Bowie County deputies step closer to pay hike

NEW BOSTON, Texas—After spending a month collecting petition signatures to support an increase in sheriff’s office employee pay, deputies presented the petition and all 7,107 signatures Monday to Bowie County Commissioners Court.

Bowie County Chief Deputy Jeff Neal presented the petition and signatures to Bowie County Elections Administrator George Stegall’s office in order for the signatures to be verified.

For Bowie County, the petition, which required about 5,700 signatures to increase pay for deputies, included the names of five qualified county resident voters who will make up the petitioners’ committee that will negotiate with the commissioners court regarding sheriff office employee salaries. Negotiations will take place during next few weeks as commissioners continue to work on the Fiscal Year 2016-017 Budget.

The petition also states the proposed minimum salary for each rank, pay grade or classification and cites the effective date of the proposed pay increase.

The requested pay increase could add more then $478,000 to the county’s overall annual

budget for next year, according to figures released in late June.

Of the five committee members, four of them live in Texarkana, Texas, and one in New Boston. The Committee members include John Crisp, Steve Ledwell, Dr. Robert Fry and Fay J. Durant—all from the Texas-side. The fifth, Jane Skaggs, is from New Boston.

Stegall said the verification will take about a week and once the signatures are verified, commissioners can either adopt the proposed minimum salaries outright, make a counter-offer to the five-member committee or call for an election.

If commissioners choose to let voters decide, the only issue that may be submitted is whether the minimum proposed salaries should be adopted. Once this is decided, the proposal could then be placed on the Nov. 8 election.

If it’s left up to the voters, the ballot must provide for voting for or against the proposed salary increases, include the annual cost of the raises and whether or not the pay hikes would cause an increase in ad valorem property taxes.

Since early July, BCSO deputies have been asking county citizens to support efforts to increase their salaries to levels equivalent to those of the Texarkana, Texas, Police Department.

Research conducted back in June shows that the deputies are paid salaries amounting to 31 percent less than salaries paid to both the TTPD and Arkansas-side police.

Presently, the proposed pay raises would increase a starting deputy’s pay by about 8 percent. Staff with more tenure and higher rank would see higher increases.

The state requires a petition signed by a number of qualified voters equal to at least 25 percent of the number of voters who cast ballots in the most recent county-wide election. In the case of Bowie County that would be 2014.