Travis County Commissioners Court
July 3, 2007
Public Hearing
>> today we are posted, thank you, for a Travis County employee public hearing on compensation and benefits.
for both active and retired county employees, is what the posting says.
and I apologize up front for scheduling this on independence day eave.
we had a hard time getting a 4:30 time that was convenient.
we had other dates in mind but heard that several employees had requested earlier than six o'clock so they could come by before taking care of childcare needs.
and while bouncing arounds and trying to find a 4:30 convenient date, we ended up July 3.
we know most of you would work a full day any way, we were not trying to keep you here on duty.
we thank you for coming by.
there will be a few preliminary remarks.
more to indicate what has been rñmmed inthe of compensation and benefits for fy '08, to give a little background.
then we'll go directly to our list of sign ees, those that signed up.
>> okay.
good afternoon.
I'm executive manager for administrative operations.
this year has been a good year for Travis County employees in terms of benefits.
our healthcare benefits, which are really a primary benefits, the rates came back and recommended no increase.
in fact, for retirees we were able to decrease healthcare premiums. We have also other benefits that we're going to go through.
but I want to just touch on healthcare for one.
in the last several years, the court has supported, as well as the employees, a wellness program.
you can see some shining examples here of how well that program has indeed worked.
we believe that it is that program and the efforts of Travis County employees that have led us to zero rate increases this year.
if we use an example, an employee plus one child, and we have three plans that we offer overall, the epo, which is 100 percent coverage for major medical costs, ppo, which is a 10-90 plan where the county pays 9 90 percent of major medical costs and the employee pays ten percent, we have a co coinsured epo that is a 20-8 20-80 plan.
if we take the coinsured plan, which is a very good plan, the employee pays, is it, the coinsured, 15 ?
>> yes.
>> it's $15 for an office co copay.
employee and one child.
the premium for that monthly would be $24.
that is even less expensive than a program like chips.
the court has made a tremendous investment in its healthcare and its employees employees.
we have a wellness clinic and are planning to open another in August.
like I said, we not only have the health benefit but we have also made some improvementa enhancements in life benefits and disability disability.
I'm going to turn it over to cindy and dan to discuss the other benefits and where there were changes.
>> good afternoon.
there were some enhancements to our programs. First of all, we'd like to talk about the united healthcare dedicated representative.
she is with us today.
jennifer, would you stand up up.
I'd like to introduce her to the court.
she begins working in Travis County full time as our representative on July 9.
she will be officed at our offices for the time being and she will be readily available to work with employees to resolve their issues and do some benefit explanation.
so we're pleased to have jennifer and appreciatetive of united healthcare for providing this enhancement toment to our program.
the epo plan which was going to be eliminated has been retained for at least an additional year.
when the court elected to keep the epo, they instructed us to conduct training so that employees were made fully aware of the differences between the plans.
we initiated training programs and have held them throughout the county.
to date we have had approximately 400 employees attend our training programs to learn about the difference between the epo, the coinsured epo and the pp ppo program.
so we hope that the open enrollment employees are going to be able to make an educated and deliberate determination of which plan works for them best the well wellness clinic, we are opening, as alicia said, our third wellness clinic.
and josie, our clinic nurse, is here to tell you more about what that is going to entail.
>> known as nurse josie.
good afternoon.
we have the third wellness clinic opening up at the airport clinic.
it's the opening date, sorry August 1.
the grand opening will be on August 6.
we anticipate to be able to reach the retiree population out there and any other employees that have difficulty with parking downtown, to be able to go out to the airport location as well.
we are planning to have, looking at getting some space to have an exercise training room there as well, to be able to hire a personal trainer and be able to provide exercise to individuals out there in that area.
that is part of the reason why we are opening the north one, to reach that population out there.
the del valle clinic reaches the one that is far south, and the main clinic is for the major group of employees here at the downtown location.
>> services out at airport will be similar to those offered at both tell dell vail and the downtown clinic.
>> do we have a second physician on the way ?
>> yes, we do.
>> okay.
>> we have dr. Maggie brown, who will start with us July 9, a temporary physician while we post the position for permanent doctor.
>> okay.
all the right answers today.
>> so far.
