State's Attorneys and Sheriffs outline federal grant funding for prosecutors and staffing

Tim Leader Dumont, executive director of the Department of State's Attorneys and Sheriffs (DSAS), and an accompanying staff member, told the House Appropriations Committee on April 9 that the department receives three main streams of federal funding that support prosecutors and investigative staff.

"We have $673,000 that comes into us. We have that funds 4 positions, 2 separate programs," Dumont said, describing the department’s federal grant portfolio and how it underwrites prosecutors assigned to high‑impact impaired‑driving work and to domestic‑violence and related prosecutions.

Dumont explained that one grant — historically routed through the State Highway Safety Office (formerly the Governor's Highway Safety Program and associated with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) — funds two prosecutors who specialize in serious impaired‑driving cases that result in serious bodily injury or death. DSAS staff described the positions as statewide resources who assist regional offices, provide training, and support complex prosecutions and post‑incident reviews when conflicts of interest or local resource constraints arise.

A second federal grant is a subaward from the Vermont Center for Crime Victim Services (CCVS), which passed Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) funds from the U.S. Department of Justice to DSAS. Dumont said that grant was about $337,000 and funds prosecutors embedded in counties who focus on domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, human trafficking and dating violence; the department also recently received roughly $40,000 in deobligated CCVS funds to hire a temporary investigator in Bennington County.

Dumont said both grants are typically renewed annually and that DSAS staff are monitoring federal developments but "think the money is… should be coming to us again." He added that if federal grant funding were to disappear, the department would try to absorb the funded prosecutors into vacancies in the statewide prosecution offices, but that the scope of work and dedicated focus might be reduced.

Separately, Dumont described two uses of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds in the department: an earlier $3.3 million appropriation for staffing to clear a backlog and a $1.7 million award used to transition the statewide criminal case management system to a new vendor, Matrix. Dumont said the transition was on schedule and praised the contractor’s performance, noting the vendor had been responsive while resolving implementation kinks across the 14 local offices.

Committee members asked about the grants’ renewal risks and how DSAS would proceed if federal funds were cut. Dumont reiterated that both primary federal grants are viewed as likely to continue but emphasized they remain subject to annual renewal and that positions funded by grants are at risk if the grants end. He said some grant‑funded positions were previously partially supported by ARPA money and that once ARPA funding ended, the department adjusted staffing funded by the federal grant accordingly.

The committee did not take formal votes on funding at the hearing; DSAS requested continued monitoring of federal grant availability and said it would absorb positions where possible in worst‑case scenarios.