During the budget workshop, Animal Services staff raised staffing and compensation issues tied to the department’s move into a larger shelter and evolving enforcement responsibilities. Senior Deputy Constable Sean Gore spoke to the court about the hybrid law‑enforcement and environmental role deputies perform and asked for market‑aligned compensation to retain experienced deputies.

Why it matters: the department combines animal control, environmental health enforcement (OSSF, illegal dumping/burning), civil process service and other duties. Several deputies and kennel staff have long tenure; staff warned that turnover is costly and that recruiting qualified peace officers with animal‑control experience is difficult.

What staff presented: Sean Gore (who identified himself as "Senior Deputy Constable, Kerr County Environmental Health and Animal Control") summarized the job’s duties and urged salary adjustments. In closing he said, "I'm not asking for more. I'm just asking for the same." He described deputies’ mixture of responsibilities — environmental enforcement, civil process service, animal cruelty and nuisance investigations — and emphasized that similar positions in larger jurisdictions pay materially more.

Shelter move and staffing plan: an animal services staff member (unnamed in the transcript) described a plan to eliminate one funded animal control officer position, convert a current part‑time kennel tech to full time, and reclassify the adoption coordinator role into a shelter coordinator position with supervisory duties. The staff member said the net effect yields a modest decrease in salary expense while adding an essential full‑time kennel technician to support operations in the larger facility.

Quotes and numbers: management described the proposed staffing change as an "elimination of 1 animal control officer position" with concurrent reassignment: "We're currently staffed with 4. We're budgeted for 5." They said the reclassification would move the coordinator from pay grade 15 to 17 to reflect supervisory responsibility.

Next steps: staff requested formal approval of the staffing realignment and asked HR and the auditor to model the exact payroll effects on the base budget and step plans. Commissioners asked for the detailed salary line items to be prepared for the next budget session.

Ending: the court asked for a follow‑up packet that shows exact line‑item salary changes, clarifies which costs are one‑time (move costs) versus recurring, and confirms maintenance and utility impacts for the new, larger shelter.