>> now, this is cindy appearing ton, I'm also with hrmd.
we have been able to expand some of our existing benefits without raising the employee premiums. We're very excited about that because that just means you're getting more for the same amount of money.
on the dental plan, the dhmo we were able to add about 24 additional services to the d dhmo without increasing the employee premium.
those services will include two more annual cleaning, two more maintenance treatments and retreatment of a root canal, which has been a huge issue for us, and also tooth breaching which has become very popular.
there will be an additional copay tor some of these services but premiums will remain the same.
we also were able to enhance our long-term disability program.
right now if you become disabled and you are on long-term disability, your benefit is 60 percent of your monthly salary.
if you become disabled to the point where you cannot, you have the inability to perform two major life functions, that disability amount will go up to 80 percent, which is a very big benefit.
that is exactly when you would need that money the most, when you would be tot totally disabled.
again, the employee will not pay anymore for that.
we also were able to enhance the life insurance program across the board.
the basic life insurance that the county provides for employees is currentlies 25 25,000 .
it will increase to $50,000 for your benefit.
again, employees do not pay for that.
the court does.
supplement the life maximum right now is at 200,000, four times annual salary is the maximum.
that is going to increase to 250,000.
as long as that is not more than four times the annual salary, you can increase your life insurance up to 250,000.
the supplemental spouse life we had at 10,000 plus you could have a 10,000 under the dependent life.
we are going to allow a choice between an additional ten and additional 20 now.
so it's feasible could you have $30 on your spouse now if you are needing spouse life insurance.
and dan is going to talk about deferred compensation.
>> we contracted with that iswide to be our deferred compensation administrator, they offered a financial planner two weeks out of the year.
it was such a popular program that they have come back to us and said that they would offer this program year around telephon telephonically, this will take place starting probably in July when we get the determination on how the mechanics of this will work.
and that will be disseminat disseminated across the county so employees who participate in deferred comp will be able to get technical planner advice by submitting information to them.
and the planner will then speak with them telephonic telephonically.
this is an enhancement to the contract with nationwide and I think it will be very popular as well.
>> it will be offered to alltha in deferred comp whether youial again, offered free of cost as long as you are a participant in able to reduce the retiree dependent premium for the over 65 by $200 for the dependent premium.
for all tiers except employee plus child.
that went down $100.
on the over 65 we were able to reduce the retiree dependent premium by $40 which is going to respect help out because they are on a fixed income.
that premium is important.
we were able to raise the life to $15,000.
I know they will be appreciatetive of that.
that is an optional product that the retirees can provide.
the court does not provide for retiree only and covered under the ppo, which is the coverage provided to all employees only, it will cost them $178 a month for life insurance.
and that is a very, very good, sorry, for health insurance.
>> did you say a month?
>> 178, employee only, retiree under 65.
for the 90-10 plan where the county will cover 90 percent of all major medical costs.
and they will cover ten percent pocket is $15.
>> sorry, 1500.
so that is a maximum.a
>> we everyone understands the deductible and the co coinsurance so they understand how the plan works.
>> that's been very informative.
y'all were you?
we can have one of you stay at the end there.
just in case there are questions that you need to address.
we will start with our list of people who signed up.
and the way this goes, I'll call your name.
probably three at a time.
three at the first time.
as one concludes, I'll call another.
so if you would have your say and then vacate your chair, we would appreciate that.
this will enable us to get through your list fairly quickly.
there is no time limit.
if you say it one time, assume we heard it.
and many of you represent the same department, so after you say it twice, we have heard it.
and let's be respectful of the other speak erse who have come this evening.
and readia busse.
greg powell, rolend zimmer, and carol zimmer.
may help to repeat your name just in case I mispronounce it.
>> good evening judge and Commissioners, I've been a proud county employee for over 25 years now and I'm also an executive board member with the local 1624.
appreciate the opportunity to be here this evening and address compensation benefits issues for county employees.
I would absolutely like to thank the court and hr for the great news on the insurance rates for employees and also for the expansion of the wellness center, and special thank you for the continuation of the epo.
couple of points I'd like to bring up and discuss again this year.
one very popular program that is a benefit to county employees that is widely used is the tuition refund program.
that is an excellent benefit for county employees.
they can get up to 80 percent of their tuition reimbursed up to $300 a semester.
the issue or recommendation that I have is that dollar amount has not been increased in a number of years.
