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Douglas County district attorney outlines FY2026 tentative budget, highlights caseload and grant-funded victim services
Summary
Mark Jackson, Douglas County District Attorney, presented the office’s tentative FY2026 budget, citing 23 full-time equivalents, recent opioid settlement receipts and ongoing trial cost concerns.
Mark Jackson, Douglas County District Attorney, presented the office’s tentative fiscal year 2026 budget and recapped workload, recent settlements and grant-funded victim services.
Jackson said the office employs 23 full-time equivalents (FTEs) plus one contract position and described performance measures and caseload pressure. He told the board Douglas County received “over $795,000 in 2024” from opioid-related litigation and that the county received $614,526 in 2023. He said the office handled more than 2,000 misdemeanor cases, 64 gross misdemeanors and roughly 676 felony matters, producing an average caseload of about 392 cases per prosecutor.
Jackson reviewed several accomplishments, from public-nuisance abatements in Topaz Ranch Estates (special assessments “totaling over $112,000”) to work on the Justice Center project and the South Shore area plan. He detailed the special victims response team (SVRT) grant: the office’s latest award covers three consecutive fiscal years and totaled about $750,000 for the October 2023–September 2026 period; Jackson said the office has received $4,197,018 in SVRT grant awards since 2007 and that the grant is “a reimbursement, 100% reimbursement, from the US Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women.”
Jackson described operational pressures: weekly court dockets in multiple courts, body-worn camera review and time-consuming video analysis in complex cases, and criminal justice reforms such as AB236 that changed pretrial processing. He noted evidentiary and preliminary hearing volumes and said his office is handling several high-profile murder and vehicular homicide cases; on potential trial costs, Jackson said, “I would suggest a hundred and $50,000 be set aside for these high profile cases if they do proceed to trial during next fiscal year.”
Jackson said he has no supplemental requests for the tentative budget and that several adjustments in the proposed budget reflect timing and line-item moves — for example, professional-services dollars that moved into salaries and benefits after a full-time vacancy was restored. He explained line-item details, such as increases for travel and training and for a software reclassification that moved Westlaw costs into software from legal services.
Commissioners asked for clarifications on caseload, average case duration and the effects of criminal justice reforms; Jackson answered with case-by-case estimates and said misdemeanor matters can resolve quickly but many felonies take months or years from filing to resolution. He also briefed the board on the county’s fraud, waste and abuse prosecutions and on internal controls added since the motor pool frauds of earlier years.
No formal action was taken on the DA budget during the session; Jackson’s presentation was informational and intended to inform upcoming budget decisions.
Ending: Jackson’s presentation closed with a staff compliment from the board and a reminder that trial costs and recruiting pressures remain among the largest fiscal and operational risks for the office going into FY2026.
