SocraticGadfly: Yet another reason Texas needs to can constables

July 31, 2008

Yet another reason Texas needs to can constables

Amend the state constitution and delegate the jobs to sheriff’s deputies. We’ll save a bunch of money around the state on elections, and on reduplicative constables’ offices in metropolitan areas like here in DFW. And, we’ll get rid of budget-fluffing crap like here in Dallas County:
Civil deputy positions are funded based on the number of civil papers served. Under the county’s longtime staffing formula, constables get one officer for every 200 papers served, which include subpoenas, writs, eviction notices and lawsuits. The more papers a constable serves, the more deputies he gets.

But county officials say they recently learned the constables have been inflating their numbers.

For example, a deputy constable that goes to the office of CT Corp., a registered agent for hundreds of companies, to serve 50 lawsuits at once counts that as 50 papers served.

Get rid of the office of constable. Amend the constitution and get rid of it.

Unneeded in the 21st century.

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