A panel of county residents on Thursday approved an almost $5,000 pay raise for three constables who contested their salaries.

The panel unanimously awarded Constables Carroll Thomas, Ronnie Vasquez and Joe Pinson salaries of $40,410, short of the $45,000 the men requested.

The constables had no complaints after the hearings.

"I'm just very thankful and I'm ecstatic," Pinson said.

County commissioners set salaries for elected officials. State law allows elected officers to challenge that pay through a grievance process. Constable Paul Hanna did not contest his salary.

Nine residents who served on grand juries over the past year heard arguments from the three constables Thursday morning. Each constable, responsible for warrant service and services such as evictions and truancy policing in their precinct, described increasing caseloads and the thousands of dollars in fines they brought into the county.

"The monies I bring into the county well pays for my office and a couple or three more," Thomas said.

The panel considered each constable's experience in law enforcement, the constables' last pay raise, in 2008, and whether the county could do without the constitutionally mandated office.

Commissioner Bill McCay, who spoke against the pay increases in each hearing, said the sheriff's department would fill the constables' role if voters statewide someday abolished the job.

The panel could have voted against the pay increase or only voted to recommend the commissioners reconsider. The group instead unanimously approved half of the pay raise constables requested.

"I'm happy with them meeting us halfway," Vasquez said after the hearings.

The unanimous vote obligates the commissioners to approve the increases and find money for the salaries in their budget.

"It's not going to break the county," McCay said. "We'll have to give up and do without something somewhere."

Grievance hearings will resume Monday to consider pay raises for three justices of the peace.

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