I was a graduate student back in the early '90s and I know it was $300 back then as well.
so I encourage that benefit to be recessed in the very near future.
also, addressing a huge business need, the need to address bilingual stipends for staff.
it one a wonderful recruit recruitment and retention tool as benefit, an ever increasing business need for staff required to utilize those skills to perform their job and provide excellent customer servicei understand there is a program in the sheriff's department right now and I would like to see that expanded throughout the county.
also, keeping in mind valuing the number one resource in the county, which is employees, absolutely requesting the court to fully fund the market salary studies that come out.
the department I work in, health and human services and veterans services, approximately 66 percent of our department is under study currently.
the social service family.
it is huge, huge need to fully fund those and keep the concept of not creating a pool for the executive managers to pick and choose what to pay for in terms of cola or performance based pay or funding the mss, but to actually keep those separate.
those are very separate issues.
funding the mss, providing a cola and addressing other compensation issues for staff is really huge, that those be considered separate and apart from one another.
this year in particular it's an excellent opportunity, since there's not going to be an increase in insurance rates, for the account to provide a cola for employees and make a meaningful difference to our number one resource in the county, where this year it wouldn't be having to pay extra for insurance from the cola, it actually be a meaningful and significant increase.
I thank you very much and wish you a happy July 4.
>> thank you very much.
let me make sure that roland and carol zimmer know that they are welcome.
>> I think our questions were pretty much answered.
>> you spoke eloquently.
thank you very much.
rick berrera.
david far ris.
greg, we'll let you go before him if you like.
send us an e-mail, david.
>> judge, Commissioners, good afternoon.
greg powell with the american federation of state county and municipal employees.
welcome to our annual parade of employees who have things to share with you.
typically what we are going to find is groups of employees who have various issues of their own that they want to bring to your attention, hoping you can do some things to address those those.
certainly we have been a part of that in the past.
what I want to propose to you this afternoon is to take a look, some years back what we were dealing with with our healthcare situation here at Travis County not too long ago when costs were really spiraling out of control.
we were doing a lot of piecemeal things at that time to address costs at the county.
some of them had to do with plan benefit redesign, things like that.
what happened was you put together a benefits committee that really had a sole focus of looking at this problem.
it was a problem at that time having to do with a very important benefit that county employees that were receiving.
I think that committee over the years very faithfully and diligently started proposing to the county more comprehensive approaches to dealing with healthcare issues that were confronting us, and I think we look at it today, the result of that hard work over those years is a real good healthcare plan that is affordable, had a wellness component designed with it and the clinic that has proved to be outstanding, reducing our costs through preventive medicine so we are not dealing with employees when the healthcare issues go off and we find them in emergency rooms. I think that was a result of some focus and hard work and certainly wasn't going to get fixed overnight.
I'm going to suggest to you that we take the same approach in dealing with compensation issues.
I don't want to be the same broken record am i--record.
I know I have been for a number of years coming here to speak with you.
I think what it's going to take is for us to take a couple steps back, get some direction from the court, form a committee, much like our benefits committee, with a focus on overhauling our compensation system here and our compensation plan.
I would suggest, I would be happy to take the lead on that.
I'm saying that because I have been talking with various elected officials, department heads, about what we might do, what is the best approach.
we are not beating the same dead horse over and over again or putting out fires in terms of compensation issues that kind of arise in one department and then spring up in another.
I would be happy to continue doing that and kind of building a consensus among those elected officials and department heads.
but I think it would be much better if you gave that direction as a court.
and involved the department directors in your ppo and elected officials, stakeholders like the union, and give us the charge of taking a good hard look at this compensation system.
there are better ways of doing this.
we don't have to reinvent the wheels.
there are plans that work and work well for employers.
you have to have the directive to get that started, and then you have to have the will to implement it and the polici policies that support it and the funding particularly, the funding that supports that.
what I'm suggesting to you is probably going tor more than we would be able to swallow in any one budget year, and I understand that.
but I believe that if it required some sacrifice as we move through this process in terms of reallocating colas to fund market studies that over this period of time, and I'm suggesting it's probably going to take a few years to accomplish this, but over that period of time, we'd have a compensation system that employees could rely upon.
I will bet you that an employee would forego a two and a half or three percent cola if they knew that at the end of this study, that we would have, when we do market studies, they would know exactly where they fit in that system, they would know what pay grade whark step, what step in the pay grade, and how much money they would be receiving as a result of that, would be much better served and be quite happy to do whatever sack ties is--sacrifice necessary up front to do whatever sem is necessary for all of us at the end and we are not dealing with these problems continually each year.
that is my best suggestion to you, and that is dealing with you and this issue for quite a number of years now.
