Upshur County Commissioners Court on Monday finalized a $1,200 pay raise for most elected county officials, but two commissioners said they won’t accept their respective salary increases.
Although the court voted 5-0 for the raises, Precinct 2 Commissioner Dustin Nicholson and Precinct 4 Commissioner Jay W. Miller said they opposed commissioners receiving a raise, and wouldn’t accept theirs. Nicholson said he nonetheless voted for the motion because he wasn’t against raising other elected officials’ pay, and Miller said he didn’t want to hold up the budget process.
County Judge Todd Tefteller, however, complained that he disapproved the pair rejecting their pay hikes as “We’re (court members) all way below the state standard” in salaries. He, Precinct 1 Commissioner Gene Dolle and Precinct 3 Commissioner Michael Ashley gave no indication they wouldn’t accept the increase.
The court approved raises for all elected county and county precinct officials except those who received increases under the Texas Legislature’s Senate Bill 22–Sheriff Larry Webb, and Constables Tim Barnett, Jason Weeks, James Casey and David Thompson.
In other business Monday in Gilmer, the court approved seeking a meeting with the Upshur County Appraisal District after Dolle strongly objected to the district’s proposed budget, which would require the county pay an additional $70,000 as its share of financing UCAD.
While the court was in a closed session, County Auditor Connie Williams told reporters the hike would raise the county’s total payment to $464,000.
“I think they’re (the district) out of control,” charged Dolle, who said “they’re just taking that money (given the district by taxing entities) and blowing it somewhere. . .They’re just having a high-heel time,” and “I think it’s wrong.”
He said UCAD proposes hiking its budget by $116,000 (which Williams said was mainly to hire two new clerks), and that the district spends more on insuring its 12 employees than the county spends on insuring its 200. Dolle also questioned UCAD’s mileage expenses.
Nicholson said the district’s proposed 5% pay raise for all workers except the chief appraiser “irks me” as “we’re not even giving that (much of a raise) to our (county) employees.”
Contacted for comment by The Mirror, the chairman of the UCAD board of directors, Brandon Dodd, said Monday that Chief Appraiser Amanda Thibodeaux’s proposed budget was a “work in progress,” and that the board had told her it would have to work through “those items that Gene (Dolle) is up in arms about.”
“There are quite a few changes that will be in that budget” when the board approves it in August, Dodd said. “One shouldn’t jump to the conclusion” that the 5% pay raises and two additional employees would be approved, he said.
Dodd, who said he met recently with Williams, Dolle and Ashley, said law had required giving the initial proposed budget to the county by a certain date. He said he had assured the county officials the proposal was a work in progress, and that he had told Dolle in an “in-depth” conversation that “the final budget will be different.”
– By Phillip Williams