During the Commissioners Court meeting the court held a procedural public hearing before voting in favor of the request of District Attorney Shawn Dick to increase the budgeted salary amounts for three positions within the department.
Only Precinct 1 Commissioner Terry Cook, Precinct 2 Commissioner Cynthia Long and Precinct 3 Commissioner Valerie Covey were present during the meeting.
The DA’s office was not requesting an increase in its budget but a movement of money within the budget to accommodate higher salaries for employees that were internally promoted, said Ashleigh Koenig, county budget officer.
Koenig said the DA's office is still working within the approximately $4.7 million budget for fiscal year 2018-19. Within that department’s budget, the DA’s office has $3,188,980 for full-time employee salaries, Koenig said. The money was transferred within the salaries budget, she said.
“Every position is its very own line item, so if you’re exceeding the amount that was budgeted, we have to have a public hearing,” Koenig said, “Because when we adopted the budget, we said that position looks like this, and now we’re changing it.”
“We want to be transparent, and so we have a public hearing,” Koenig added.
The following position budgetary line-items were altered:
- DA lead victim assistance coordinator: $43,671 to $55,570
- DA felony prosecutor III: from $91,742 to $100,936
- DA felony prosecutor III: from $91,742 to $100,936
In other business:
The court approved the Williamson County Resolution for the Indigent Defense Grant Program for fiscal year 2018-19. The grant program assists the county in the implementation and the improvement of indigent criminal defense services in the county, according to the resolution.
