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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-09-04-10:00AM-PUBLIC HEARING11 ED E !� 3: 51 a BRAZOS COUNTY Oct, BRYAN, TEXAS NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING ON THE PROPOSED BRAZOS COUNTY BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR ENDING 30 SEPTEMBER 2008 4 SEPTEMBER 2007 THE BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT WILL CONDUCT A PUBLIC HEARING ON TUESDAY 4 SEPTEMBER 2007 AT 10:00 A.M. IN THE COMMISSIONERS COURTROOM OF THE BRAZOS COUNTY COURTHOUSE, 300 EAST 26TH STREET, SUITE 115, BRYAN, TEXAS. THE COURT WILL HEAR COMMENTS ON THE PROPOSED BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR ENDING 30 SEPTEMBER 2008. ALL INTERESTED PERSONS ARE INVITED TO ATTEND SAID HEARING AND PRESENT THEIR CAUSE, IF ANY, FOR OR AGAINST THE PROPOSED BUDGET. THE PROPOSED BUDGET IS FILED WITH THE COUNTY CLERK AND WILL REMAIN ON FILE IN THE OFFICE OF THE COUNTY CLERK IN ACCORDANCE WITH EXISTING STATE STATUTES. ALL INTERESTED PARTIES ARE URGED TO ACQUAINT THEMSELVES WITH SAID BUDGET DURING THE TIME IT REMAINS ON FILE WITH THE COUNTY CLERK. The Brazos County Courthouse is wheelchair accessible. Handicap parking spaces are available. Any request for sign interpretive services must be made two business days before the meeting. To make arrangements, call (979) 361 -4102. Office of the County Judge • 300 East 26`" St. Suite 114 Bryan, Texas 77803 • Fax: (979) 361 -4503 too ' ,. 101 COMMISSIONERS' COURT PUBLIC HEARING September 4, 2007 The Commissioners' Court of Brazos County, Texas met in a Public Hearing in the Commissioners' Courtroom in the Courthouse in Bryan, Brazos County, Texas, beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday September 4, 2007, with the following members of the Court present: Randy Sims, County Judge, Presiding; Lloyd Wassermann, Commissioner of Precinct l; Duane Peters, Commissioner of Precinct 2; Kenny Mallard, Commissioner of Precinct 3; Carey Cauley, Commissioner of Precinct 4: Karen McQueen, County Clerk. Attached is a list of the citizens and officials in attendance. Attached is a transcript of the meeting. Vol 100 Page i c a 2 BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT Proposed Budget for Fiscal Year Ending September 2008 September 4th, 2007 Sims: Ladies and gentlemen, I will call this public hearing into session. Brazos County Commissioner's Court will conduct a public hearing on Tuesday the 4th of September 2007 at 10:00 a.m. in the Commissioner's Courtroom of the Brazos County Courthouse, 300 East 26th Street, Suite 115, Bryan, Texas. The Court will hear comments on the proposed budget for fiscal year ending 30th September 2008. All interested person are invited to attend said hearing and present their cause, if any, for or against the propose budget. The proposed budget is filed with the County Clerk and will remain on file in the office of the County Clerk in accordance with existing state statutes. All interested parties are urged to acquaint themselves with said budget during the time it remains on file with the County Clerk. It is also on our website for those that want to use that. So we will open this public hearing. Whoever would like to speak; I need your name and address if you don't mind so that we can get in on the record. Yes sir, Mr. Basdekas? Basdekas: Demetrius Basdekas, 7191 Old Reliance Road, Bryan, 77808. I came here with the intention to not talk this time. But I felt maybe would be out of place. And I'm not sure that I'm going to get a whole lot of interest for me. I have been following the County's business for quite some time as you may recall and I pretty much feel the impression that the budget as a document (inaudible). Money comes and goes which is important but also reflects the Commissioners policies. I have to conclude, based on the budget, as well as other things from the few that is publicly available... and not everything is publicly available; it should be, incidentally. I want to make that point as well since I'm at it. The impression I have formed over the years is that your priorities and preferences are slanted toward special interest rather than the basic core issues or needs for the citizens of Brazos County. I'm not going to cite any specifics like I've done in the past and got nowhere. And I'm pretty sure you'll (inaudible) success. It's good, not always visible and not always Vol i0o Page 103 3 important. So I think you need to take a look at see if the procedure can be improved in a way that will be attentive so much more than proposed. Attentive to the basic needs of Brazos County as a whole and not the Chamber of Commerce or the money men with the annoying abilities to put in office people that they like. (inaudible) success in doing the right things and not so much in doing things that tend to