Hunt County approves $4,473 annual stipend for pretrial intervention staff

Hunt County Commissioners Court on Tuesday approved a $4,473 annual stipend for Sharon Joseph to support the county’s pretrial intervention program, to be funded from the court’s pretrial intervention account and effective Oct. 1, 2025.

County officials said the stipend will cover additional workload tied to an increasing number of cases handled by the county attorney’s office. “The code of criminal procedure article 102.0121 sets up a program where we can have a pretrial intervention program… The code of criminal procedure said the money can be used for employee salary supplement or other benefits only to the extent that use of the fund is solely for the administration of the pretrial intervention program,” a representative of the Hunt County Attorney’s Office explained during the meeting.

The county attorney’s office told the court it currently uses about $25,527 a year from the fund and that $30,000 was budgeted for the coming year. The office asked that the remaining $4,473 be allocated to Sharon Joseph beginning Oct. 1, 2025. The representative said Joseph will not be dedicated full time to the program and that other staff also receive supplements for similar work.

Judge Stovall asked whether the fund had budgetary authority for the coming year. The county attorney’s representative replied that $30,000 had been budgeted and later stated the account balance was “over a $100,108,000” in the transcript; the precise balance was not specified during the meeting.

A motion to approve the stipend was made, seconded and carried with the court voting in favor.

No further action was taken on payroll and personnel matters at the session.