McLennan County HR outlines $822,482 in new-salary requests and recommends phased approach
Loading...
Summary
Anna, McLennan County’s HR director, presented a countywide review of new position requests and salary adjustments that together total $822,482 in base pay if all are approved, with HR recommending a mix of approvals, denials and alternatives.
Anna, McLennan County’s HR director, told the commissioners at a budget workshop that HR had reviewed new position requests, reclassifications and salary-adjustment requests and recommended a three-category approach—yes, no and “other.” “If the court were to say yes to all of the requests, it’s $822,482,” Anna said, adding that figure did not include benefits, equipment and other fringe costs, which she estimated would push the total to roughly $1.2 million if every request were approved.
Why it matters: those new hires and adjustments would increase the county’s ongoing personnel obligations and feed into the commissioners’ larger budget gap conversations. Anna said HR used peer-county staffing, Office of Court Administration reports, and the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Crime in Texas data to evaluate workload and parity.
Key facts and recommendations: HR recommended against two constable office requests (a clerk for Precinct 4 and a deputy for Precinct 5) based on low papers-served volumes compared with other precincts; recommended part-time or temporary staffing instead of a full-time clerk in at least one precinct during Tyler case-management software implementation; denied an additional sheriff’s investigator request because the DPS data showed a downtrend in offenses and McLennan’s offenses-per-investigator were lower than several peers; recommended full-time court clerks for justice-of-the-peace offices in places where OCA case projections and truancy procedures show higher workload; recommended two maintenance-of-buildings positions because McLennan’s facilities staff count (29) was below a peer average (37); recommended additional road-and-bridge equipment operator positions after comparing center-lane miles per construction employee (McLennan ~14 miles per position versus an average of 9 in peer counties); recommended one assistant district attorney position (ADA level 2) on workload grounds but proposed budgeting it at the existing ADA-2 midpoint rather than the higher salary the DA requested; and recommended adding a network administrator II to IT and budgeting that position at the existing, budgeted Network Admin II salary rather than at the department’s requested higher amount.
HR also reported there are 61 line-item salary-adjustment requests countywide and five positions with compensation ratios below the 0.80 trigger HR watches for. Anna said she had five reclassification requests under review and that two of them were pending additional department information.
What’s next: Anna and auditor’s-office staff will make the worksheet available on the shared drive and will bring departmental representatives back next week for detailed presentations and to show scenario calculations if the court asks to see different combinations of approvals. The court did not take any formal votes or reach consensus during the overview.
