Former sheriff named new constable

The Hays County Commissioners Court appointed former Sheriff Don Montague for the vacant Precinct 3 Constable position in a special meeting Friday. Montague accepted the position and was sworn in by Justice of the Peace Andrew Cable on Monday.

“This was a chance for me to serve again,” Montague said.

Commissioner Lon Shell nominated Montague after the Hays County Republican Party selected him for the ballot Thursday night. The Hays County Democratic Party is expected to nominate a candidate this week to run for the position in November.

“In this case, I believe that the best person to take over and to provide guidance for officers and to instill integrity and trustworthiness in the office is Don Montague,” Shell said.

Commissioner Mark Jones added, “I don’t think you could find a better nomination when you’ve got somebody that was elected countywide not that long ago, so he’s got respect throughout all four of our precincts. I think he’ll do a great job and I’m hoping that he’ll accept this nomination.”

Montague began his law enforcement career as a Texas highway patrolman in 1967. He began working in the Hays County Sheriff’s Office in 1987 as a deputy then a sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain and Chief Deputy.

He was elected as Sheriff in November of 1996 and reelected in 2000 and 2004 before he retired in 2005. Montague ran as a Democrat during all three of his elections for sheriff.

After retiring as sheriff, Montague was director of the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center at Texas State University from August 2005 to 2015.

The vacancy arose after former Constable Ray Helm permanently surrendered his peace officer’s license and submitted his resignation after admitting that he falsely reported training to the Texas Commission of Law Enforcement that he knew did not constitute training for TCOLE purposes. A TCOLE investigation says that Helm “fabricated” documents to “memorialize” the training session they say did not occur.

Montague was nominated with a 4-1 vote of approval with County Judge Ruben Becerra as the lone vote in opposition.

“All too often we appoint folks that end up on the ballot,” Becerra said. He hoped the court would make a nomination for someone who would not be on the ballot in November so as to avoid “tipping the scales” of the election in any party’s favor.

There were also around two dozen letters submitted by Wimberley residents supporting the remaining deputies and asking the court to appoint someone from within the department. Most of them stated they did not support appointing a person as Constable that would be on the ballot in November.

Shell said that, of the other people who expressed interest in the position, none met all the qualifications or were not willing to take a three-month appointment, which would require committing to not running for election.

Deputy Constable Cody Cheatham had expressed a desire to be considered for appointment, but did not meet the qualifications of residency in Precinct 3, according to Shell.

Prior to his vote Becerra said, “My hope is to have someone from within the organization that’s not going to be on the ballot. And they won’t terminate deputies walking in, for obvious reasons. And so for that reason, even if I am for one vote. I’ll be voting in another direction.”

Montague stated that it was not his intention to terminate deputies immediately.

“Until I get in there and see what is going on I really don’t know at this point,” Montague said when asked what his plans were as the new constable. “I just don’t know.”

The meeting was the second special called meeting on the item after there was no quorum for the meeting that was called Tuesday, with three days notice.

Commissioners Debbie Ingalsbe, Mark Jones and Walt Smith did not show up at the Hays County Courthouse due to lack of communication and coordination between Becerra and the rest of the commissioners. They all had prior engagements, as the week of Aug. 3 was scheduled to be a week off for the commissioners, and they were not asked about their schedules prior to setting the meeting.

Ingalsbe said she made attempts to get the meeting scheduled for 5 p.m. when she could attend and Jones said he made several attempts to reach Becerra to ask to reschedule.

Wimberley View Editor Dalton Sweat contributed to this report