some special interest in this County. Thank you. Sims: Thank you, Mr. Basdekas. Anyone else that would like to comment on the proposed budget for fiscal year ending 30th September 2008? Yes sir Mr. Hamlin. Hamlin: It's either I or the Sheriff, Judge, so which one do you want? Sims: Well, let me hear from you first. Hamlin: Commissioners, Judge, thank you very much. I probably won't say anything new today that I haven't said before. I'm just asking that you hear me out and at least consider ... the only thing that I want to talk to you about today is employees and salaries. What you have put in the proposed budget that's filed in the County Clerk's office is a 5% increase. The proposal that I submitted to each one of you is an average of 10% for each of the employees in the District Clerk's office. What I wanted to do this morning was reiterate what the proposal that you're about to allocate to each one of the Brazos County employees... and one of the scenarios that I actually took two individual pay stubs that are actual pay stubs and I broke it down from the actual net funds that they are actually being able to go to the store and buy groceries with, gas with, and I divided that ... the net dollars ... into paychecks. Then, of course, we get two paychecks a month and we divided that out by the weeks in a month. It ended up being on a higher scale. On a person that is in my office that is an employee that has tenure that is a Clerk III that they will actually be taking home $2.78 per day. A person that is above the introductory level ... that's not on the actual lower pay scale will be taking home $2.23 a day. I have, as you well know ... and I've got copies, I know that all of you have copies ... I've got the three District Judges that have signed off on the request. All three District Judges and two County Courts at Law have supported me in getting raises of the magnitude of what I have requested. The scale ... Judge, I think you were the one asked me at one time, said, "Well, Mark, how do they know whether or not these people are under worked or over worked... ", this, that, and the other. I compared them with other Counties of our size. I compared them with other people in the Courthouse that have similar duties. I have compared them with as many positions as I possible can to be able to Vol 100 Page 1 o 4 E justify coming to you. And out of almost thirteen years of service as District Clerk, this is my first time to try to make a public plea. I contemplate it because in the past I think it has been very successful that members of the community be able to come up and give you testimony has resulted in some attention given to different departments. I was hoping ... I have decided not to do that. I have gotten numerous people that have told me ... leaders of the community... that have said, "Mark, we'll be there to testify." As you see, there is nobody here today. I thought about getting letters from those people. And I'm not here today to throw names out ... it's just that I felt like that in the past the Commissioner's Court has taken a tremendous step forward in allocating monies, recognizing employees are the most important asset that the County has ... that yall have recognized that in those departments. And you have allocated monies to be able to compensate those. And I applaud you for that. All I ask you to do is to continue that. And, yes, I stand here this morning asking for my employees but I will also tell you that if you will ... it's unselfish ... I will tell you that if this morning if you were to say, "Well Mark, we're going to take the County Clerk this year and we're going to give them a 10 %" Gentlemen, I would applaud you for that. And I would step back and say to you that I feel like you're taking progressive steps in recognizing departments, and not just my department. Not just the County Clerk and not the Health Department but Road and Bridge and everybody else that may be out there that may have some discrepancies. Why I say this is if we had a vision or if we had some goals set to where the departments would know that our department in 2010 will have an opportunity to be highlighted and that we will have that opportunity for salary adjustments. You know, gentlemen, just because we have salary adjustments and we have that proposed in future years, doesn't mean that yall are going to justify and vote for it. If we can't justify the numbers then so be it. The next department may need double what they're asking because the salary adjustments are not there. So my plea this morning is selfish in some ways simply because, yes, I am here because of my employees and I feel like that these people are well deserving. You know, the District Clerk's office ... as you all know, yall are the ones that have set forth some of the duties that we have ... we didn't have a collections