Remarks by Chad Carpenter
124 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 5 of 5
- Play at 3:24:19
“So my request was to move his pay to 120. But as we talked about yesterday, it's really a great change, just a step change. And for a comparison, you have Bernie Fire Chief Emergency Management making 160 per year. We have our captain in comfort at the pay of 119 with plus benefits. That's with the regular pay overtime, which is part of emergency management or part of firefighters and paramedics basic plan package. Even the second in command firefighter over in comforts at $88,000 without benefits, which puts him, I believe, even more than what Brady's making. And he's the head of that…”
Commissioners Court · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 3:27:27
“And so this is again for the person. Well, I don't believe this county needs to keep growing with new employees to the number we've been doing year after year after year. Like I would rather pay department heads a fair rate, a competitive rate, and have them deal with their department and make it function.”
Commissioners Court · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 3:28:35
“We already raised an engineer's position by probably $30,000 just two years ago in one change. We raised our general counsel significantly to make sure that we provided the pay that was asked for to bring that person in.”
Commissioners Court · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 3:30:13
“What would we need to do as far as grade for Brady to make?”
Commissioners Court · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 3:52:24
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Commissioners Court · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 3:53:23
“Can I ask another question? Go for it. So what was that number that you?”
Commissioners Court · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 3:53:42
“So in the 500,000 you were talking about a minute ago, can you tell me where that is in this picture?”
Commissioners Court · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 4:02:17
“Okay. I'm still trying to raise Brady. I mean, I understand he's a department head. He's not another.”
Commissioners Court · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 4:18:26
“I want to, for the record, the call and sheriff. The county staff has never been taken care of as well as they are right now under this court. We did a $1.85 million increase just in county staff excluding the sheriff's office two years ago in one swoop. We added $1.85 million plus ongoing in extra expenses year after year to our overall payroll. The average county employee is making $84,000 per year with benefits. That needs to be well known with every person that works for this county. You can't go into the private sector and do a lot of jobs for small businesses and make even half of what…”
Commissioners Court · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 4:20:47
“I was trying to raise one person's pay, and now we're 27 people in, plus Brady. Now it's 28.”
Commissioners Court · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 4:21:23
“But we had plenty of that just now. My number was 120. I just threw it out there. But it went a long way away from what I was”
Commissioners Court · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 4:49:40
“Would you all do $200,000 towards it? You said it was $500,000? About $450,000. $200,000. Fair enough. Chapman, are you good with $200,000? Let's say yes.”
Commissioners Court · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 4:54:48
“No, Deb went down when she was transferred back into. Correct, and I think there's.”
Commissioners Court · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 5:05:30
“All right. How much do we have in our legal fund?”
Commissioners Court · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 5:05:34
“So we have money. $600,000 in the budget.”
Commissioners Court · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 5:05:39
“Okay. Okay. So I'm still a part-time, and we have money in our, I would like on some of the things that are pressing, if we can't get some of these things done, I'd like to use some outside help to get those cleared off of our desk.”
Commissioners Court · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 5:06:01
“I'm really worried about our bottom line at the end of the day, and I'm worried about our bottom line on the 10th of August on where we are financially.”
Commissioners Court · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 5:07:20
“Just money. So I feel like the government way is the most expensive way to do anything when it comes to development. As a business owner, I've built multiple buildings in this county. I would never even come close to spending $500 a foot on a commercial building. You're a builder in the past. What's a home going for now? A custom home, probably $300,000 to $400,000 a foot. I'd say probably around $300,000.”
Commissioners Court · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 5:08:10
“You just ask about homes. But in some respects, you don't have to build the Taj Mahal. I was going through some numbers. The $13,800 square foot building at $500 a foot was $6,900,000. So, I mean, if you jump that up to 20,000 square feet at 500, you're at 10 million and you have 10,000 square feet. What did we pick for the Burdick? 1.8.”
Commissioners Court · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 5:08:59
“We're going to be 10 million into this building when we're done.”
Commissioners Court · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 5:09:30
“3.9. So how much do we have set aside for this?”
Commissioners Court · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 5:11:20
“My worry is we're going to be at $17,000 and then we're starting to get into...”
Commissioners Court · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 5:12:33
“How much was the EMS center? I know I didn't ask that a minute ago, but wasn't that $3.5 million?”
Commissioners Court · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 5:15:46
“I'm not trying to tie this up, but the parking garage idea, I'm just looking at the whole thing. How many square feet was that going to create? Please, this is a... After looking at $10 million on the Burdick Center, I'm not going to shoot at anyone for any ideas.”
Commissioners Court · Jul 30, 2026