Even as Justice of the Peace 2-2 Jonathan Gracia was telling the local daily that the salary grievances by eight of his fellow JPs were not about money, he admitted that they were all asking for between $10,000 to $12,000 increases for themselves.
Instead, Gracia made it seem like he was going to represent the nine grievances (his included) as a matter of principle and standing up for the rights of their staff. But the fact of the mater is that none of the grievances say anything about increasing the salary of the workers at the JP courts.
The county commissioners on Tuesday approved a 2 percent increase for all public officials, except for Pct. 2 county commissioners Alex Dominguez who refused it and amended his motion to that effect and it was approved.
With that increase, the JP's $47,172 base salary was raised by $943 to $48,113. This does not include the $4,500 given each JP for a car allowance or the $960 for a cell phone which brings it to $53,173.
All other county employees are getting a 2 percent raise.
Those JPs not satisfied with the public official raise approved Tuesday and seeking a $12,000 salary increase from the salary grievance committee made up of nine members of the jury pool are:
Gracia, JP 2-1 Linda Salazar, JP 3-1 Guadalupe Ayala, JP 3-2 David Garza, JP 5-1 Sally Gonzalez, and JP 5-3 Mike Trejo.
Those requesting $10,000 are JP 1-1 Benny Ochoa, JP 4-1 Juan Mendoza Jr., and JP 5-2 Eloy Cano.
Of the 10 JPs in the county, only Mary Esther Sorola, JP 2-3, did not file as salary grievance. Both Gracia and Sorola took office January 1, 2015.
Their request for salary increases comes as the commissioners seek a way to deal with runaway medical insurance claims that have resulted in a $2 million shortfall for this fiscal year and a projected $3.5 million projected shortfall for 2016-2017.
"We have incurred medical claims that we hadn't budgeted for," said a county commissioner. "Now we have to find a way to make that up."
Among some of the hard choices that have to be made are whether to increase the medical deductible for the county's 1,712 employees and their 1,598 dependents from $500 to $750 and to increase the premiums on their medical coverage. Also on the table is whether to drop coverage on spouses or offer a base coverage without any frills and less county support.
"Either way it will be painful," said a county employee. "They give us a 2 percent raise and then raise the deductible by $250 and make us pay higher premiums.
A former county official said that the answer to the JPs' and the county's fiscal woes lies tight in the offices of the JPs themselves. For a long time, the official said, JPs have been content to go about making money off wedding ceremonies at an average of $200 a pop which they are allowed to keep while neglecting the fines due the county and state.
An auditor's report released last year (2015) shows that the 10 JPs are sitting on more than $34 million in uncollected fines and fees (see graphic.)
The courts are styled:101: JP Benny Ochoa
201: JP 2-1 Linda Salazar
202: JP 2-2 Jonathan Gracia (new)
203: JP 2-3 Mary Esther Garcia (new)
301: JP 3-1 Guadalupe "Lupe" Ayala
302: JP 3-2 David Garza (new)
401:JP 4-1 Juan Mendoza
501 JP 5-1 Sally Mendoza
502: 5-2 Eloy Cano
503: JP 5-3 Mike Trejo
The uncollected fines on the 134,390 cases totaled $34,767,302 in 2015.
Except for the efforts of Gracia, Salzar and Gonzalez, using overtime to try to work on the backlog, the amount keeps on rising by at least 15 percent each year. By that measure, even if the efforts of those three JPs, each year, the $34.7 million will increase by some $5.2 million yearly.
"Those three JPs couldn't possibly have collected $1 million, or even half of that," said the former official.
For example, from FY 2012 to FY 2015, the amount of uncollected fines increased by $12.3 million for the 10 courts, according to auditor's files. Those band-aid efforts by one or two JP offices cannot possibly make much of a dent on the growing delinquent fine total. In those two years alone the county's JPs have racked up a not-inconsiderable total of $12,337,360 in uncollected fines.
The JPs point their finger at the constables and the constables point the finger at the JPS.
Even though the county has a contract with Linebarger, Goggan. Blair to collect delinquent fines, the collection effort amounts to form letters that defendants often throw away.
