Rockwall County commissioners review pay scales, consider range shifts ahead of budget

Rockwall County Commissioners Court members met for a workshop July 8 at the Historic Courthouse to review county pay scales and preliminary options for the upcoming budget.

Commissioner Stacy led the session, saying the intent was to present data, options and trade-offs before the county's budget process begins: "My goal is to have a really good discussion about pay, within the county," Stacy said. The court reviewed turnover dating back to Oct. 1, 2021, detailed department pay-grade requests and multiple scenarios for adjusting ranges and top-outs.

The discussion focused on three distinct pay structures the court must consider: (1) a five-step sheriff's office step plan adopted after Senate Bill 22 was enacted; (2) a law-enforcement pay scale covering deputies, detention officers and related positions; and (3) non-law-enforcement clerk scales used by county departments. "We have 3 things that we have going on," Stacy said, urging the court to treat them separately when weighing budget choices.

Why it matters: Commissioners warned that whatever approach the court adopts will affect the county budget and employee retention. Staff presented several figures the court used for illustration: the sheriff's office step plan, as currently modeled, would create a roughly $342,000 budget impact if every eligible employee moved one step; a separate jail request to adopt a step plan carried a cited budget impact of $436,000; and a hypothetical 5% across-the-board adjustment to pay ranges produced a loaded annual cost of about $1,100,000.

Commissioners also reviewed turnover and recruitment concerns. Staff said the packet used 187 terminations recorded since Oct. 1, 2021, and that a portion of departures involved employees leaving for other law-enforcement agencies. "When you start looking at career change, going to other policing agencies ... is a large chunk of what our terminations are," Stacy said; commissioners discussed breaking out jail separations from other sheriff's office departures for clearer analysis.

On the sheriff's step plan, commissioners clarified how steps and promotions would interact. Commissioners were told a deputy at the top step could still receive a merit lump-sum in lieu of an additional step, and that promotion mechanics could place a promoted deputy into a mid-step for the new rank (for example, moving into a sergeant slot that starts at step 3). Commissioners emphasized that the sheriff retains discretion to withhold step increases for performance reasons.

Clerks and other civilian staff were another focal point. Commissioners noted that some elected officials requested job-grade changes for their clerks; the packet showed roughly $180,000 in combined salary requests for the County Clerk and District Clerk. One example presented by staff estimated that moving a set of clerks into requested job grades would increase the budget by about $127,000. The court examined comparative pay data from neighboring jurisdictions (Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Hunt and Kaufman counties and several cities) and noted a gap between current County Clerk/District Clerk recruiting ranges and peer counties.

Staff walked commissioners through options for adjusting ranges and top-outs: incremental increases to top-outs (for example, a 2.5% increase to the top of range 4) and sliding increases across entire ranges (2.5% to 5% scenarios were shown). Commissioner Stacy said an exercise applying a 2.5% top-out and a 2.5% range shift suggested most employees would still receive merit adjustments without being "topped out," though the group agreed the numbers would require finer vetting before any vote.

Commissioners discussed trade-offs between awarding merit money to departments (allowing department heads to allocate a lump-sum pool) versus making structural adjustments to job-grade ranges. Several commissioners said a multi-year plan could be more feasible than trying to resolve all inequities in one budget cycle. "Maybe we don't get all the way there this year, but I would like to be competitive," Stacy said.

Next steps and staff follow-up: staff and HR agreed to circulate the underlying spreadsheets and supporting data to commissioners. Commissioners referenced an upcoming budget draft and indicated the pay discussion should be a front-line issue when the first budget is prepared. Commissioner Stacy said she expected the first draft of the budget to appear in coming weeks and urged the court to settle pay questions early in that process. Cammy (HR staff) and county staff were asked to provide electronic data and further analyses for the court to review.

The workshop did not record any formal motions or votes. Commissioners closed the session after the presentation and discussion; additional analysis and concrete proposals were anticipated before any formal action in commissioner's court.