The board of Fort Bend County Municipal Utility District No. 162 voted Thursday night to end its law-enforcement contract with Precinct 4 Constable Patrick Quincy’s office and sign with the Precinct 3 constable. Directors said they made the switch reluctantly.
“I feel like we’ve been forced to do a contract,” board President Dale Clayton said before the vote.
The vote was 4-0. Vice President Michael Gutierrez made the motion, and Assistant Vice President Yvonne Pena seconded it. Director Steven Raymond abstained. He works for the Fort Bend County Fire Marshal’s Office and has filed a conflict-of-interest disclosure with the district listing the county as a vendor.
The vote came a week after Precinct 3 Commissioner Andy Meyers tried to pull MUD 162’s Precinct 4 contract off the Commissioners Court agenda. The court tabled the contract, along with those for MUDs 155 and 5.
MUD 162 serves Highland Meadows, Still Creek Ranch, Sunrise Meadow, Arabella on the Prairie and Windstone on the Prairie. The 2025 redistricting moved it from Precinct 4 into Meyers’ Precinct 3. Its board had already signed a new contract to keep three Precinct 4 deputies.
Meyers’ office in the room
Quincy and Precinct 3 Assistant Chief Veronica Martin both attended. So did Nikita Khambe, a constituent relations project manager on Meyers’ staff.
Khambe said Meyers’ office wants constables to work only in their own precincts. She said the office meets monthly with the Precinct 3 constable’s office.
“Just to keep things smooth and easy, we would like to operate in our own jurisdiction, which is Precinct 3,” she said. “If another officer is serving in our precinct, it just becomes more difficult.”
Martin promised the same or better service. She said Precinct 3 would let the Precinct 4 deputies now assigned to the district apply to join her office.
Quincy said those deputies work for him and would have to choose to leave on their own. He repeated what he said at Commissioners Court: the choice belongs to the board.
“We can’t force you into a contract with anybody,” Quincy said. “You’re your own governing body.”
“There is no new policy”
The district’s attorney, Andrew Vaughan of Allen Boone Humphries Robinson, told the board the county’s position was “unsettled.” He said the district wanted clarity on whether it could still contract with Precinct 4.
Khambe said there was none to wait for.
“There is no new policy coming in,” she said. “Please do not look for any new policy that will come on the agenda.” The decision is up to the Commissioners Court, she said, “but especially the commissioner of the precinct.”
Vaughan walked the board through the trade-offs.
“There are certainly pros and cons to contracting with either precinct,” he said. “You’ve got history with Precinct 4. … Your neighbors and residents know those officers. At the same time, I think there’s also value in partnering with the commissioner whose precinct you are in to build that relationship of rapport.”
He also laid out the practical options. The board could wait and ask the court to approve its Precinct 4 contract. But the court could deny that contract and end its current one, he said. The other choice was to sign with Precinct 3, which he expected the court to approve.
“You can choose to say we want a contract with Precinct 4, but you might not get another party to sign that future contract,” Vaughan said.
“We got comfortable”
The constables offered to leave so the board could deliberate. Khambe, who stayed for a separate item on the agenda, remained in the room and joined the discussion.
Clayton said the district has had no problems with Precinct 4.
“If it’s not broke, why try to fix it?” he said. He said he did not want the commissioner to “almost, quote unquote, tell us what we have to do as a board.”
Secretary Floyd Martinez said the district had a bad experience with a security company it used before Precinct 4. He said that company assigned rookies who were rude to residents and board members, and the district fired it. By contrast, he said, Precinct 4 deputies show up to neighborhood events “with a whole crew.”
Khambe asked what that had to do with Precinct 3.
“How does that past experience attribute to” Precinct 3, she asked.
“It doesn’t affect Precinct 3 at all,” Martinez said. “It just makes us a little leery to move because of the fact that we have a good relationship.”
“The word is comfortable,” Clayton said. “We got comfortable.”
Gutierrez compared switching to “getting a divorce.”
Khambe said that comfort could be a problem.
“With security services and surveillance, it’s always good to have a new set of eyes,” she said. “If they get too comfortable, I don’t think it’s helping you.”
Gutierrez backed the switch. He said he worked for the county for 27 years. “It’s always been common courtesy” for districts to move to the new precinct’s constable after the lines change, he said.
Martinez wanted to stay but worried about the district’s standing with the commissioner.
“I would like to stay with Precinct 4,” Martinez said, “but I also want to make sure that we can work with the commissioner going forward.”
When Clayton said he wished the court had simply ordered the switch, Khambe said Meyers did not want to do that.
“Commissioner Meyers would not want to do that, and that is why we are here debating,” she said. “This is free America, right?”
After the vote, Martinez said, “I really feel that they put our back to the wall and made us do this.”
What’s next
The new contract goes to Commissioners Court. Precinct 4 continues patrolling the district month to month until the switch takes effect.
Precinct 4 Capt. Cory Hansen told the board that MUDs 5 and 155, the other two districts in the tabled contracts, have said they want to stay with Precinct 4.
