Phone: (281) 342-6185
Fax: (281) 342-4798
Office of Emergency Management
Commissioners expected to upgrade pay in Emergency Management Office
By Cheryl Skinner - Originally published in the Fort Bend Star on Jan 14, 2009
After postponing an agenda item last week due to a misprint on the agenda and the hospitalization of Jeff Braun, Emergency Management Coordinator, County Judge Bob Hebert says he expects the court will agree to change the salary structure for Braun and several employees working under him this week.
Hebert said last week’s agenda item, which called for increasing Braun’s salary and giving him the status of executive manager, which gives the court greater flexibility in setting his salary, will be voted on this week. Last week the agenda referenced the increase but said the funds would come out of contingency. Usually contingency funds are used when an unbudgeted item is on the agenda.
However, according to Hebert, the money to increase the salaries of Braun and several other OEM employees was put in the 2009 budget and allocated to his office pending a review of the salaries.
"I have the money in my budget; it won’t come out of contingency funds. This was planned prior to the budget being finalized but a couple things like a major tropical storm and something called Hurricane Ike slowed down the process a bit," Hebert said.
He also noted that Danny Jan, who served directly under Braun, had accepted a newly created Emergency Management Division position with Sheriff Milton Wright.
Jan will be replaced by Lt. Alan Spears, a retired Department of Public Safety supervisor.
"I think when the smoke clears (from the changes) we will have an even stronger Emergency Management system in the county. We hadn’t gone back to redefine the job duties since the Adolphus (County Judge Jim Adolphus) era and with a 150% turnover rate in recent years for the county, it seemed time to look at that. We have become a training ground for a lot of people. I don’t mind as much when someone comes here and then accepts a better, higher paying, position in private industry but it bothers me when I learn someone left the county for a similar job with a county or city government at $15,000 higher yearly," Hebert explained.
Powered by the PIER System