department when we first started. Now, every month, about $140,000.00 net dollars are coming into Brazos County because of that program. Vol too Page 105 5 We didn't have jury service under the direction of the District Clerk when I started. It was under the Judges and, of course, under the Judicial system the jury service has to be completely autonomous. It has to be completely neutral in the process. And so the District Judges said that that is the way it's supposed to be, it's supposed to be under the District Clerk's office. As you well know, we've taken the position now of paying jurors and insuring that those jurors are being paid for in compliance with the State law. These are just some of the things, Judge and Commissioners, that I wanted to bring out to you this morning to remind you, to tell you that we collect funds. I noticed on one of your agendas, Tuesday, June 19th, 2007, and I saw on here, `Purchase of document imaging station using special revenue funded in the amount of $14,000.00 from County Records management preservation fund.' Well where did that money come from? Who collects it? County Clerk and the District Clerk. `Purchase of a locking internal lateral file cabinet using special revenue funds in the amount of $500.00, County Records management preservation funds.' I guess what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to establish the difference in what the District Clerk's office ... not Marc Hamlin; you may not agree with what the District Clerk does, the elected official now and that's ok ... but the duties that are there, the amount of money that we're collecting now for the County, the amount of discrepancies between the job descriptions and the pay is just overwhelming. I'm not asking you this morning to go above average, not even go to the highest level ... I'm asking you to come in under below average. What I'm asking for is another 5% in net dollars. I don't know if there's any support there for it. I have not lobbied or come around and try to see if there was any way before today that I might be able to get three votes for it but, gentlemen, I really feel that there is some really good people out there that deserve... and again, if you sit there, Judge, and you tell me today that we're going to highlight the County Clerk's office this year and then we're going to look at somebody else next year, I'm happy with that. I just hope that this Commissioner's Court, this body will consider the District Clerk's office this year. And I'll be there in support of whomever next year. Having said all that, I'll conclude and welcome any questions that you may have, Judge. Sims: I have no questions. Gentlemen, do you have any questions of Mr. Hamlin? Hearing none. Hamlin: Thank you, Judge. Vol 100 Page I a& D Sims: Thank you. Kirk: Good morning. Sims: Good morning. Cauley: Morning. Kirk: Chris Kirk. Brazos County Sheriff. Need my address? Sims: No, you're here most of the time. Kirk: You know where to find me. First let me start by saying that we've reviewed the proposed budget and we find it a very good document. We like the consideration we're given on some of the proposals that we made for this Schedule and I commend you on that. I also want to commend the Commissioner's Court on the 5% across the board increase in salaries. I think that certainly reflects and interest in encouraging the employees of Brazos County and recognizing the needs of keeping their salaries on tract with the potential increases in our cost of living. But the reason I'm standing here this morning, though, is to ask that you include in the Sheriff's Administration and the Jail budget the Career Advancement Schedule dollars that we requested. As you know, years ago when we were getting some money for moving individuals within our organizations, departments, and offices, we prepared a very well thought out plan for Career Advancement Schedule for the Sheriffs office. We went into quite a bit of depth into the job descriptions and the requirements for training and the things that it takes to encourage someone to move through our organization and make a career out of it. And we considered training and the training milestones that are required by the State to keep proficient in holding your licenses. We considered performance and set up a performance evaluation process. And we considered the tenure and the experience in all of that. And so our Schedule is a well thought out document that anybody can pick up in our organization and read and see what it takes to advance. Unfortunately, we've left that unfunded for two years and as the proposed budget is, it's going to be left unfunded for a third year. And we believe that this is a very important part of our organization and we strongly encourage you to add those dollars into our budget. Vol ► o0 Page j 0 7 Our detention officer and our deputies