Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Legal Affairs topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
County attorney seeks pay adjustments, details CPS workload and revenue offsets
Summary
County Attorney Laura Garza Jimenez asked the court to consider salary increases for attorneys, described workload including CPS cases and open‑records requests, and explained some positions are partially funded by the hospital district and state reimbursements that fall short of full costs.
County Attorney Laura Garza Jimenez presented her office’s budget request and staffing picture, asking commissioners to consider salary adjustments to keep entry‑level county attorneys competitive with similar counties.
Laura said her office currently has 11 attorneys including herself (with one vacancy) and that comparable counties show higher starting salaries for similar positions. "We're in my office, I don't have any attorney ones. They're all attorney twos and 1 attorney 3," she said while presenting comparative ranges and asking the court to consider raising pay closer to peer counties.
She provided workload figures and revenue offsets: for 2014 the office received over $90,000 from collections at the county level and about $18,000 for district courts; the office also reported supplemental state monies (she mentioned $70,000) that are used partly for salaries. On CPS work Laura said the office opened 140 CPS cases in 2014, closed 78 during the year and had about 204 active cases at year end; protective‑order work included 421 interviews in 2014 with 91 granted.
Commissioners and staff discussed breaking out revenue sources by line item so the court can see what portion of the office is funded from general fund versus state or hospital district reimbursements. Laura also noted one attorney position (Cathy Heller) is fully reimbursed by the hospital district.
No formal action was taken; staff agreed to prepare a profit‑and‑loss style summary showing gross expenses and revenues for the county attorney’s office to inform salary and staffing decisions during the August/September budget process.
