Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Municipal Court topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Pueblo municipal prosecutor warns state rules and recent case law are overwhelming one-attorney office; city asked to add a prosecutor and paralegal
Summary
City municipal prosecutor Garrett Behrens told the Pueblo City Council that state sentencing changes and a recent court ruling have sharply increased trial and discovery work in municipal court, and the city attorney asked council to authorize hiring one prosecutor and one paralegal (estimated $130,000 and $75,000) or to contract for services.
Carla Sykes introduced a municipal court update at the Pueblo City Council work session on Jan. 26, asking the council to consider adding staff to the city's law department to address statutory and judicial changes that have increased workload in municipal court.
Municipal prosecutor Garrett Behrens told councilors recent state reforms and case law now bind municipal sentencing and require broader discovery, increasing trials and written motions. He said Pueblo ran 19,571 municipal-court violations in 2025 and that the city’s prosecution staffing is strained: "Pueblo has 1 prosecutor per a 111,000 people," Behrens said, a ratio he said far exceeds comparable Colorado cities.
Behrens and Sykes described the changes that triggered the workload surge. They cited a recent decision transcribed as “INRAY People versus Camp,” which they said makes municipal sentencing parity with state classifications and limits, and they noted recent bond-reform measures requiring timely hearings. Under the new regime, some offenses that previously carried larger municipal penalties are reclassified by state statute as petty offenses or civil infractions with lower fines and shorter maximum jail time, potentially restricting municipal sentencing.
Beyond sentencing, Behrens said discovery obligations have grown. He described a move toward automatic and more extensive discovery similar to county court practice — turning routine advisements into written motions and requiring prosecutors to produce police reports, witness statements and body-worn camera footage more consistently. That, he said, has increased trials and placed heavy demands on a single prosecutor and one paralegal.
To address the operational and legal risk, Sykes asked council for authority to hire an additional full-time prosecutor and an additional full-time paralegal. She estimated total annual cost "with salary and benefits" at about $130,000 for a prosecutor and about $75,000 for a paralegal. She also presented alternatives: contracting with an outside firm or referring municipal charges to the state—an option she noted would remove local control and likely be infeasible because the district attorney's office is already short-staffed.
Council members asked for more data before deciding. Councilor Gomez and others requested comparative staffing information from similar cities and a budget analysis; finance staff (referred to in the session as "Mister Nunn," who handles finances) said any increase to general-fund personnel would likely come from reserves and that an offset from increased fines was possible but would require further analysis.
Sykes said she would prepare an RFP and provide the requested comparative figures and cost estimates for council consideration. The council did not vote on hiring tonight; members directed staff to gather the requested data and return with options.
The city attorney’s office will report back with a draft RFP, staffing comparatives, and fiscal impact estimates as the next procedural step.
