Commissioners vote 4-1 to adjust ADA salary

Commissioners had a lively discussion on Tuesday, Oct. 11, about increasing the salary of an Assistant District Attorney position by the same $1 per hour, or $2,080 per year, that other county positions recently received.

County Judge Patrick Davis said the salary for the position, formerly held by Keri Miller, was set at $72,500 and said County Attorney Paul Watkins had told him he had assumed the position would also receive the $2,080 raise to bring it up to $74,580 annually.

“We went back over this and I’m pretty sure what we raised it up to, we had added the $2,080 into the budget already,” Precinct 3 Commissioner Kevin La Fleur said. “I think we had already put that amount in and it came up to $72,500 total.”

“The complaint is the auditor’s office is only paying $72,500 when it was set at $72,500 and then they got a $1 raise,” Davis said.

“During budget workshops on Aug. 1 when it concluded, the court instructed me to run figures based on the dollar increase across the board and $1,200 for those who qualify,” Auditor Becky Weston said. “The following meeting, when Paul came in to talk about his employee, the numbers you were dealing with in that meeting included the dollar increase, the $2,080.”

“No it did not,” Davis said. “I set the budget and the salary I had set was $72,500. I am the budget officer of the county and I set it at $72,500 as what he requested.”

“It was clearly pointed out during the meeting. What you do is neither here nor there. You make that decision obviously. During that meeting, you were working with figures that included the $2,080. I even clarified that to (Precinct 4) Commissioner (Collie) Boatright during that meeting. At that point in time the salary was $70,940 was the question that was discussed, which included the $2,080. Paul requested the $72,500 to you and you agreed with that hands down, but the prior salary, the $70,940 included the $2,080. The difference was $1,560. Now if you want $2,080 on top of the $72,500, you need to say so, but during that meeting you said $72,500.”

“Before we ever included any raises, what I presented in my budget to the court was for $72,500, and after that, if we do any raises, they should get the $2,080,” Davis said. “The same thing with the EA (Elections Administrator), commissioner, I think you said let’s just give them the $55,000, and then when we give them the $2,080, it’s going to be $57,000. If we’re going to give the EA the same thing, then I don’t understand. If I had the salary set at $72,500, then the increase should go with it.”

“We did set the salary and there was a whole separate discussion when we went into the raise portion of it,” Boatright added.

Weston and Davis disagreed on whether the video of the meeting, recorded through Facebook live, has the court voting on just the salary for the position to be set at $72,500 or whether that was an increase after the $2,080 had already been added.

Eventually, La Fleur said he would make the motion to add the $2,080 to the salary, with Boatright, Davis and Del Whiddon voting for it as well. Donnie Brzozowski was the lone dissenting vote.