Lubbock County budget talks end in drama, an accusation of departments misleading public

Yahoo

a day ago

While most people enjoy the summer months, several governing entities around the city are kicking it into high gear for their budget processes.
That includes the Lubbock County Commissioners Court, which will have multiple hearings from county department heads on their needs and wants as the court sets the budget for the next fiscal cycle.
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That included hearing from the Lubbock County Sheriff's Office, the county clerk, facilities, and many more to create a budget framework within the county's proposed no-new-revenue tax rate. But just like any budget, it faces challenges with differing opinions and priorities.
Through the next two weeks, check back here to find out what is being said and what is or isn't on the chopping block, as the commissioners hammer out what will be in the FY 2026 budget.
The day started off rough as Lubbock County Auditor Kathy Williams scolded the court first thing in the morning, requesting that all future budget meetings concerning her input be held in her office.
This stems from the very heated fight on Thursday afternoon between Williams, Commissioner Jason Corley and Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace Susan Hanson.
'I find that some of the budget hearings are unprofessional, unproductive and disrespectful to both me and the department and their staff,' Williams said. 'Meetings are not intended to criticize or make digs at other departments.'
Commissioner Corley point-blank asked Williams if she thinks her manner during the budget hearing proceedings was professional.
Williams responded no, it has not been professional but also pointed a finger at Corley and the court.
'You intentionally orchestrated that yesterday and allowed it to happen,' Williams said toward Corley. 'And the court showed silence and allowed it to continue.'
Williams also made the accusation that the court has been allowing the department heads to mislead the public during the proceedings, and the court 'just sits there and takes it.'
When asked by the Avalanche-Journal after the meeting about the accusation and for elaboration on it, Williams replied with "no comment."
Following the incident, the commissioner heard from the final two departments. Here's what was said.
Elections Office: Asking for a slight decrease this year, but warns in 2027 of a major increase due to recent legislation and redistricting requirements.
General Assistance: Asking for a flat budget with minimal increases.
While budget talks may be concluded, the behind-the-scenes work continues as Williams — the state-mandated budget official — crafts the budget with the departments before presenting the final framework to the commissioners for approval in the next few months.
What was only expected to come to fruition has now occurred, as county commissioners and staff have been hosting four days of public hearings in addition to their regularly scheduled meetings.
Tensions were running high as brief but fiery kerfuffles erupted from the fifth floor of the Lubbock County Courthouse; however, it didn't distract either party from persevering and getting the work done.
Again, a recurring topic of merit-based pay raises and COLAs was discussed with heads of departments advocating for their staff. This is helping the commissioners court — which seemingly agrees on a COLA raise for all county employees — to determine whether to reinstate a process for merit-based pay increases.
Here are the departments that presented today and what they are requesting, if anything:
County commissioners' individual park budgets:
Precinct 1 — Flat budget for the clubhouse (has no parks).
Precinct 2 — Needing to update some facilities and looking at accommodating community wants.
Precinct 3 — $7,000 increase to help with odds and ends at clubhouses and parks.
Precinct 4 — $30,000 decrease in budget due to the sprinkler installation being completed.
County worker composition: County HR is requesting several increases to specific programs due to medical and pharmacy inflation.
County Court Administration: Slight increase in departmental budgets and a $230,000 increase request for the judicial budget — $100,000 for the investigator line item and $75,000 for the expert witness line item.
Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace: An increase in department personnel pay, as well as a pay raise of her own due to an increase in workload volume, requesting new furniture and will not ask for a part-time staffer due to a lack of office space.
South Plains Auto Theft Task Force: Asks for nothing and is decreasing its budget request from last year.
Precinct 1 Constable: Requesting a deputy position and a merit-based pay increase for his clerk.
The commissioners are set to hear from the elections office in its final departmental budget meeting before they embark on hammering out what should and shouldn't be funded.
The day featured a curveball that IT was made aware of just earlier in the day, which will cost the county $300,000 upfront.
The issue, as presented by IT director Isaac Badu and representatives from the county's DA, is an unfunded 2024 mandate for the Department of Justice that requires county governments to update their websites to be ADA-friendly.
The deadline to be in compliance — April 2026.
"The scope of this project is going to be quite enormous," Badu said. "Not only are we going to redesign the entire website — which would require resources from every department within the county to commit the time to get it done properly — we would also have to train our entire population on how to feed these websites with data, and how do we think about it from the accessibility standpoint."
