Dear Rockwall County Commissioners,

I gotta hand it to you. You pulled it off. You voted yourselves the biggest government pay raises The Watchdog can remember.

It’s a grand heist. Almost as if you pulled up to a bank and robbed it.

Only you could give yourselves such big raises, and you sure did.

County Judge David Sweet who leads your commissioners’ court, voted himself a 24% pay raise. His salary bounces from $97,209 to $121,000.

Way to go, dude.

You other commissioners voted yourselves a 23% raise, with salaries ballooning from $77,766 to $96,000.

Perhaps your all-Republican county commissioners court is tired of being the smallest county in the state. You make up for it with pay raises as grand as your over-the-top courthouse, which looks more like a state capitol than a small county courthouse.

Watchdog Dave Lieber calls the Rockwall County Courthouse architecture over the top, just like the pay raises voted on by county leaders.

Sure, you had to take an hour’s worth of abuse at public meetings on the budget. You heard a few constituents beg you not to do this.

Your people had the nerve to complain that they don’t see raises or cost-of-living increases anywhere near 24%. Don’t they understand that government is different? You guys are special because you won an election or two. Such ingratitude by the people who gave you this honor.

So good job David Sweet, David Magness, Lee Gilbert and Dennis Bailey. Hope you enjoy that fat piece of the pie you swiped for yourselves while your constituents’ tax bills continue to rise.

The only one who tried to mess up your grand plan was Commissioner Cliff Sevier. What was the man thinking? He made a motion to lower the raises, but it was voted down with only Judge Sweet voting along with him.

But unlike the judge (who is not a real judge, but who carries the title under a weird Texas tradition), Sevier voted against the final budget which includes the raises. The judge was part of the 4-1 majority.

He tried

According to the Rockwall Herald Banner newspaper, Sevier said at a public meeting, “I received lots of mail and calls from residents saying that something should be done. I said I would try, and that’s what I did.”

Francis Gibbons, one of several residents who reached out to The Watchdog about your unarmed robbery, told me, “I do not think in my 40 years of my working life that I got a pay raise over 5% in any given year. I guess my property taxes will increase to fund the largess of the county governing body.”

Sure, y’all lowered your property tax rate, but you didn’t lower it enough to reach the effective rate, which would raise the same amount of money as last year.

Instead, you lowered your rate somewhat, but with rising property values, you’re still looking at an increase of $3 million more in revenues, the Herald Banner reported.

You had two choices. You could have given that money back to your taxpayers by lowering their property tax rate, or you could take advantage of the bonus and feather your own nests.

Way to go. Take care of the nest. Home is where the hearth is.

Not a raise, but an ‘adjustment’

I like the way you guys don’t call it a pay raise or a salary increase. You use the euphemism “salary adjustment.” The idea is that you must bring your salaries up to par, so you don’t lose good employees.

Only problem is, your salaries already were mostly up to par.

I hate to bring this up, but according to a salary survey by the Texas Association of Counties, when you compare Rockwall to counties of a similar size, your county was already in the top tier of salaries.

I understand that many of small counties where salaries are lower are not situated near big cities with a higher cost of living, as yours is. I also understand that next year the new property tax law will make it harder for governments to gouge their taxpayers. That’s why many governments are fattening themselves up now. Nice play.

‘No training ground’

Sweet told me in phone interview that Rockwall doesn’t want to serve as a training ground for employees who learn in Rockwall and then move on to other counties for higher-paying jobs. I get that, but there’s a flaw in the logic. The biggest raises went to the top elected leaders, and they’re not switching to another county.

Is your sheriff going to get trained in Rockwall and then become sheriff in Collin County? Of course not. (Actually. Rockwall Sheriff Harold Eavenson, who got a 23% raise, is retiring next year. This is good for his pension.)

What losers

Please don’t teach the other counties how to do it.

Commissioners in nearby counties didn’t give themselves big raises. They must be stupid.

In Dallas County, elected officials only get a 4% raise.

In Tarrant and Collin counties, commissioners only gave themselves a paltry 3% raise. In Denton County, it’s 5%.

What losers. They must have a conscience or something.

One more thing, you Rockwall boys are to be commended. You did indeed share the wealth. You’re not greedy only for yourselves.

A dozen more of your top job holders received double-digit raises.

Someone could suggest that you should tie future raises to reductions in property taxes. Show people you care about them, not about yourselves.

That’s a silly idea. Grab it while you can. And you did.

Sincerely, The Watchdog

Results of The Watchdog's open records request to Rockwall County. The first numeric column is last year's salary; the second shows the new salaries. (Rockwall County)

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The Dallas Morning News Watchdog column is the 2019 winner of the top prize for column writing from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. The contest judge called his winning entries "models of suspenseful storytelling and public service."

Read his winning columns:

* Helping the widow of Officer J.D. Tippit, the Dallas police officer killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, get buried beside her late husband

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