I urge you to consider that and give us that direction at your next possible opportunity.
the only thing else I would like to say is that there are a number of employees, due to this July 3 date and with the holiday tomorrow, who were not going to be able to have an opportunity to come down here and speak to you today.
many of them have made the opportunity though.
I might suggest to you that there may be a possible rescheduling of another hearing for employees who, for a lot of reasons, would not otherwise be able to be here today.
that could be scheduled sometime in the near future.
the issues that I've talked about in the past are the ones that you're well aware.
I'm going to ask dana, if you would indulge, to follow through on her portion of this presentation to you.
I want the leave you with our hope that you will take a real comprehensive approach to this and we can deal with this situation once and for all.
thank you.
>> greg, I want to say, part of the reason why this is scheduled for today, yesterday was my first day back.
so part of this is because I wanted the public hearing to be at a time when I could be there.
so part of it is my fault, frankly, that it's occurring on July 3.
but we have discussed the possibility of an additional time.
if this did not turn out to be an adequate forum.
>> we're glad that you are here for today's hearing.
appreciate it.
>> let me make sure that I understand what you said.
you would be supportive of not doing a raise cola this year but to establish this compensation committee to look and go to next year where we would--
>> that is correct.
here is the provision, Commissioner.
you have a number of market salary studies in the works that have, as a matter of fact, have been done or are close to completion, that you would be funding or not, this coming budget year.
and what I'm suggesting is that we would take those, put them into the context of this new compensation plan, and fund those things.
that is exactly what I'm saying.
because the money is only going to go so far.
and it's not, doesn't have to be 100 percent one way or the other.
you can reduce your colas to help fund the market studies or the implementation of the things that we are going to do.
it's to your discretion.
just a lot of ways of playing it.
what I am certain and certainly among the members I have talked to, if we have to bite the bullet for a year twor to make sure that at the end of this thing when we get a market study done it's done right and funded, we're willing to do that.
>> you will indulge us a moment.
>> go ahead, judge.
>> deputy county judge powell has called.
>> thank you for your dil dilindulgence judge and Commissioners.
we have brought here today the equivalent of more than 200 people.
we did not want to tie up the room today, but they wanted to just offer a couple of comments to you.
from the tax office, from the county clerk's office and I believe the district clerk's office is around as well.
with these 200 signatures on a petition that we would like to offer you, what these employees would like to ask for you to do is to consider correcting the problems with the administrative family.
in part, very briefly, let me just lets you know what the petition that they signed says.
while positions in the administrative family aften do not get a lot of attention, the jobs that we perform are essential to the county's operation.
it is with our services that taxes are collected, property transactions occur, and courts operate.
our faces, our voices and our acts are the main contact most citizens have with county government.
we have waited patiently for over five years, several years longer than other employees, to have the salaries of our on signature signatures compared with others in the job market.
we understand the court beliefs that it helped address this deficiency by giving a cost of living increase.
we are thankful that we received this increase.
however, we believe that we should have been treated like other employees in the county who were already at the correct pay level and then received a cost of living increase.
we understand the court beliefs that performance- performance-based awards should be made to partially address this deficiency, and while we are thankful that the court has made this type of fund available, we respectfully disagree with this thinking.
using these funds to partially correct the problem means that no one in offices that have a large number of administrative family employees will be able to receive any performance-based pay awards while others will be able to fully enjoy these benefits.
we appreciate that the court has difficult decisions to make in budgeting the fund entrusted to them by the public.
however, not funding the salaries of positions in this job category means that you are asking one set of employees to give up a portion of their income to support other choices made by the court.
thank you for addressing this issue and for allowing us the freedom of speech to express our concerns to you.
our best wishes, approximately 200 plus administrative family employees.
and we will present these signatures of the people who would have been here today but are busy operating the offices, in any way the court would like us to.
>> what she said.
velda spears, tax office.
we have been here before.
I hope we are here at the appropriate time, judge, to talk about the administrative job family.
the job that they do is important to us and important to the people of Travis County and I know they are important to you.
we would hope that the employees, through the market salary survey results have had their jobs defined properly, and they have been assigned to pay raise and steps, and hopefully this court will be able to fund that.
for a person to get a cost of living add just am but-- but--just am but not-- not--adjustment but not be in the pay rate, the job needs to be funded at what it is.
and then if there is a cost of living adjustment to be made, it should be in addition to that.
and I have signatures from the tax office employees who fall into that category.
