Hidalgo County commissioners approve plan to cut 26 Precinct 1 positions

EDINBURG — Twenty-six Precinct 1 positions were targeted for elimination Tuesday following an audit of the precinct’s personnel structure.

Among the positions identified as potential cuts during an audit by the county’s legal counsel were two directors of operations who were paid more than their direct supervisor; a call center manager whose annual salary was budgeted at $55,000; and the entirety of the precinct’s human relations and safety departments.

County commissioners asked McAllen law firm Atlas & Hall to conduct the audit when former Precinct 1 Commissioner Sylvia Handy resigned two weeks ago after pleading guilty to felony tax fraud and conspiracy charges.

Among other problems, commissioners pointed to 37 employees in Handy’s precinct with an annual salary of more than $40,000. Each of the county’s three other precincts averages 17 employees who make that much.

The county needed to reduce the workforce in Precinct 1 — which employs about 120 people — to create an efficient and effective operation that can respond to the needs of constituents, said Hidalgo County Judge Rene Ramirez. Handy’s former precinct, which has the highest number of employees among the county’s four precincts, was spending 71 percent of its roughly $6 million annual budget on salaries, leaving little left over to purchase construction materials and provide services.

“We had to cut back,” Ramirez said after the Hidalgo County Commissioners Court approved the reduction in force on Tuesday. “The precinct has no money for operations.”

The positions targeted for elimination range in salary and titles, from a community liaison in sanitation to an inventory coordinator to a position labeled as “vector.”

Although many listed on the two-page sheet provided to commissioners came with the titles “supervisor,” “coordinator,” or “manager,” they were usually not performing any administrative functions, said Valorie Glass, a board-certified attorney in labor law who led Atlas & Hall’s audit. But the positions were classified and received salaries commensurate with administrative, supervisory or director functions.

Many of the positions recommended for elimination in the audit can be created under a new classification and salary. Atlas & Hall recommended 15 new positions be created with titles such as laborer, office clerk and field mechanic.

Decisions on the creation of any new positions will be left to the precinct’s interim commissioner, A.C. Cuellar, who takes the oath of office today.

But the decision on the fate of the 26 positions recommended for elimination will be left to the county’s Civil Service Commission, which is set to take action on the court’s recommendation at a special meeting scheduled for Friday.

If the commission approves the recommendation, all 26 positions will be eliminated — resulting in the termination of the employees in those positions. About 10 of the positions recommended for elimination were vacant.

Precinct 4 Commissioner Oscar Garza said during the Commissioners Court meeting that the reduction in force brings Precinct 1 in line with the county’s other precincts in its staffing and salaries.

But Steve Crain, who serves as the county’s legal counsel, said the primary reason for the cutback is to bring the precinct in compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act — the federal law that establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping and youth employment standards affecting employees in the private sector and in federal, state and local governments. Crain noted his law firm had found numerous legal problems with the precinct’s administrative structure.

“Most of the positions that have been recommended to be cut are being cut solely for legal reasons,” Crain said. “What the job description calls for is not what the person was actually doing.”

The precinct is expected to save close to $1 million in salary and benefits if the Civil Service Commission approves the Commissioners Court’s recommendation.

Some of those savings will be lost if the new commissioner decides to create new positions. But other positions deemed unnecessary — such as the precinct’s human resources and safety positions — will likely disappear forever since countywide departments already handle those tasks.

Lorie Ochoa, who was first hired to be the precinct’s human resources manager but later took over as chief administrator, said the “Commissioners Court sent a clear message that there needed to be cleaning up.”

“The cuts were not tied to the employees’ job performance. They were all tied to personnel structure,” Ochoa said. “We had too many employees in positions that created redundancies.”

Recommended Reduction in Force and Reorganization Plan for Precinct 1

Jobs or positions eliminated

1)      Director of operations (drainage)

2)      Director of operations

3)      Budget manager

4)      Parks director

5)      Call center manager

6)      Safety director

7)      Safety coordinator

8)      Right-of-way director

9)      Human resources manager

10)    Human resources clerk

11)    Community Development Block Grant coordinator

12)    Colonia Access coordinator

13)    Community liaison in sanitation

14)    Administrative assistant in Road and Bridge (budgeted at $50,669)

15)    Construction manager

16)    Assistant construction manager in drainage

17)    Contracts manager

18)    Accountant

19)    Administrative secretary in budget

20)    Inventory coordinator

21)    Park coordinator

22)    Coordinator in sanitation

23)    Administrative assistant in shop

24)    Assistant field operations in Road and Bridge

25)    Maintenance supervisor in Road and Bridge

26)    Vector

Positions to be restructured

1)       Drainage/construction manager becomes foreman

2)       General foreman in Road and Bridge becomes the director of Road and Bridge

3)       Special projects coordinator becomes sanitation manager

4)       Mechanic II in shop becomes shop foreman

Jobs that can be created

1)       Budget coordinator

2)       Office/clerk receptionist (call center operator)

3)       Inventory clerk

4)       Laborers in drainage and construction

5)       Heavy equipment operator II in parks (two positions)

6)       Truck driver II in parks (two positions)

7)       Office clerk/permits in sanitation

8)       Mechanic III in shop becomes shop foreman

9)       Field mechanic in shop

10)    Truck driver I in shop

11)    Road and Bridge manager for maintenance, mowers and patchers

12)    Road and Bridge manager for construction and pipe installation

13)    Materials management

14)    Maintenance foreman in Road and Bridge

15)    Traffic safety specialists (two positions)