The board voted 4-2 on Wednesday to authorize Hall County Attorney Mark Young to hire one additional deputy county attorney to assist with a growing workload. If the attorney is hired mid-year on Dec. 1, it will cost $36,000 this budget year. Next budget year, the cost will be about $70,000 for the full year, board assistant Stacey Ruzicka said.
Supervisor Gary Quandt made the motion to hire the additional attorney and reminded the board it was a goal last year that simply couldn't be accomplished.
"Last year, we bought six motor graders to bring the roads up to standards. This year, I considered doing a new sheriff's deputy and a deputy county attorney for public safety," he said.Supervisors authorized the hiring of an additional sheriff's deputy earlier this month, and that will impact the workload of the county attorney's office, Quandt said.
"We have a new jail. We'll have a new deputy picking up people. We need someone to prosecute," he said.
Supervisor Dan Purdy disputed that an additional deputy will make more workload for the county attorney's office. The new deputy will be used primarily for prisoner transport and for serving court paperwork -- not making arrests, he said.
Supervisor Scott Arnold, who is also a Grand Island police officer, said what's likely to have a bigger impact on the county attorney's office is the recent hiring of four new Grand Island police officers, who are constantly on patrol or on emergency calls. While sheriff's deputies have arresting power, too, they spend a good part of their time transporting prisoners and serving paperwork for the courts, he said.
The county attorney's office currently has 11 attorneys, including elected Hall County Attorney Mark Young, who spends half his time on criminal cases and half on elected and administrative duties. Of the remaining 10 attorneys, one handles child support issues full time; one handles federal cases full time and works out of Lincoln, where the U.S. District Court is located; one works part time for the Grand Island Public Schools as a truancy officer; and one works nearly full time on civil issues for the county.
While criminal cases for those seven to eight attorneys who are regularly assigned to them are becoming more complicated and time consuming, it's the civil demand that has the biggest need for assistance, Young said.
"We advise and represent all the other county agencies," he said. "Any time some sort of question comes up by the clerk or treasurer or sheriff or jail, they will be contacting us."
He wants to hire an attorney who has both civil and criminal experience to help deepen the county's experience in the civil arena and to help equalize the load of criminal cases with the number of cases handled by defense attorneys. Young said prosecutors currently carry more cases per attorney than do local defense attorneys.
"I'm happy they did that," Young said of county supervisors adding an attorney to his office. "I believe we'll be able to make wise use of the taxpayers' money."
A new duty that is coming to the Hall County attorney's office is handling grand jury cases, instead of hiring a special prosecutor. Nebraska law was recently changed to allow county attorney's offices to handle grand juries. A grand jury is called when a person dies in law enforcement custody or during pursuit.
Young said his office will handle the grand jury for Antonio Rodriguez, who died after an apparent murder/suicide involving his estranged wife.
Young served as county coroner on that same case, but he said being the coroner isn't a conflict of interest. Oftentimes, county attorneys serve as coroner and then prosecute the same case. Likewise, the county attorney's office may avoid a conflict of interest depending on the law enforcement agencies involved.
It's not likely that Young's office would handle the grand jury duties for a jail death, he said, because the Hall County attorney's office represents the Hall County Corrections Department. But his office could handle grand jury cases involving other law enforcement.
Supervisors Pam Lancaster, Dave Ziola, Arnold and Quandt favored the hiring. Purdy and Supervisor Steve Schuppan were against. Schuppan said he's not opposed to Young's office or the need for another attorney, but he believes Young should have asked for the attorney as part of the office's $1.2 million budget request made earlier in the summer.
The addition of the attorney will not impact the tax asking this year. It remains at $497 for a $100,000 home.
Source: http://theindependent.com/articles/2011/09/06/news/local/13816174.txt
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