sign up and they make a career. You know, we need to recognize and as Marc has already pointed out, these are considerable investments that the County has made in training and bringing them along. They provide a great service, obviously. They risk their lives in the protection of the citizens of this County. And they protect this County from liabilities by being well trained and by being prepared to do their job. They are valuable assets and we would love to be able to include our Career Advancement Schedule as an encouragement for them to continue to work with Brazos County, work with the Brazos County Sheriffs office and know that they have opportunities that they can attain by excelling at and acquiring the skill sets that are laid out in our Career Advancement Schedule. So I close by asking that you include the dollars that we asked for in both the Sheriffs Administration and the County Jail budget to fund our Career Advancement Schedule. Sims: Thank you. Any questions, gentlemen? Thank you, Sheriff. Basdekas: Judge, give me a chance for one brief... Sims: One more time. Basdekas: ... on brief a supplementary comment here. I did not know what the Sheriff was going to say this morning. And I did not know Mr. Hamlin was going to say this morning, but I think both of them presented you with some excellent of examples of the core needs of this County or any County for that matter. And I believe law enforcement and the (inaudible) of justice should be right there on the top of your priorities list. And you hear words from me that (inaudible) for county employees (inaudible) before. (inaudible) I heartily support the request for Mr. Hamlin and the Sheriff. Let me repeat; law enforcement and the (inaudible) justice among other things should be right there at the top. Thank you. Sims: Thank you. Ok, the floor is open. Yes ma'am? Name and address, please. Zachary: I'm Dana Zachary, I'm Judge for the Magistrate Court. Judge Langley may actually appear; I know that he actually filed a memo with you requesting an increase in the wages for our bailiffs. Currently the wages for the bailiffs are pretty much across the board and there is no logic to the way the wages are set. We have three new bailiffs, mine being one of them within the last year whose salary is substantially lower that the other two bailiffs that were hired in the same year. Approximately three to five thousand dollars lower. As for my Court, we hold court every single day of the week, we have inmates every Vol Coo Page log single day of the week, we're there every morning and afternoon ... I think you know that. He also helps in the office with other duties. And he's been very influential in putting new security policies in my courtroom. He helped probation and fingerprinting. When we arrest someone in court, he takes them downstairs and does whatever he can to help the Sheriff's department in making sure that they get booked properly. We try to not put a stain on anyone and to help everyone. He is a certified jailer. He's gone through the training. He's trained with gang affiliation. He's actually trained other people with gangs. That's been beneficial in my Courtroom because there's actually been a few times that People have communicated with gang signs. I know that the bailiff for the 85' District Courts is a certified peace officer use to be a police chief. We're asking that you reconsider... we appreciate the 5% don't get me wrong ... but we would like for you to raise their incomes to be more in line with what the other bailiffs for the other Courts are making, especially given their duties and the type of individuals that we're dealing with on a daily basis. Sims: Any questions? Ok. Thank you Dana. Zachary: Thank you. Sims: Ok. Anyone else? No, you're through. You're through. Basdekas: (inaudible). Sims: Thank you, I appreciate that. I'm sure she does too. Anyone else? Gentlemen, do you have anything you would like to make comments about? If not, we will close this public hearing. Thank you very much for coming. End of tape. Vol I o y Page 1 o% 9of9 The foregoing minutes of the Commissioners Court Public Hearing held September 4th 2007, have been examined and approved in open Court this the r),�2ty6 day of SCh. , 20L)k, in Bryan, Brazos County, Texas. Duane Peters Commissioner, Precinct No. 2 Carey au ey, Jr. \ Commissioner, Precinct 4 Attest: 4" Karen McQueen County Clerk Vol t to Page I t o A'&. / &"W'6 � Lloyd tassermann Commissioner, Precinct No. 1 Kenny Mal rd Commissioner, Precinct No. 3 I,g / 0 r 2- BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONER'S COURT DAY OF ��i4wcL4 Z4,.el5,5) AM/JW9 41 Name (PLEASE PRINT) ( v, wl Organization (PLEASE PRINT) 4-e c Fe Sa -�ct�coe- DG BRAZOSCOUNTY COMMISSIONER'S COURT q� DAY lo" (,)U Name • _.) 20 07 RM., j��C- i vjL/00 Organization (PLEASE PRIW) 7a- 1 (rtc--,e lIg Z- of