In the recently approved budget, county employees received raises but citizens have questioned how much will each individual will actually receive.
In a report released by the Erath County Auditor’s office, details are available on county employee raises.
Employee payroll for Fiscal Year 2022-23 was set at the Sept. 12 commissioners court with departments seeing about a 12.88% overall increase – 10.73% in salary and 2.15% in benefits.
These did not include raises for elected officials. The majority of elected officials saw a blanket $2,000 increase other than constables and the sheriff’s position that saw a $5,000 increase. Elected official salaries can be found on a public notice in the Sept. 1 edition of the newspaper.
Numerous employees including Sheriff Matt Coates have spoken over the past couple of months asking the commissioners for significant raises to bring them more in line with what surrounding departments make.
According to the auditor’s office, about 77% of the payroll increases were for emergency personnel including the sheriff’s office, jail, dispatch and EMS. Following are these salary increased from the auditor’s office. The entire spreadsheet can be found online on the Dublin Citizen’s Facebook page.
Sheriff’s office In the sheriff’s office, the chief deputy position will receive a $10,000 raise (an increase from $65K to $75K), captain position will receive an $11,400 raise ($58,600to$70K),lieutenant position will receive a $9,850 raise ($54,150 to $64K), a sergeant investigator position will receive a $13,000 raise ($50K to $63K).
Investigator positions range from an $11,000 raise to a $17,150 raise bringing them up to $60K from the $42K -$49K range.
Sergeant positions range from an $11,000 raise to $20,000 raise bringing them up to $60K to $63K from the $43K -$49K range.
Deputy position raises range from $3,000 to $14,000 bringing them up to $51K to $56K from the $42K - $50K range.
The office supervisor position received a $4,000 raise ($39K to $43K), evidence tech received a $5,000 raise ($35K to $40K) and secretary position received a $4,000 raise ($32K to $36K).
Erath County Jail The jail captain position received a $10,500 raise ($60,500 to $71K) and lieutenant received a $10,500 raise ($53,500 to $64K).
Sergeant positions received raises ranging from $7,300 to $19,000 bringing them up to $54K to $60K from the $34,500 to $52,700 range.
Jailer positions received raises ranging from $2,500 to $9,000 bringing them up to $44K from the $34,500 $41,500 range.
Dispatch Dispatchers received raises ranging from $4,200 to $6,700 bringing them up to $43K to $50K from the $36,500-$45,750 range. The dispatch supervisor position was turned into a regular dispatch position and decreased by $5,500 to have a salary of $43,000.
The DPS secretary position received a $2,000 raise ($39,450 to $41,450). The EMC coordinator position received a $2,000 raise ($53,236 to $55,236). The EMC part-time assistant was removed at the cost of $25,000.
EMS The EMS director position received a $6,500 raise ($68K to $74,500), the supervisor positions received a $6,500 raise bringing them up to $72,827 from $66,327.
Paramedic positions received a $6,500 raise bringing them up to the $58,750-$68,800 range from the $52,250-$62,300 range. An intermediate paramedic position received a $6,500 raise ($54,480 to $60,980).
Basic positions received a $6,500 raise bringing them up to $50,563 - $52,393 range from the $44,063$45,893 range.
Part-time paramedics received a $1,000 raise bringing them up to $18,764 -$28,415 range from the $17,764-$27,415 range.
Basic part-time positions received a $1,000 raise bringing them up to $18,764 from $17,764.
The fire marshal position received a $2,000 raise ($51,538 to $53,538).
The final budget and tax rate were set at a special called commissioner’s court meeting Thursday, Sept. 22.
The county approved the no new revenue rate of .4119 per $100 valuation for county taxes.
“This is well below the voter approval rate,” County Judge Alfonso Campos said. “It will raise the same amount of revenue in the 2021-22 budget.”
Campos thanked everyone for their work on this year’s budget.
“I appreciate everybody’s work. I feel like we did take their thoughts into account and gave them consideration,” he said.