Prosecutor's pleas answered with new positions

County response still falls short

EPHRATA — After Grant County Prosecutor John Knodell repeatedly complained of being "outgunned" by defense attorneys and "overburdened" by an increasing workload, the Grant County Board of Commissioners Thursday responded by approving funding for a new deputy prosecutor and a legal secretary.

The boost in staff still falls short of Knodell's requests for eight new positions.

The commissioners previously approved an investigator and legal secretary during the 2006 budget process in mid-December. They also re-approved funding for a deputy prosecuting attorney position left unfilled last year.

As a condition of Knodell hiring a new attorney, the commissioners required he fill the existing prosecuting attorney vacancy first.

"In filling the vacant and new positions, the prosecutor will be gaining five bodies — two new prosecutors, two legal support persons and an investigator," Commissioner LeRoy Allison said.

Knodell, though, had requested four deputy prosecuting attorneys and four legal secretaries last month.

The two newest positions come at a cost of about $110,000 a year. To satisfy Knodell's full request, the county would have to spend an estimated $360,000, Allison said.

"The board realized this is not what prosecuting attorney Knodell asked for, but felt this was the best we could afford," Commission Chairman Richard Stevens said. "While I think we can all agree that the prosecutor's office needs to be adequately staffed, we can also disagree on what that level needs to be at this time."

With the board's decision Thursday, Knodell's office now exceeds staffing levels prior to countywide cutbacks in 2003 by two positions.

"This is going to bring us closer to parity with the defense attorneys," Knodell said in his office Thursday.

"I'm very grateful to the board for these new positions," Knodell said. "We're going to make good use of the resources and get the most bang for the buck for the residents of Grant County."

He expects the positions to enable his office to devote more time to individual cases.

"With two more attorneys we're going to be able to do a lot more for crime victims in the county," Knodell said.

Before the board authorized the two newest positions, Knodell communicated the immediate needs of his office in letters and meetings with the commissioners. His requests focused on two recent decisions by the commissioners that most impacted the workload in his office.

The first is the commissioners' decision to dedicate increased resources to the county's public defender system. The second impact stems from the county's creation of a new motor traffic unit for the Grant County Sheriff's Office, which Knodell said will increase the caseloads of deputy prosecutors in district court.

The county has spent additional funds on the public defense system to satisfy conditions of a settlement agreement signed late last year.

That settlement, with the American Civil Liberties Union and Columbia Legal Services, requires the county to improve an allegedly inadequate public defense system, forcing the county to funnel additional resources to the system. County officials denied the allegations. They were already in the process of improving the system by reducing the number of cases each public defender was assigned and providing additional funds for expert witnesses and investigators.

The traffic unit is expected to begin patrols this spring.

Commissioner Deborah Moore said the county already added support staff to both the district court clerk's office and sheriff's office to assist with anticipated increases in paperwork.

"The newly created rural traffic unit was created with the expectation it would be self-sustaining," Moore said. "Which means it will need to cover all costs, including those borne by the prosecutor's office."

Prosecutors will play a vital role in maintaining the unit's funding by ensuring those issued tickets pay their fines in district court.

Stevens said the board plans to revisit additional staffing for Knodell after the full impact of the new traffic unit is known.