As Cameron County Commissioners Court continues to work on its 2022-2023 fiscal year budget, they learned of added expenditures that will be included in this year’s budget.
One of the added expenditures deals with what the county pays to feed the inmates in the county’s jail system.
This expenditure increased by $1.9 million. County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr. questioned why the increase was so much, during Tuesday’s Cameron County Commissioners Court meeting where the commission discussed the budget.
“Why is there such an increase?” Trevino asked.
Xavier Villarreal, deputy county administrator and budget officer for the county, explained that during the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, the jail was no longer able to provide trustees to help distribute the meals to the inmates.
“The company at the time had to bring in additional staff in order to provide that service and so they had to increase their price per meal,” Villarreal said.
Trevino asked if the trustees were made available or utilized if that nearly $2 million figure could be adjusted, to which Villarreal replied yes. “Within that contract there would be subject to re-negotiation of the price if the sheriff’s office, the jail is able to provide inmate staffing to help with the serving of those meals,” Villarreal said.
The county is facing a deficit of $5million due to revenue from the courts, rise in gas costs, insurance cost, and the loss of housing federal inmates with the county’s jail system, which Tuesday was estimated at $2.6 million and $900,000 in projected losses from the justices of the peace courts.
Several department heads attended last week’s Commissioners Court meeting seeking either additional employees or raises for their employees.
On Tuesday, several justices of the peace attended this week’s meeting also seeking pay increases for their employees.
Jesus Garcia Jr, justice of the peace Precinct 3, Place 1, said he believes the salaries of employees who work for the justices of the peace should be adjusted, as well as other county employees.
“I ask you guys to renew your minds to make the salaries of our people the priority and to make what is good and acceptable. Wouldn’t it be great …for every single county employee to say, ‘I love working for the county, for Cameron County because they take care of us’,” Garcia said.
County budget talks will continue through the rest of the month.
