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District Attorney seeks staff and federal earmarks to launch organized retail theft effort; cites race-blind charging workload
Summary
District Attorney Diana Becton told supervisors the office needs roughly $3 million in budget changes for support staff and is using federal earmarks to stand up an organized retail theft unit; chief assistant Simon O'Connell warned that California's race-blind charging mandate has doubled case-review time and required nine prosecutors be moved into filing work.
District Attorney Diana Becton told the Board of Supervisors on April 28 that the DA's office will seek modest net county cost changes for FY26-27 to add support staff and backfill roles required by new state mandates.
Becton said the office operates with about 250 staff and that the recommended budget includes a roughly $3 million adjustment to add necessary support positions. She highlighted several performance items, including a 92% felony trial conviction rate last year and nearly $10 million secured in restitution for victims.
Chief assistant Simon O'Connell described operational pressure from state law: "race blind charging is required on the majority of general cases... which doubles the time for the review of those cases." He said the office moved nine prosecutors into the filing unit to comply and that the county was tapped to help lead statewide implementation.
On organized retail theft, Becton and O'Connell described an ORT unit funded in part by federal community project funds; O'Connell said "we have $600,000 secured for the next coming year" for that unit and that the office has already used federal earmarks to stand up two ORT prosecutors. He identified a high-profile Antioch/San Ramon jewelry store case and said the unit had identified and prosecuted many suspected perpetrators.
Supervisors pressed how the positions would be funded; county staff explained the net county cost allocation method and noted that some ORT prosecutors will be covered by earmarked federal funds rather than the general fund.
The board did not approve the DA's staffing requests separately at the hearing; the DA's budget will be considered as part of the countywide adoption schedule with May and June follow-up as needed.