>> these studies have been done already.
>> yes, they were done kind of late but they were done.
>> late this year or five years ago?
a few years ago.
>> a few years ago.
>> okay.
201, who write kind of like you all do.
no problem, though.
we're happy to get it.
I'll urge this court to do the right thing.
by the way, cheryl, karla and leslie are here, and with the same message, I take i, for the administrative family.
thank you all for coming.
they signed in as the district court's office.
mr. Perrera, thank you for being so patient.
let me get you a little company.
>> sounds good.
>> greg spiker and alex leo.
>> judge, they are out in the hall.
>> let's here from mr. Berer bererra and then we will call the three of you up.
>> excuse me, can you just have them go first?
that way there can be some continuity with my presentation.
>> be happy to do it.
you all signed in as one.
one speech or three?
michelle, carla and leslie.
>> one speech, three speakers.
we're representing the district clerk's office.
I'm representing my role as chief deputy.
carlo is one of the mñrls in our office.
leslie is one of the staff.
I'm going to give you the perspective all the way through the hiring arcy of the organization.
and we will be brief.
>> okay.
basically, we really appreciate the fact that you all did go through and increase our pay.
that was significant to some of us.
that is what I'm going to address, the fact that in previous years, the compensation was done with a market adjustment addressed prior to the cola.
by changing the sequence, you have basically negated any pbp that my staff gets.
>> what is that ?
>> performance based pay.
sorry.
I just ran across the hall.
and so you're basically, what has happened, people who were experienced are now within five percent of an entry level position pay.
so it negative it's, you know, I can only--negates, the pbp is gone now.
even if I gave it to them it still would not bring them to the level that they were at before.
I think that receiving the money was beneficial to some but not all.
and I don't see how that is going to benefit my staff in university the futurethe--my staff in the future.
>> the question of the administrative family.
>> we are talking about a compression issue, judge.
the performance based pay, because the sequencing, lose loses its incentive, its sense of reward.
>> exactly.
>> we have over 30 people in the office who within the last two years received performance based pay who are now paid at entry level minimum for their position.
the pay with the market adjustment was done after the cola was done, took it away, essentially.
and that pay differential that you wanted to create is gone.
>> I'll let carla talk about it from the point of view of hiring manager.
>> as far as recruiting and retaining employees with experience, what has happened now, would have employees who have been with us who have quite a bit of experience and education, who are making the same that an entry level person would be making.
and not, I'd say maybe making about five percent more, maybe.
in most cases.
but we don't have, you can't see the differential in pay from a seasoned employee versus an employee that we're just hiring on.
>> from the budgetary standpoint, I would agree with what dana and melva said.
looking for us to use the pb pbp, the one percent that we got this year, to do this puts us as a did it advantage.
first of all, there's not enough money there to restore what pbp was lost when the green circle adjustment was done.
second of all, that means there's no one in the office should we use the money for that purpose, who would be able to receive a performance based pay award for this year because anything that we would do with the budget to restore would take away any opportunity to award performance for employees for this fiscal year.
it does make things difficult.
I have actually talked about the compression issue when you have a vacancy occur, last time I was here, where the differential in pay between minimum and current pay was reduced when the green circle adjustment occurred and the adjustment was only to minimum.
anybody who was already above minimum for their pay as a result of the four percent, or even prior to the four percent, received no adjustment at all.
not only does that affect the employee's pay, it affects the department when a vacancy occurs because mobe that could be used to recruit more seasoned employees like carla was talking about, people with advanced degrees, paralegal certification, things that we look for because we know it is a benefit to the office, our hands are tide.
it's very difficult for us to recruit that.
you really want within your office a mix of skill levels as far as positions exist, you want the entry level people and people who have been in for two or three years is, and you also need people who have been with you for ten years.
it's the mix that creates a good workforce and a learning workforce.
so that being said, we'll be happy to answer any questions that you might have.
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> mr. Berrera, I think you have run out of time.
>> being very patient.
>> let's get brett and alex up there with you.
you want to wait further?
>> who is up now?
somebody else ?
>> no, sir, you are up.
>> okay.
I want to make sure.
no, I can go now.
thank you very much, judge and Commissioners, for allowing us to address you today, this afternoon.
