Howerton, Roberts compete for constable

Constable candidates Dennis Howerton and Bret Roberts engaged in their first and only public debate Oct. 4 at UltraStar Multi-tainment Center.

Roberts beat incumbent George Hoffman in the Aug. 26 Republican primary on Aug. 26. Howerton, a Democrat, did not have a primary opponent.

Both candidates said the constable should not be a partisan – or even elected – position or party affiliated when asked by the moderator, but they disagreed on whether the $63,000 salary was commensurate with the position’s duties.

“I would say that the pay scale is commensurate because as a constable you do put your life on the line like any police officer and deputy sheriff or anybody in law enforcement that goes out there and deals with people in those types of situations,” Roberts said. “You don’t know what you’re coming up to when you go do an eviction or an order of protection; you don’t know what type of individual you’re going to be dealing with.”

“I believe that salary of $63,000 exceeds the salary of many police officers in Maricopa, who face many situations a constable does not face,” Howerton said. “When I decided to run for this position I had no idea what it pays, and the salary is not of importance to me.”

Howerton said Hoffman could have mitigated the negative impact on Judge Scott Sulley’s Justice Court:

“We have a situation here where people looked the other way in the Maricopa-Stanfield Justice Court, They had the ability to know what was going on in that court, and I believe many of them did, but did nothing. If the prior constable had done that he would have been aware of the damage that was done by Judge Sulley.”

Roberts disagreed with Howerton and said his idea of helping investigate and clean up the court is not in the scope of the position.

“To portray that you are going to clean up the court and do an investigation on the previous constable and correct the things that are happening or have happened is misleading to the public,” Roberts said. “The constable has no authority whatsoever over the court; that is entirely under the justice of the peace, and if anyone wanted to do that they probably should have been up here for the JP debate.”