In a packed Erath County Commissioners Court meeting Monday, Aug. 12, County Judge Brandon Huckabee shared some good news in proposed budget discussion: they are trying to take care of county employees.
Though the budget is still in the preliminary phase, Huckabee is presenting his proposed budget for the county Thursday, Aug. 15 after weeks of feedback from department heads regarding budgetary needs.
In the proposed budget, there is a salary increase for every single county employee ranging in $2,000 a year on the low end to 3.5% on the high end.
Huckabee is also recommending pay increases for certificate pay and all first level employees would be raised to $40,000.
EMS will be a little higher since their hourly rate is low, Huckabee explained.
“We matched certificate pay to surrounding counties,” he said.
In order to give the county’s 244 employees raises, there is a big cost at $1.1 million including benefits).
“We are basically using all of our property tax increase on our people,” Huckabee said.
“It’s a lot of money but we have to take care of our people,” Precinct 2 Commissioner Albert Ray said.
The county will also be looking at a cost of living increase for retirees.
“It would be $6 million to bring everyone up to 100%, and we don’t have the extra $6 million,” Huckabee said. “We are going to look at some options.”
County Auditor Kent Reeves assisted during budget discussions and said cost of living adjustments have happened four times, with the last COL occurring in 2019.
The county’s budget hearing is anticipated to occur on Sept. 5 with their budget adopted Sept. 9.
The court unanimously approved a memo of understanding between the Erath County Sheriff’s Office and several school districts throughout the county to provide joint school resource officers.
ECSO provides SRO deputies at Bluff Dale, Morgan Mill, White Horse and Three Way ISDs with the districts providing salaries and the county providing uniforms, training and vehicles. Lingleville and Huckabee are also included in the memo in case services are needed.
A couple of policies are under discussion including a fraud waste and abuse policy that is being reviewed by county attorneys and a usage policy for those driving county vehicles.
The commissioners are currently reviewing the county vehicle policy and are anticipated to approve it at the next commissioners court meeting.
Approval was given to pay county employees a little extra when they are being utilized to translate in court or at arraignments.
District Clerk Wanda Greer explained that translators were getting harder to find and they have several Spanish speaking employees working in the county offices.
“In my mind, they should be compensated,” Greer said, since these employee’s jobs were not to be bilingual translators.
Typically, Greer said, she would not need them more than 15-20 minutes and the money is already in the court’s budget for translation services.
The commissioners approved $50 for employees who were translating.
Land Development
Subdivision coordinator Jason Gardner spoke on several different projects in regards to land development.
The performance bond for Sunrise Mountain Ranch Subdivision was approved after the project was completed.
As Gardner moved through agenda items, he stated, “Looking at these variances, we think these are safe alternatives to what the county requires.”
For Tres Cruces RV Park located on CR 494 a set of variances was approved including changing a culde- sac into a hammerhead due to the layout of the site and only one ingress and egress.
“Having an entrance and an exit just doesn’t work with the layout of the land,” he said.
The preliminary plan for the project was also approved.
A variance request for Wiley Cabins was also approved as they want to add two cabins.
“There’s no reason for ditches. It’s on a hill so it handles drainage,” Gardner said.
Ray, whose precinct the project is in, expressed concern over parking for the site.
“We will make sure the parking is handled,” Gardner said.
The preliminary plan for Wiley Cabins on CR 393 was also approved.
A manufactured home community plan was approved after everything had been submitted and reviewed. The manufactured home community will be located on CR 461, 1.24 miles west of the CR 461 and State Hwy. 8 intersection on 12 acres.
Bids
Several bids were opened by the county and some extended as no bids were received.
No bids were received for road construction materials and the county extended the bidding process until Sept. 9.
No bids were received for the Construction Manager At Risk for the Erath County Joint Dispatch Center.
The court opened bids received for Architectural Design for the Erath County Dispatch Center. Bidders include: Schwarz – Hanson Architects, Waldrop Construction, BRW Architects, Jacob Martin, Conduit, MFM Architects LLC dba PSRBB Architects, Parkhill, Evans Design and Construction, HOK and DRG Architects.
Other business
In other business the court approved:
■ moving fiber service from the old maintenance barn to the new barn and adding basic cable TV
■ adding four additional hosted voice seats to the tax office and one additional hosted seat to the Voters Registration Office
■ the order of the General Election for Nov. 5
■ two part-time employees for the tax office in the property tax side and is hoping these become full-time (due to employees shifting to the Elections office)
■ renewing the $10 road and bridge fee (which comes from vehicle registrations)
■ renewing a service maintenance agreement between Kirbo’s and the Erath County Tax Office
■ zero valuing items for the Sheriff’s Office and Jail
■ transportation services between Pecan Valley Centers and the ECSO
■ deeming two street sweepers as surplus and discussed giving or selling one at a low cost to the city of Dublin
■ approving a slew of line item transfers and paying the bills