Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Public Safety topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Comal County raises pay steps for law enforcement, citing recruitment and retention needs
Summary
The Comal County Commissioners Court approved step increases for sheriff's office, jail and telecommunications staff effective Aug. 2, 2025, aiming to reduce vacancies and improve emergency response capacity.
The Comal County Commissioners Court on July 24 approved step increases to county law-enforcement pay scales intended to aid recruitment and retention for critical public-safety positions.
Commissioner Scott Hogg moved to approve the package, which the court enacted unanimously. The changes take effect Aug. 2, 2025, and include: up to one step for nonexempt law-enforcement positions in the sheriff’s office, courthouse security, constable offices, the fire marshal, district-court bailiffs and criminal-district attorney investigators; up to two steps for nonexempt corrections positions in the jail; and up to four steps for nonexempt telecommunications positions in the sheriff’s office. County staff said the increases will be funded by a line-item transfer and that permanent pay-scale changes will be addressed in the fiscal-year 2026 budget process.
“These positions are vital positions in our county. They are positions and services that counties are required to provide,” Commissioner Scott Hogg said during the meeting. “They are vital to the safety of our county and all the residents of our county.”
Hogg said the sheriff’s office has a concerning number of vacancies and that the pay adjustments are part of what the commissioners can do administratively to help recruitment and retention ahead of the FY26 budget cycle. The court’s recorded action tasks Human Resources and the sheriff’s office with applying the approved step increases and considers further pay-scale changes in the upcoming budget.
County staff described telecommunications positions as “vital keys to success” for 9-1-1 response and dispatching, and said corrections positions in the jail were prioritized for larger step increases because of acute staffing needs. The sheriff—who spoke about unauthorized entries at the sheriff’s office earlier in the meeting related to a separate capital item—did not register a roll-call vote; the meeting transcript records a unanimous voice vote and the motion “carries.”
Ending: Staff will implement the step increases effective Aug. 2 and will propose corresponding pay-scale changes as part of the FY26 budget process.
