The Attorney General of Texas 

January 31, 1980 

MARK WHITE 

Attorney General 

Honorable Bill M. White 

Criminal District Attorney 

Bexar County Courthouse 

San Antonio, Texas 78205 

Dear Mr. White: 

Opinion No. MW- 13 6 

Re: Vacations for jailers in Bexar 

County. 

You have asked us to determine the law governing the allowance of 

vacation time for sheriff’s deptities assigned jail guard duty at the Bexar 

County jail. 

Article 1041b, Code of Criminal Procedure, specifies, in part: 

Every member of the sheriff’s department assigned to 

duty as jailer, jail guard, or jail matron at any county 

jail in any city of more than twenty-five thousand 

(25,000) inhabitants shall be allowed fifteen (15) days 

vacation in each year with pay. 

You suggest this statute conflicts with the authority conferred upon the 

commissioners court by article 2372h, V.T.C.S. 

The latter statute, enacted several years later than article 1041b, 

provides that commissioners courts in counties having a population of 

500,000 or more shall have authority to formulate rules and regulations 

governing the hours of work, sick leave, medical care, and vacations, among 

other things, for certain county officers and employees, including deputy 

sheriffs. Section 1 of article 2372h clearly states: 

. . . but all such regulations with~respect to deputies 

. . . shall conform to laws now in effect or as may 

hereafter be enacted by the Legislature. . . . 

Article 1041b no longer controls, however. The enactment in 1971 of 

article 3912k, V.T.C.S., repealed every prior law to the extent it prescribed 

“the compensation, office expense, travel expense, or any other allowance 

for any official or employee” covered by the new statute. V.T.C.S. art. 

3912k, s 8. Deputy sheriffs acting as jailers are covered by article 3912k. 

Attorney General Opinion H-1161 (1978). cf. Attorney General Opinion 

P. 437 
Honorable Bill M. White - Page Two (NW-136) 

H-985 (1977) (deputy sheriffs not covered by civil service laws). Vacation benefits are a 

form of compensation. Attorney General Opinions H-941 (1977); H-51 (1973). See Coffman 

v. City of Wichita Falls, 374 S.W.2d 798 (Tex. Civ. App. - Fort Worth 1964=- 

Thus, to the extent that article 1041b purports to prescribe vacation benefits for sheriff’s 

deputies, it has been repealed. See Attorney General Opinion H-572 (1975). 

- 

Under the first section of article 3912k, the commissioners court has authority to fix 

the amount of compensation, office expense, travel expense, and all other allowances for 

such deputies paid wholly from county funds, provided that 

in no event shall such salaries be set lower than they existLed 

it* ;he effective date of this-Emphasis added). 

In the past, this office has made a distinction between the terms “compensation” and 

“salaries” as used in article 3912k, considering the former to be a broad term inclusive of 

the latter. Attorney General Opinion H-335 (1974). But vacation entitlement and sick 

leave benefits have been considered “salary.” Attorney General Opinions H-R42 (1978); 

H-860 (1976); M-1252 (1972). See Hairston v. Richie, 338 S.W.2d 263 (Tex. Civ. App. - 

Fort Worth 1960, no writ); Attorney General Letter Advisory No. 89 (1975). At the time 

article 3912k was enacted, the vacation entitlement of deputy sheriffs acting as jailers 

was set by article 1041b at fifteen days per year. 

Although the prohibitory proviso of article 3912k prevents the commissioners court 

from reducing the salaries paid at the time it took effect, it &es not prevent it from 

changing the form in which those salaries are paid Cf. Attorney General Opinion H-429 

(1974). Since articles 2372h, V.T.C.S., and 1041b, Coxof Criminal Procedure, no longer 

control the vacation policy of the Bexar County Commissioners Court with respect to 

deputy sheriffs serving as jailers, the commissioners court need not allow such deputies 

more vacation entitlement - a particular form of salary - than it allows others, so long 

as it &es not reduce the total value of their salaries below the total value of the salaries 

applicable to those positions when article 3912k, V.T.C.S., became effective on January 1, 

1972. Attorney General Opinion H-1142 (19’78). See Broom v. Tyler County Commissioners 

Court, 560 S.W.2d 435 (Tex. Civ. App. - Beaumont 1977, no writ). Cf. Renfro v. 

Shropshire, 566 S.W.2d 688 (Tex. Civ. App. - Eastland 1978, writ ref’d n,r.x 

We have not overlooked Attorney General Opinion H-1297 (1978), which concerned 

the construction of article 1041b, Code of Criminal Procedure. That opinion involved a 

more narrow question and did not address the relationship of article 1041b with article 

3912k. 

SUMMARY 

The Commissioners Court of Bexar County need not allow deputy 

sheriffs serving as jailers more vacation entitlement than it allows 

others, so long as it does not reduce their salaries (in whatever 

P. 438 
Honorable Bill M. White - Page Three (NW-136) 

forms such salaries are paid) below the salaries applicable to those 

positions when article 3912k, V.T.C.S, became effective. 

$-g?$/.$ 

Attorney General of Texas 

JOHN W. FAINTER, JR. 

First Assistant Attorney General 

TED L. HARTLEY 

Executive Assistant Attorney General 

Prepared by Bruce Youngblood 

Assistant Attorney General 

APPROVED: 

OPINION COMMITTEE 

C. Robert Heath, Chairman 

Jim Allison 

David B. Brooks 

Bob Gammage 

Susan Garrison 

Rick Gilpin 

Bruce Youngblood 

P. 439