Commissioner Ford Withdraws Salary Grievance Amid Firestorm of Opposition

SAN ANGELO, TX -- Tom Green County Commissioner Bill Ford apologized for wasting the Salary Grievance Committee’s time while defending the discussion of salaries in general Monday afternoon.  

The Salary Grievance Committee was created in July after Commissioner Ford submitted a letter formally filing a grievance of his proposed salary.  At the meeting where elected officials salaries were proposed, Ford said, “Our salaries (Commissioners) have not gone up to even close to those in other counties our size and we’re $10,000 to $15,000 behind for commissioners in counties our size.”  Ford continued, “Since I’ve been on the court for six years it’s been two to two and a half percent raise each year for county commissioners which amounts to about $30 to $40 every two weeks and I drive 37,000 to 38,000 per year on my truck and I get compensated for my vehicle ($11,259 per year) and that’s not nearly enough with the price of vehicles and tires and gas.”   

Ford said, “We’ve got to start catching up or nobody’s going to want to do this job.”  “And I don’t think I’m being compensated enough for a county this size for a commissioner to do the job we’re doing.”  

“I’m asking the County Judge for a minimum ten percent raise for county elected officials.” Ford said.  Those comments are verbatim from the video of the July 17 meeting.  They can be viewed on the County's website here.  

Today, Ford said he was talking about county employees’ salaries.  

The salary grievance committee by state law was made up of District Clerk Sheri Woodfin, County Judge Steve Floyd, County Attorney Chris Taylor, County Treasurer Dianna Spieker, Sheriff David Jones, County Clerk Liz McGill and three members of the public.  

The discussion focused on salaries of county employees being so low that it is difficult to hire quality employees. In the current proposed budget, eligible county employees will get a 2.7 percent Cost of Living Adjustment raise and are eligible a 2.3 percent merit raise for a total 5 percent for many employees.  The salary grievance committee by law can only consider the elected official who filed the grievance and no one else's salary.  Monday's discussion ranged well outside the authority of the salary grievance committee.

What wasn't mentioned is that to increase Tom Green County employees' salaries by ten percent across the board will require a property tax increase.    

Elected officials are budgeted a three percent raise in the FY 2019 budget proposal.  

After about 45 minutes of Commissioner Ford explaining the history of large capital expenses like the new county jail Judge Floyd asked Ford if he was withdrawing his grievance.  

Ford's comments also included acknowledging that there had been controversy over his ten percent request because of what Ford called "Embelished" headlines on San Angelo Live.  

At first, Ford said no. He wanted the committee to vote. Then County Treasurer Spieker said his letter wasn’t specific about how much he wanted to increase his salary. At that point, Judge Floyd asked again if Ford wanted to withdraw his grievance and Ford said yes.

With that, Floyd said the grievance committee had nothing to vote on so he released the committee.  Several people in attendance wanted to comment on the issue, but with the committee leaving, the conversation ended.  

The Tom Green County Commissioners Court has a mandatory budget hearing Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. following their regular meeting.  The final public budget hearing is set for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 23. Both public hearings will be held in the Commissioner’s Court meeting room on the second floor of the Keyes Building downtown.