Cooke County OKs one-time payout for EMS and sheriff dispatchers amid staffing shortages

Cooke County Commissioners Court voted to authorize one-time payouts to cover accrued vacation and holiday hours for EMS and sheriff dispatchers who could not take scheduled time off because of staffing shortages.

The court approved the EMS payout after commissioners described a staffing shortfall that prevented employees from taking time off. Speaker 8 said, “The easiest just to pay it,” while Speaker 3 urged leniency for employees who did not have staff coverage, saying, “I just feel like if they didn't have the staff to be able to take off, ... I can justify why I'm saying it.” Commissioners described the EMS instance as one-time and special; the motion passed 4–0 with one member absent.

Sheriff's Office leadership reported parallel staffing challenges. The sheriff (Speaker 9) noted “about 300 hours on the law enforcement side of the building” and “8 vacancies in patrol,” and recommended pay rather than carrying hours forward because carryover would create future overtime costs. The court approved the sheriff's office dispatchers payout on the same one-time-special-instance basis; that motion also carried 4–0 with one absent.

The court emphasized the payouts were not intended to set an ongoing precedent. Commissioners asked departments to encourage use-it-or-lose-it scheduling where possible and noted the payments were granted because staffing shortages—particularly in dispatch, where few candidates can staff those seats—made time-off scheduling infeasible.

The motions and roll calls are recorded in the court minutes; the EMS payout discussion cites specific hour totals for affected employees (one employee with about 41.5 hours owed and another with about 8 hours). The sheriff said these staffing gaps are contributing to added hours on the law-enforcement side of operations.

The court did not indicate a separate funding source; commissioners did not alter the budget at the meeting. The next step is implementation by county payroll and the affected departments to process the one-time payouts.