About the only time that the county get to collect on the JP fines is when the defendant wants to renew their auto registration for license plates or to conduct a transaction requiring them to do business the office of the tax assessor-collector. Cities also have such "scofflaw" contracts with that office that show when they they owe traffic or other fines. But that is a once-in-a-year occasion and not a concerted ongoing effort to collect the delinquent fines, sources say.
Yet, during the time that the Tax Assessor-Collector's Office initiated the "Scofflaw" program, it is estimated that more than $5 million have come into county coffers.
"If there was a real, meaningful effort to collect just one half of the fines and let people know that the county was serious about this, then people might come in and take care of their obligations," said a county administrator. "As it is, people don't think twice about throwing their letters of notice in the trash. We owe it to the county taxpayer to collect some of these and prevent their taxes from going up."
Gracia said, for example, that he discovered boxes of unpaid tickets after taking office in January 2015.
“About 13,000 outstanding citations,” Gracia said. “You’re talking over a million dollars.”
Salazar told commissioners that there were some 3,000 warrants outstanding and that she needed the $8,000 to pay her staff to update her files and issue the warrants necessary to collect the dough.
To Gracia's credit, he used money from lapsed salaries in his office while Salazar asked for her staff's overtime pay to come from the general fund.
"If I was making that much from weddings, I probably wouldn't pay that much attention to a $75 ticket that I wasn't going to keep for myself," chuckled a county employee.
Salazar told commissioners that there were some 3,000 warrants outstanding and that she needed the $8,000 to pay her staff to update her files and issue the warrants necessary to collect the dough.
To Gracia's credit, he used money from lapsed salaries in his office while Salazar asked for her staff's overtime pay to come from the general fund.
"If I was making that much from weddings, I probably wouldn't pay that much attention to a $75 ticket that I wasn't going to keep for myself," chuckled a county employee.
13 comments:
If that much money is out there in unpaid fines and warrants somebody is not doing their jobs.Jp,or the dam constables need to get off their asses!
Ypou need to include the Constables names, for it is their responsibility to collect the past due fines. They need to quit hiding behind billboards in order to catch speeders and issue tickets. However they know when it is time for re-election, the guy they approach at his front door in order to collect on these outstanding fines, aren't likely to vote for them.
First Gracia uses the county contacts to get a list of people with warrants to send a letter offering his legal services. He obtained this list through the help of county employees. Then he goes and asks for a raise. What's next Jonathan? Do you want the county to pick up the tab for all of the secretaries at your office too? Geez
Another indication that our elected officials are not public servants, but are engaged in only benefiting themselves. These "public servants" are nothing more than "pubic slugs" and should be embarrassed to seek such outlandish benefits. Another view might be that they are issuing this pay debate as a threat to the county to give in to their desire to get a 10% raise for their employees. They have forged a "union" to threaten the county commission.
County judge should get on these constables for not doing their jobs for the tax payers
No, they knew what the salary was getting in there, greedy greedy.. I will not vote for them if they ever run again for re-election
hahahaha I laugh at ur ignorance
HOW BOUT YOU ALL TALK ABOUT HOW THE COUNTY JUDGE AND COMMISSIONERS SCREWED ALLLLLL OUR LAW ENFORCEMENT THEY GOT A 4% RAISE ITS A JOKE YET THEY GIVE THE ADMINISTRATORS AND COORDINATORS A 10% RAISE EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.... HMMM YET DAVID GARZA WANTS TO TALK ABOUT FAIRNESS HAHAHA WOW..... WHAT PEOPLE DNT KNOW IS THE JP"S STAFF WERE SUPPOSE TO GT THERE RAISE AND NEVER DID.. SO WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO THAT $$ SMH THATS WHAT U PEOPLE DNT SEEM TO UNDERSTAND... YET U HAVE DAVID GARZA AND BENAVIDES TALK ABOUT FAIRNESS THE HELL OUTTA HERE
How is the little prick Gracia doing overtime when he is never at the court
LINDA SALAZAR Need TO Retire she have to go,
Make these lazy bums bring in that FTA money from citations! There is millions to be collected and force those lazy constables to do their job!
There is much butthurt in this comment section.
Pubic slugs. I have never heard of such a thing. Fascinating.
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