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District attorney offers VOCA funds to offset county payroll and create intake clerk; commission tables request for work session
Summary
Camden County District Attorney proposed using Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) grant funds to offset county payroll costs for two victim advocates and to fund an intake clerk; commissioners raised staffing, jail backlog, and budget-control concerns and voted to table the proposal pending a work session.
Camden County's district attorney told commissioners he can use VOCA (Victims of Crime Act) grant funds to offset county payroll costs for victim advocates and to fund a county intake clerk, but the commission voted to table the proposal for a later work session to gather more information.
DA Keith Higgins told the commission his office receives a VOCA award totaling $132,493 annually for the judicial circuit and proposed dispersing roughly half of those funds to Camden County to cover part of the salary and benefits for victim advocates and to create an intake clerk position. Higgins described the intake clerk as the position that opens case files, receives warrants from the sheriffand said opening files promptly helps move cases to prosecutors. He said that without that function, "the whole process slows down," with longer jail stays and higher county costs.
Higgins outlined mechanics for the proposed intergovernmental agreement: quarterly prepayments to Camden County, ledger entries to track funds, and a condition that if grant funding stops, the payroll disbursement would stop and the position could be removed. He stated the DA's office would disperse no less than $65,691.50 annually to the county under the proposal and said some excess funds from other counties could be shared with Camden, depending on final arrangements.
Commissioners pressed for operational detail and budget clarity. Several raised the county's jail population and backlog as central concerns and asked whether the intake clerk would meaningfully reduce jail time or backlog. The DA said the position would speed processing but could not quantify the reduction before further analysis. Commissioners requested a work session to examine intergovernmental-agreement language, funding certainty, and operational impact before committing to accept and disperse the grant funds.
Following discussion, a commissioner moved and the commission voted to table the DA's proposal pending a work session. The DA said he will continue talks with neighboring counties and would appear at a work session to answer additional questions.
No formal intergovernmental agreement was executed at the meeting; commissioners directed staff to schedule a work session.
