Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion

-- Hon. Fred L. Blundell OpinionNo. O-4592 DistrictAttorney Re: Under the facts submittedcan the commis- Lockhart,Texas sionerscourt place a constableof one precinct on a salarybasis without treatingall other constablesof otherprecinctsin the county on Dear Sir: a similarbasis,and anotherquestion? Your letter of Nay 12, 1942, requestingthe opinionof this de- partment,reads as follows: "Becauseof the urgencyof nrovidinga way of assisting in law enforcementat Luling,theCommissioners'Courtof this countywould appreciateas speedya reply as possibleto the questionsinvolvedin the attachedstatementof the subject matter. "We will appreciateany informationon the matter that you can give so that the -courtcan act in the matter, if there is anythingthey can do." ::equote the statementaccompar@ng your inquiry,which is as follows: “IN Ia: Constable'sSalary or Pay of Prec. Two, Caldwell Co. Texas. "A history of the point inquiredabout arises out of the fact that the presentConstableof said precinctis a valuable law enforcementofficerresidingwithin said precinctat Luling, Texas, in which city one deputysheriffresides. He enforces the law well and the people of the precinctand city want to keep him, but the fees of his office are insufficientfor his maintenanceand a fair possibilityezdstsof his resigningun- less somethingcan be done. "Art. 3912e (Sec. 17) providesthat constable:remain on the fee basis unless the commissionerscourt determinesotherwise; all constablesof this county are now on a fee basis; none of the Justices of the Peace or Constablesfees in this county go into the Officers'Salary Fund as providedin said article;the people of Luling want for their said constablesome augmentation of his fees by act of the Commissioners'Court of the county if this is possible. ,- Hon. Fred L. Blundell,page 2 (O-&92) "QuestionOne: Under the above facts can the Commissioners' Court place said constableof said PrecinctTwo on a salary basis without at the same time treatingall other constables of the other precinctswithin the county on a similarbasis? "QuestionTwo: If the above questionis answeredin the affirmative,could said Commissioners' Court pay in part or in whole said constable'ssalary out of the GeneralFunds of the County,or out of any particularfund, such as the Road & Bridge Fund of said precinct,or the area of the countywithin said precinct? In clarificationof this last question,I will explainthat the area of Justice PrecinctNo. Two has the same limits as said Road & BridgeFund No. 2 and of Commission- ers' PrecinctNo. Two of said county. The people of said area and.citysubmit the questionthat as itis their taxes that make up the funds of said Fund No, 2 and as they need this pro- tectionfrom said constablethat they would not objectto at least part of said constable'ssalarybeing paid out of said fund if possible. 'As said constableis contemplatingtaking other employment, more compensative, unless somethingis or can be done, it is urged that a reply to the above be given as soon as possible, as they thirk law enforcementin their vicinitywill suffer un- less a way can be found to relievethe presentsituation." This departmenthas heretoforeruled on severalquestionssimilar to the questionspresentedin your inquiry. In our opinionNo. O-516 (con- ferenceopinionNo. 30&), this departmentheld: "The consnissioners court is without authorityto place one precinctofficerupon a salary basis and leave other offi- cers upon a fee basis. The systemmust be uniformand the commissionerscourt must place all of the precinctofficers upon a salarybasis or leave all upon a fee basis-underthe salary law. "Wherethe commissioners court places the precinctoffi- cers of the countyupon a salarybasis as outlinad in the officerssalarylaw, the commissioners court has no authority to set a precinctofficerssalary at less than the total sum earned as compensationby him in his officialcapacityfor the fiscalyear 1935, and that the commissioners court has no au- thorityto set a precinctofficerssalary at more than the maximumamount allowedsuch officerunder laws existingAugust 2h, 1935." In opinionNo. O-2421 this departmentheld that: . ’ Hon. Fred L. Blundell,page 3 (04592) "It is the opinionof this departmentthat it is not possibleto compensatea justiceof the peace on a salary basis of countieshaving a populationof lessthan20,000 Ttiabitantsaccordingto the last preceding federalcensus unless all the precinct officersof said county are compen- sated on a salarybasis, and the commissionerscourt of said countyhas passed an order providingfor the compensationof all precinctofficersof the county on a salarybasis at the first regularmeeting in January of the calendaryear in question." Our opinionNo. O-915 concernsa similarquestion. We enclose copies of all of the above mentionedopinionsfor your convenience. In view of the opinionsmentionedabove and the authorities cited therein,your first questionabove shouldbe answeredin the nega- tive and is so answered. As we have answeredyour first questionin the negative,we do not think that your second questionrequiresany answer. Therefore,we do not deem it necessaryto discussor pass upon said question. Trustingthat the foregoing fully answersyour inquiry,we are Yours very truly ATTORNEYGENERALOF TEXAS By /s/ Ardell Williams Ardell Williams,Assistant APPROVEDMAY 19, 19112 /s/ Gerald C. Mann ATTGRNEYGENDAL OF TEXAS APPROVFLU: OPINIONCOMMITTEE BY: BWB, CHAWN AkkAhM:wb