Court discusses proposed county budget

During its Sept. 6 meeting, the Ellis County Commissioners Court discussed the county’s proposed budget for the fiscal year 2022-2023.

“Let me point out what I think this budget did extremely well,” Commissioner Pct. 2 Lane Grayson said. “The fact that we can pull a tax rate down by four cents and still budget to bring the services that we do is phenomenal.”

He went on to say he felt they did well with 31 new positions out of the 38 that were requested, meeting an increase on health insurance and the step pay increment raise plan for the sheriff’s office.

But Grayson expressed his concern with a subjective survey for department heads that could result in a merit raise up to 3% for them, depending on their score. He felt it was unfair, saying it should not be subjective and should include performance measures and benchmarks. He opted out of completing the survey.

Commissioner Pct. 3 Paul Perry said he felt that only those earning a B rating should receive a merit raise.

“Everybody gets cost of living, but I think unless somebody is doing better than B level work, I don’t see a reason that they get a merit raise,” Perry said.

County Judge Todd Little said the nine-question survey was created by the county’s human resources director; each answer is determined by a score of one to five points. The score is later tallied by HR and provided to each department head.

Another concern for the court was whether to hire its own civil attorney to provide counsel for them.

The court currently utilizes the district attorney’s office, but, on occasion, must seek outside counsel.

Little said when they need to hire outside counsel, it must be voted on time, and he doesn’t think this model is the best for the court. The district attorney’s office is busy with other priorities and does not have the time to advise the court, he said.

“I don’t think we’ve ever not had the time we needed to allow the recommendation and the understanding of what the cost of outside counsel would be,” Grayson said.

“My main concern is who supervises the civil attorney that gives these five guys advice,” Little said. “In this case, I’m asking for us to change the supervision, so that we as a body supervise a civil attorney just like we supervise our HR director.”

District Attorney Ann Montgomery expressed concerns for the additional position, saying she said she would be unable to explain anything to the court’s attorney about policies or specific matters in Ellis County because it would violate attorney/client privilege. For her to advise that attorney, the court would have to waive privilege.

“There’s a team; there’s more than one person,” Montgomery said about her office. “You need more than one attorney. You need a team like what I have. One person can’t do it all.”

Perry said the court could set boundaries for its outside counsel with “thoughtful deliberation,” but added he is concerned about “budgetary duplication” with the proposed position. He suggested putting someone on retainer to first “test the waters.”

The court is expected to vote on the budget at its Sept. 20 meeting.

Originally published September 13, 2022 - https://www.waxahachiesun.com/news/local/court-discusses-proposed-county-budget/article_157ae738-33dd-11ed-9d28-7f99e4c8ad12.html