DA refuses county’s call for 9 percent budget cut

By Joe Schoenmann

Thursday, April 7, 2011 | 6:07 p.m.

The Clark County District Attorney is refusing to comply with a request from county managers to prepare 9 percent budget cuts for the department.

In a memo to county commissioners and staff dated last week, District Attorney David Roger informed county officials that his department has fewer attorneys than the Public Defenders Office, his staff is overworked and he made big cuts in previous years.

“Any further reductions to (his budget) will contravene the legal obligations of my office. Therefore, I am unable to make further budget cuts,” Roger wrote.

County Manager Don Burnette in February asked county agencies to find ways to reduce spending by 9 percent, a request prompted by an anticipated $104 million shortfall in the 2012 fiscal year.

County officials say Roger’s position flies in the face of a new county compensation study that shows Roger’s prosecutors earn about 9 percent more than the county’s public defenders. The average compensation package for county prosecutors for 2010 stood at $165,529, while public defenders’ was $153,983.

Roger, however, counters that he is doing more with less. While the number of public defenders has risen and stands at 110 (the public defenders office disputes that and says it is about 100), Roger said the District Attorneys Office has seen its numbers fall to about 94 attorneys.

And while the public defender only handles about 50 percent of the cases that go through the court system—public defenders work for those who can’t afford a private attorney—Roger’s attorneys handle all cases prosecuted by authorities.

In his memo, Roger lists 83 unfilled jobs in his office, from clerks to attorneys. The total salary, benefits and insurance for those positions amounts to about $7.1 million.

The county has a counter argument: In response to a request from the Sun, county officials say that if prosecutor compensation rates had been equal to public defenders in the last three years, the District Attorneys Office would have saved $5.5 million, almost enough to fund the vacant positions.

Further, an April 5 memo from Assistant County Manager Ed Finger to county commissioners says wages and benefits for prosecutors rose 15 percent on average since 2009. At the same time, public defender compensation has fallen 1.6 percent.

The county called parts of Roger’s memo as untrue. “While the courts and the defense structure have received increases, resources of the District Attorney have been profoundly slashed,” Roger writes.

But figures provided to the Sun show general fund spending in the District Attorneys Office rose between fiscal years 2008 and 2010 from $37.7 million to $38.5 million.

To some degree, wages in Roger’s office rose without his involvement. After his prosecutors unionized about four years ago, the union became responsible for negotiating wages and benefits with county officials. And while Roger has the right to strategize about negotiations with county management, county officials say he has stayed away from negotiations.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Owens disputed that characterization, saying his office has offered to assist the county but has been rejected.

Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani said she wants the disagreements to be aired before the commission.

“The whole issue comes down to, if prosecutors hadn’t gotten those increases, we wouldn’t be having this problem,” she said.

She expressed admiration for the Public Defenders Office—whose attorneys are not unionized—because “they hired staff but their folks didn’t get the big salary increases in order to make sure the county did its duty. They have done everything we’ve asked them to do.”

In response to Roger’s comment that he is unable to make budget cuts, Giunchigliani said she would tell him “in my classroom, ‘can’t’ is a swear word.” She is currently on leave from her job as a teacher.

“We all have to rethink how to do government better, and he has an obligation to go back to his people and say, ‘you know what, I have to make changes.’”

Giunchigliani used the example of Sheriff Doug Gillespie to show how some elected county officials have figured out how to work with their unions to eke out savings during the recession.

“I haven’t always been thrilled with the Police Department, but the sheriff acts like a fiscal manager. (Gillespie) recognizes we are all in the position of a shared sacrifice.”

Another commissioner, Vice Chairman Steve Sisolak, shook his head at Roger’s memo: “Every department thinks they should not have to participate in budget cuts, but if that happened, we wouldn’t save anything.”

Two years ago, he added, county commissioners tried to get the county prosecutors union to accept the same lowered cost-of-living raise as another county union. Instead, the prosecutors sued and won in court.

“They made no concession, so why should they be exempt from all this?” he asked. “It’s ridiculous. Maybe the district attorney has to reprioritize things in his office to get a handle on expenses. They have to participate just like everybody else.”