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County attorney warns of staffing gaps, falling fine revenue and jail space limits; urges state action on mental-health beds
Summary
Travis Honor, speaking for the Flathead County Attorney's Office, described declining revenue from fines, persistent vacancies (including a two-year open victim-advocate post), difficulty retaining criminal prosecutors, and jail capacity strained by mental-health patients; he urged legislative action to expand treatment beds rather than shifting the burden to counties.
Travis Honor spoke for the Flathead County Attorney's Office during the May 6 budget review, describing an office coping with vacancies, lower fine-based revenue and rising caseload stress. "We're seeing our revenue stream heading down and I don't anticipate that changing anytime in the near future," Honor said.
Honor said the office has reduced outside counsel spending and plans to rely more on in-house civil attorneys, but that the criminal side remains understaffed and difficult to retain. He described a victim-advocate position that has been vacant for nearly two years and several attorney vacancies that exacerbate workloads and trial frequency.
A central theme of the discussion was jail capacity and the effect on case processing. Honor said limited local treatment and state mental-health capacity means many persons with behavioral-health needs end up in county detention, reducing usable bed space. "If we didn't have mental-health issues, we could hold a lot more people in our jails," he said, and added the county should press the state for treatment resources or the funding to handle those responsibilities locally.
Honor volunteered to help lead legislative conversations through professional organizations and the County Attorneys Association to seek statutory or funding solutions. Commissioners asked whether the attorney generalcould intervene in county prosecutions as had occurred in another county; Honor said he did not expect that for Flathead in the near term but acknowledged the attorney general has broad statutory authority.
Honor recommended the board consider vacancy and wage strategies to improve retention, and said the office will propose wage adjustments to commissioners in the coming weeks.
