Corley and Rackler stayed for the tax rate vote in 25\/26 and had enough votes to pass the no-new-revenue rate.<\/p>\n
For the current budget talks, Williams provided an update.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still in a deficit. If you just talk about the general fund, it\u2019s about $9 million without new positions added. That\u2019s just on operational requests,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n
There are mandatory expenditures that will make the number go higher, according to Williams.<\/p>\n
Right now, she\u2019s estimating the early mismatch between budget requests and total revenue to be about $40 million.<\/p>\n
Struggling with salaries<\/p>\n
\u201cMy office is struggling,\u201d said Sunshine Stanek, criminal district attorney.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re losing people at an alarming rate,\u201d Stanek said.<\/p>\n
Stanek presented a chart showing 19 people who left in the last year \u2013 of those, 15 accepted jobs with higher pay. Nearly 20 percent of the prosecutor positions are open.<\/p>\n
It would take a 25 percent increase in overall salary expense to get her employees where she\u2019d like them to be.<\/p>\n
Instead, her request is for a 6 percent cost of living adjustment (COLA), plus another 2 percent she can use for merit pay at her discretion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019m going to fall on deaf ears or not, but I just want to show you a few stats and just let you know what\u2019s going on in our office.\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
A compensation study by Crowe LLP compared Lubbock County with other places. One part of the study used 30 representative jobs called \u201cbenchmark positions.\u201d Lubbock paid above market for two-thirds and below market for the other one-third.<\/p>\n
Rowe said, \u201cThere was a compensation study done \u2013 showed that public safety in particular was far below the median.\u201d<\/p>\n
More precisely, the study showed his department is nearly 9 percent below for captain, more than 9 percent below for sergeant, and nearly 4 percent below for a deputy. Detention officers were 13 percent above market conditions, according to the study.<\/p>\n
The comparisons were with the City of Lubbock, Texas Tech University, Hays County, Williamson County, the Economic Research Institute (a salary survey\/database) and a Texas Association of Counties salary survey. Only jobs that could be compared directly were used. For example, not every source had a corrections officer (jailer).<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not always helpful for the sheriff. His starting pay for a new deputy is $56,800. For a cadet with the Lubbock Police Department, it\u2019s $70,000.<\/p>\n
Rowe told LubbockLights.com, \u201cI always focus on \u2018Where am I losing people to?\u2019 And that\u2019s right here around us. The pay is so much better to go over to the police department.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also a list of other federal, state and local agencies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI lost our senior crime scene guy to Wolfforth PD. I lost a 35-year investigator to them,\u201d Rowe said.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also competition from nearly smaller counties \u2013 offering more money than they used to.<\/p>\n
Corley said, \u201cOne thing that has changed is the money the state has given to these smaller counties where they can afford to pay more for their deputies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lubbock County does not get that particular assistance from the state.<\/p>\n
Rowe said, \u201cPatrol has been open since April and they have had next to no [applicants]. In fact, I think they said the first two applicants \u2026 didn\u2019t even have peace officer license. I was like, \u2018Well, you\u2019re not reading the requirements for the job very well.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
He thinks to get salaries where they need to be, it would take an additional $7.5 million.<\/p>\n
\u2018Keep us competitive\u2019<\/p>\n
Rowe doesn\u2019t need equal pay with police, but he needs it to be at least competitive, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I have ever asked is you keep us competitive. I\u2019ll keep them at the sheriff\u2019s office as long as the pay is competitive \u2013 because the opportunities are there that they a lot of times will not get over there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe provide great training to these guys. They\u2019re getting good experience, and then I\u2019m foregoing them to another agency for significant pay raises,\u201d Rowe said.<\/p>\n
Rowe said the jail is full \u2013 with his department paying other counties to house 75 inmates on the day we talked. The number fluctuates daily.<\/p>\n
A lack of prosecutors in Stanek\u2019s office makes it worse.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe can\u2019t keep prosecutors at all, and everything affects the other. So, while the jail\u2019s overcrowded, we\u2019re shipping inmates just because our average length of stay has been increasing. We don\u2019t have cases moving as fast as they can,\u201d Rowe said.<\/p>\n
Stanek said of her prosecutors, \u201cThey are doing really good work. It\u2019s just they are working harder than they have ever worked because we are so short staffed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The county had success with Proposition A in November 2021 \u201cfor the purpose of increasing compensation for the Lubbock County Sheriff\u2019s Office commissioned peace officers \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
The voter-approved proposition raised the county\u2019s property tax rate almost 10 percent to pay and passed by 57 to 43 percent.<\/p>\n
Rowe told commissioners, \u201cWe should be talking about potentially going back to the voters again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Corley disagreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the public\u2019s been pretty clear about that they don\u2019t want to pay more in taxes,\u201d Corley said.<\/p>\n
We asked Corley to clarify if he\u2019s not in support of taking the issue to voters.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll you\u2019re doing is voting to raise taxes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Do more with less<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to see the sheriff\u2019s office \u2013 or every department really \u2013 come to us with, \u2018Hey, here\u2019s some things we\u2019re looking at to reduce costs overall.\u2019 We\u2019ve had other departments that are able to do that,\u201d Corley said.<\/p>\n
The county should eventually do less patrolling as time goes on, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the city of Lubbock takes more territory [with annexations], why do we need more deputies to patrol the unincorporated areas if they\u2019re shrinking?\u201d Corley said.<\/p>\n
Rowe said his patrol officers split the county into five sectors.<\/p>\n
Patching up the jail<\/p>\n
Rowe told commissioners a leaky roof wrecked some of the electronics in the building during the last few years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest \u2018zero tolerance\u2019 issue with jail commission when it comes to inspections is life-safety items. That\u2019s non-negotiable,\u201d Rowe said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the inspector walks in and fire panels aren\u2019t working correctly, if they go in and start hitting intercom buttons and they\u2019re not getting a response \u2026 they\u2019ll stop inspecting right then and knock you out of compliance,\u201d Rowe said.<\/p>\n
Corley said, \u201cOne phase of the jail roof has already been done. We\u2019re moving on to a second phase.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shaw said, \u201cI went to the jail and took a tour to see some of the things they brought up so we can get a plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Corley also said Rowe\u2019s department needs to be easier to work with.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Sheriff\u2019s Office has complained about maintenance out at the jail, but when we talk to maintenance, maintenance says they won\u2019t give us the escorts we need to go in and do the work when we need to do it,\u201d Corley said.<\/p>\n
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