GCSO facing shortage of deputies

Gonzales County could be down to just 19 deputies working patrol and investigations for the county in the near future, Sheriff Keith Schmidt told commissioners Monday, Sept. 9, during a regular Commissioners Court meeting.

Speaking during public comments, Schmidt said he had been notified by four of his deputies they were applying for jobs with other agencies. On top of that, the Gonzales County Sheriff’s Office, which has 26 deputies in total in its budget, will have one person moving over to the Sheriff’s Combined Auto Theft Task Force (SCATTF) run by Travis County on Oct. 1, while two other positions remain unfilled.

“We're going to possibly be as many as seven deputies down here in the next few weeks or month or so,” Schmidt told commissioners. “These deputies that are leaving — one's a sergeant, one's a corporal, one's an investigator. Those guys’ average years of service is over 10 years of service, and a lot of that's with Gonzales County. They're good deputies and they won’t have any problem getting a job somewhere else.”

The vacancies, once they happen, will definitely have an impact on the patrol and investigations side of the Sheriff’s Office, but is not expected to impact the operations at the Gonzales County Jail.

Schmidt said he wanted commissioners to know he is focused on “how to try to attract and find more good deputies.”

“We've visited with all of them, trying to figure out what exactly is going on, and it's just recent changes, I think, is kind of what they're complaining about,” Schmidt added.

Schmidt did tell commissioners the maintenance department recently installed an awning that was formerly at the annex over an entrance at the jail.

“We’ve got a place now where people go in and out, through the front door, and it's covered, and it turned out really nice,” Schmidt said.

Also on Monday, Gonzales Economic Development Corporation executive director Susan Sankey spoke to commissioners about the upcoming Gonzales bicentennial, which will take place next year in 2025.

Sankey was recently appointed interim director of the Gonzales Chamber of Commerce & Agriculture and is working to pull together the planning efforts for the bicentennial.

“We have a lot of planning to do to make it the event that it should be to best represent our community,” Sankey said. “So I just wanted to put a request before you for any support that you could provide that would be much appreciated to honor our community for its 200th birthday.”

Gonzales was officially founded in August 1825 as the capital of empresario Green DeWitt’s Colony, having been surveyed by James Kerr and named for the governor of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas, Rafael Gonzales.

In other action, commissioners approved a local cooperative agreement with DeWitt County for legislative consulting services by Cornerstone Government Affairs Inc. The county has worked with DeWitt County for several years to hire a lobbyist to get county concerns in front of the Texas legislature and state departments and it has been successful in helping generate grant funding for the county in the past, County Judge Pat Davis said.

The cost to Gonzales County is $1,500 per month for 12 months, or $18,000 per year, Davis added.