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District attorney warns of staffing shortfalls, investigator pay gap and lost Pelican Bay billing
Summary
The district attorney updated the board on recruitment and pay problems undermining in‑house prosecution capacity and investigator staffing, and warned reduced staffing is limiting reimbursable Pelican Bay prosecutions.
The county’s district attorney presented staffing and budget issues to the Board of Supervisors, describing persistent vacancies in deputy prosecutor positions, a makeshift investigations bureau and continued reliance on contract attorneys.
The DA said the office currently has one DA, one assistant and five deputy DA positions with three deputies vacant; the office has supplemented capacity with contracted attorneys (named in the meeting) to handle specialized and heavy cases. The DA described a creative hire: an investigative assistant sent to the peace‑officer academy and placed as a DA investigator, and continued reliance on a retired investigator under contract to cover leadership duties.
The DA flagged recruitment difficulty for deputy DA positions and said recent applicants are scarce. The office also noted a pay and classification gap for DA investigators compared with sheriff’s investigators and deputies; the DA said DA investigators are not in the same bargaining unit and have not kept pace with sheriff office safety pay increases, and urged the board to consider pay adjustments or union reclassification to improve recruitment and retention.
Board members asked whether Measure R funds could be used to support investigator pay; staff and administration said Measure R has funded public safety wage adjustments and that the board could consider directing Measure R funds to DA investigator salaries but that the board’s priority decisions would determine allocations.
The DA also reported a downturn in billable Pelican Bay prosecutions due to lack of staff; reimbursable Pelican Bay billing had been as much as $400,000 in fuller staffing years but is lower where deputy positions are unfilled. The DA said Pelican Bay prosecutions and other county‑reimbursable work generate revenue that offset contract costs when the office is fully staffed.
Supervisors encouraged the DA to return with concrete pay proposals for investigators and to continue to use a mix of contracts and recruitment strategies while administration assesses Measure R and other funding options.
