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Justice of the peace judges urge pay parity and argue caseloads far outstrip certain county offices
Summary
Multiple justice of the peace judges asked the court to address long-standing pay disparities and presented caseload data showing JPs carry heavy, countywide duties including warrants, magistrations and specialty dockets that they say justify market adjustments.
Judge Tim Mendolia presented a multi-year comparison showing justice of the peace (JP) salaries have not kept pace with other elected county officials. He documented increases awarded to district/county clerks, treasurer and tax assessor over recent cycles and argued that JPs perform countywide functions — magistrations, warrants and diverse dockets — that merit parity adjustments.
"The justices simply request equal structural adjustment based upon the standard internal parity workload and fairness," Mendolia said, asking the commissioners to consider raising the base JP salary toward comparators cited in Denton and Collin counties. He provided case-volume counts and described how magistrations and on-call duties create 24/7 responsibilities for the bench.
Other JP judges and court staff echoed the workload concerns across precincts and asked for an additional clerk in some courts to manage rising filings, e‑filing volumes and statutory reporting. Commissioners asked for follow-up breakdowns (by case type and average staff time per case) so the budget committee can quantify workload-to-FTE needs before considering structural pay adjustments.
