When Bexar County commissioners approved their 2022-23 fiscal year budget last August, it included 5% pay raises for themselves — and funding for unspecified pay adjustments for county employees to come at a later date.
Months later, county employees still haven’t seen the results of a study that was supposed to determine whether they would get raises. In the meantime, they’re begging commissioners to help stop the exodus of employees leaving to accept other jobs.
“People, especially prosecutors, are leaving for higher pay,” District Attorney Joe Gonzales told commissioners Tuesday.
“It used to be that I would say, well … they’re leaving to go into the private industry. … That’s understandable,” said Gonzales. Today, however, “they’re leaving to go to other DA offices, because they can get higher pay.”
Gonzales was joined by dozens of prosecutors, paralegals, investigators and other support staff from his office — many of whom made a similar case during last year’s budget process.
Bexar County adopted two 5% pay increases for all county employees during the 2021-22 fiscal year, according to an Aug. 23 budget presentation.
At the time of the 2022-23 budget discussions, commissioners had hired Baker-Tilley to conduct a comprehensive salary study that would be used to make more targeted salary increases, with the intention of bringing Bexar County employees’ pay into alignment with their counterparts at other municipalities.
Though the study was ongoing at the time of the budget discussion, the county’s 2022-23 budget included $11.25 million to implement its recommendations in January, according to the budget presentation. The county’s current fiscal year runs from Oct. 1, 2022, to Sept. 30, 2023.
County spokeswoman Monica Ramos said the study’s implementation was on hold pending the outcome of a grievance over the collective bargaining agreement.
Commissioners discussed the grievance from the Deputy Sheriffs Association of Bexar County behind closed doors Tuesday, but did not announce a resolution.
In the meantime, other county departments say they’re bleeding talent.
“We have a prosecutor right now who is in the middle of a murder trial, who is leaving at the end of that case to go work in another jurisdiction,” Gonzales told commissioners.
That prosecutor “is taking a demotion in order to get a $17,000 increase in pay,” Gonzales said. “That is outrageous.”
He also refuted a recent KSAT report that suggested the district attorney’s office was losing staff due to poor office culture.
“That we are struggling because we are losing our people in our office,” Gonzales said. “Not because we have a hostile or toxic environment, but because of the lack of competitive salaries paired with an ever increasing case loads.”
Commissioners agreed the study’s recommendations needed to be addressed quickly.
“It sounds like we’ve got some recommendations not just for the DA’s office personnel, but for all of our county employees to bring them to competitive numbers, and we had to rely on that professional study to inform our decision,” said Commissioner Justin Rodriguez (Pct. 2).
Commissioner Tommy Calvert (Pct. 4) told Gonzales the commissioners court had failed his department after the DA’s staff made impassioned pleas during last year’s budget discussions.
“We’ve made an error in not getting those wages increased and so we need to right that wrong,” Calvert said.
The salary for an entry-level Bexar County assistant district attorney was about $67,000 a year in 2022, according to a report in the San Antonio Express-News.
County Judge Peter Sakai said he’s met weekly with County Manager David Smith over the past month and a half to discuss the salary study. Sakai was elected in November and was not involved in the 2022-23 budget discussions.
“I think you’ll see that this study does recognize the pay discrepancies and pay differentials within your office,” he told Gonzales. But, “this pay study is not necessarily a pay raise. … This is going to be adjusting according to what they say.”
Sakai added that the money approved for the study’s implementation will have to address a wide range of staffing issues at the county, and the ultimate decisions wouldn’t make everyone happy.
“I want everyone in the room to understand how difficult it is,” Sakai said. “I’ve got the entire county to take care of.”
