COUNTY COMMISSIONERS HEAR BUDGET INCREASE REQUEST
At this morning’s County Commissioner’s budget workshop meeting, Precinct 4 Constable Mark Kramer asked for an increase in salary and for the county to supply the Constables with vehicles. He said that supplying the Constables with vehicles would benefit the county in several ways.
Kramer is asking the Commissioners Court to make the salaries equal for all four of the county constables. Kramer says Precinct 2 Constable Carroll Butch Faske and his Deputy Constable are receiving more pay than the other three constables. Nelson Zibilski is the Constable for Precinct 3, and Ken Holle serves Precinct 1.
Washington County Justice of the Peace James McCune Jr. of Precinct 4 was at the meeting to support Kramer’s position. Judge McCune says the normal protocol for elected officials is same salary and common expenses like office rent and mileage compensation. McCune says that is not the case for Washington County’s four constables.
County Judge John Brieden stated that the current situation began back in the early 1990’s when Judge Dorothy Morgan was in office. At that time the Texas Attorney General’s office complained that papers from their court were not getting served in a timely manner. Judge Morgan was also at this morning’s meeting and explained that the Sheriff J.W. Jankowski did not want his deputies to handle the responsibility of serving court papers.
Currently most of the papers from County Court, District Court, and at Attorney General’s Court all go to Precinct 2 Constable and Deputy Constable William Shepherd. Judge McCune stated that these needed to be shared across all of the constables equally. Judge Brieden stated that he cannot trust that the papers would be served if that were the case. He pointed out that Constable Kramer had been budgeted funds for a uniform and bullet proof vest and he has yet to see either. Mark responded that some things had been ordered but had not come in yet. Brieden also stated that Constable Kramer did not follow through on some requests, pointing out that when asked to make the deposits for the county, Kramer did so for only a week and a half, and that Kramer was the only Constable to not participate in a hot check round-up.
The Washington County Commissioners are in the middle of the budgeting process for the upcoming year. Currently Kramer, Zibilski, Holle and Faske are each paid a $15,000 salary for their personal services. Shepherd, the civil warrant deputy assigned to Precinct 2, makes a salary of just under $44,000. Kramer says Faske’s salary is also supplemented by an $8000 office allowance for using his jewelry store as his office. None of the other constables are given an office allowance. There is also another line item in Faske’s budget titled “salary supplement” for an additional $10,113.
The total current 2014 budgets for the four constable positions vary only slightly for Kramer, Zibilski and Holle. Kramer’s is the lowest at just under $24,000. Zibilski’s is the highest at just over $27,000. Holle’s is right at $24,500. The total budget for Faske and Shepherd is over $117,000.
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I was born and raised in Washington County, spent 34 years in law enforcement . WC is my home ! On 4 occasions in my law enforcement career in WC, my life could have been taken. The worst one was having a gun to my forehead, the trigger pulled and the gun misfired and did not go off! I proudly serve the WC citizens and will continue to do so. I am here to do my job aside from WC politics. Conversations with Brieden in the past have been unproductive. He is living in the past and refuses to utilize all constables as WC as elected. It would appear all papers are being served by Pct 2 since they have arranged to have all Attorney General papers from the state sent to them! The numbers would be more in line if each Pct served the papers accordingly .
First let me state that I respect the service rendered by Constable Keamer and his peers and appreciate the risk involved with that type of work, however his written statement simply proves what I have been stating regarding the lack of efficiency in this system. If the majority of the papers can be served by the PCT 2 constable and his deputy, we do not need four constable and all the expenses that go with employing them. A process server reporting through and managed by the sheriffs office makes much greater sense.
With regard to the comment regarding the JP’s, this is another system that should be streamlined and managed better. All these separate pockets/fiefdoms of law enforcement add a lot of extra costs that would be better managed on a centralized basis. Also, as a JP’s primary responsibility seems to be managing the collection of revenues generated from traffic fines, it would seem this would be handled better in a centralized more secure environment.
Faske and Shepard are constantly working. The other Constables are non existent. If Kramer wants to get paid then he needs to start working. The constables all have similar uniforms; how is it he hasn’t bought his uniform and vest in 8 months in office. At a glance the pay disparity between the constables is unfair but when you see that Faske and Shepard serve 95% of the Civil paperwork in this county I don’t cry for Kramer. He did not complain about the lack of work only the lack of money he was receiving.
Pct 2 has ALL AG papers sent to his office. If they were dispersed properly among the Pct’s- the numbers would be more accurate per Pct. As stated, Judge McCune stated those papers should be dispersed equally at the very least to the Pct. they belong in. Taxpayers are paying Pct 2 deputy constable to serve all papers for Washington County. The difference in the number of papers served is the AG papers received from the state. Judge Brieden prefers to exclude 3 of the 4 constables as though they are non-existent. Numerous attempts have been made by Kramer to discuss this issue which has fallen on deaf ears. Kramer DOES have his uniforms and publicly displays them. It is a shame that a deputy constable is furnished a vehicle paid for by the county, makes more than the elected Pct 2 constable AND is allowed that County vehicle to be used for his personal security jobs! Kramer drives his own vehicle and only gets mileage.
When are we taxpayers going to wise up and demand our elected officials streamline this process. We are paying 4 people to perform a task that seems to be primarily done by one person. If one person and a deputy can do the job, why do we need four with all of their associated expenses. Lets do away with this antiquated system of constables, and hire a professional process server who reports through the sheriffs office. This will save a ton of money. Enough of this waste!
Or split the work equally among the four precincts/constables and let the full-deputy find a much more challenging position in law enforcement. County would save the cost of one full-time deputy, his auto and his office and the $10,000 Faske gets to supervise.
A very important detail in the meeting that was omitted in the above story was that Judge Roy May, Justice of the Peace Precinct Three said that there is historical precedent to equal pay. Judge May said “When I took office in 1996 Precinct One and Three had higher salaries than the other two courts.” He said, “It came up a couple of years later, when Commissioner David Simpson asked me, if I thought all the Justices of the Peace should be paid the same. Judge May’s response was, ‘That’s your decision.’ “That year One and Three got a little more in salary and Two and Four salaries came up quite a bit. It was based on workload at one time but that was changed in 1998 or 1999.” Judge May stated, “So this request isn’t without historical precedent.”
“Judge McCune stated that these needed to be shared across all of the constables equally. Judge Brieden stated that he cannot trust that the papers would be served if that were the case ” Wow Judge Brieden, are there any other elected officials that you have such Little confidence in?