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Commissioners debate raising starting clerk pay, consider moving county pay scales
Summary
On Aug. 27 the court spent more than an hour debating a proposed reset of county pay scales for clerical staff — commissioners discussed a 5.7% scale movement paired with a 4% across‑the‑board raise and options to fund some positions from records-fee funds.
Rockwall County commissioners discussed whether to move county salary ranges upward to raise starting pay for district and county clerks, focusing on recruitment and retention concerns voiced by Clerk’s offices.
Commissioner Stacy proposed moving pay scales by 5.7% (a two‑year cumulative Consumer Price Index figure) while keeping the draft’s 4% general raise for FY2026. “Starting pay is about getting people to apply for jobs,” Stacy said, arguing that higher entry pay will improve recruitment and reduce turnover. He cited a district-clerk request and a loaded budget impact estimate of roughly $118,000 for a larger regrade to job grade 3; he offered a compromise of moving starting clerks to job-grade 2 (about $37,851 in the example spreadsheet) as a nearer-term step.
Other commissioners urged caution at scale-wide regrades because of the budgetary cost. One commissioner described the county’s applicant pools and pointed to strong non-wage benefits — but acknowledged retention remains an issue in some court-facing offices. Staff and department leaders in the meeting said records‑management fees (county clerk revenues) exist and could offset some recurring costs, although the district clerk’s fee fund is smaller and already committed to part-time help.
Why it matters: clerk offices process court filings, records and revenue; understaffing or high turnover slows case processing and can increase costs through training and overtime. Any change to pay scales would affect the county payroll baseline and reappear in subsequent budgets.
Numbers discussed (from transcript figures)
- Current starting clerk pay cited in discussion: about $33,986. - Proposed grade-3 starting clerk figure shown by one commissioner: $38,540. - Compromise proposed: move starting clerks to job-grade 2 (~$37,851 in the working spreadsheet) and hold the countywide raise at 4% for FY2026; auditors were asked to calculate the exact draft impact (commissioner estimate ~ $37,000 additional budget impact to also move several under‑scale employees up to new minimums).
Process and next steps
Auditor and payroll staff were asked to calculate the precise payroll impact of the proposed 5.7% pay-scale movement plus the 4% raises and to return numbers at the court’s next meeting. Commissioners agreed the scale-change policy itself requires separate adoption; for now the court asked staff to model the fiscal effect before making a final vote.
Speakers and sources in this discussion included Commissioner Stacy, Commissioner Lichty, Leah Carson (District Clerk), Cammy (HR director) and payroll/auditor staff. Quotes are drawn verbatim from the transcript.