Badu also testified for his department, stating a budget increase is needed with software maintenance and hardware costs increasing, and advocated for adding two new staff members. He, along with other department heads, advocated for merit-based raises for their staff.
Here's what other departments testified about and their budget requests:
County Treasurer: Presented a flat budget with a request for one additional staff member.
Roads: Commissioners presented with possible plans on how to fix the county's RAP road issues discussed earlier in the week.
Medical Examiners: A flat budget as staff is tentatively set to move into the ME's building next spring.
County Commissioners Court: A decreased budget was presented.
County Judge: Presented a decreased budget.
Each individual commissioner was not able to present their budgets today as scheduled due to the ADA compliance deadline taking up a majority of the discussion, but they are set to speak about it first thing in the morning.
A full day of budget hearings is broken up into morning and afternoon sessions. Here's what was talked about and what each department is requesting, with more flat budgets being presented.
Human Resources
HR Director Melanie Hall advocated for two more positions on the staff so that it would be similar to what other comparable county governments have around the state.
However, the biggest takeaway is that Hall is advocating for a 3% COLA to all county government staff — something that the commissioners leaned toward granting — and an up to 3% merit-based pay increase.
While numerous department heads are willing to put in the needed work to provide performance evaluations on employees, the county commissioners have shown some hesitancy since day one of budget talks, with some still showing their hesitancy today.
Emergency Management
Clinton Thefort presented three items to the court:
A $41,000 increase for contract services.
Funding for the critical needs budget to help aid volunteer fire department equipment purchases.
$50,000 for maintenance for the county's fire radio system: $10,000 for routine maintenance and $40,000 for emergency repairs.
Precinct 2 Constable
Constable Jody Barnes said he will be coming under budget with the current fiscal cycle, but is requesting an $81,000 increase to various items on his budget to help hire a deputy to assist him.
Precinct 3 Constable
Constable Jose Sanchez is requesting more funds for a clerk who could be shared between him and another constable. Sanchez is also asking for a pay raise for his deputy, and needs a brand new pickup — costing around $70,000 plus a $4,600 for a radio installation — for the deputy.
Ransom Canyon Children's Library
While not the head of a county department, the head of the City of Ransom Canyon's Children Library requested to speak to the commissioners, and she was requesting an increase in the allocated funds.
The library is requesting $10,000 in funds to help support the children's library.
In addition, the heads of the county's audit, judicial compliance, county purchasing, Texas A&M AgriLife County Extension, district clerk and law library offices all presented flat budgets with minimal increases or requests.
What people can look forward to tomorrow is that the commissioners and the county judge will present their individual budgets and the commissioners' court budget as a whole.
The first day of five conscutive days of budget hearings was filled with what one would expect budget hearings to be like moving forward as the commissioners craft the preliminary framework of the 2026 budget.
However, that is until a very lively debate broke out amongst the commissioners about where the hold up is on restoring the public's access to certain records required under state law.
It was finally settled that the discussion should be taken up at a later time and date to better address the issues at hand. Other than the brief diversion, here are the five department heads from today's meeting and their budget requests.
Lubbock County's District Attorney's Office
While coming in with a flat budget request, there are a few items Lubbock District Attorney Sunshine Stanek did request the commissioner to consider granting:
Three new positions requested: a legal assistant, an investigator and an appellate attorney.
A 6.5% pay raise for all attorneys to help with retention rates, which would take the starting pay from $80,000 to $85,000 to be more consistent around the state.
COLA request.
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Lubbock County Tax Office
Also coming in with a flat budget, the tax office is requesting funding for four more positions within the office as the workload has increased. The office also told the commissioners they are on the waiting list to receive another retired vehicle from another county department to help replace the current vehicle it has.
Justice of the Peace for Precinct 1
Justice of the Peace Betty Dills also presented a flat budget with the following requested items:
COLA request for staff and merit raise request for two clerks.
$550 for law books to replace outdated ones.
A $700 decrease for association membership dues/fees.
Dills received praise from the commissioners for making do with a small budget and requesting things she thought were necessary.
"If we don't need it, why have it," Dills replied to their praise.
Juvenile Justice Center
The requested budget is just over $8.6 million, with the food budget seeing an increase due to rising costs.
