35.
Commissioners Court - Regular Session
- Meeting Date:
- 03/05/2024
- Title:
- Discuss, consider, and take appropriate action to convert three DA Felony Prosecutor II positions from ARPA funded positions to permanent positions, effective January 1, 2025.
- Submitted By:
- Ronnie Simek, District Attorney
- Department:
- District Attorney
- Agenda Category:
- Regular Agenda Items
Information
Agenda Item
Discuss, consider, and take appropriate action to convert three DA Felony Prosecutor II positions from ARPA funded positions to permanent positions, effective January 1, 2025.
Background
On June 15, 2021, the Commissioners Court approved the District Attorney’s request for three felony prosecutor positions to address the backlog of felony criminal cases resulting from the COVID pandemic. The initial funding commitment was through December 31, 2024.
The District Attorney requested three positions so a prosecutor could be assigned to each District Court that hears criminal cases – the 26th District Court, the 277th District Court, and the 368th District Court. Contemporaneously, the District Attorney established a Special Victims Unit (SVU). The SVU handles special victim crimes including physical and sexual abuse of children, adult sexual assault, and family violence. The District Attorney SVU includes seven positions including five Prosecutors, an Investigator, and a Victim Assistance Coordinator. The attorneys assigned to the SVU are specially trained and experienced to accomplish vertical prosecution of child abuse and sexual assault cases.
The ARPA positions allowed us to add an SVU Prosecutor to each district court in order to offload these cases from the permanent trial court prosecutors. This organization allows the SVU Prosecutor to devote the time and resources necessary for quality prosecution of the special victim cases and alleviate these time-intensive cases from the regular prosecution docket.
The ARPA prosecutors assisted in the reduction of pending felony cases to pre-pandemic levels. As the Supreme Court shut down trials in March of 2020, the District Judges, District Clerk and District Attorney’s Office worked diligently to reestablish jury trials. The first jury trials since the COVID shutdown began in April of 2021. From April through December of 2021, we were able to try 15 cases to a jury with the help of the ARPA prosecutors. From January 2022 through the end of 2023, our office conducted 50 jury trials. For perspective, during this same time frame:
Though the addition of the ARPA prosecutors has been immensely helpful in reducing our backlog, there are still many challenges ahead, not the least of which is our continued exponential growth.
While we have been able to significantly reduce the overall number of cases, the severity and complexity of cases increased tremendously. Our fatality cases, which involve the death of at least one individual, exceeds 40 cases. Pre-Covid, we had 23 fatality cases pending. We have focused our efforts on the cases where the Defendant is in our jail and have been successful in getting most of those cases to trial within 2 years of the offense. There is however a growing number of complex cases where the defendant is on bond, and the trial dates are well over 2 years after the offense. Our goal is to be able to try most cases within a year of receiving the case.
The District Attorney’s position requests have relied on understanding that the three DA Felony Prosecutor II positions would be made permanent when the ARPA funded ended. Since the addition of these prosecutors, the County has added approximately 100,000 residents. The County’s growth alone justifies the need for more prosecutors, but specifically makes the absorption of these prosecutors into the general fund a necessary expense to adequately serve our mission to see that Justice is Done.
On November 21, 2023, the Commissioners Court converted the District Attorney’s Adult Sexual Assault grant position to a permanent position effective September 1, 2024. The same Court action regarding these prosecutor positions will allow the SVU to remain intact, and the District Courts to remain adequately staffed.
If ARPA prosecutor positions are eliminated:
The District Attorney requests that the Commissioners Court –
ATTACHMENTS:
The District Attorney requested three positions so a prosecutor could be assigned to each District Court that hears criminal cases – the 26th District Court, the 277th District Court, and the 368th District Court. Contemporaneously, the District Attorney established a Special Victims Unit (SVU). The SVU handles special victim crimes including physical and sexual abuse of children, adult sexual assault, and family violence. The District Attorney SVU includes seven positions including five Prosecutors, an Investigator, and a Victim Assistance Coordinator. The attorneys assigned to the SVU are specially trained and experienced to accomplish vertical prosecution of child abuse and sexual assault cases.
