County employees to get pay increase: Effort to increase BCSO salaries deemed invalid; Officials: blanket 5 percent increase starts on Oct. 1

Bowie County Courthouse is seen in December 2015 in New Boston, Texas,
Bowie County Courthouse is seen in December 2015 in New Boston, Texas,

NEW BOSTON, Texas-A petition to put a Bowie County Sheriff's Office pay increase proposal on the November ballot is invalid because language explaining the initiative was missing, a county official said Monday.
Yet Bowie County Commissioners Court approved a 5 percent pay increase for all county employees, including the sheriff's office, and funded a fleet of intercept vehicles. This was a counteroffer to an initial request of $501,220 from the sheriff's office for pay raises to obtain parity pay with the Texarkana, Texas, Police Department.
The pay raises for all Bowie County employees are effective Oct. 1.
After publicly meeting for nearly an hour Monday, the Bowie County Commissioners Court approved a counteroffer they made to a committee representing the local sheriff's office-an offer the committee eventually accepted after initially asking commissioners to table it for further consideration. But Carol Dalby the commissioners' court legal adviser said the court's offer really couldn't be tabled since the county's Fiscal Year 2016-017 is already being considered for a final draft.
Besides the intercept vehicles and the 5 percent cost-of-living pay increase, commissioners also included a financial deal whereby about $275,000 of accrued overtime pay would be paid to the deputies, rather then having it swapped out for compensation time. This move is being conducted in accordance with the U.S. Department of Labor's current efforts to enforce the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
During the meeting John Crisp, one of the committee members who served as a committee spokesman, said the group researched the deputy sheriff salaries of Texas counties with similar populations and size to Bowie County such as Hunt, Victoria and Angelina counties and even neighboring Miller County in Arkansas.
Crisp said the committee agreed with the idea of providing deputies with intercept vehicles, which are more resistance to crash damage and have more extensive bullet-proof paneling, Precinct 4 Commissioner Mike Carter said.
Bowie County Judge James Carlow said Bowie County is the only Texas county he knows of that pays vehicle allowances.
Carlow also said that a problem they face is that planning time is already here for the county's 2016-17 fiscal year budget.
Regarding the petition's invalidity caused by missing language explaining the initiative, Dalby said Bob Bass, a representative with Texas Association of Counties, advised the county that the petition didn't comply with the necessary statutory language that the state requires. Specifically, Dalby said that the petition's provisions must be attached to each of it's signature pages to allow all residents signing the petition to read what the petition is about.
"This requirement wasn't done correctly and, therefore, the petition didn't comply with state statutes," Dalby said.
In other business, commissioners set public hearing dates for the county's proposed 2016-17 fiscal year budget for Sept. 6 and Sept. 12, both at 10 a.m..

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