Grievance panel unanimously recommends $150,000 salary for Lubbock County Sheriff Kelly Rowe

A citizen grievance committee for Lubbock County voted unanimously Monday to recommend raising Sheriff Kelly Rowe’s annual salary to $150,000, the committee chair said. Under Texas Local Government Code §152.016, a unanimous recommendation from this grievance panel must be included in the county budget before it is filed.

Rowe asked the committee to consider the increase during a hearing in which he described long-term “compression” in the county’s salary structure that left some of his command staff earning more than the sheriff. Rowe, who said he has worked in law enforcement for nearly 34 years and has been county sheriff for about 16 years, told the panel the sheriff’s office is the county’s largest agency, with “just under 600 total employees” and an operating budget he said is about $65,000,000 a year.

“They are the ones doing the most dangerous of work,” Rowe said of rank-and-file deputies, arguing that top leadership salary should reflect the scope of responsibility and liability that falls on the sheriff. He described prior decisions and a 2021 voter-approved tax-rate increase that raised deputies’ pay but, he said, did not correct pay compression at the top.

Rowe also told the committee he had raised the issue privately with the commissioners but had been left with the statutory grievance process as the path to correct the discrepancy. He asked the panel to set a salary he described as “commensurate with several of the other elected officials and department directors” and said he proposed $150,000 as a remedy.

After discussion, committee member Joel Scott moved to set Rowe’s salary at $150,000; Stetson Smitherman seconded. Lindsey Diaz, chief of staff to the commissioners, distributed ballots and the chair announced the vote as 9-0 in favor. Because all nine panel members voted to recommend the increase and signed the recommendation, the chair said the commissioner's court must include the increase in the budget before the budget is filed, making the change effective in the upcoming fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

The panel’s role was limited to recommending salary changes; the commissioner's court retains broader budget authority. During the hearing Rowe also said county budget discussions had included efforts to address a deficit and that, he was told, some employee pay requests were “off the table” while commissioners worked to resolve budget shortfalls. The grant of a unanimous recommendation does not itself resolve those broader budget decisions beyond the statutory requirement to place the recommended increase in the budget paperwork.