The ARPA positions allowed us to add an SVU Prosecutor to each district court in order to offload these cases from the permanent trial court prosecutors. This organization allows the SVU Prosecutor to devote the time and resources necessary for quality prosecution of the special victim cases and alleviate these time-intensive cases from the regular prosecution docket.
The ARPA prosecutors assisted in the reduction of pending felony cases to pre-pandemic levels. As the Supreme Court shut down trials in March of 2020, the District Judges, District Clerk and District Attorney’s Office worked diligently to reestablish jury trials. The first jury trials since the COVID shutdown began in April of 2021. From April through December of 2021, we were able to try 15 cases to a jury with the help of the ARPA prosecutors. From January 2022 through the end of 2023, our office conducted 50 jury trials. For perspective, during this same time frame:
- Travis County District Attorney’s Office (with 9 full time District Courts) tried 44 felony jury trials,
- Bell County District Attorney’s Office tried 34 felony jury trials, and
- Williamson County Attorney’s Office tried 25 misdemeanor jury trials.
Though the addition of the ARPA prosecutors has been immensely helpful in reducing our backlog, there are still many challenges ahead, not the least of which is our continued exponential growth.
While we have been able to significantly reduce the overall number of cases, the severity and complexity of cases increased tremendously. Our fatality cases, which involve the death of at least one individual, exceeds 40 cases. Pre-Covid, we had 23 fatality cases pending. We have focused our efforts on the cases where the Defendant is in our jail and have been successful in getting most of those cases to trial within 2 years of the offense. There is however a growing number of complex cases where the defendant is on bond, and the trial dates are well over 2 years after the offense. Our goal is to be able to try most cases within a year of receiving the case.
The District Attorney’s position requests have relied on understanding that the three DA Felony Prosecutor II positions would be made permanent when the ARPA funded ended. Since the addition of these prosecutors, the County has added approximately 100,000 residents. The County’s growth alone justifies the need for more prosecutors, but specifically makes the absorption of these prosecutors into the general fund a necessary expense to adequately serve our mission to see that Justice is Done.
On November 21, 2023, the Commissioners Court converted the District Attorney’s Adult Sexual Assault grant position to a permanent position effective September 1, 2024. The same Court action regarding these prosecutor positions will allow the SVU to remain intact, and the District Courts to remain adequately staffed.
If ARPA prosecutor positions are eliminated:
- We would lose nearly 55 combined years of legal experience. The prosecutors who currently hold these positions represent our guiding principles of professionalism, integrity, and experience.
- Market considerations are changing tremendously, and it would be foolish to lose these three accomplished public servants as the number of attorneys with the experience necessary to meet the qualifications of a felony prosecutor is shrinking. Statewide, prosecutor’s offices are losing attorneys to other fields. Every office in the State of Texas is struggling to hire and retain any prosecutor, much less qualified prosecutors. We have been more fortunate than most.
- It is anticipated that recruitment and retention of prosecutors will prove even more difficult as new State funding will result in counties of less than 300,000 people receiving an extra $275,000 per year to apply towards prosecutors’ salaries in District Attorney’s Offices, where cost of living is low and felony caseloads are lighter. For perspective, as one of the approximately two dozen counties larger than 300,000, residents we will still receive only $22,500 from the State as a supplement.
- The SVU would effectively be eliminated.
The District Attorney requests that the Commissioners Court –
- Approve the District Attorney’s Request to retain and convert the three DA Felony Prosecutor II ARPA positions and fund as permanent positions in the District Attorney budget effective January 1, 2025, and
- Direct the Human Resources Director to convert the positions and classify the positions as permanent effective January 1, 2025, and
- Direct the Budget Officer to include the positions in the District Attorney’s FY2025 budget with sufficient funding from January 1, 2025 thru September 30, 2025.
ATTACHMENTS:
- Fact Sheet
- Estimated Funding Request for FY2025
- Fatality List
Fiscal Impact
| From/To | Acct No. | Description | Amount |
|---|
Attachments
Form Review
| Inbox | Reviewed By | Date |
|---|---|---|
| County Judge Exec Asst. | Becky Pruitt | 02/29/2024 01:10 PM |
- Form Started By:
- rsimek
- Started On:
- 02/29/2024 11:00 AM
- Final Approval Date:
- 02/29/2024