Jenna Wallace urged the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners Oct. 1 to immediately lift hiring freezes on five positions in the district attorney’s office, saying the office is facing rising caseloads and understaffing that threaten prosecutions.

Wallace said the office currently has 10 vacant positions, nine of which are frozen, and asked the commissioners to unfreeze two general-fund deputy district attorney positions, one grant-funded deputy district attorney, a detective position and an executive chief who oversees victim advocacy and multidisciplinary teams. She told the board Lincoln County has seen a "24% increase in crime this year" and that the office projects it will file more than 1,850 criminal cases by year-end, with a backlog of about 360 cases awaiting review.

Wallace said she was not asking for additional funds but for permission to hire into already budgeted positions adopted in the 2025–26 budget: "I am simply advocating for the ability to use funds and hire personnel into already established and approved positions adopted through the 2526 budget process," she said. She said she had prepared an order to unfreeze the five positions and asked the board to approve it immediately; the chair declined to take the order during the public-comment period and told her to provide the paperwork to county staff after the meeting.

Several other members of the public used their allotted three minutes to raise related concerns about county transparency, staffing and governance. Christine Hutchins said residents do not receive timely responses to written complaints and asked when the board would investigate alleged misconduct in handling personnel matters. An online commenter identified as "Miss George" called for broader investigations into county governance and urged commissioners to support Wallace’s request. Debbie Cozardu criticized what she described as public grandstanding and wrote that budget negotiations were underway between the DA and the commission.

The board did not hold discussion on the public-comment requests during the meeting. No motion to unfreeze positions was made on the record Oct. 1; the chair told Wallace she could submit the prepared order to county staff for follow-up.

Recordings and written public comments were submitted with the meeting record; commissioners acknowledged receipt but did not announce a timeline to address the hiring-request or the specific staffing concerns raised during public comment.