Overview
- A nine-member Salary Grievance Committee voted 6-3 on Thursday to recommend a 30% pay increase for Harris County Treasurer Carla Wyatt, raising her pay to about $181,411 from roughly $139,547.
- Wyatt initially filed for $250,000 and during the hearing formally moved to seek $305,000 so her pay would match other countywide officials, and she argued she should be paid like those elected countywide.
- Commissioners Court is not required to accept the committee’s advisory recommendation and previously approved $305,000 raises for many countywide officials while excluding the treasurer from that slate.
- County leaders contend the treasurer’s duties have been narrowed by technology and by a recent transfer of a key fraud-prevention tool after staff failed to stop fraudulent checks, and they are pursuing a formal abolition path that would need two-thirds approval in both Texas legislative chambers followed by voter approval.
- The hearing drew criticism because the panel was quickly assembled from a grand juror pool with little preparation, and Wyatt faces a separate DWI charge in Galveston County and previous arrests that have heightened political scrutiny as commissioners consider the next steps.