07/10/2025
Something to talk about.....
Why lack of funding could be detrimental to Caldwell County citizens
It’s a Sunday afternoon and you and your spouse are out enjoying the weather on your motorcycle. You’re in the most southern point of Caldwell County and suddenly a wild hog wanders onto the roadway. Your choices are to hit it or swerve to miss it, either one is not good for you and your rider, as you know you are going down and you do.
You are disoriented but able to make a call to 911 to report the accident. The clock starts ticking. They establish your location, but the dispatcher knows there are only two Sheriff patrol officers on duty. One is in Lytton Springs on a loose dog call and the other is addressing a serious domestic abuse incident. The officer located in Lytton Springs is the one most likely to respond. But he is 25 miles away. According to GPS that is 31 minutes away.
One minute, two minutes, five minutes, 10 minutes, 17.5 minutes pass you are laying there in pain and you have no idea how your spouse is because they are not responding and furthermore you can’t even see them. You are fading in and out and the pain is indescribable. Then you hear it, sirens off in a distance and you know help is coming. But is it too late?
Recently I visited the Caldwell County Sheriff Office (CCSO) and some of its staff members. Being newer to the area it is always an eye-opener to see how things work differently in local government. Initially I sat down with Sheriff Mike Lane for a conversation and was later introduced to a few staff members who were quite informative as well.
In any business, public or private, you are susceptible to scrutiny. Law enforcement is an entity that always has a target on their backs. CCSO is no different. Recently complaints have swirled about the service, staffing and response times that CCSO provides to the citizens in the county.
When Lane was asked if these things are valid concerns of the citizens, his response was a definitive “yes.” He said the major issues his department is facing is they are short staffed, and their response times are too long. “When the average response time is 17 ½ minutes, that’s not good.” The key word there being “average” as some calls may take longer to respond to than 17 ½ minutes. Some may take less but one can only imagine how long that feels when you are faced with a serious emergency. Those minutes can seem like hours. The national average response rate is 3 minutes. But for an area like Caldwell County 10 minutes is more realistic. Still too long for someone in danger but better than 17 ½ minutes.
Digging in a bit more, when asked why it is so hard to staff his department, Lane’s response was a clear “What we pay is not competitive enough.”
The CCSO budget calls for 4 patrol officers and one sergeant to cover over 500 miles of territory on any given shift. CCSO currently has two patrol officers and one sergeant. This factor relates directly to the response time issue.
Last year alone officers had 29,445 calls for service to respond to which calculates to 1,840 per officer or a call every hour per deputy per shift. But those calls are not all completed in that hour. The statistics are baffling when it comes to how many actual reports are wrote as well. In 2024 there were close to 2,600 reports wrote for those calls received.
So where do you begin to look for staff, I asked. “We take good correction officers from the jail unit that have shown strength and interest in advancing their career and send them to the academy to receive their training,” Lane stated. If they complete that training, they are then hired on full time basis with a 2 year payback clause stating that if they leave for any reason they must pay back the cost of the academy training. CCSO currently has two at the academy and one more going soon who will fill a K9 unit vacancy. Staffing patrol officers is not the only issue Lane and his staff is facing. They are also down a detective and animal control officers.
A seasoned law enforcement officer and Sheriff for the last 4 years, Lane has not been able to increase his staff. “When they can go to neighboring counties like Hays and Travis and make quite a bit more, that’s one thing. But when an officer can stay in the area and work for Lockhart Police Department, and make $5,000 more a year and get a sign on bonus then what incentive is there for an employee to come here?” Lane asked. “We need to get our pay scale in line with other neighboring departments or the service to our citizens will never be where it should be.”
With a county population of 52,430 and only growing, Lane expressed the urgency to fill the empty positions is crucial. When asked what happens if you cannot find staff to hire, one of two things happen Lane said, “One, we will have to contract from area departments and pay them overtime for every hour they work or two we continue to pay our guys their wage for their regular eight hours and then pay them time and a half for their overtime pay.”
Either option has one major factor to consider, the CCSO officer will be taking another shift which means he may have been on duty every day for 2 weeks to cover the empty slots. The same goes for contracted officers. They also have their own job they are covering and then add this to the mix, the possibility for burn out occurs much quicker and in turn the result could be the loss of another employee.
Implementing the option of contracting officers does not make fiscal sense. If you have a full-time CCSO officer making $29.32 per hour which equals $61,000 per year, and then you have to contract officers at the overtime rate of $43.98, the contracted officer or officers are making $91,478.40 per year to cover one of the budgeted officers’ salaries due to paying them the overtime wage. If the pay was raised to meet the average of the area departments of $68,000 a year, it seems rather obvious that the county would rather save $23,478 per year to give a $7,000 raise to the current officers CCSO have on staff. In addition, this would give the ability to be more competitive to attain more, much needed staff.
Benefits is another topic that was discussed that is lacking. “I have lost three deputies because of benefits and pay offered by other agencies, this year alone,” stated Lane.
There are ways for an officer’s pay to be supplemented. There is longevity pay which is $50 per year beginning after their third year.
