Police Accountability Board budget review raises questions about special-counsel spending

Forrest Gilman Riley, administrative director for the Police Accountability Board and Administrative Charging Committee, briefed the committee on PAB operations and the FY26 NDA recommended by the county executive (about $891,000, a 13% increase). Riley emphasized the need for a fully functional, integrated case-management system that can both intake complaints and feed public-facing dashboards.

Riley described work with TEBS and vendor evaluation for a product that would integrate case management with public dashboards. "This appears to be one of the only products on the market that fulfills both of these requirements of a public dashboard and a fully integrated case management system that talk to one another," he said.

OMB identified duplicative base-line items (trial-board compensation and training) and proposed three potential reductions totaling about $39,500 in duplicative trial-board lines. The larger discussion centered on special counsel: the council added $200,000 in FY25 after actual special-counsel expenditures exceeded earlier allocations. PAB reported that special counsel is engaged at every stage of processing and that workloads have risen (administrative charging committee issued opinions in response to 74 complaints and 209 allegations so far in FY25).

OMB recommended a $100,000 reduction to special-counsel funding to better match recent spending and asked PAB to explain anticipated needs. Committee members debated whether outside counsel fees reflected advice shopping or whether in-house county-attorney services could meet the need; PAB noted limitations in relying solely on the county attorney for some mandatory representation roles. The committee agreed to consider tranche options for adjustments and to seek additional information before final council action.