Sheila Polk, County Attorney
Dennis McGrane, Chief Deputy County Attorney
255 East Gurley Street, Prescott, AZ 86301
928-771-3344
Mission Statement
The Office of the Yavapai County Attorney is dedicated to the vigorous, expeditious and fair administration of the criminal law to protect the public and to insure that justice is done, and to the representation of county government for the best interests of the citizens of Yavapai County.
Budget Memorandum
Now serving my 22nd year as the County Attorney, I respectfully submit this brief Memorandum with regard to my Office’s FY23 budget requests.
This Office makes every effort to run an efficient operation. We are on track to end the current year under budget despite providing greater legal services to our clients, conducting an all-time record high number of felony jury trials last calendar year, prosecuting some very complex cases, managing the growing complexity of even the simplest criminal case (i.e. procedural rule demands, statutory demands, case law demands, court demands, defense attorney demands, proliferation of body-worn camera recordings that require redaction, cell phone and computer memories getting larger and larger, etc.). Additionally, according to the Superior Court’s statistics we are making a good dent in the criminal case backlog, which is good for victims of crime as well as the entire system. We will continue to strive for justice and public safety without overburdening the taxpayer and to provide top quality legal services to our county departments and agencies.
In previous years, I have outlined at length the operations of this Office during the budget process. However, last fall this Board approved three new prosecutors and one litigation specialist using ARPA funds. As a result, our budget request is very modest. For brevity’s sake, this cover memo will focus only on one Exhibit #3. Should you want a refresher on the inner workings of this Office, I invite you to review last year’s budget memo.
This Office continues to operate at a fast pace while always striving to improve operations through innovation and collaboration with our partners in the criminal justice system. A few examples of our most recent efforts include our Pretrial Diversion Program and the implementation of an employee remote work program as a recruiting and retention tool. We also look forward to working with our criminal justice system partners in the coming year to maximize the utility and cost saving opportunities of the new Justice Center for the taxpayers’ benefit.
I have attempted, as always, to restrict my budget request to last year’s budget without any unnecessary increases. As you can see, I have achieved that goal overall. With one exception, I believe this Office can operate during the next fiscal year without increasing operating funds or personnel. The exception, explained in Exhibit #3, is to increase our seasonal wages line item by $76,562 over last year in order to hire additional seasonal workers.
As I explain in Exhibit #3, this Office continues to experience increased workloads in three areas: (1) the number and extent of public records requests; (2) police body-worn camera video redactions; and (3) criminal history disposition reporting. For example, two recent public records requests made on our Office required many, many labor hours to properly fulfill. The number of police body-worn cameras utilized by law enforcement agencies in our county continues to increase and our criminal case disposition reporting, although now automated, still requires intensive and detailed work. While we do not have the existing manpower for all these varied tasks, we do have the ability to rehire retired employees to help do this work. Hiring recently retired employees also helps us complete the tasks more efficiently without the necessity of extensive training. Without the additional funds, we will not be able to provide the level of mandated services that the law requires.
As you know, we are a very busy legal office operating in both the civil and criminal courts. If you have additional questions or would like more information on any aspect of this Office before the budget meeting, please do not hesitate to contact me or my Chief Deputy, Dennis McGrane. I look forward to discussing my budget proposal further with you at any time.