I know the Dist judge has the authority to hire the auditor and set his salary....does that discretion apply to the employees of that office as well? ie. the number of employees, full or part-time, salaries etc.
thanks!
I think the aswer is yes, but wanting to get feedback.
Auditor wanting another employee but commissioners don't think it is necessary.

See Loc. Gov't Code sec. 84.021(a).

Was hoping "king of the loopholes" brumley would have a way around the statute on this one.

My kingdom is an illusory one. The problem with finding any loophole in this statute is the identity of the one who would be called upon to validate the escape clause. Though there may be exceptions, my experience has been that, in disputes between judges and other officials, the presiding judge tends to favor the familiar. I don't recall an AG opinion on point, but the opinions dealing with specified delegations similar to this one (juvenile boards come to mind) uniformly favor the entity with a closet for black robes over commissioners courts.

In this vein, I know District Judges can set the salary of their court reporters and then up to a 10% annual raise. This has caused some conflict from my County Judge-- since the court reporter is now the highest paid county employee. Yes even more than the assistant d.a.... by about 15k. The County Judge wants to know how far does a district judges power extend... is the raise automatic, can the commissioner's court refuse?
The case law that I saw (old cases from the '80s) seem to state that a district judge's order increasing the salary can only be contested if it is "extravagant, arbitrary, or unwarranted" The rest of the ocunty is scheduled to receive around a 5% pay increase, and now the highest paid employee will get a 10% increase. Unfair maybe, but I believe that it is legal and uncontestable, correct?

I may be going out on a limb here, but I believe that the reason we have seen no further development in the case law since those cases from the '80s regarding court reporter salaries is that we learned our lesson. Specifically, we have to consider who will be deciding the question of whether a court reporter's salary is extravagant. Unexceptionally, it will be someone who relies on a court reporter and deems the relationship between reporter and judge to be of sufficient import to carefully cultivate that relationship. That's all a long-winded way of saying that your evaluation seems correct to me. Abuse of discretion claims are extraordinarily difficult to sustain to a successful conclusion. These cases make that prospect even less likely.

When I first came to work in Tarrant I led several fights on behalf of the Commissioners that turned into contests against the black robed ones. The black robed ones treated me very kindly, like a small wayward child. While the Commissioners liked me when it was all over the black robed ones got the wins.