Despite a tight budget, Brown County Commissioners approved a 50% raise for their county maintenance director in a recent meeting.
In Friday’s meeting of the court, commissioners voted to approve an $11,000 increase in pay for maintenance director Carl Greer from $22,000 to $33,000.
Commissioner Wayne Shaw stated that he initially was concerned but when he found out the maintenance supervisor at the Brown County Jail, Les Rush, was making approximately $33,000 per year, he thought the increase was justified because Greer works alone taking care of the maintenance of four county buildings (courthouse, extension office, old jail building and the new Brown County Juvenile Justice Center) and that Rush has crews and takes care of only one building, the Brown County Law Enforcement Center.
“I felt like it was a little bit expensive, but because I was worried about that they had a maintenance guy at the jail, and I found out they had a maintenance guy at the jail who makes that amount. He’s been there a long time, but this guy (Greer) takes care of four buildings and that guy’s got help over there. That’s where I am on this deal. I don’t like it.”
According to Commissioner Joel Kelton, he was the only one who voted against the increase in pay because he felt it was too large of an increase and he didn’t feel it was justified.
“They went from $22-33K. I voted against that because that seemed like a rather large increase for someone who has been in that position and already working, just changing his job description I cannot understand that,” Kelton said.
Kelton stated that he thought Greer had only been in the position for about a year, after the previous maintenance worker had been let go (in November 2012) who had been in the position for several years.“My question is ‘what was his (Rush’s) starting salary in that position?’ I want to know what his base salary was. Anyway, I don’t agree with it,” Kelton said.
Rush’s pay was confirmed with Brown County Sheriff’s Captain Tony Aaron, who stated that Rush has been working with BCSO since October of 1999, when he was initially hired as a jailer. He was hired to the maintenance position in November of 2002. This position paid $16,632 at the time, which was a pay decrease of $60/month according to Aaron. In May of 2005, Rush was promoted to maintenance road crew supervisor with additional responsibilities of the supervision of 4 employees handling prisoners on road crews. This gave him an increase of just $100/month, raising his salary to $20,832. Since then he has been promoted to the rank of sergeant and receives additional pay for that.
“Currently Rush makes base pay of $2700/month (or $32,000/year),” Aaron said. “He has been in the position 14 years and his base pay is less than Greer.”
Sheriff Bobby Grubbs was also frustrated to know such an increase in the salary had been approved on Friday. He also expressed his frustration that jailers continue to be overlooked in the county budget when it comes to pay raises other than the occasional across the board 5% raises.
“These guys work at terrible pay in a bad working environment, constantly dealing with prisoners,” stated Grubbs. “You can’t keep good people with those circumstances.” The bad working environment comes from the prisoners and the constant issues jailers face in just keeping order within the facility. It is not an easy job according to officials at the law enforcement center.
The salary of the newly appointed Emergency Management Coordinator Mechail Cox was also approved at Friday’s meeting of the commissioners’ court as well. Cox will receive $2217/month for the month of September 2013, which is the salary that Brent Bush received when he left the position. On October 1, she will have a salary adjustment to $22,000/year which is the initially recommended salary spoken of in the meeting on September 9th, when she was appointed. Cox had begun working prior to her official appointment, according to Judge West at the September 9th meeting.
The vote at Friday’s meeting was with Kelton’s opposition on this agenda item as well and all others in agreement. Initially, West had made the appointment and stated that he wanted to hire Cox at a starting salary of $22,000 a year with approximately 30 hours of work per week for a full time position with insurance. Brent Bush, her predecessor, had worked up to a full time position at a salary of $26,000 plus benefits per year when he left in August.
When asked why Cox was being paid at Bush’s rate for the month of September, Commissioner Shaw stated, “Because the agenda statutes, it had to be done under the budget the way it was, that’s how it was explained to us. The $26K had to be for the one month. That’s the way they explained it to me, but I’m not a lawyer.”
Regarding the vote on the salary and the amount approved, Kelton stated, “I have no explanation for that. I don’t know why that is and I don’t understand that either. Supposedly that was a salary that was already in place and set for this year and the new salary will start on October 1st.”
This puzzled Kelton why other commissioners would be so opposed to her hiring and then be all in for her salary approval.
“The last week or two ago when they were voting, nobody would even second it (Cox’s appointment) and then when they voted again, to my surprise all but one was for it. And I don’t know what has changed, honestly, for me nothing has changed. Still, I know there were other people who would do it part time and there were other people who offered to do it, who were more experienced. They already had the training and would do it on a part time basis with no insurance which is about 6-7 grand a year for insurance plus the initial salary. But we don’t have any input, that is under the Judge’s control. And why they voted for it this time with no questions and a week ago, nobody wanted it, I don’t know. For me nothing has changed in that time.”
Commissioners met again on Monday, September 23 and addressed the following agenda items:
*Commissioners took no action when considering implementation of a burn ban due to the recent rains.
*Election Administrator Suzy Young received approval of a salary increase to $10/hour for Election Day and early voting workers, which will be effective October 1, 2013. According to Young, elections this year include the constitutional amendment and a possible city election for Brownwood. Young reported that turnout for the last constitutional amendment saw only 9% of registered voters at the polls and that only 4 workers should be required to work during the elections.
*District Judge Stephen Ellis received approval for the creation of the office of pretrial services/indigent defense coordinator for Brown and Mills County. According to Judge Ellis, this office will be funded in part for one year by the discretionary state grant for indigent defense. The position of a pretrial /indigent defense coordinator will cost the county approximately $73,500. The grant will pay $37,500 which includes the salary of $34,445 to the coordinator. The county will fund the remaining costs of $12,000 fringe benefit package, $1500 travel/training, $24,500 equipment, and $1000 supplies which total approximately ½ of the cost of the office. Some of the county’s portion of the funding can be paid in “in kind” means such as with existing furniture and equipment.
After one year, the county will review the effectiveness of the office and the coordinator and decide if it is worth continuing at the county’s expense.
Ellis stated that Brown and Mills Counties are a part of a commission of counties (including Bell, Tarrant, Victoria, Uvalde and Frio Counties) which are working together to develop software to collectively save the counties money with digital records and information along with scheduling, ultimately collectively make the care of indigent defense more effective and efficient.
“If we do this right, we will be the poster child for other counties to look at,” said Ellis of the commission.
He explained that through the Office of Pretrial Services, qualified indigent defendants may receive court appointed attorneys as well as personal bonds, which will create a revenue source to help fund the office. By offering these personal bonds, it will hopefully help lower the jail count and ultimately save the county money.
*Commissioners Court Administrative Assistant Amy Hamrick received approval of the renewal of the Indigent Health Care Software License Agreement and the American Medical Associations CPT End User Agreement for 2013-2014. Hamrick explained that this approval basically states that the county will not share information with anyone other than the two computers within the courthouse that handle indigent health information, in other words, staying within the HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) rules.
*County Judge Frank Griffin received approval for the County Court at Law to enter a new lease agreement on a multi-function copier which will also do fax and printing. According to Judge Griffin, the current copier breaks down about two times a month and is at the end of a lease of $148/month. The new copier will be leased for four years at a rate of $204.51/month.
