the numbers were not final, it was a proposed budget with proposed numbers.
“Elected officials, hold our feet to the fire,” he said.
Carla Trussel, a citizen, offered comments about attrition in the sheriff’s office.
“It’s not wise for us to be training deputies and losing them,” she said. “Are you losing your other employees to attrition? Because you know you’re losing deputies to attrition.”
Corrections Sergeant Paige Hooper spoke about making a choice to come here and take a pay cut due to choosing her family and reducing commute.
“If you can offer a little bit more and say ‘hey, can we make this permanent,’ we won’t lose as many,” she said. “You are losing them to cities where they make more, or the State Troopers or some are even going to try to become agents with ICE. Others are looking at jobs that aren’t even in law enforcement anymore.”
Many law enforcement officers spoke in high regard toward Sheriff Coates, praising him for having his employees’ backs and standing on his principles, loyalty and respect.
InvestigatorJerrickBennett spoke regarding the dangers and things law enforcement sees on a daily basis.
“We see things every day. Our family has to deal with this. Our kids have to deal with this. It plays on your mental as well as your physical,” Bennett said. “The sheriff—he will go to bat. When I first got here I didn’t even have a vest, he took his off and gave it to me. We work hard for our county. Let’s give Erath what we deserve.”
ECSO Chief Deputy Jeremy Woodruff spoke about all county employees and how many deputies work off duty to aid the county.
“[During the Big L fire] how many times did we see a clerk or anyone else in the county employees besides some of the rough-hands come out and work that?” Woodruff asked. “We had to call our deputies off-duty to come that, on their days off.” Woodruff also said on-call investigators don’t extra oncall pay or a differential. We have an issue here. We want the best, so we have to pay for the best.”
Deputy Cody Shawver talked about ECSO being his family and his decision to stay with the sheriff’s office despite having a job offer with a pay increase.
“We have a high call volume,” he said.
Shawyer referenced a need for additional officers to improve officer safety.
“I’m putting my life on the line for this county,” he said. “Why would they want to work somewhere that every day they have other agencies say, ‘We have these openings and you will make $10,000 more, minimum.’” Eighth generation Erath county citizen and ECSO Deputy Garrett Koonsman spoke about deputy shortages.
“There are multiple people in this county that are alive because I was lucky to be where I was in that part of the county and if I was 10 minutes further, that wouldn’t have been the case,” he said. “And that’s not unique to me.”
Koonsman said that the county cannot replace those they are losing.
“I know it’s hard to raise taxes, I live in this county. I don’t want my taxes to go up either, but it’s basic economics,” he said.
Corrections Officer Hunter Petsch spoke and said he’s employed at Erath County Jail simply because he loves his community.
“I’m asking to make a living,” he said.
By Friday’s tax rate public hearing and public comments, salaries for all departments, including the sheriff’s, jail and communications, had been increased in the proposed budget, which is what was approved on Monday as separate agenda items.
$1.3 million was taken out of general fund contingency and put into payroll. New payroll inclusions are a new subdivision coordinator, a new human resources person and a new facilities maintenance person.
“We knew before we did the proposed budget, we had not made a final decision on salaries and so we looked at what we had available for salaries,” Campos said.
In the sheriff’s department, they are seeing a 20.15% increase, jail is seeing a 26.52% increase and 12.59% increase in dispatch.
“With that amount, I believe we may be able to get just a touch over what PD makes,” Coates said at Friday’s meeting. “It’s not what we asked for, but it’s a dang good chunk. I think we can make that work.”