County Clerk
County Clerk Kelly Pinion also requested a flat budget with no additional requests. Pinion is also on board with bringing back merit-based raises, saying she likes to pay hard workers a little extra over those who just do the bare minimum.
In contrast to Monday's discussion-packed session, this day was lighter, but the topics were just as important.
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The commissioners heard from Public Works and Roads and Bridges departments with the key requests:
The county's Public Works department is requesting a $50,000 budget increase for contract services, which covers jobs the county is not equipped to handle.
When it comes to the Roads and Bridges department, some aspects are decreasing while others remain flat or at a slight increase. However, staff is requesting a 26% increase in operating budget with an overall $3.9 million increase to the department budget.
Commissioners must also decide which county roads will be included in the 2026 budget and which ones will be delayed.
On that same note, the commissioners are interested in addressing the county's Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) roads in each precinct. After the discussion, they came to an understanding that each one will need to be addressed individually to fit the needs of the precinct.
After the discussion, the commissioners convened for an executive session. The commissioners are set to meet again next week for further talks after canceling Wednesday's meeting due to conflicting schedules.
Day one was jam-packed with discussion and the commissioners hearing a Lubbock County Sheriff's Office request for more deputies and facilities staff for its aging buildings. Here's a quick breakdown of their requests:
Sheriff's Office
Comprises around 40% of the county's budget.
Requesting four deputies to be stationed full-time at University Medical Center, where inmates are taken for medical treatment. This is to offset the thousands of overtime hours billed each year, which is how those positions are currently being funded/staffed.
Create two compliance deputy positions to help enforce the game room ordinance and other regulatory measures currently enforced by patrol deputies.
Requested additional funds to help prevent wage compression in the department to retain current personnel and offer incentives for promotions within the department.
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County Facilities
Big takeaway — a push not to put off maintenance on county infrastructure. Lubbock County is facing millions of dollars in needed facilities maintenance.
Staff is requesting around a $1.1 million increase to its general operating budget.
Currently, staff classify two buildings — the Courthouse Annex Parking Garage and the Facilities Maintenance Parking Garages — as being in very poor condition, so much so that there are talks about building a new courthouse garage because it would cost more to repair the existing structure.
Staff is also raising notice that the Sheriff's Office Garage is also on the same trajectory as being labeled very poor by 2032 if repairs are not made.
County staff is asking the commissioners to approve several proposed projects in 2026 to prevent the current infrastructure challenges it faces.
On a better note, staff is saying that the new Texas Anti-Gang Unit Center and the new Medical Examiner's Office should be operational in the next few months. The latter is forecast to be ahead of schedule and under budget.
Precinct 4 Constable
The constable for precinct four is requesting the commissioners to fund a deputy constable position. Constable Joe Pinson told the commissioners that while having a deputy would help double his office's productivity, the request for the new position is mainly for safety and security reasons.
Pinson recounted several recent events where he was personally attacked when serving writs to individuals and said the deputy would help cover his back in those situations.
Other Notes
Notably, what was not on the agenda today was candid discussions between the commissioners and County Judge Curtis Parrish with county staff to start determining the cost of giving a 3% Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) to all staff.
There was also a brief discussion on revamping the merit-based raises that the commissioners froze this past year. While most of them liked the ideas, each in their own way said they had issues with how the raises would be given equally, prompting an agreement to further discuss the matter later.
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Finally, there are differing opinions on how much of a COLA should be given to elected officials. Commissioner Cary Shaw refused to consider it at first. However, other commissioners clarified that the increase would include other elected officials besides the court, such as the tax assessor, justices of the peace, constables, and more.
Shaw warmed up to the idea and sided with the other commissioners on a proposed 2% COLA increase for elected officials, noting he could elect to forego the raise, like some do.
But not everyone was on the same page. County Judge Parrish proposed a 3% COLA increase, with commissioners evaluating every elected official's pay to see if a higher percentage is needed to ensure it has been adjusted to the current economic climate.
The Lubbock County budget workshops are open to the public. Individuals can attend them on the 5th floor of the Lubbock County Courthouse or online.
Commissioners are set to meet again at the following start times this week:
8:30 a.m. on June 24.
1:30 p.m. on June 25.
8:30 a.m. on June 26.
8:30 a.m. on June 27.
Mateo Rosiles is the Government & Public Policy reporter for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Got a news tip for him? Email him: [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Lubbock County hosts budget talks for 2026 tax, revenue and expense