I'm trying to approach this issue regarding the issue of compensation from a somewhat of a different perspective.
I retired as a police officer from the city of los angeles with 27 years.
I came to Austin with the expectation continuing that same law enforcement field, and of course I came in with the constable's office.
when I started signing or learning the trade or learning this particular focus, in los angeles we had two-man units.
we had ample resources.
when I came to the constable constable's office there were single-man units and obviously resources were minimal.
so it became an issue where oose a single-man unit like in precinct 4 working in southeast Travis County, it's a very isolated area.
so we handling papers or handling warrants, whatever the case may be, were always running into issues in assisting the public out there and we basically have to use our own resourceful resourcefulness to be able to resolve it.
we don't have the luxury, because our staff is elsewhere in other parts of the county, to be able to get backup.
the issue is, of course, as you know, when the public sees us out there, they see us as law enforcement.
they basically, a lot of them have no idea what a constable does.
so they rely on us when they need help, for us to respond respond.
and we as constables, as law enforcement offices, have not only an obligation but a responsibility to ensure the public is protected.
so there's liabilities when we get involved in these kind of issues but we have to rely on ourselves to be able to resolve them.
in any case, that is in essence what I wanted to do.
I wanted to stay brief, just do give you some idea on how most of us in the office, in fact all of us in this room feel the same way.
thank you very much.
>> thank you.
so let's see if we can get some continuity here.
robert eler.
dory burner.
did I pronounce that correctly?
skip lay lock.
>> thank you for having us here.
I'll make it brief.
you may recall back on may 3 31 the constables presented some information to the court showing the value of the deputy constable as compared to counter points at tcso continue to fall.
I'm here especially in regards to the chief deputies.
for years we have been compared to the tcso lt.
as illustrated in the charts and as of fiscal year '05, our value has fallen to 65 percent as compared to tcso all rightall right-- right--lieutenants.
as we stated in the meeting they match closely to the captains when you compare job descriptions.
there's one big difference that should be pointed out, the fact that the chief deputy actually serves as the acting constable in the absence of the constable and we are bonded to do so.
we asking the Commissioners court to consider our all five officers' request in the fy '08 budget process.
and in consideration of timely pass on to the other representatives here so they can speak to you as well.
thank you.
>> thank you.
>> good afternoon, judge and Commissioners.
I too will try to be expeditious and not be redub dant.
I am a deputy at precinct 5.
I appreciate the opportunity opportunity.
it is important to us as skilled trained and certified officers that we are compensated equally with fellow offices who serve the citizens day in and day out no matter the level of danger.
constables in Travis County do a tremendous amount of work to benefit the court, the government and the citizens .
in order to if actual fill our mission the work ranges from service of civil process and service of protective protective orders to execution of felonies cases.
the work we do carries with us the same work as other law enforcement officers.
we are expected to responds to emergencies.
we are often called to execute court orders, to remove children from parent parent's custody, evict from homes, take criminals into custody or serve orders on parties that may thought want to be found.
all of this places the deputies into highly charged situations that poses risk to safety.
with the dispar the ty in pay it is becoming difficult to retain qualified difficultiesment other counties pay constables and sheriffs the same.
although the starting the salaries are comparable to a Travis County constable, the cost of living is less than residing in travis thus the lure of working there is becoming more enticing.
our work here is mission based and we do what is necessary in order to fulfill.
deputies work a wild variety of hours to accomplish the agency mission.
we are there when needed whether early or late and whether for law enforcement duties or the service of civil process.
although our duties are different they are not less important to the county or less dangerous to the deputy work.
for that reason I am here representing my coworkers and myself and asking you to consider our need for equity in the matter of pay.
thank you for your time.
>> thank you.
>> good afternoon, judge and Commissioner.
