Hummel makes his case: Fund 12 more staff or cuts coming

(Update: Adding comments from county Commissioner Phil Henderson)

Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel told county leaders Wednesday his overworked, understaffed office needs a dozen more staff in the upcoming budget year or he will be forced to cut prosecution of some lesser crimes and services to some crime victims.

Hummel held a news conference to announce the results of a six-month review of staffing structure involving interviews with 51 staff members, which made recommendations and included a “deep dive” into the current workload and meetings with management teams.

“Although some of the recommendations deal with internal processes, the success of all of them is predicated on increased staffing levels,” Hummel wrote in a letter sent this week to the county Budget Committee, well in advance of his May 29 hearing.

“The clear conclusion of the report is that the Deschutes County District Attorney’s office is significantly understaffed,” he wrote. “Morale is low, turnover is high, work product is compromised, and our ability to keep our community safe is at risk.”

“We have more homicide prosecutions pending, 11, than at any time in Deschutes County’s history. In order to continue to provide full prosecution services to Deschutes County a 12 person FTE increase is required,” including four deputy district attorneys and two trial assistants.

The requested boost in staff would be more than 21 percent for the DA’s office, which currently has 56 FTE (full-time equivalent) employees and a $7.9 million budget.

County Commission Chair Phil”We’ll be asking for a lot of data on this because it costs now roughly on average about $118,000 per employee for employee costs. So when you’re asking for 12 new employees that’s a million 3 a million 4 dollars. So, that’s a big request so we’ll need to look at the data behind that and the needs and try to work through that.”

If no more staff are authorized and funded, Hummel said his office will no longer pursue prosecutions in cases such as misdemeanor driving while suspended and all Class B and C misdemeanors except domestic violence, child sex abuse and crimes against police.

Several services also would be stopped, such as victim assistance to people seeking restraining orders against their abusers.

Hummel’s letter also offers suggestions on where to find the needed dollars, including the county’s general reserve fund, marijuana sales tax proceeds and transient room tax money.

Phil Henderson, county commission chairman, said they received Hummel’s request earlier this week.

“We’ll be asking for a lot of data on this, because it costs now roughly on average of about $118,000 per employee for employee costs,” he said.

“So when you’re asking for 12 new employees that’s $1.3 to $1.4 million. So that’s a big request. We’ll need to look at the data behind that and the needs and try to work through that.”

Asked at the news conference why he is making his case for the $1.1 million in staff additions now — some three months before the budget committee hearings — Hummel acknowledged it’s to fully involve the public and outline his case, well before that time comes.

“The public deserves to weigh in on important issues that impact their safety,” he said, noting that the public is already “civically engaged” about other issues they care about, from schools to parks.

“I would never make cuts to public safety services without engagement the public in a dialogue about that,” he said. He also said he will be involved in discussions between now and then with law enforcement, the budget committee and other stakeholders.

“This is a significant budget request that deserves a lot of thought, research and dialogue,” he said.

Hummel pointed out that other counties in the past have had to drop some prosecution of lesser crimes due to a money crunch.

But he said unlike those situations, Deschutes County’s general reserve fund has grown dramatically in recent years, to a “massive” $11.6 million.

“There’s nothing wrong with having a reserve fund,” Hummel said, until it “is too large and is a hindrance to day-to-day operations.” He suggested it might not even involve dipping into those dollars, but capping them and putting new increases into needs such as his office’s.

“We have adequate money. It’s a policy issue,” Hummel said.

Hummel also noted that some counties in similar financial pinches have been able to have local municipal courts handle lower-level misdemeanor crimes.

If his budget request is denied, he said, “one or more cities” could take on such cases in their municipal courts, noting that Bend already has a judge and courtroom that could be involved.

Another option, he said, is that the lower-level cases could be handled by law enforcement as a violation, where people are cited into municipal court, rather than the circuit court — things like parking violations, “barking dogs, dogs at large” that already result in tickets.

Another option: Some big-box stores such as Walmart, have programs in other communities where they handle shoplifting cases and can resolve such crimes with, say, a $50 payment and a 6-month exclusion from the store.

“There are a lot of options,” he said, adding, “I hope we don’t get to that.”

Hummel also said that if he receives some, but not all of the funding and added staff requested, the list of possible cuts would be trimmed.

So in the old game of budget tricks (public or private sector), is Hummel really in need of, say 6 or 8 people — but asking for 12, so that the budget committee can hold the line and not give him everything he asked for?

“No tricks here,” he said. “I asked for 12 because we need 12.”

Here are the just-released letter and staffing analysis: