Rains County Leader (Emory, Tex.), Vol. 120, No. 15, Ed. 1 Tuesday, September 18, 2007 Page: 3 of 28
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5
Commissioners give sheriff a
raise; approve budget, tax rate
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18.2007
Bains Countu Leader 0
THE PUBLIC FORUM
Continued from page 1
his is a one-person office and
his clerk handles all matters that
come into his office, she is his
court clerk and “runs” the office
anytime he is called away.
However, no change was
made in the salary of that posi-
tion when the proposed budget
was filed on August 28.
Sisk moved to modify the
budget to bring the salary of the
deputy clerk in the JP’s office in
line with the other deputy clerks
at $22,588.80. Bishop seconded
the motion which passed with all
commissioners voting yes.
Painter questioned a carryover
revenue item of $60,(MM).00 in
the road and bridge budget.
However, after an explanation
from Dougherty, no action, was
taken.
Sisk also led a discussion of
the salary proposed for the chief
librarian, but again, no action
was taken and the proposed base
salary of $25,000.00 stands.
The final modification intro-
duced by Sisk concerned the
judge’s salary. Ad valorem taxes
pay $4,800.00 plus $752.10 in
benefits for a total of $5,552.10
to the county judge for his serv-
ice on the district juvenile board
(a board that meets approxi-
mately two times a year). The
money is listed in the county
judge’s salary budget but as a
separate line item.
Sisk requested and made a
motion that the sum be moved
into and added to the judge's
base salary of $32,000.00 for a
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total base salary of $36,800.00.
Painter seconded the motion
which passed with all commis-
sioners “Voting yes.
The vote did not change the
bottom line of the judge’s salary.
However, when reporting his
salary to the state, the Texas
Association of Counties, etc., he
will be reporting a base salary of
$36,800.00 not $32,000.00.
The salary, benefits and
stipend paid to the county judge
totals $66,024.48. Of' that
amount $15,000.00 is paid by
the state of Texas for hearing
county court cases, the remain-
der totaling $51,024.48 is bud-
geted and paid by Rains County
taxes.
Budget/Tax Rate
Adoption
In compliance with the new
HB 3105, the court ratified that
the property tax rate as reflected
in the proposed budget will raise
more total property taxes than
last year’s budget.
An additional $239,349.00, or
9.69 percent, will be raised this
year. Of that amount,
$84,567.00 is tax revenue from
new property added to the tax
roll this year.
The court adopted the FY
2007-2008 proposed budget
with the modifications as ap-
proved by the commissioners.
The budget, including the stand-
alone road and bridge budget,
totals $4,993,550.00.
A tax rate of $0.6129 per hun-
dred-dollar valuation was set by
the court. The tax rate is the
same as last year’s and breaks
down to $0.5955 for mainte-
nance and operation (M&O) and
$0.0174 for interest and sinking
(I&S).
Public Hearing
Monday’s meeting began with
a public hearing on the proposed
budget. The courtroom held a
scattered crowd of approximate-
ly 25 to 30 citizens. The court
heard from seven of them.
Allen Prendergast. Minda
Painter and Richard Almon
spoke in open forum concerning
the salary grievance of Sheriff
David Traylor, the budget and its
preparation method.
In the public hearing, Carolyn
Hill. Chris Martin, and Kenneth
Neinast spoke on the sheriff’s
salary; and Neal Sanders asked
three questions on whether any
county officials receive any
additional state or federal fund-
ing-
Other Action
The final action of the court
was to purchase a commission-
ers court software package from
Image Tech.
The proposal as presented to
the court cost $26,225.00 and
included software, scanning of
all records, installation, testing
and 6ve vinwer/lu:e.nse.s In di.s-
cussion. the court settled on only
three viewer/trcenses so the con-
tract. when delivered to the court
later this month, will be at a
lower cost. It is expected that the
viewer/licenses will be placed in
the county clerk’s vault, the
county judge's office and the
public library.
All commissioners were pres-
ent and voted on all items. Judge
Dougherty presided.
Dear Editor,
By thq time this letter is print-
ed, there will have been another
meeting to discuss salary
■increases for county officials, so
many of this may change-. But
for now, I feel compelled to
write my reflections on the mat-
ter so far.
I attended the commissioners
court meeting when the judge
first proposed his budget with
the salary increase, and also the
meeting last week when he pro-
posed a further increase in
answer to the grievance commit-
tee’s recommendation for a
salary increase for Sheriff T ray-
lor. I did not attend the griev-
ance committee meeting and
therefore did not hear Sheriff
Traylor’s presentation, but I did
read about it in this paper.
this entire process is that 1 never
hear anything about job per-
formance! I have been told that
our officials are paid way less
than neighboring counties. 1
don’t see how you can compare
the two when those counties are
two-to-three times larger than
Rains County. In no salary com-
parison did I see a Rains County
official making less than half of
the average of neighboring offi-
cials, so for the size of our coun-
ty, I’d say our officials are rpak-
ing fair salaries. But a proposed
salary increase across the board
was made, raising salaries by
about 30 percent.
Then I heard our sheriff was
grieved because his proposed
raise was not as high as others.
In the comparison made at the
budget meeting, I learned that
compared to the larger counties,
our sheriff was not as grossly
underpaid as other officials, so
that is why his proposed raise
was not as great. At last week's
meeting. Judge Dougherty
explained this to the sheriff, and
if he had stopped there, it would
have been good.
