Bay Area Houston

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand this is excessive.

Harris County Constables are asking for a pay raise from $178,000/year to $293,000, a 65% increase. It is almost double their salary from 2004. This is excessive for a number of reasons.

• There are 8 Constables each responsible for only 1/8 of the County
• The Sheriff who is responsible for the entire County earns $223,000
• The Constable is an administrator job. Even though they carry a gun, law enforcement is not in their job description. They don’t patrol. They don’t confront bad guys. They sit at a desk.
• The County is trying to balance their budget which has a $200 Million shortfall
• No one except for CEOs of insurance companies, gets a 65% increase in pay. Not you. Not me.

Every Constable including our own Phil Sandlin requested the raise. If you don’t know who Phil Sandlin is you are in good company. For $178,000 a year citizens in the community should at least know who you are and what you look like. County Commissioners agreed to the increase by a vote of 3-2. I’m not in favor of this. I think it is excessive and not deserving especially when we are running a deficit. The Houston Chronicle has details.

“The eight constables should take what the sheriff makes and divide it by eight,” said Murray Newman, a criminal defense attorney who’s voiced concerns surrounding the constables previously. “That’s what they deserve to be making. They are supplemental law enforcement, not the marquee players.”

This entry was posted on Friday, August 22nd, 2025 at 10:11 am and is filed under Political. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.