County Clerk keep pay dispute on front burner

Young County’s elected clerks have been denied grievance hearings in their pay dispute with county commissioners, and say they will request a third hearing next year after the county failed to provide a quorum two years in a row despite having multiple avenues under state law for doing so.

District Clerk Jamie Freeze Land, County Clerk Kay Hardin, and Tax Assessor-Collector Christina Centers had asked during the commissioners’ budget workshops in August for their pay to be brought in line with the commissioners’ and sheriff ’s compensation.

“You work longer hours than your deputy clerks,” Mrs. Land said. “I have a great staff but there are three of us. We all have to work.”

The commissioners denied the request for fiscal year 2023, giving the women the same cost-of-living adjustments received by the rest of the county workforce. They earn approximately $51,000 - the same base salary as the commissioners but do not receive a $15,000 vehicle allowance the commissioners budget for themselves.

“It would be different if we weren’t working clerks, but in this size of a county, you have to be a working clerk,” Ms. Hardin said.

The clerks sought a grievance hearing over the matter but could not go forward with a hearing for the second time in two years because not enough grand jurors showed up to make a quorum.

It is not clear why the court could not reach a quorum: Texas law and the state Attorney General’s opinions provide multiple avenues for forming grievance committees, according to a Sept. 2021 brief by the legal department of the Texas Association of Counties.

Under Texas law, elected officials must bring pay disputes to a grievance committee consisting of nine members, including the county judge, sheriff, tax assessor-collector, treasurer, county clerk, district clerk, county attorney or criminal district attorney, and the number of members of the public necessary to provide nine voting members, the brief said.

The county judge is chair of the committee but is not entitled to vote. But members of the committee, including the clerks themselves, are not barred from voting on their own salaries, the brief said.

If the county cannot find enough grand jurors, the commissioners court may vote to have the committee consist of nine public members, which the county judge also chairs, the brief said.

Lastly, the brief states that all nine members do not have to be present in order for the salary grievance committee’s actions to be valid. “The attorney general has addressed in two opinions the absence of the county judge and a member who attempted to participate by telephone. In both instances, the absence was held not to affect the validity of the meeting,” the brief said.

Although the Young County clerks were not afforded a hearing, three of the women presented their cases to the partial grievance committee at the county courthouse in September. Mrs. Land said “the lack of resolution has been quite troubling, to say the least. It’s been frustrating that the county has been unable to obtain a quorum, as this is their process and this process has failed me and others. I am concerned that the repeated failure of the county to produce a quorum could easily silence grievances systematically.

Mrs. Land said she will make the same argument at next year’s budget hearings.