County authorizes two chief assistant county attorney positions for municipal and juvenile work

County Attorney Richard Golden asked the Rules and Agreements and Intergovernmental Relations Committee to create two new chief assistant county attorney positions — a chief assistant for local municipal matters and a chief assistant for juvenile justice — and the panel voted to approve the request. The committee also approved a related change to remove juvenile justice duties from the current chief assistant for family law and juvenile justice and reassign them to the new juvenile chief.

Golden told the committee the two positions are needed “because the need for more and more attention to a lot of local municipal interaction with the county has arisen over time,” and that county legal staff have limited experience handling those municipal-specific matters. He said the municipal chief would oversee interactions with towns and villages on planning, building and finance, and would help navigate local processes that are often not fully documented.

Golden also described the county attorney’s office as the prosecuting office for juvenile delinquency in the county and said those matters have increased sharply: “we have seen unprecedented rise in human arm weakness in matters over the last several years. They have doubled in the last several years.” He said one full-time attorney had been reassigned to juvenile delinquency work and that a chief is needed to oversee 24/7 obligations and to provide training and outreach to local law enforcement and schools.

Committee members asked about funding and timing. Golden said the 2025 law department budget contains savings and two currently funded but vacant positions that will cover the remainder of 2025; the department has included the two new positions in its 2026 budget proposal. Legislators pressed whether the request represented an emergency given the proximity to the budget process. Golden described the issues as “present problems” requiring immediate attention; another legislator said the positions could be funded when the new budget takes effect on Jan. 1 if the legislature deferred approval.

The committee approved the creation of the two positions and the amendment of the family law/juvenile justice job specification. The transcript does not record a roll-call vote or individual tallies in the meeting minutes; the chair called the question and the motion carried.

The approved items were filed as Legislative Request No. 244. Golden and multiple legislators discussed operational details, including that one of the new positions is envisioned as an internal promotion and that, if later budget decisions eliminated funding, existing positions could be reallocated or reduced as with any department budget change.

The committee’s action directs the legislature to include the positions in the county’s staffing and budget planning. Golden emphasized the need for the positions to address current juvenile caseloads and municipal legal work, and legislators indicated they would review funding in the 2026 budget cycle.

Less-critical implementation details — including precise start dates for hires, the grade and salary step specifics beyond “grade 27” listed in the request, and any changes to workload allocation across other attorneys — were discussed but not resolved at the meeting.