But the latest installment of
+f ■■ the
sheriff gets a bigger raise than
first proposed, then so should
the judge and commissioners!
Judge Dougherty proposed yet
another increase to his own and
the commissioners' salaries,
over and above his first propos-
al, bringing the raises to close to
50 percent. Can anyone reading
this imagine getting a raise of
Court upholds 10-acre exemption
half of his/her current salary?
I’m talking about your current
salary PLUS half of it again! 1
do have to add here that follow-
ing the judge's proposal. Com-
missioner Sisk said that he did
not agree with raising the
judge’s and commissioners'
salaries further, only the sher-
iff’s.
It might be easier to accept
these large raise proposals if 1
had been told about the per-
formance of the officials want-
ing them. For just one small "for
instance," what about the dru£
problem in Rains County? Why
is it that a county that is one ot
the smallest in Texas has the
reputation for having one of th«i
largest drug problems? What
has been clone about that?
Every county official accept-
exi the current salary- when he
ran for office; they all knew
what they would be making. I'm
not saying they don’t deserve to
make more but as taxpayers,
don’t, we deserve to hear reasons
why they deserve more? I mean
other than because someone else
makes more?
In closing, I want to encour-
age all voters to attend commis-
sioners court meetings. You
might be surprised to find how
your perspective may change.
You may not vote the same way
after you witness your officials
Continued from page 1
salary to $37,335.40 for his com-
bined job of sheriff and tax
assessor/collector.
Commissioner Bob Sisk said
the recommendation from the
salary grievance committee has
his full support.
In other action, the court:
• Tabled a progress tour of the
county courthouse.
• Heard a progress report
from LGS on the installation
of software for the sheriff's
office, county attorney’s
office, district clerk’s office
and county clerk’s office.
• Received and admitted into
the record the FY 2005-2006
audit.
■ Transferred the paper recy-
cling trailer to the Boy
Scouts,
■ Appointed Dr. Nancy Sanders
to the Rains County Public-
Library Advisory Board.
• Approved a request from the
Bunch from Emory Car Club
to utilize county property for
a car show Saturday, Septem-
ber 15, in connection with the
Rains County Fair.
1 Tabled action on a policy for
animal control in the county.
1 Ordered 911 to release a map
showing private roads to the
voter registrar.
Purchased two new Stalker
radar units at a cost of $2,450
each, including trade-ins, for
the Texas Department of Pub-
lic Safety.
Approved the payment of
accounts and treasurer's
monthly report for August.
Admitted into the court's
records the district clerk's
monthly report for August.
in action. In some cases,
may be well-pleased, but
owe it to yourself and to
county to find out.
Sincerely,
Donna Spence
200 RCR 3338
Emory, TX 75440
you
you
this
ESD adopts $540,000 budget
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John House
903-598-2556
Chris Phillips
903-474-4394
Continued from page 1
ance of $125,277.00, which he
said could be set aside in certifi-
cates of deposits (CDs) for the
purpose of establishing the proj-
ects as discussed. A motion was
approved to allocate the funds.
The board transferred the task
of developing policy and proce-
dures for paid firefighters and/or
establishing a fire training facili-
ty to the fire chiefs of the con-
tracted fire departments: Emory
Lake Fork
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Other Action
In other action, the board:
• Approved the minutes of reg-
ular and special meetings of
the board and payment of
bills as presented.
• Heard from Flats resident
Paul Cason on his request to
know why Southwest Rains
Volunteer Fire Department
has not been discussed and
considered for contracting.
Reports
The board heard reports from
the contracting departments on
activity for the month of August.
Champion EMS - reported a
total of 100 calls with the local
ambulance responding to 74
calls and the ambulances from
Canton and Winnsboro respond-
ing to 13 calls each. The average
response for the month was nine
minutes and 57 seconds. Flight
for Life had 10 stand-bys with
eight of them go flights. Flight
for Life also reported four
weather checks.
Emory VFD reported 17 runs
for the month including one
structure fire, two motor vehicle
accidents, one grass fire, .four
medical assists, one vehicle fire,
and five landing zone set-ups.
The department also reported
one rescue of people trapped in a
building, which occurred at the
Winslow’s portable buildings
location in Emory and was due
to an unusual weather microburst
or small tornado. The department
conducted 40 hours of training
for a total of 91.5 man-hours.
EVFD Station #2 made five
responses for the month.
Point VFD also reported 17
runs for the month including one
structure fire, one motor vehicle
accident, two grass fires, seven
medical assists, and two landing
zone set-ups. The department
held pumper training for a total
of 100 man-hours reported.
PVFD Station #2 reported a
total of six runs including one
motor vehicle accident, three
medical assists, one controlled
burn, and one landing zone set-
up for a total of 16 man-hours.
East Tawakoni VFD reported
one structure fire, eight medical
assists, one motor vehicle acci-
dent and one landing zone set-
up. The department also held
time drills, pump operations and
hose-lay training.
Fire Commissioners Harris,
Raymond Spencer, Tammy Ross,
and Roy Franklin were present.
Commissioner Rick Ellison was
absent.
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Hill, Earl Clyde, Jr. Rains County Leader (Emory, Tex.), Vol. 120, No. 15, Ed. 1 Tuesday, September 18, 2007, newspaper, September 18, 2007; Emory, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth767306/m1/3/?q=Homecoming+queen+1966+North+Texas+State+University: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rains County Library.