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Committee Formed to Address Smith County Salary Issues

Posted/updated on: August 13, 2015 at 11:11 am
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joel-baker2TYLER — The Smith County 2016 fiscal year is right around the corner and Commissioners Court met Tuesday to talk budgets. KETK reports they also selected the committee that will hear objections from seven elected county officials. If you compare these elected officials’ salaries to counties similar in size, some say it’s not enough. One Smith County commissioner, all justices of the peace and one constable are asking for more reasonable pay.

JP Mitch Shamburger says they’re not asking for a raise, just to receive an average salary in comparison to judges and commissioners in other counties. After Smith County released an independent salary study, officials say it became clear that many county officials were underpaid. “According to the salary study, the salaries are very low for elected officials compared to other counties,” Smith County Judge Joel Baker (pictured) says.

When the budget was presented, County Commissioner JoAnn Hampton, all justices of the peace and Constable Henry Jackson disagreed with their annual wages for 2016. “If an elected official doesn’t like the salary that commissioners court has put in the budget,” Judge Shamburger says, “then they can request to go before the salary grievance committee.”

The Salary Grievance Committee was created in Commissioners Court Tuesday morning after the court decided to draw names from the public to create a nine-person grand jury. The committee will hear proposals on what those elected officials’ salaries should be instead. “Should be decided Monday because we really need to make the decision quickly because the budget is set to be adopted August 24th,” says Baker.

The county did propose a three-percent salary increase for officials who have served for several years. This is based on the many factors that other counties consider when creating their budgets. “Those are the areas that are indicated in the salary study that we really need to make some changes so we did that as best we could,” Baker says. If there isn’t a unanimous vote to grant those officials’ requests in the grievance committee, then it’s at the commissioners’ discretion. “They can decide whether they want to take that under advisement, hear their concerns, they don’t have to,” Baker adds. “If they vote unanimous, then it’s in the budget, commissioners don’t have a choice,” Judge Shamburger says.

Baker says he hopes the committee makes a unanimous decision because “that would make the decision easy for the court…that’s assuming they decide that raises are warranted.” Most importantly, Smith County will still be able to balance the budget and the tax rate is staying the same for 2016.



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