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Commissioners delay decisions on constable vehicles
Travis County commissioners voted unanimously this evening to reduce the number of members of a committee that will review the county’s vehicle-use policy, among other charges to be decided next week.
Also next week, commissioners will decide who will serve on the committee. County Judge Sam Biscoe said earlier in the Commissioners Court meeting that he wanted six or seven people to serve on the committee instead of its current membership of 25 to 30 members.
“I think what we need to do is revisit policies we put in place more than a decade ago,” Biscoe said.
Next month, the commissioners will decide how to equip constable vehicles.
The 2010 budget includes money to buy 17 constable vehicles to be distributed among the five constable offices in the county, Rodney Rhoades, executive manager of the county planning and budget office, told commissioners.
But equipping them like the sheriff’s department vehicles would cost about $37,000 per vehicle, a cost that includes a camera system, lights and sirens. If the county paid $28,000 per vehicle — the amount the county currently pays for a constable vehicle — the vehicle would not include those law enforcement-related items.
Currently, some constable vehicles have cameras paid for by grants and that are several years old, a constable official told commissioners.
Rhoades said that if the replacement policy for county vehicles, including constable vehicles but excluding sheriff’s vehicles, changed to every six years and 90,000 miles, it would cost $4.1 million more than the current policy, a cost that does not take into account maintenance costs.
Comments
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By Billy T
October 20, 2009 8:53 PM | Link to this
Make them supply their own vehicles. Lousy freeloaders.
By flitcraft
October 21, 2009 6:21 AM | Link to this
A brand new Chevrolet Cobalt costs only $15,000 retail, as a fleet purchase there would be even more savings… but at this price the county could get 31 vehicles (almost twice as many) for the same price they were planning to spend on 17 vehicles…
but that would STILL be spending $476,000 on vehicles. The Constables should have to cut-back on expenses like the rest of society during these lean times. There is absolutely no reason for a Constable to have a state-of-the-art urban-assault vehicle to deliver court process. Maybe they would require GPS trackers though so we could keep track of where these vehicles go.
Purchasing the smaller vehicles would also save on fuel costs as well as reduce smog emissions and other environmental considerations. What about alternative-fuel vehicles for the court process deliveries? Constables going-green seems logical for this enviro-friendly liberal county, surely your Democratically elected constable heroes can agree to this stipulation? doubtful.
Cost savings plus enviro-friendly vehicles is a win-win for the county tax-payer… we do not need additional forces on the street. We have a police department and a Sheriff’s department to handle public safety.
Finally, in an earlier article on this subject a Constable mentioned that they wanted to spend “their” salary savings on these vehicle upgrades. If any gov’t entity has budgetary savings from either 1) not hiring the people they had budgeted for, or 2) by not paying the people they hired the amount they had budgeted to pay them, they should be required to return the savings to the general county fund. ANY SAVED MONEY DOES NOT BELONG TO THE CONSTABLE… this is the tax-payer’s money… Mr. Constable… please do not get it twisted!
By ezee
October 21, 2009 7:43 AM | Link to this
The constables that I saw testify were all 30 to 50 lbs overweight. They should be issued bicycles to deliver their papers and stuff. This would be a win..win for the taxpayers the environment and constables themselves who would receive an exercise health benifit.