David Stout has the unique distinction of having voted for all five salary increases for the El Paso County Commissioners Court since assuming office in January 2015, increasing his own pay from $62,680 to $133,467, a total of 113%.
Sergio Coronado assumed office in January 2023 and voted for a salary increase only seven months later, as if he already deserved one.
Both commissioners were thrown out of office by their constituents during the March 3 Democratic primary, in part because of their greed.
This past August 10, during salary discussions under agenda item 12A, the County Judge and Commissioners voted 3-2 to exclude themselves from a 4.0% salary increase. Stout and Coronado dissented, effectively voting against salary increases for other County employees. See the County YouTube video starting at 4:42.
We opined that “it is truly amazing that Stout and Coronado had the temerity to vote against salary increases for County employees simply because they themselves were denied a salary increase of $5,338.”
STOUT FIRES BACK
One week later, on August 17, Stout took aim at the El Paso Taxpayer Revolt (though he declined to cite us by name), lamenting the spread of “misinformation” regarding his vote.
He explained that the salary increase that was voted down by his colleagues would not have gone into effect until January 2027, after he and Coronado left office, and thus the two men could not have benefitted financially.
We thought that was obvious, but Stout and Coronado were concerned the public might think they sought to line their pockets, so they commented at length under agenda item 13A.
How could we think such a thing after Stout voted to increase his own salary by 113% while in office and Coronado voted himself a raise after only seven months at the job? 😂😂😂
Truth be told, we do not know why they voted against denying themselves a salary increase. Perhaps they wanted to normalize their previous votes for salary hikes in order to convince us that giving themselves raises is a kind of fiduciary duty…
In any case, we stand by every word of our August 10 report and invite you to watch Stout and Coronado lash out during the August 17 meeting.
Bring popcorn.