Travis County Commissioners Court
June 10, 2008
Item 20
20. Consider and take appropriate action regarding the process and schedule for developing the advertisement for the public hearing to set elected officials' salaries for fiscal year 2009 and the calendar for action for the remainder of the salary setting process.
>> good morning, belinda powell, planning and budget office. Chris brussard is with me. We are liaisons on the elected officials salary with the budget office. This is kind of our annual first agenda item that talks about the calendar and the process we're going to go through for setting the salaries. It's pretty basic today. If you have any questions, we didn't do a -- a committee, this is our off year cycle for actually calling the committee. We have looked at your recommendation that was with the budget parameters back in February with expressing an intent to try to match rank and file with the percent increase that elected officials would receive. Last year your elected officials received 4.5% increase. And this year we're looking at trying to do the same, you know, continuing to try to match to rank and file. We will be preparing draft ads over the next several weeks to -- for a posting on -- on June 24th is when we're scheduled to post for you to actually take action on that ad for publication in the Austin chronicle on July the 3rd. With a proposed public hearing date for July 15th and obviously we will be bringing back up on the 24th with draft ads attached. We don't have those today. I did want to point out that in the budget parameters that you were briefed on last week by the planning and budget office, you do have enough -- enough funds that were earmarked on those spread sheets in the budget parameters to match your non-judicial elected official salary increase to -- to kind of a cpi objective that p.b.o. Has been talking about for rank and file. So -- so we're in good shape as far as what is -- what is heading into the preliminary budget process to give you some flexibility in that regard.
>> cpi objective being between 3.5 and four?
>> yes.
>> so we need to land on that next week?
>> you don't have to land on that until the 24th, but if you would like to discuss it next week we could do in a.
>> I think we ought to try to land on next week.
>> uh-huh.
>> judge kennedy has raised an issue that I understand p.b.o. Was trying to get with human resources and legal to try to address what happened is when this -- when the state provided a -- a supplement to district judges, who had served 16 years, Travis County decided to provide a similar supplement to county judges who had served 16 years. That decision by us and the state, the decisions were made after judge kennedy had 16 years as county judge. She is now district judge and has been district judge for like four years. So she's got 16 years plus as county judge, and she's got four plus years as -- as district judge. So she really is not covered by -- well, the first policy we implemented after she left county court service. So her question is it seems to be unfair that county judges who have been here less than she served as county judge are getting the supplement but she is not getting the county or the district supplement.
>> right.
>> so --
>> we've contacted h.r., we have spoken with the county attorney's office, we have talked with some of the judges. We are trying to make sure there aren't any other unintended consequences so we are -- we are going to take a couple of weeks, it might affect a footnote, it might not in the ad. But we are going to ask for some time to really have everybody take a look at the policy.
>> let's take a full week.
>> a full week.
>> judge kennedy wants to know whether she should come over. My final word to her was that we were still researching the matter. P.b.o. Had not landed on it. Hrmd probably had not, legal counsel I don't know. But that next week we would know and hopefully let her know Friday or Monday whether her presence here is requested or required or whether she simply wants to come over and address the issue for us.
>> might we have a similar circumstance with judge baird having sat on the court of appeals.
>> that's what we will look at. We want the h.r. And county attorney's office to be able to look at all of the issues that might be out there. That's why we were actually trying to pull together a more comprehensive picture.
>> okay.
>> okay.
>> I was simply indicating she might want to come address us on the issue next week.
>> uh-huh.
>> okay.
>> are there any other questions about today?
>> any other questions?
>> no.
>> there is a schedule. Looks good to me, we have to comply with it. If we get a week in front of it I gets that would be beneficial, too.
>> absolutely.
>> barbara?
>>
>> [indiscernible]
>> [inaudible - no mic]
>> doesn't have to be towed. Can be -- doesn't have to be towed.
>> if we get it between two and three minutes today we can mull over it.
>> because mulling is a lot of fun.
>> like the wine.
>> unfortunately, no.
>> a week --
>>
>> [laughter]
>> thank you.
>> so we will put a note here executive session today.
>> okay.
>> brief discussion. Otherwise back on next week, thank y'all.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, June 10, 2008 2:31 PM