I'll sergeant skip lay lock with precinct 5 constables office and I'm here to speak on behalf of the sergeants in my own precincts who are concerned about the large and growing gap between the pay of constable sergeants and law enforcement sergeants for tcso.
a few years ago we pride a comparative analysis of the constable sergeants with tcs tcso sergeants and lieutenants.
this information is still relevant today.
we are called on to provide supervisory and management functions on a daily basis, same as sergeants with the sheriff's office.
we work with and supervise the deputies in the field as well as in the offers.
we are responsible for training, equipment inventory, and maintenance, internal investigations, accident investigations, employee evaluations, promotions and disciplinary actions.
we deal directly with the public on issues involving contact that they may have had with dentist during the course of their--deputies during the course of their duties.
we deal with lit gants involved in volatile civil matters concerning child custody issues.
we have daily contact with any number of state and local agencies that depend on us to provide answers to questions about anything from landlord tenant relation to kidnapping and family violence issues.
we work diligently to make sure we get the job done with the resources provided by our budget.
always with an eye toward the next fiscal year, trying to forecast a realistic budget for our department that we can all live with.
when the constable and chief deputy are out of toup or otherwise engaged, we sergeants are responsible for representing our office and making decisions in situations that would norm normally be delegated to a lt.
or captain.
in shorst, the pressures, frustrations and responsibilities of our positions are no less than those of a sergeant at the sheriff's office and therefore we feel the compensation should be the same.
thank you very much.
>> thank you.
susan sullivan.
I think that is the last name, county attorney's office.
ken husha.
precinct 3.
>> ken rush.
>> ken rush.
your time.
and greg pabst will be after you, and dietrich knot will be after greg.
good evening.
>> we're all on the same page here, good evening everyone.
I've been a constable since nine and I must state that I enjoy what I do and the different facets of the job, which as you previously heard, processing, eviction and patrol.
ation the deputy stated some citizens are unaware of particularly our function as well as some law en enenforcement agencies, thanks to my experiences over the last few years I have seen some of those un unfamiliar starting to become all more aware of our capability as peace officers officers.
we conduct pa trolce of neighborhoods during various shifts including weekends and holidays and during a lot of these patrols we assist other agencies, the sheriff and apd, sometimes with calls involving pursuit or everything.
a lot of times we're at the location wherever a call is put out or broadcast over the air.
from that, being able to interact well with other agencies creates a hidden confidence to know that we are peace officers in the state of Texas.
when the issue of pay parity arises, I or the other ones here can give you story after story of the some of the dangerous situations we have been involved in.
you have heard a lot of them like I mentioned, pursuit, arresting dangerous felons, everything.
last year you saw a video production.
I must state that the main deal is the growth in population of the city, things are changing and we're getting a different flux of people in the city.
you're probably seeing on the news more incidents.
maybe we're not responding to those but the city of Austin is seeing a lot more homicides and things and sometimes we are first responders to things like that.
things are changing.
whether we go to a door involving a civil paper or eviction, those people don't know what had a constable is just see a badge and gun, and there's no telling how they are going to react.
the only thing we can hope for is a peaceful interaction with those people thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you for hearing us out tonight.
my name is greg pabst.
I've been a bless officer since 1998.
when I had black hair.
so I've been here a while.
I don't know that I can say to you guys what these other ladies and gentleman have not said here tonight.
as a supervisor, the at precinct 3, I'm responsible for up to 18 deputies not including support staff, every day.
make decisions on where it of excuses, warrants--writ of executions, warrants, civil, and day-to-day paperwork coming from the court.
we deal with safe streets, we go out and do child i.d, kids, which we are doing tomorrow during the parades, and just every day scheduling.
I get phone calls up to ten, 12, one o'clock in the morning just like a lot of other supervisors in other departments do.
am I compensated for that compared to other ones?
absolutely not.
it shows.
you all have the paperwork.
I don't know if anybody here can convince you of what we really do and how important this is and how professional these people are here tonight.
we have people from apd, one that is from out of state.
unbelievable experience.
they do this job because they want to.
and they do it at a lower pay because they really do care about their job and about Travis County.
they could go outside, could go to Round Rock, could go to other department to get paid more.
they do it because they love it here in Travis County.
I will put any of these guys I don't care if it's one, two, three, four, five, I'll put them up against anybody.
they are here because they want to be.
for you guys to recognize, and you have the control to listen to these people and give them some sort of pay increase and make them feel and make them valuable in Travis County.
I want to give me time to the rest of these guys.
thank you very much for hearing me out, what little I could say.
I appreciate it.
(changing captioners.
captioners.)
>> I've been working with Travis County for 14 years.
when I started with Travis County, we were making nine dollar and something cents an hour.
I thought that we were going to another level of professionalism within this county.
I love the job that I do, as many of the men and women you see standing at this wall.
so many times we are compared to the other law enforcement agency in this county.
