Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Personnel And Pay topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Commissioners debate grade-and-step policy after sheriff seeks to reclassify two maintenance workers as detention officers
Summary
A broader discussion of the countywide grade-and-step salary system focused on two employees the sheriff sought to move from maintenance scales to the detention scale; commissioners asked for policy guidance, HR workups and agreed to have ECNs refined for Oct. 1 while drafting clearer rules for future transfers.
Guadalupe County commissioners spent an extended portion of the Sept. 30 session discussing grade-and-step implementation and a personnel situation in which the sheriff's office sought to move two maintenance employees onto the detention pay chart.
County staff and the sheriff said the two employees hold detention certifications, have performed detention duties at times, and should be paid on the detention salary scale that the county is implementing. Court members and HR staff raised concerns that processing the requested change without a consistent policy could create pay inequities with existing detention staff who had not yet been adjusted under the new step-and-grade rules.
What the court discussed Staff described how the county's new grade-and-step structure sets step placements by hire date and years of continuous service. HR explained that earlier submitted ECNs (employee change notices) would have placed the two employees at higher steps immediately under FY25 processing; commissioners said that approach would have caused some staff to be paid more than comparable detention officers until the broader chart-wide implementation on Oct. 1.
The sheriff and his management team argued the employees had been doing the duties and were certified as detention officers; they asked the court to correct a long-standing misclassification. "We need to right this wrong," a sheriff's representative said.
Court direction and next steps Without taking a formal personnel vote, the court directed county staff and the sheriff's office to reconcile the ECNs and to submit step-and-grade adjustments consistent with the county's overall FY26 implementation. The sheriff offered to resubmit ECNs reflecting a smaller immediate adjustment if the court preferred, and said he would work the matter within the FY2026 budget when necessary. Commissioners asked that a standing group or committee of department heads, HR and commissioners be convened to develop clearer written guidance on transfers between salary charts and on how certifications and prior duties should be counted going forward.
Why it matters: Commissioners framed the exchange as both a correction of an administrative inconsistency and a test case for how the court should handle transfers between different pay charts across elected offices; they emphasized the need for consistent policy so the county avoids repeated, ad hoc exceptions.
Ending note The sheriff said he would submit corrected ECNs effective Oct. 1 to align with the county's FY26 step-and-grade implementation and the court agreed to develop a formal committee and policy language to address similar situations in future.
