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"Welcome to 2010, fellow and prospective members! I hope that all of
you had the very best of the holiday season with your families, and
are all safely back at work in the busiest offices in county
government, by far!
Constable Dwain Read contacted me recently, and suggested that I
update everyone on the continuing education classes coming in the
next several months, including Continuing Education for Constables
in Odessa April 12-16, 2010. (The links can be found on the HOME
PAGE in the column to the right).
However, I wanted to talk first about some changes that are needed
as well in terms of our continuing education for both JP's and
Constables.
As we all know, the Texas Justice Court Training Center and the Bill
Blackwood Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas (LEMIT)
rely heavily on fees raised via municipal and county Class C
citations. However, these fees have not been raised in several years,
and in the case of LEMIT, this has caused a dramatic reduction in
funding for critical programs, including the Newly Elected and
Continuing Education courses for Constables.
But what most in Texas' criminal justice system don't realize is that
Constables are not only directly tied to LEMIT through these courses,
as they are only offered by LEMIT, but that LEMIT also puts on
numerous outstanding programs such as the 100-hour Constable
Leadership College, the 480-hour Leadership Command College for
law enforcement administrators, the Police Chief's mandatory initial
training, and InCoSit critical incident management seminars, among
others.
In short, the funding shortfalls have caused LEMIT to scale back
funding for all of these programs, which affects all of us. For
Constables, the changes are to our mandatory Newly Elected and
Continuing Education courses. For Fiscal Year 2010, LEMIT is
putting on each course at various locations throughout the state, to
bring it closer to home. However, LEMIT has also changed their
travel guidelines, such that travel, lodging, breakfast and dinner
expenses now are borne by the Constable, and not by LEMIT. LEMIT
will still provide lunch on training dates.
So, let me conclude my time on this soapbox to ask every member,
every constable, every deputy constable, and every JP in West Texas
to PLEASE, stay involved in the associations, and get active in your
county government's legislative committees, as I am now doing here
in El Paso. Meet with your local legislators, so that we can get this
fixed in the 82nd Regular Session of the Legislature in 2011 by
raising the fees from $1.00 per case to $2.00. I will spearhead this
with Representative Chente Quintanilla here in El Paso County, who
helped us out tremendously last session on several bills, and ask him
to co-author this with the representatives from the Huntsville area.
Also, if you know of any philanthropic organizations in your area, ask
them to please consider contributing to the Bill Blackwood Law
Enforcement Management Institute of Texas, so that LEMIT can
continue to be the premier training facility for Texas Law
Enforcement Administrators.
Links to LEMIT and TJCTC websites can be found on the HOME
PAGE in the column to the right
Respectfully,
Rick Gammon
Parliamentarian
you had the very best of the holiday season with your families, and
are all safely back at work in the busiest offices in county
government, by far!
Constable Dwain Read contacted me recently, and suggested that I
update everyone on the continuing education classes coming in the
next several months, including Continuing Education for Constables
in Odessa April 12-16, 2010. (The links can be found on the HOME
PAGE in the column to the right).
However, I wanted to talk first about some changes that are needed
as well in terms of our continuing education for both JP's and
Constables.
As we all know, the Texas Justice Court Training Center and the Bill
Blackwood Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas (LEMIT)
rely heavily on fees raised via municipal and county Class C
citations. However, these fees have not been raised in several years,
and in the case of LEMIT, this has caused a dramatic reduction in
funding for critical programs, including the Newly Elected and
Continuing Education courses for Constables.
But what most in Texas' criminal justice system don't realize is that
Constables are not only directly tied to LEMIT through these courses,
as they are only offered by LEMIT, but that LEMIT also puts on
numerous outstanding programs such as the 100-hour Constable
Leadership College, the 480-hour Leadership Command College for
law enforcement administrators, the Police Chief's mandatory initial
training, and InCoSit critical incident management seminars, among
others.
In short, the funding shortfalls have caused LEMIT to scale back
funding for all of these programs, which affects all of us. For
Constables, the changes are to our mandatory Newly Elected and
Continuing Education courses. For Fiscal Year 2010, LEMIT is
putting on each course at various locations throughout the state, to
bring it closer to home. However, LEMIT has also changed their
travel guidelines, such that travel, lodging, breakfast and dinner
expenses now are borne by the Constable, and not by LEMIT. LEMIT
will still provide lunch on training dates.
So, let me conclude my time on this soapbox to ask every member,
every constable, every deputy constable, and every JP in West Texas
to PLEASE, stay involved in the associations, and get active in your
county government's legislative committees, as I am now doing here
in El Paso. Meet with your local legislators, so that we can get this
fixed in the 82nd Regular Session of the Legislature in 2011 by
raising the fees from $1.00 per case to $2.00. I will spearhead this
with Representative Chente Quintanilla here in El Paso County, who
helped us out tremendously last session on several bills, and ask him
to co-author this with the representatives from the Huntsville area.
Also, if you know of any philanthropic organizations in your area, ask
them to please consider contributing to the Bill Blackwood Law
Enforcement Management Institute of Texas, so that LEMIT can
continue to be the premier training facility for Texas Law
Enforcement Administrators.
Links to LEMIT and TJCTC websites can be found on the HOME
PAGE in the column to the right
Respectfully,
Rick Gammon
Parliamentarian