Constables Begrudge Increased Reporting Requirements

EL PASO — Constables who resist increased scrutiny from county commissioners could soon see their budgets decrease.

Commissioners say they need that information from constables to make effective, efficient budgets, but some constables say they don’t need to get hauled down to the courthouse and questioned.

“The issue here is that they haven’t submitted reports for one, two, three, four, five, six,seven weeks,” County Commissioner Dan Haggerty counted.

So Haggerty had his staff ask them why not.

“Here’s some of the responses — micromanagement, quarterly reports are enough, we’re elected officials,” he said.

That launched a chorus of protest from other officials.

“All we’re doing it asking for documentation to see whether that staff is being utilized,” said County Auditor Ed Dion.

“We told them that we needed that information… at that time they agreed to it,” said County Judge Anthony Cobos.

Whether they agreed to it or not, County Commissioner Anna Perez says it’s more of an obligation than just an agreement.

“Elected officials are not a private enterprise that can say to a public agenda, ‘none of your business’,” she said.

But Assistant County Attorney Lee Shapleigh told commissioners there’s not a lot they can do if constables won’t come before the court: “They all agreed to it then andI don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect them to uphold their end of the bargain.”

“But,” she continued “you can certainly remember that next budget time.”