Just a quick tip for anyone handling a salary grievance committee under sections 152.014-.016 of the Local Government Code:

When the county judge draws public members' names from the list of the previous year's grand jurors, go ahead and have him or her pick all of the remaining jurors as alternates--not just a few of them.

I learned this lesson the hard way when I had our county judge pick three public members and just three alternates. Out of those original six candidates, only eneded up being able to serve on the committee. We had to postpone the salary grievance hearing until after another commissioners court meeting, when the judge could pick the rest of grand jurors as alternates.