Certificate Pay for Sheriff’s Office deputies will terminate as of June 4. The Commissioners Court voted 3 to 2 on Tuesday not to extend the voluntary bonus payments from the county to deputies who receive additional training.
Certificate pay was included in the previous contract adopted in 2009, but only through 2012. Since then the Commissioners Court has approved to voluntarily pay it. In the last two months, the Commissioners Court has granted two extensions for Certificate Pay. The last extension is good through June 4. The extensions were approved with the stipulation that collective bargaining talks between the county and the Sheriff’ Office Employees Association were going well and would result in a new contract.
County Judge Brint Carlton and Commissioner Jody Crump who represent the county in the collective bargaining talks both commented, after being asked by Commissioner John Gothia how the talks were going, that the negotiations seemed to be stalled. Carlton and Crump were joined by Commissioner Barry Burton in voting in favor of not granting another extension. The next collective bargaining meeting is scheduled for Friday morning in the Commissioners Courtroom. Currently, Certificate Pay is included in the new contract if an agreement can be reached.
Approval of the professional agreement between the county and the architectural firm HDR Inc. was delayed for another week. Last week the Commissioners and Assistant County Attorney Doug Manning requested more time to review the agreement. The modified agreement was given to John Dineen with HDR on Tuesday, and he could not give final approval for his company on such short notice either. The hope is the Commissioners will be able to approve a signed document from HDR at next week’s meeting.
The agreement is to hire HDR to develop a Master Plan for renovations to the Orange County Courthouse. The Master Plan must be submitted to the Texas Historical Society by October for the county to be eligible to receive grant funds to help pay for the repairs to the marble façade of the building.
The Commissioners discussed health insurance for new hires to cover employees, dependents, and retirees. The discussions covered only county employees that would be hired after October 1 of this year. After about 30 minutes of discussing different options the Court took two votes. The first was on a plan proposed by Commissioner Gothia for placing a cap of $750 a month in health insurance coverage through age 65 for retirees hired after October 1, 2017 and a $350 a month cap for supplemental insurance for retirees between ages 65 and 70. This motion was seconded by Commissioner Johnny Trahan, but was defeated 2 to 3.
County Judge Carlton then made a motion for employees hired on or after October 1, 2017 to be ineligible for retiree health insurance. His motion was also defeated 2 to 3 with only Commissioner Crump joining the judge. The Court agreed to prepare plans in detail and present them in three weeks for another discussion and possible votes.
Agreement was found on adjustments to the Employee Pay Matrix which will be used in preparation of the FY 2018 budget. The Commissioners Court agreed to consider a 1.5 to as much as a 5 percent increase in salaries next year. The pay increases would only cover employees and not elected county officials or the Sheriff’s Office Employees Association.
The Commissioners Court approved a proclamation recognizing the Julie Rogers “Gift of Life” program. The annual screenings by the Julie Rogers’ Foundation of eligible men for various diseases will be held Saturday, June 10, at the Student Center of the Lamar State College in Orange. The screenings are free and will be conducted between 9:00 AM and 12 Noon that Saturday.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
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