By Juan Montoya
About the most notable aspect of the public meeting held Thursday to allow a salary grievance committee to decide whether to approve the request of nine Cameron County justices of the peace for a 10 percent raise was...the missing voice of the public.
A half dozen people who arrived to voice their opposition to the JPs' request were told that they would not be allowed to address the nine committee members or to pass on a fact sheet outlining the reasons they opposed the raises.
Posted as a "public meeting" by Cameron County Judge Pete Sepulveda last Aug 29, participation was limited to a PowerPoint presentation by JP 2-2 Jonathan Gracia – the only lawyer among them – and a personal introduction and plea for approval of their request by the nine JPs.
"This meeting is not about money," he told the committee members, as he set about justifying the reasons why they should award them the raises.
Sepulveda did not include an item on the agenda for the public to address the committee members. The committee was composed of nine members of the jury pool chosen at random by the office of the Cameron County District Court.
At the end of the deliberations, only one of the nine – JP 5-1 Sally Gonzalez – was denied unanimous approval of her request.
Those whose request for a 10 percent raise to their base salary of $47,172 ($4,717) was granted by the committee were JP 1-1 Benny Ochoa, JP 2-1 Linda Salazar, Gracia, JP 3-1 Guadalupe Ayala, JP 3-2 David Garza, JP 4-1 Juan Mendoza Jr., JP 5-2 Eloy Cano, and JP 5-3 Mike Trejo.
JP 2-3 Mary Esther Sorola did not file a salary grievance.
The committees unanimous recommendations are binding on the commissioners court as they go about finishing work on the 2016-2017 budget.The commissioners will have the discretion on what to do in the case of Gonzalez. They could go along with the committee and give her only the 2 percent increase they approved for all county elected officials, with the exception of Pct. 2 commissioner a
Alex Dominguez who refused it. Or they could just turn around and give it to her as they finish out the budget process to make all the JP salaries uniform.
The handful of opponents at the meeting passed out the reasons for their opposition to the salary requests that included the number of wedding performed by each JP and that showed that if the additional income from performing wedding ceremonies was figured into the salaries of all of the JPs, all of the JPs are already getting more than the 10 percent they were requesting.
In the case of Salazar, the fact sheet indicated that she has performed 644 wedding so far in Fiscal Year 2015-2016. A ballpark estimate at $200 per wedding would indicate that she pocketed more than $120,000 for herself. Gonzalez racked up 228 weddings and is estimated to have made $45,600 from them aside from her salary. Under state law, JPs are allowed to keep any income they make from performing the wedding ceremonies and give nothing to the county.
Frank Martinez, the court's legal counsel, said that the rules did not require the public's input in the process. He said that the inclusion of public comments in regular meetings had been a recent development that did not include grievance committees.
With Gracia and the JPs making their pitch without dissenting voices from the public allowed to speak, it left some wondering why the committee had denied Gonzalez her request.
"She probably pissed off someone on the committee," said a member of the audience.
In his presentation, Garcia said that in the last budget year the commissioners had betrayed the agreement to give proposed 10 percent raises to the staff of the JP offices and given them a 4 percent increase instead. Instead of getting angry, he said dramatically, the JPs responded with "humility, respect and hard work."
About the most notable aspect of the public meeting held Thursday to allow a salary grievance committee to decide whether to approve the request of nine Cameron County justices of the peace for a 10 percent raise was...the missing voice of the public.
A half dozen people who arrived to voice their opposition to the JPs' request were told that they would not be allowed to address the nine committee members or to pass on a fact sheet outlining the reasons they opposed the raises.
Posted as a "public meeting" by Cameron County Judge Pete Sepulveda last Aug 29, participation was limited to a PowerPoint presentation by JP 2-2 Jonathan Gracia – the only lawyer among them – and a personal introduction and plea for approval of their request by the nine JPs.
"This meeting is not about money," he told the committee members, as he set about justifying the reasons why they should award them the raises.
Sepulveda did not include an item on the agenda for the public to address the committee members. The committee was composed of nine members of the jury pool chosen at random by the office of the Cameron County District Court.
At the end of the deliberations, only one of the nine – JP 5-1 Sally Gonzalez – was denied unanimous approval of her request.
Those whose request for a 10 percent raise to their base salary of $47,172 ($4,717) was granted by the committee were JP 1-1 Benny Ochoa, JP 2-1 Linda Salazar, Gracia, JP 3-1 Guadalupe Ayala, JP 3-2 David Garza, JP 4-1 Juan Mendoza Jr., JP 5-2 Eloy Cano, and JP 5-3 Mike Trejo.
JP 2-3 Mary Esther Sorola did not file a salary grievance.
The committees unanimous recommendations are binding on the commissioners court as they go about finishing work on the 2016-2017 budget.The commissioners will have the discretion on what to do in the case of Gonzalez. They could go along with the committee and give her only the 2 percent increase they approved for all county elected officials, with the exception of Pct. 2 commissioner a
Alex Dominguez who refused it. Or they could just turn around and give it to her as they finish out the budget process to make all the JP salaries uniform.
The handful of opponents at the meeting passed out the reasons for their opposition to the salary requests that included the number of wedding performed by each JP and that showed that if the additional income from performing wedding ceremonies was figured into the salaries of all of the JPs, all of the JPs are already getting more than the 10 percent they were requesting.
In the case of Salazar, the fact sheet indicated that she has performed 644 wedding so far in Fiscal Year 2015-2016. A ballpark estimate at $200 per wedding would indicate that she pocketed more than $120,000 for herself. Gonzalez racked up 228 weddings and is estimated to have made $45,600 from them aside from her salary. Under state law, JPs are allowed to keep any income they make from performing the wedding ceremonies and give nothing to the county.
Frank Martinez, the court's legal counsel, said that the rules did not require the public's input in the process. He said that the inclusion of public comments in regular meetings had been a recent development that did not include grievance committees.
With Gracia and the JPs making their pitch without dissenting voices from the public allowed to speak, it left some wondering why the committee had denied Gonzalez her request.
"She probably pissed off someone on the committee," said a member of the audience.
In his presentation, Garcia said that in the last budget year the commissioners had betrayed the agreement to give proposed 10 percent raises to the staff of the JP offices and given them a 4 percent increase instead. Instead of getting angry, he said dramatically, the JPs responded with "humility, respect and hard work."
Gracia said that local JPs participation in some state initiatives would allow their courts to surpass the $1,668,903 in fines they were projected to earn for fiscal year 2016. His presentation indicated that the revenue collected so far as a result stands at $2,068,884.
“It caught us off-guard completely, but we are still extremely pleased that they saw it our way,” Gracia told the local daily after committee's vote.
He did not comment about the $34-plus million in outstanding fines that have remained delinquent for years and are still on the books. Records indicate that his own precinct is carrying a $5.5 million total in uncollected fines.
One of the dissidents not allowed to speak said that Garcia's presentation had glossed over the fact that most JPs shun collecting the fines and find them politically unpopular and prefer instead to spend their time at their other jobs and performing lucrative wedding ceremonies.
“It caught us off-guard completely, but we are still extremely pleased that they saw it our way,” Gracia told the local daily after committee's vote.
He did not comment about the $34-plus million in outstanding fines that have remained delinquent for years and are still on the books. Records indicate that his own precinct is carrying a $5.5 million total in uncollected fines.
One of the dissidents not allowed to speak said that Garcia's presentation had glossed over the fact that most JPs shun collecting the fines and find them politically unpopular and prefer instead to spend their time at their other jobs and performing lucrative wedding ceremonies.