City secretary asks council to boost pay, restore assistant and serve as film liaison

Sal, the city secretary, told the council the office’s duties have expanded well beyond traditional recordkeeping and elections to include inventory and grant administration and broader executive support. "So what I'm proposing is that, the city secretary office, be assigned the duty of, being film liaison or a film commissioner as an additional ongoing responsibility," Sal said, noting film work has generated economic activity in similar coastal communities.

Sal asked the council to align pay with responsibilities by raising the position’s proposed salary to $93,000 and to restore a dedicated administrative assistant to improve records management, election support and continuity during absences. He provided a full-impact figure that included fringe benefits and described a lower-cost option that would omit the film liaison element.

On the film program, Sal proposed either a $10,000 stipend or attaching the duty to payroll with an approximate $12,000 first-year impact, and said hot funds could cover the program’s startup. Councilmembers asked staff to check prior consultant work and explore whether the tourism/marketing staff already had capacity to support the effort. Sal said he had industry contacts with the Texas Film Commission and Corpus Christi Film Commission and argued the certification would position Aransas Pass to attract productions.

Councilmembers asked staff to return with cost details and options for a stipend versus payroll attachment, and to confirm whether the city’s hotel-occupancy (hot) funds could legally be used for the liaison stipend.