County attorney warns of heavy caseloads and asks council for targeted pay and reclassifications to retain staff

County Attorney Enruth presented a performance and operational review of the Butte-Silver Bow County Attorney’s Office on July 1, telling commissioners the office prosecutes a high volume of cases and is operating with lean staffing.

Enruth said the office handled about 405 new felony cases in 2025 and prosecutes roughly 3,700 misdemeanor cases across city and justice courts. He highlighted an unusually high number of dependent-and-neglect cases and rising mental-health commitments, and said those caseloads, combined with the county’s proximity to state facilities, drive extra workload. “We do the vast majority of the recommitments and initial commitments to the Montana State Hospital,” Enruth said. He added that the office runs multiple treatment courts and specialty dockets on top of routine prosecutions.

Enruth outlined specific retention requests: salary adjustments for Chief Deputy County Attorney Anne Shea, a proposed reclassification for Mike Clegg to chief criminal deputy county attorney, a reclassification request for Sean Peterson to chief civil deputy county attorney, and raises for two senior paralegals. He gave a salary-range estimate, saying Shea’s current salary is about $137,086 and requesting an adjustment into the $142–143k range; the broader package including paralegal increases would raise the office’s recurring payroll by an estimated $50,000–$60,000 plus benefits.

Commissioners pressed for details and process. Commissioner Callahan and others asked whether HR reclassification steps had been followed and why earlier efforts did not produce adjustments. Enruth responded that the county’s pay matrix bases increases largely on years of service and formal job-duty changes, and that a prior matrix review did not yield the reclassifications requested. He proposed using the retirement of a long-tenured legal assistant to redistribute salary dollars if needed.

Some commissioners emphasized limits set by Butte Silver Bow’s tax base. Commissioner Thatcher said reclassification conversations must be consistent across departments; Commissioner Fisher said losing employees may require raising revenue or prioritizing compensation in the budget process. Commissioner Morgan asked for comparative cost-per-case and per-capita metrics to evaluate the office’s staffing relative to other counties.

Enruth emphasized the public-safety implications of understaffing and the difficulty of recruiting attorneys to a rural market. “There’s a drought on attorneys,” he said, noting open deputy positions and one viable applicant for a recent vacancy. The chief executive and commissioners asked Enruth to return with more detailed budget impacts and comparative data.

The presentation concluded without a vote; commissioners signaled interest in developing budget solutions but also noted the countywide implications of ad hoc reclassification requests.