With the 2017-18 budget, a clothing allowance was implemented to officers allowing them to buy things needed for their uniforms.
Another way to supplement an officer’s pay is through certification pay which allows for officers to be paid extra for special certifications they hold.
Lane is also pursuing the adoption of a “Step and Grade Pay Scale” which is typically found in union and government work environments. A step rate-compensation pay style presents the pay rate associated with each position and how it will increase incrementally over time (in steps). Currently this is not the case at CCSO. A twenty-year employee makes the same as a brand new employee, which ties back to the retention issues as well. Long term employees don’t feel their compensation grows with their hands-on work experience and a new employee doesn’t see an incentive for staying long term as there is no compensation for loyalty to a position. “We are a steppingstone to some employees,” stated Lane. If a step and grade structure is put into place, then an employee can see where longevity is rewarded.
Offering a tour of the facility, Lane explained the jail is 35 years old and they are quickly outgrowing the buildings they have. The CCSO has re-purposed different buildings to be able to use them for necessary offices or training rooms without having to add on to the current facility.
Currently the jail has a 253-bed capacity with a current population of 150 inmates. “A new jail is going to be needed eventually but for now my biggest issue is advocating for fair pay for my staff,” explained Lane.
Lane excused himself and allowed me to speak candidly with Jail Captain James Short, Cody Harrison, Criminal Investigations Division Lieutenant and Juan Villarreal, Captain of Support Services. They all three echoed Lane’s concern, “Higher pay is what we need to fill the open positions,” Villarreal stated. “We are just a springboard for employees to go somewhere else at this point. We need to pay people what they are worth.”
It was noted that some departed officers have left over the past few years to go to other agencies only to find out that the “grass isn’t always greener on the other side” proverb to ring true. Short can attest to this himself. “I left in 2007 and went to work in Austin for more money.
But the dislike of several things at that job made me see I wanted to come back in 2014 to CCSO because it was just a better fit for me. I was offered a better position and a raise, but I declined because I like my job at CCSO.
The patrol officers are not the only ones who are needing to be brought up to speed on salaries either. The jail staff also needs to utilize the step and grade structure as well. The jail staff retention parallels the patrol officer retention issues. Something Lane is trying desperately to amend by advocating for his staff.
A bad work environment was also questioned as a possible deterrent for old/new employees and Short, Harrison and Villarreal unanimously agreed that it is not the case. “Lane has brought the CCSO into a more modern era while offering advanced training opportunities,” one officer commented.
There has been a drone program that has been implemented to allow for the department to use drone footage as their “eyes in the sky” at festivals, crime scenes, etc.
Senate Bill 22 was passed two years ago which allows the CCSO to use up to $350,000 a year to buy equipment to enhance their department.
Cameras have been purchased and will be placed in areas where the highest call volumes occur. CCSO has also purchased Cellabrite, forensic equipment that allows the department to investigate their own cases involving cellular devices. Before these had to be sent to other agencies to be analyzed.
The Senate Bill money has allowed for the department to be able to be more efficient in investigations and filling the gaps to cover for those staffing shortages. So now what? The answer is easy, set a pay scale that allows CCSO to be able to attain and retain good employees. How is this done? Lane is proposing a budget to Judge Hoppy Hayden and the Commissioners Court with a price tag just under $1 million to be added to the CCSO budget to solve this problem. Broken down the proposed budget of $731,944 would go to increase the law enforcement division and $233,988 to the jail division. This would align the CCSO to be competitive and given the department the ability to gather a full staff to better serve the citizens that count on them to respond in less than 17 ½ minutes.
On Tuesday, Chief Deputy John Craigmile presented a prepared statement by Lane at the Commissioner’s Court first budget workshop as Lane was unavailable.
Craigmile stated, “We all have to work together to provide the best service to our citizens possible. The proposed budget would allow us to be able to do that.”
As budgets are work in process, the Commissioners counter-offered to fund approximately 50% or $500,000 of the requested funds with the compromise that the Senate Bill money be used to make up about 30% more of that but still lacking the total needed. The problem with using the Senate Bill money is that is already partially allotted for other things such as salaries.
When the option of using a portion of the $10.1 million in the county’s Rainy Day Funds for this was mentioned in Lane’s statement, Judge Hayden stated, “those funds are for incidents like what Kerrville is experiencing now.” Or in other words in case of an emergency. To that I ask isn’t the lack of adequate law enforcement an emergency? Isn’t the fact that we will be paying more for the same services to outside agencies to cover what we could do ourselves fiscally irresponsible?
B.J. Westmoreleand, Rusty Horne, Ed Theriot and Daryl Thomas all Caldwell County Commissioners will now have to make the what seems like an easy decision on if they will approve Lane’s budget. The deciding vote of the budget will be made at a future meeting that will be no later September 30, 2025. Lane has expressed that he would like to speak on his department’s behalf at a future meeting if allowed. These issues are something that he feels is necessary not only to his employees but to the citizens of Caldwell County.