I don't know about anybody else, but I particularly don't like being compared to other law enforcement agencies in the county.
and the reason being is that I know I'm a law enforcement officer and a peace officer and I know that you know that.
but I think that what needs to be distinguished here today is that our job, what our jobs are and how important they are.
I don't think that you need to be told that we're peace officers.
I think that you know that already.
but I think that there needs to be an understanding on how volatile our job is or how dangerous our jobs are with the minimum equipment, the minimum operating budgets that we have to do our jobs.
we go into homes that we know nothing about, pursuant to court orders.
court orders that are issued by Travis County and other various counties that surround Travis County.
we go in there to seize money, we go in there to seize personal things that belong to other people.
we also go in and seize people's homes and we sell them.
in the socioeconomic structure that we're in today, that can be a volatile situation.
and we're placed in those situations often times by ourselves, alone, with no help from anybody else.
a lot of us don't even have communications.
we rely on clerical staff and our office to answer the radios.
so we don't even have that a lot of the times.
so a lot of the times we're by ourselves and we're placing ourselves in harm's way.
everybody be in here luchz on -- everybody in here loves what they're doing, but I think when a problem comes in is when you start appreciating one peace officer more and then another one.
and I would humbly ask the court this evening to really look at the law enforcement community and just look at what we do for Travis County as a whole.
everybody plays a part in county government.
the sheriff's office has their part that they're playing and we have our part that we play.
and it's not any less important.
so this evening I come to ask that you consider that.
thank you.
>> thank you.
jessica huerta.
and she's the last person that I have who signed in.
if anyone else would like to speak, please come forward.
we'd be be happy to get your comments.
>> after hearing everyone, you certainly have your plate's full.
I'll make this belief.
everyone has stated what I'm about to stay now, everyone in uniform, everyone here, thank you for coming and representing your department.
once again, thank you Commissioners court.
we come not as uniformed men and women of precinct 2 and others, but as fellow citizens and friends.
we simply ask that you listen to our voices to share the same hope and pride of working in an equal opportunity establishment.
not just as employees of law enforcement, but as mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers.
our area has grown, yes, it's true.
policies and procedures are changing.
this is 2007.
many things have come about that are improving the necessity of the lives of our fellow citizens as well as our own.
however, the Commissioners court does need to ask themselves, are we assisting our law enforcement, all law enforcement?
should they be commissioned equally as they have for many years prior.
deputy constables have never hesitated to work a o.
a police need, whether it's criminal or photographic.
I know I myself have been there.
there are people that come up and say what do you do because the name is different.
but the badge and the belt is the same.
we are here to protect and serve.
I stated I was going to make this brief.
your attention has been most gracious.
your actions will be the voice for all is, all deputy constables that are here today.
your actions will make the difference today.
thank you and have a happy further of July.
>> I'd like to thank the Commissioners cowrlt for listen to go owe Commissioners court for listening to all the deputies.
I'm not prepared for all the deputies -- without all them I am nothing?
I'd like to thank all these guys for coming out here.
you hear their outcries.
people need compensation.
I get emotional because these people work hard for the people of Travis County, and you hear the outcry of the people and it touches me.
you see them workday to day, their lives and their heart.
it's time for Travis County to show respect and take care of the deputies of Travis County.
these people, like I say, without them, I am nothing.
I am only one man official of Travis County, be and without the support staff and without the deputies, I am nothing.
I would like to thank all these deputies for coming out, and you see a unity here and it's hard to explain from time to time but to see what they go through and the heart they put behind it all.
I am very passionate about this because these people do need to respect from you guys at the Commissioners court to show us some love because these guys work hard.
and I go day-to-day out here and work myself, but there's no way.
one man can't handle this.
without the support of Travis County, these deputies need our help.
they need to show that they're compensated, they're equal, fair and equity throughout Travis County.
like we've said in the past, I've lost two deputies to Williamson county.
it was all over a pay issue.
I'd like to ask you guys to really listen to these deputies, take the time out, each one of you, to come out to our precincts and listen to us.
and come out and ride with us.
it's all about money, but it's not all about money.
it's about the heart people put behind it.
and these people put their lives on the line everyday.
I commend call for the compensation packages for the insurance be and everything else, and I thank y'all for listening to us today.
>> [ applause ]
>> last call for anybody else, whether you signed in or not.
I move that the public hearing are closed?
that passes by unanimous vote.
move adjournment.
that passes by unanimous vote.
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:
Monday, March 24, 2008 4:30 PM