Interim Precinct 1 Constable Charlie Wiggins will transfer to a part-time deputy constable role in Precinct 7 when newly elected Precinct 1 Constable Jevonne Pollard takes over.

Pollard said she offered Wiggins a job, which he turned down.

Wiggins, a Republican, lost to Pollard, a Democrat, in the Nov. 6 election.

“When the new constable takes office, I’m planning on transferring to Port Arthur,” Wiggins said. “She’s letting some of the staff go. All along, I only ran to maintain the office staff and those things are changing. I had an offer to work part time and that’s what I was originally doing. I’m retired from Jefferson County.”

Pollard, who is currently a Precinct 2 deputy constable, said she is not doing anything differently than any other public official.

“I’m doing everything through human resources,” she said. “I’m doing everything the right way. I’m not going to comment any further about what Charlie Wiggins said. He is allowed to make whatever decision he wants. It is currently his office. I offered Charlie a job and he turned it down.”

Wiggins was appointed by the commissioners’ court to be interim constable last summer after then-constable Earl White resigned to become Beaumont fire chief. Wiggins was offered the position with the understanding that he would not run for re-election in November, which has been a long-standing rule of the commissioners’ court when making interim appointments. The rule was made so that the partisan split on the court would not give an appointee an unfair advantage in the election.

Wiggins accepted the appointment, then claimed the circumstances changed after the local Democratic Party selected Pollard to run for the position and he decided to run.

That controversial decision by Wiggins led Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick, also a Republican, to ask Wiggins to step down from the race. Wiggins declined.

Pollard won the election by a total of 14,046 to 13,337.