Primary Department: Institute of Forensic Sciences
Primary Department Head/Elected Official: Luis A. Sanchez, M.D.
Secondary Department: Choose an item.
Secondary Department Head/Elected Official:
Regular or Supplemental RCA: Regular RCA
Type of Request: Financial Authorization
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MWBE Contracted Goal (if applicable):
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Justification for 0% MWBE Participation Goal: N/A - Goal not applicable to request
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Justification for 0% Grant Indirect Costs Rate (if applicable): N/A - Not a grant item
Request Summary (Agenda Caption):
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Request for approval to spend currently allocated funding to provide 2% salary adjustment to Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences (HCIFS) employees as a means of encouraging staff retention and an increase in labor funding for subsequent fiscal years.
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Background and Discussion: As one of his last official acts as Executive Director, Dr. Sanchez would like to provide a minor salary adjustment of 2% to all HCIFS employees. Most HCIFS employees require specialized education and several months or years of in-house training to become competent in their position with the ability to work independently. Once employees reach that stage, they can easily transfer the skills they’ve acquired at HCIFS and their resulting position certification to a neighboring medical examiner’s office or crime laboratory. Based on feedback received at exit interviews, most HCIFS employees resign to accept positions at nearby government offices that offer lower caseloads and higher pay (sometimes much higher). To remain competitive, meet rising costs of living, and to ensure HCIFS staff know they’re valued, periodic salary adjustments are required. The last across-the-board adjustment for HCIFS employees was given in mid-2023. Since that time, there has been an increase in staff attrition. That attrition, compounded by the difficulty in hiring replacement staff, leads to longer testing / examination times, which causes delays in reporting information to HCIFS criminal justice stakeholders and the public. Providing competitive salaries to HCIFS employees is an important part of maintaining our required workforce levels long term. The adjustments for FY26 would be provided as of May 16, 2026, and would cost $336,000 (salary + benefits) for the remainder of the fiscal year. HCIFS can utilize vacancy savings to cover the additional cost for FY26. For future fiscal years, this increase will require additional labor funding of $970,000 ($791K for salary + $179K for benefits).
Expected Impact:
There will be a negligible impact in FY26, as the costs can be absorbed with current funding levels. There will be an added cost in future fiscal year budgets to continue accommodating this increase. The cost of not providing the increase will be greater, as it will mean increased attrition of trained staff, which leads to higher work loads for the employees who remain and the cost of recruiting, hiring, and training new staff, which all leads to slower turnaround times for autopsy reports and laboratory findings. This impact results in longer jail times for those who could be released based on HCIFS findings and more difficulty investigating crimes due to delays, there is also an impact felt by families who are waiting for information from HCIFS.
Alternative Options: The alternative is to forego salary increases for employees and face increased attrition rates from staff.
County Strategic Plan Goal: 1. Make Harris County safer and more just.
County Strategic Plan Objective: A: Reduce violent crime across the County.
Justice/Safety Initiative (Goal 1): A4: Improve safety through targeted pursuit of violent crime suspects.
Infrastructure Initiative (Goal 2): N/A
Economy Initiative (Goal 3): N/A
Health Initiative (Goal 4): N/A
Climate/Resilience Initiative (Goal 5): N/A
Housing Initiative (Goal 6): N/A
Additional notes related to the Strategic Plan: Also relates to Goal 1, Objective B, Reduce criminal legal system exposure that does not advance public safety, B4: Increase the jail deflection and diversion rate
Prior Court Action (if any):
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County Attorney’s Office Legal Review (for Harris County Code Items only) |
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Anticipated Court Date: 4/16/2026
Anticipated Implementation Date (if different from Court date): 5/16/2026
Emergency/Disaster Recovery Note: Not an emergency, disaster, or ARPA related item
Contact(s) name, title, department: Julie Prine, Chief of Staff & Chief Operating Officer, HCIFS
Attachments (if applicable): Fiscal Review Request form