Harris County constables, sheriffs could contract with HOAs without commissioners’ OK under bill heading to Abbott

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Two bills that focus solely on Harris County law enforcement agencies’ contracting and funding advanced to the governor’s desk, two days after being added to the second special session’s agenda.

Currently, sheriffs and constables in Harris County can contract with homeowner associations, school districts and municipal utility districts to provide additional policing for them. Both the county and contracting groups have to sign off on the contract, and they split portions of the cost depending on the amount of time the deputies spend in the area.

The more prominent of the two proposals, House Bill 26, would allow these law enforcement agencies to enter into such contracts without the need for approval from the county’s commissioners court. Meanwhile, House Bill 192 would require the county to seek voter approval if it adopts a budget that reallocates unspent funding that was appropriated for law enforcement agencies or moves funding previously appropriated for a specific law enforcement position to another agency.

State Rep. Tom Oliverson, the Cypress Republican who carried both bills, and his backers said they are about protecting law enforcement including this popular deputy contract program.

Their critics, however, said the legislation would upend the county government’s checks and balances, as well as harm taxpayers.

“You already pay your taxes for a constable to patrol your neighborhoods. But now they want to go and bid a contract with your HOAs, to pay them, to contract with them, to patrol your neighborhood more often,” state Rep. Charlene Ward Johnson, D-Houston, said during a Texas House hearing about HB 26 on Wednesday. “That’s double taxation.”

The House then cleared HB 26 with a 88-49 vote and HB 192 with a 89-48 vote early Wednesday afternoon. Hours later, the Texas Senate voted 21-5 to approve both bills. These proposals now head to the governor’s desk.

The votes came two days after Gov. Greg Abbott added the items to the second special session’s agenda on Monday, saying that the legislation would improve public safety. Oliverson quickly thanked the governor in a post on X for “protecting neighborhood law enforcement contracts for the vast majority of unincorporated Harris County and ISD’s that depend on them.”

Oliverson said the legislation is needed because the deputy contract program is under attack, despite its popularity and importance to unincorporated areas. The county also discussed earlier this month raising the contract’s costs for some groups in order to help cover constable pay raises, the Houston Chronicle reported.

“Unfortunately, there’s a lot of friction going on between the law enforcement departments and Commissioners Court with regards to the terms and conditions of those contracts,” Oliverson said during a House committee hearing for HB 26 on Aug. 22.

The committee then heard testimony from Tom Ramsey, a Harris County commissioner who spoke about the importance of such a program to maintain public safety and growth in his precinct, which covers most of the county’s unincorporated areas. It also received signed letters from all eight Harris County constables that show their bipartisan support for a proposal that would “remove [the program] from the threat of any volatile partisan whims of our Commissioners Court.”

“Us going and negotiating directly with some of those neighborhoods that have been sorely overlooked all these years is going to be a great thing if this bill passes,” Constable Alan Rosen, a Democrat, added in his testimony.

Some Harris County commissioners, however, told the Texas Tribune that they oppose the proposals.

Commissioner Rodney Ellis called the legislation part of the state’s “ongoing war on local government,” while Commissioner Adrian Garcia said the bills could create difficulties for maintaining other public safety initiatives and stressed that public safety shouldn’t be about who can pay extra.

Garcia also warned that the proposed shift of control over the contracts could “cripple the county budget process.”

“How are the 5 members of Commissioners Court expected to set a budget when in the middle of a fiscal year, 9 other independently elected officials could effectively set the whole county’s budget because of these contracts,” he said in a statement. “On a governance perspective, this legislation would be a budget killer.”

The Tribune also reached out to the offices of Commissioner Lesley Briones and County Judge Lina Hidalgo, but didn’t receive comments.

Meanwhile, some officials from other parts of Texas are already wary about the precedent that these proposals could set. They said state lawmakers could come back in future legislative sessions and add counties with fewer than 3.3 million people — the bills’ current threshold, which limits them to just Harris County.

“We defend, we don’t defund,” Rick Bailey, a Johnson County commissioner, told the Tribune. He registered against HB 26 but didn’t testify. “But this has the potential to have some really negative effects on county budgets and local taxpayers.”

Oliverson didn’t respond to the criticism posed on the House floor on Wednesday. His office also didn’t provide a comment in response to requests from the Tribune.

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