Fayette Co. Employees Poised to Get Pay Bump

The Fayette County Commissioners Court held another long budget meeting on Thursday, Aug. 6. They spent nearly three and a half hours working out the details of next year’s budget, mostly on employee salaries.

They tentatively decided to give most employees a $2,400 raise. They penciledin a four percent raise for EMS and Sheriff’s Office employees who make more than $60,000 a year. The four percent raise will give a bigger boost to those employees.

EMS Director Josh Vandever and Sheriff Keith Korenek argued in favor of the higher raise to help retain the most experienced employees.

Korenek said he may be forced to hire less experienced deputies if veteran officers leave for higher pay at other agencies.

“You bring in a rookie, now you’ve got more liability upon us and the county because they don’t have the experience to fall back on,” Korenek said. “They could make some decisions that may have been avoided if you kept somebody with longevity.”

Vandever said experienced paramedics can make much higher wages in surrounding communities – $15,000 a year more in some cases, he said.

The Commissioners didn’t make any binding decision at their meeting last Thursday. But they did vote to advertise salaries for elected officials, which is required by Texas law. The elected official salaries they approved included a $2,400 increase for all elected officials except the Sheriff. Sheriff Korenek will receive a four percent increase plus a $20,770.80 stipend from the federal government for the Sheriff’s Office’s participation in the 287(g) program with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The exact salary amounts were not available at the meeting last Thursday as the County Auditor had not yet calculated them. The numbers will be published in this Friday’s edition of the Fayette County Record.

The vote was not unanimous. Pct. 1 Commissioner Jason McBroom voted against the elected official salaries.

Earlier in the meeting, McBroom proposed a more modest raise of $1,500 a year across the board for all employees.

“I even would have supported $1,800 (a year),” Mc-Broom said after the meeting.

While the Commissioners have not yet approved the final budget, which will include employee raises, McBroom noted that the Court usually awards elected officials the same raises they give to the rest of the County employees.

“Whatever we do with the elected officials, it’s going to equate down to the employees,” he said.

“The employees deserve it, don’t get me wrong,” McBroom added. “But I also have to look out for the taxpayers.”

The Commissioners also tentatively approved an increase in retirement contributions from 175 percent to 200 percent. McBroom estimated that the raises in addition to the increased retirement cost to the county will add approximately $800,000 to next year’s County budget.

“That’s a big increase,” McBroom said.

Complicating the matter is the fact that the Fayette County Appraisal District has not yet provided the County with an estimate of property tax revenue for next year. In other words, the Commissioners don’t yet know how much money they’ll have to work with next year, or what tax rate would be needed to support the new expenses.

County Auditor Cindy Havelka said that the County could lower the elected official salaries after they are published, but state law prohibits the County from raising them after that date.

McBroom said that if these raises remain in the budget, County employee salaries will have increased 23 percent over the last five years. Total salary costs for the County the year are about $13 million out of a budget of roughly $36 million.