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District Attorney seeks backup medicolegal investigator and pay increases to retain prosecutors
Summary
District Attorney Joshua Eastman told the Budget Committee the office is understaffed, recommended a 0.5 FTE backup Medicolegal Death Investigator at an estimated $68,500 and proposed a 10% pay increase across DDA classifications to improve recruitment and retention (estimated $175,200/year).
District Attorney Joshua Eastman told the Budget Committee on June 2 that his office is managing a sustained caseload with staffing below historic levels and seeks targeted investments to maintain mandated services.
Eastman outlined core, statutorily mandated duties including prosecution of felonies and Measure 11 offenses, victim assistance and county responsibilities tied to ORS provisions cited in the presentation. He said state funding covers some positions but the county funds the majority of DA office staff and warned that general fund reductions would reduce DDA positions and prosecutorial capacity.
On death investigations, Eastman said the office has hired a full‑time Lead Medicolegal Death Investigator and described obligations under ORS 146.090. He recommended adding a .5 FTE assistant MDI to provide backup coverage and reduce reliance on the District Attorney to respond to scenes; the presentation lists a cost of $68,500 for that backup position. Eastman said it “makes more sense to have a county car for our Lead MDI” for safety and consistency when responding to rural scenes.
Eastman also emphasized recruitment and retention as key challenges. He described a comp study and proposed a 10% salary increase for DDA I–III and CDDA classifications, with an estimated annual cost of $175,200, to better compete with neighboring jurisdictions and private contract defense pay scales. He recommended adopting evidence‑management tools (AXON Justice) to reduce attorney time on discovery and redaction tasks.
The presentation included caseload and prosecution statistics, pending homicide counts and examples of recent major prosecutions to illustrate workload. Eastman noted some functions (e.g., medicolegal work) currently require DA involvement when backup staffing is absent, which can delay other duties.
Budget committee members asked questions about funding mechanisms and personnel calculations; Arthur O’Hare provided clarifying detail on fund relationships. No formal action or vote occurred during the June 2 session.
