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County creates and sets salary for a 'discovery facilitator' in District Attorney's office
Summary
The committee approved creating a discovery facilitator position (grade 18) and setting salary for the incumbent, upgrading existing Discovery Expeditor duties to reflect expanded digital discovery responsibilities.
Chautauqua County’s Audit Control Committee on April 17 approved a salary setting for a newly titled discovery facilitator position in the District Attorney’s Office to reflect expanded duties handling digital discovery from local police agencies.
District Attorney Jason Schmidt described the growth of digital discovery work since the 2020 law changes, including body-worn camera and other digital evidence from agencies using different platforms (Axon, Motorola). He said Ben Lucas, previously hired from the Sheriff’s Office as a Discovery Expeditor, now performs duties “out of class” for that job and that Human Resources recommended creating the discovery facilitator position (grade 18) to align duties and the union/civil-service classification.
Schmidt said the county is not hiring an additional employee for this change but is upgrading the incumbent’s title and salary; he also said current open attorney and paralegal vacancies leave budget room and that he does not expect a supplemental budget request this year. Committee members asked whether backfilling the Sheriff’s position would be necessary; Schmidt said current vacancies across local police agencies and the DA’s office are an ongoing recruitment and workload concern but he expects to fill a portion of vacancies in second quarter.
The committee approved the salary-setting resolution by voice vote. Schmidt and HR representatives said the change aims to ensure compliance with discovery laws and the county’s obligations to process and disseminate digital evidence to defense counsel.
